Body Found in Freezer Identified as Janiya Thomas

The Bradenton Police Department has confirmed that a body found in a freezer last week belongs to a missing 11-year-old girl.

A search for Janiya Thomas began Friday, Oct. 16 after Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Child Protective Investigators arrived at her mother’s home to remove five children from the woman’s custody. The problem was only four children were found at the 4880 51st St. W. home.

When the child’s mother, Keishanna Thomas, 31, was questioned about Janiya’s whereabouts, she refused to talk, deputies said.

The Bradenton Police Department got involved in the search and received a tip that the child might be in a freezer at her grandmother and aunt’s home on 21st Way East. When police searched the freezer on Oct. 18, they found a child’s body.

Janiya, who suffers from a medical condition that prompted her to be home-schooled, is believed to have been missing since the summer of 2014. It is unclear why an official search for the child didn’t begin sooner.

Keishanna Thomas has been charged with child abuse, aggravated child abuse and abuse of a dead body. She is being held in the Manatee County Jail Monday in lieu of $200,000 bond.

The cause of Janiya’s death has not yet been released.

Photo courtesy of the Bradenton Police Department