A 6-year-old girl was found dead Friday morning in a Spotsylvania County apartment while with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
The couple – Cera Harper, 32, and Jonathan Copenhaven, 36 – were arrested on multiple felony charges, including child abuse or neglect, injuring the health of a child in one's custody, and possession of narcotics.
Charlie Grace Sumner’s father said he spent Thursday morning with her before taking her to school.
"We did homework and everything before school,” Chris Sumner said. “She asked me to do her hair, so I did her hair, and we noticed time was cutting short, so, Hey, we gotta hurry and go. So, I drove her to school like we do, like normal day. Dropped her off, told her I love her, gave her a kiss, call me tonight."
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After school, Charlie went to her mother's home.
Sumner never got a phone call from Charlie that night, and the next day a Spotsylvania County sheriff's detective called him while he was driving home from work to tell him his daughter was found dead inside her mother's home.
“That was my world,” he said through tears.
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Friends and family were waiting for Sumner when he arrived home.
"I got out of my truck and my buddy was standing there and he grabbed me, and I just dropped,” he said.
Sumner said he couldn't go inside, thinking about Charlie's toys on the couch where they had just played together.
He lives with his girlfriend who has a daughter of her own. The two girls called each other sister.
"I'm just hoping that this will open up a lot of eyes to drugs are killing our babies and taking our babies, and families are just doing drugs, and it seems like they'd rather choose drugs over children."
He said he was told Charlie didn't suffer and left the world peacefully, which is how he'll remember her.
Harper and Copenhaven have been arraigned on the charges related to child abuse. The Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office said additional charges could be filed against the two once an autopsy and cause of death is determined.
