The attack was captured on camera, prosecutors say
update: 3/7/2022 1:41 PM PST
One of the girls charged in the Logansport "sleepover torture" case has been charged with another separate assault that happened earlier that day.
Prosecutors confirmed that the 12-year-old has also been accused of beating up another girl on a school bus that same Friday — and it was all reportedly caught on camera.
"I can confirm that the juvenile has also been charged with an allegation of battery stemming from an incident on a bus on Friday, February 25," Cass County Prosecutor Noah Schafer told Fox59.
The footage shows a young girl repeatedly being struck by another, pulling her hair and punching the top of her head. Police were called and took a report.
According to the victim's mother, this earlier attack was also unprovoked.
"I know that no child should have to go through that. No parent should have to," she said.
"It was far worse what happened to the other child, but I don't think any of it should be considered or taken lightly."
She told the outlet she believes the preteen suspect "needs help" and must learn that behavior like this "isn't okay."
original story: 3/4/2022 2:54 PM PST
Two 12-year-old girls have been arrested for allegedly torturing a third at a sleepover in Indiana.
On Saturday morning, police in Logansport responded to calls claiming a child had been "battered"; officers soon learned the suspects were just as young.
Because of the sensitive age of those involved, police would not name the suspects or victim, nor would they detail exactly what had allegedly happened — only to say the incident was "severe", and that had the perpetrator been an adult, they would have been charged with several felonies.
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View StoryBut the victim's family did not hold back.
According to her aunt Renita Contreras (pictured, right), her niece had been lured to the home to what she believed was a sleepover with friends on Friday night; but there was only two other girls there — and they both turned on her.
"Over the weekend, she was tortured, beaten, confined," she told Fox 59. "Two juvenile females sat on top of her for two hours so she could not breathe, they burned her with cigarette lighters. It goes on and on."
"She's a little girl," she added. "What these juvenile females did to her... is unimaginable."
"My niece in the video, looked like she was laying there dead. And it wasn't an image our family needed to see, or was ever ready to see."
The family claim the girl also had her face cut up, and part of her head shaved.
"They didn't bully her. They tortured her," her mother Jaimie Tribbett said. "Mentally, physically tortured my daughter, and it's not right."
Police agreed the alleged incident went well beyond bullying.
"From the stuff that I've learned at this point during the investigation, it is very sensitive. It is what I would consider severe," said LPD Sergeant Dan Frye said (pictured, left).
He said the suspects had recorded the alleged torture, even posting it to social media.
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View Story"It's very significant, very severe," Sergeant Frye added. "It's a little bit heart wrenching to watch the videos and to hear what has been alleged at this point."
Cass County Prosecutor Noah Schafer confirmed to the outlet that one of the girls has been charged with the equivalent of three felonies — criminal confinement, intimidation with a deadly weapon, and battery resulting in serious bodily injury.
"You can't say that a child is charged with a crime the same way you would with an adult," Schafer said. "They are alleged to have committed acts that, had they been committed by an adult, would have been felonies."
Sergeant Frye said that cases involving children getting hurt always hit the hardest; but this one stands out as the suspects are juveniles, too.
"Those are not enjoyable calls for anyone in law enforcement and this one in particular goes to the extreme with the alleged suspects being juveniles as well," he said. "More times than not we deal with adults victimizing juveniles and this one was a little bit different."
He added: "My heart goes out for the young lady. We apologize to that young lady for what she is dealing with at a young age."
One of the suspects is due in court next Tuesday. The other has not yet been charged, but the investigation is ongoing.
"It hurts bad because now she has to for the rest of her life look over her shoulder or wonder if she can trust this person or that person. It's absolutely horrible," the victim's mom said.
"I hope that my daughter can get justice, and that the other little girl, I hope that she stays in there for a long time and gets the help that she needs."