Warning: Distressing content

The parents of a six-month-old baby have been charged with her murder after allegedly confessing to dismembering the child before throwing her severed body parts away.

The couple, Tiago Lacerda, 23, and Raquel Dias, 25, appeared in court on February 11 in Tabaporã, Brazil, after going on the run.

They were eventually caught some 700 miles away, hiding out in another State.

According to police, Lacreda, who was not the biological father, claimed the little girl died by accident after being given some medicine for a cold and he hid the body because he didn’t immediately know what to do.

The mother told detectives that she was not at home when her daughter died. But when she arrived the child had already been cut-up and thrown into a well, located several kilometres from the family home.

The little girl was allegedly murdered. Credit: Drielkson Ribeiro/FocusOn News

The step-dad contradicted her version, claiming that they both made the decision to the carve-up and conceal the little girl’s body.

Detectives revealed the parents were already under investigation for child abuse with the first assault allegedly occurring when the baby was 28 days old.

Photographic records of the injuries taken by doctors at the time, appear to show deep cuts on one foot and signs of burns on the other.

Police were called to the hospital and the pair were arrested but later released. The baby was taken into care where she stayed for three months, but the parents were given custody after successfully challenging the decision in court.

Social services stated that they made periodic visits to the family home to check on the child.

Suspicious behaviour

However, an anonymous tip off in December last year, alerted police to the pair’s suspicious behaviour.

Witnesses, who apparently knew the couple, claimed they saw the suspects near the River Sereno in Tabaporã with a baby’s pushchair.

After which they were spotted without the stroller and later found to be hitch-hiking with just backpacks and without the baby.

A neighbour, who had contact with the child’s step-father, reported that he said he had to hurry out of the city and apparently asked for the baby’s belongings to be burned.

At first the suspicion was that the couple had thrown the child in the stream because the pushchair was discovered abandoned, lying in the water.

The child's pushchair was found abandoned lying in the a river. Credit: Drielkson Ribeiro/FocusOn News

Three specialist divers searched the river bed for several days after the baby’s disappearance was reported.

But nothing was found.

‘CONFESSION’ AFTER ARREST

It was only when the pair allegedly confessed to the crime in January and indicated where they had hidden the body that investigators found the remains.

The child had been cut into three pieces. Two body parts were found floating in the five metre deep well in the first days of the search.

The third part, the child’s skull, was found several days later, after firefighters emptied the well.

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Police chief, Albertino Félix, said at a press conference: “The child’s head was found in an advanced stage of decomposition.

“It was located in a deactivated well and has been sent to forensics for examination into the actual cause of death.

“We suspect that the parent’s actions were wilful and this was not an accident,” he added.

The pair, who are reportedly heavy drug users, face charges of homicide, mistreatment and concealment of a corpse.