A little girl’s death went unreported for months—while the adults responsible allegedly kept her body in their home and then hauled it across state lines in a U-Haul.
Story Snapshot
- Washington adoptive mother Mandie Miller received the maximum 32 years, 4 months in prison for the abuse death of her 8-year-old adopted daughter, Meela Miller.
- Prosecutors said home security footage documented repeated restraint, assault, and starvation leading up to the child’s death in September 2022.
- Authorities said the child’s body was kept in the home for months before being transported in a coffin inside a U-Haul trailer to a South Dakota funeral home in December 2022.
- The case resurfaced fresh concerns about how severe abuse can stay hidden inside homes until a third party finally reports it.
Maximum Sentence in Spokane County After Guilty Plea
Spokane County Superior Court sentenced Mandie Miller, 36, of Airway Heights near Spokane, to 32 years and four months in prison on February 6, 2026, after she pleaded guilty in the death of her 8-year-old adopted daughter, Meela Miller. Court reporting described the sentence as the maximum available for her plea. The guilty plea ended the prospect of a full trial, bringing legal finality for relatives who delivered emotional statements at sentencing.
Prosecutors outlined charges tied to severe, prolonged mistreatment: homicide by abuse, second-degree assault of a child, and unlawful imprisonment counts with domestic-violence enhancements. The courtroom record described a case built heavily on direct documentation, not speculation. Miller addressed the court with an apology and referenced her own foster-care background, but the sentencing judge still imposed the top term allowed under the plea, reflecting the gravity of the underlying conduct as presented.
What Investigators Say Happened to Meela Miller
Investigators said Meela died in September 2022 after being restrained for long periods, assaulted, and deprived of food. Prosecutors argued the mistreatment occurred “hours upon hours, day after day,” emphasizing the alleged torture and starvation. A central piece of evidence was the couple’s own home security camera footage, which prosecutors described as undisputed documentation of abuse inside the home—an unusually direct window into what normally stays hidden from schools, neighbors, and extended family.
Authorities said no outside intervention stopped the abuse before the child’s death. Instead, the case came to light after an extraordinary post-death sequence that investigators say the adults chose themselves. According to reporting, the couple kept Meela’s body in the home for months. In December 2022, they rented a U-Haul, placed the child’s body in a coffin inside a trailer, and drove from Washington to Mitchell, South Dakota.
The U-Haul Trip and the Funeral Home Tip That Triggered Arrests
Police became involved after staff at a Mitchell, South Dakota, funeral home reportedly noticed the group lacked standard documentation tied to a death and contacted authorities. That call, not a prior welfare check, reportedly set the investigation into motion. The timeline—death in September, body kept until December, then transported across multiple states—underscores how long a child can effectively disappear when no mandatory reporter or agency is alerted quickly enough to demand answers.
Reporting also described the couple’s stated explanation for keeping and transporting the body: that they wanted to “spend more time with her.” The court record, as presented publicly, included family remarks mixing grief with religious language and pleas for protection of other children. Those statements emphasized a key reality for many Americans: when the home becomes the center of violence, institutions often arrive only after irreversible harm is done.
Boyfriend’s Plea Deal and What Remains Unclear
Aleksander Kurmoyarov, 31, Miller’s boyfriend, also pleaded guilty in connection with Meela’s death, with sentencing reported as pending for February 10, 2026. Court coverage indicated his plea arrangement removed the possibility of a life sentence. Based on the available reporting, the public record does not yet include his final term or the judge’s full reasoning at sentencing, making any broader conclusions about proportional punishment premature until that hearing concludes.
The case also highlights a policy problem that cuts across politics: oversight gaps when abuse occurs behind closed doors. The research provided points to private adoption dynamics and the lack of earlier external intervention, but it does not document specific agency decisions or missed reports in this particular household prior to the fatal incident. What is clear from the known facts is chillingly simple—once a child’s suffering is isolated from scrutiny, accountability often depends on the first outsider who finally makes a call.
