The elderly couple told police they had been duped out of thousands of dollars and that their Social Security checks were diverted to Georgia, which gave detectives their first real clue.A Fort Wayne woman faces two felony counts of battery after large bruises were found on her two young daughters.
On Jan. 11, a woman taking care of Sharmenn Sykes’ 3-year-old daughter noticed a mark on the girl and confronted Sykes about it, court documents said.
Sykes, 23, and the woman started tussling, and police were dispatched. After learning what sparked the dispute, an officer noticed a baseball-size bruise on the girl’s upper chest, a large bruise on her back and bruises on her arms, court documents stated.
Sykes told police she spanked the girl with a belt and that’s how she received the bruises. The girl had been spanked because she had “pulled some food out of the fridge and made some marks on the wall,” Sykes told police, according to court documents.
An Indiana Department of Child Services official later found a large bruise on the thigh of Sykes’ 2-year-old daughter and bruising on her lower back, court documents said. Both children were placed in foster care.
Sykes, of the 21000 block of Hobson Road, was charged Monday. There is a warrant for her arrest.
