A Washington State couple allegedly took their daughter’s corpse on a cross-country road trip – some three months after she died – because they “wanted to spend more time with her,” police say.
Aleksander Kurmoyarov, 28, and Mandie Miller, 33, now stand accused of one count of failure to notify law enforcement of the death of a child, according to Spokane, Wash.-based CBS affiliate KREM.
The couple hails from the town of Airway Heights, just outside of Spokane. Police there had previously issued a warrant for their arrest on suspicion of homicide by abuse.
On Thursday, they were arrested by police in Mitchell, South Dakota.
The boyfriend and girlfriend were allegedly on the radar of law enforcement in the area after the Davison County Coroner called the Mitchell Police Department and said their office had been in contact with them. According to the MPD, the coroner said “he had been contacted by individuals stating that they were traveling from Washington State to Pine Ridge with their deceased daughter.”
The next day, officers located Kurmoyarov and Miller in Mitchell. According to the police department, they were at a residence with a U-Haul parked out front. When confronted by law enforcement, the couple allegedly volunteered that the U-Haul contained a coffin with the dead body of Miller’s “juvenile daughter” inside.
While the pair were allegedly forthcoming about the trailer’s contents, they were allegedly unclear on when the girl died.
“During an interview with Kurmoyarov, he stated that the juvenile had died in Airway Heights a little before Halloween 2022,” the MPD alleged in a press release. “Miller told investigators that her daughter died on September 10, 2022.”
Police allege that Kurmoyarov would go on to admit that neither he nor his girlfriend sought medical attention for the child when she died because “he and Miller wanted to spend more time with her and that he was afraid that they would get in trouble.”
“Miller and Kurmoyarov have been in South Dakota for approximately 4 days and specifically the City of Mitchell for approximately 2 days,” the MPD wrote on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. “At no time while in the State of South Dakota did Miller or Kurmoyarov notify law enforcement of the juvenile’s death.”
The girl’s name has yet to be released.
Authorities later learned that the deceased was Miller’s adoptive daughter. Her cause of death is presently unknown.
Late Thursday afternoon, search warrants were executed at the couple’s home in Airway Heights, according to KREM reporter Kyle Simchuk.
An autopsy is likely to be performed on the girl, according to a detective, Simchuk said via Twitter.
The investigation is said to be ongoing.
A task force including the MPD, the AHPD, the Spokane County Major Crimes Unit, Spokane County Forensics, and Spokane Tribal Police Department are working on the case.
[images via Davison County Sheriff’s Office]