“The final straw, Detective Marshall, is when they took away my colouring books. I knew they had to die.'”
When Darlene Nevil’s 12-year-old daughter came to live with her she was thrilled.
After her divorce the girl had chosen to remain in another state with her father – but she began to complain he was controlling her so she asked her mother if she could move in with Darlene and Darlene’s new husband, Alan.
The 12-year-old was happy and adjusted easily to life in her new home in Texas in the US. She made friends and met a boy, a 13-year-old who attended her school and they soon formed a relationship.
As the relationship developed the 12-year-old girl wrote on her social media:
“i love him and i would give the world to him if he asked for it.”
“The day we met i knew i had to have him. he is the best boyfriend i’v ever had in my life.”
Her mother boasted about how happy they were writing ” I have a wonderful daughter that I just love to death, a stepdaughter, stepson and 3 great grandkids.”
Later, in court, after the 12-year-old girl masterminded her boyfriend to murder her parents her stepfather’s sister would address her.
“We decorated the house in Garland, bought a cake and welcomed you with open arms,” Fran Nevil Cawley, Alan’s sister said.
But that quickly went sour.
Jasmine Sepulveda, 14, lives across the street from the Nevils and said she had been close friends with the 12-year-old girl but things changed when she started to see the 13-year-old boy.
“She was a really cool person but when she hung out with him, her boyfriend, that’s when she got weird,” Jasmine told media at the time. “She didn’t want to talk to me anymore.”