An eight-year-old girl has died after being forced to jump on a trampoline for hours on end as a cruel punishment.
Daniel Schwarz, 44, and Ashley Schwarz, 34, of Odessa, Texas, are facing murder charges after being arrested on Monday over the little girl's death.
The young girl, Jaylin, was pronounced dead at the pair’s home on August 29 after police responded to a emergency call, CBS7 reports.
Daniel and Ashley Schwarz were not Jaylin’s biological parents, but were the girl’s guardians, her relatives told the local TV news outlet.
They had forced the girl to jump on the trampoline for an extended amount of time as a punishment, police say, and didn’t allow her any water despite temperatures reaching up to 43C on the surface of the play equipment.
It’s unclear why the girl was being punished in such a sadistic way.
“Investigation revealed that the 8-year-old child had been punished and was not allowed to eat breakfast and was required to jump on the trampoline without stopping for an extended period of time,” Odessa police said in a statement.
The high temp in Odessa on August 29 was 37C degrees, KWTX reported.
But the temperature of the trampoline read to be approximately 43 and the ground was approximately 65C, officers said.
An autopsy released Thursday determined the tragic youngster died of dehydration and listed her manner of death as homicide, police said.
It’s unclear if the girl was in foster care, the Odessa American reports.
The couple was taken into custody at the Ector County Law Enforcement Center, according to the newspaper report.
