GADSDEN, Alabama — Relatives of a slain Alabama toddler said the girl's killing may have been a sacrificial ritual by her father, who is charged with capital murder in the child's death.

Police this week arrested Stephon Lindsay, 35, in the death of 20-month-old Maliyah Lindsay, whose body was found at the end of a dead-end road days after she was last seen by her mother.

Lindsay believes in satanic worship and recently bought daggers or a sword off the Internet, aunt Cathy Jackson told WBMA-TV.

Another aunt, Khadejah Thomas, told the station the man's religious practices led to the killing.

"He either had to sacrifice himself or his child so that's what he did," said Thomas, a sister of the child's mother.

A police spokesman called the circumstances of the killing shocking and "gruesome," but declined to elaborate.

Police have not revealed a possible motive in the slaying, but they have said knives or a sword may have been used.

Lindsay is jailed without bond, and court records did not show Friday whether he has a lawyer. Records also do not provide any detail on how the child was killed.

Police said Lindsay led them to the girl's body, which was found Tuesday near a dead dog in a weedy area littered with debris.

Relatives last saw the child alive on March 5, when her mother told authorities the father said he was taking the girl to his sister's house for a few days.

The mother, Tasmine Thomas, 19, tried to get her daughter from Lindsay on Monday and called the sister when that failed. The sister said she had not seen either the man or the child for several weeks.

Thomas called police to report her daughter missing, leading to Lindsay's arrest.

The couple has another daughter who is 1 month old, but that child was not harmed.

[ Edited at 3:45 p.m. March 15 to add details. ]