Savannah Hardin, a 9 year old girl, recently passed away after her stepmom and grandmother made her run for hours on end as a punishment. The 9 year old girl lied about eating chocolate candy bars and as a result, was made to run for at least three hours. Savannah was dehydrated and because of this, she had a seizure, dying from complications only a few days later.
The grandmother and stepmother of the little girl have been taken into custody and will be facing murder charges. The stepmother, Jessica Hardin, who is 27 years old, told the little girl that she had to run as a punishment for lying, not allowing her to stop running for three whole hours. During that time, Savannah became so dehydrated, which eventually lead to the seizure and her untimely death. It was around 6:45 pm when Jessica Hardin called police, stating that Savannah was having a seizure and was not responding.
A neighbor did witness the girl running but did not give it a second thought as he believed she was just a kid being a kid, running around and having fun. The neighbor had no idea that he was watching a little girl who was being punished for eating a chocolate bar.
Savannah died while at the Children’s Hospital, located in Birmingham. An autopsy of the girl showed that she was very dehydrated and her death was ruled a homicide. There were many people who saw the girl running and reported it to police, however, it was simply too late. And, now a little girl has died.