KALAMAZOO, MI -- Two people are charged with using blankets and duct tape to restrain a 4-year-old girl to a bed, causing her death.

Murder and first-degree child abuse charges were authorized against Kelly Ballinger, 33, and Matthew Longenecker, 34, in Kalamazoo County District Court Tuesday, July 11. Both charges are felonies punishable by up to life in prison.

Kelly Ballinger and Matthew Longenecker

The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety was called at 5:11 a.m. Sunday, July 9, to a home on Mount Olivet Road on a report of a child not breathing. The first officer to arrive began CPR on the child and CPR continued for more than 50 minutes. Officers were unable to revive the child who, police say, appeared to have suffered an unknown physical trauma.

Investigators learned the 4-year-old victim, identified in court by the initials "D.T.," had been getting restrained at night for the last two weeks, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Detective Sheila Goodell said during probable cause testimony Tuesday.

Goodell said investigators learned the girl had been wrapped in blankets to form a swaddle, then wrapped in duct tape. At times her face was covered. She was sent to bed and was unable to move until she was unwrapped the following day. When Ballinger, the victim's mother, found her July 9, her head was still covered, Goodell testified.

Both Kelly Ballinger and Matthew Longenecker admitted to doing this, and detectives also found text messages on the couple's cell phones that corroborated the evidence. The girl's body was covered in numerous bruises and lacerations and her manner of death has been ruled a homicide, Goodell said.

Two other children in the home were taken into protective custody by Child Protective Services.

Ballinger and Longenecker were arraigned Tuesday afternoon. Both are scheduled to be back in court Aug. 1 for preliminary examinations. Bond was denied.