Phoenix police have arrested four adults, two of whom they allege tortured and killed a 10-year-old girl, and two of whom they allege abused the girl, in a case acting Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner called "an unspeakable tragedy, one of the worst we have ever seen."

The girl's death was initially reported to be an accident while playing hide and seek.

Investigators arrested the four suspects Wednesday night. The four were supposedly the guardians of Ame Deal, 10, and at least a dozen other children living in a residence near Broadway Road and 35th Avenue where the body of Ame was found July 12.

Police said Thursday that Ame had been forced her into a footlocker that was then padlocked, and she was left there to die. Police were called to the home the next morning.

Police said John Allen, 23, and his wife Samantha Allen, 23, were expected to face first-degree murder charges. Also arrested were Cynthia Stoltzmann, 44, and Judith Deal, 62, who face kidnapping and child abuse charges.

Discussing the case Thursday, police said Ame apparently was locked in the footlocker as punishment for taking a popsicle from the refrigerator. Before she was locked in, she was forced to spend many minutes doing backbends and other exercises, and running in the backyard despite the summer heat.

On other occasions, police allege, as punishment for failing to pick up a dog's fecal matter, the fecal matter was rubbed on Ame's face and she was forced to eat it.

The four suspects arrested in the case all lived in the same home with Ame and the other children. The elder Deal was believed to be the child's grandmother. Police say all the children were being homeschooled.

The other children in the house have been placed with Child Protective Services, and an investigation is ongoing as police try to sort out the relationships between the various children and the adults in the house.

Police were initially called to the home with a report that Ame had been found dead in a footlocker. Police were told that she had apparently hidden there while playing hide-and-seek the night before.

Police say they now suspect the adults coerced the other children in the house into supporting the lie about how Ame ended up in the footlocker.