Police seek parents of 3-year-old NLV girl found dead

North Las Vegas police are asking for the public’s help in locating the parents of a 3-year-old girl found dead in a home following a child abuse investigation Thursday morning.

Kellie Phillips, 38, and Jondrew Lachaux, 39, left the girl at the house with her 17-year-old sister “several months ago,” said officer Aaron Patty, spokesman for North Las Vegas police. They took with them five of their children, ranging in age from 1 to 9 years.

It’s “imperative” that the family is located, Patty said, “so we determine the condition of these children who are outstanding and begin to ask the hard questions and piece this puzzle together.”

Their whereabouts are unknown but they have travelled to Northern and Southern California.

The 3-year-old girl had been dead for several days when officers found her, Patty said Friday.

Authorities were called to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center on Wednesday evening about a 4-month old girl in critical condition, police said. The baby was “malnourished” and that investigation led police to arrest the baby’s 17-year-old mother, who is also the dead child’s sister.

The 4-month-old girl’s condition was upgraded Friday from critical to critical but stable, Patty said.

On Thursday morning, detectives served a warrant at a home in the 6600 block of Wood Thrush Place, near North Decatur Boulevard and the 215 Beltway. That is where they found the 3-year-old girl’s body, police said.

The young mother was booked into the juvenile detention center on one count of child abuse with substantial bodily harm. An additional charge of child abuse with substantial bodily harm including death was added on Friday.

Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said Friday that Child Protective Services was working closely with law enforcement and that they “have no further comment at this time.”

A time frame of events leading to the death is being put together, Patty said. Details on the home’s condition and whether there had been previous calls to the home involving police of child welfare were not immediately available.

Police are searching for Phillips and Lachaux for questioning and aren’t calling them suspects “just yet,” Patty said.

Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites