Kindness of Strangers: Baby Who Starved to Death Laid to Rest

More than 100 strangers came together last week to show baby Mya Edwards the love she apparently didn’t receive in life.

Seven-month-old Mya died Jan. 8 after spending her life in a “dungeon-like basement,” sharing a crib with twin sister Mia and warmed only by a space heater, Cook County prosecutors said.

Rest in His Arms, a nonprofit that provides proper burials for abandoned babies, obtained custody of Mya’s remains and laid the baby girl to rest last Thursday.

Parents Markisha Jones and Gene Edwards, former Bolingbrook residents who had moved to Barrington with their baby daughters, face felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in Mya’s death. Two months before the infant died, the couple allegedly stopped feeding the babies formula, instead giving them a mixture of water, baby food and cereal, police said.

Young Parents Jailed, Charged with Starving Twin Babies

Baby Mia , who was also severely malnourished, has since been placed in foster care.

According to the Daily Herald, roughly 100 mourners, most of whom had learned of baby Mya’s death from news reports, attended the funeral. Virtually every aspect of the ceremony, from the tiny white casket to the pink bouquet on top of it, was donated.

Twenty-one-year-old Joaquin Edwards, baby Mya’s uncle, was the only relative in attendance, according to the Daily Herald.

“I’m grateful for the service,” Edwards told the Chicago Tribune. “I appreciate everyone who helped out with burying my niece and everything, but I just wish my family were more involved.”

About 30 Barrington police officers also attended the funeral.

“We were able to show this young girl who wasn’t loved in life and abandoned in death that she was loved,” Det. Sgt. Kevin Croke, who served as a pallbearer, told the Herald.

Photo: Markisha Jones and Gene Edwards. Credit: Cook County Sheriff’s Office