Ayahna Comb's life was hard from the very beginning.

Born with cerebral palsy, she couldn't communicate, move on her own or even eat solid food.

Her mother had been forced to give up her first child after failing to protect the girl from alleged child abuse by her then boyfriend. Her father, who battled anxiety and depression, cycled in and out of jail.

The breaking point in Ayahna's life arrived in the middle of the night in January when the 9-year-old girl fell asleep in her mother's apartment in southwest Houston. She stopped breathing.

Her mother, Amber Keyes, then covered Ayahna in a black and red blanket decorated with butterflies and placed her small body in a refrigerator drawer.

Keyes then went about her day's business, she told authorities.

Ayahna's subsequent disappearance would draw little attention from friends and family.

This portrait of shocking neglect emerges from an 11-page affidavit highlighting the days leading up to Ayahna's death. Her body was discovered earlier this week.

According to the affidvait, Keyes, 34, told investigators that her daughter was difficult to feed. She had to be bottle-fed and occasionally vomited her food.

In the days before Ayahna died, the tiny, curly brown-haired girl became harder to feed and began having less frequent bowel movements.

On Jan. 29, Keyes woke up and found her daughter not breathing, she told investigators. She attempted to perform CPR but stopped at about 6 a.m., around the time her younger daughter was waking up.

Keyes, who has not been charged with a crime, told police that she put Ayahna on her bed, covered her with the blanket, and then helped her 5-year-old daughter get ready for school. CPS investigators learned Ayahna had not been in a school or seen a doctor in two years.

Keyes couldn't explain why she didn't call 911, telling investigators only that she "panicked," according to the affidavit.

After her younger daughter went to school, "she spent the next few hours rocking Ayahna in a rocking chair and reported she was not aware of what she needed to do," the document states.

Then, she cleared out a drawer in her refrigerator, wrapped her daughter's body in the blanket and put it in the drawer.

Not around

In the affidavit, medical examiners said Ayahna's emaciated body weighed just 14 pounds and was marked with several scabs, apparently from pressure sores, indicative of someone who has not moved much. One sore went down to her bone.

The corpse lay in the refrigerator for months, as Keyes told family and friends that the girl was at a facility for special-needs children, the document reveals.

Although Ayahna's younger sister frequently visited her father and grandparents, they didn't see the disabled 9-year-old as much. Sometime before Christmas, those visits stopped for good.

In interviews with the Chronicle, Ayahna's relatives said they sometimes asked about her, but Keyes always waved them off.

Keyes has not returned numerous calls seeking comment. Police said she voluntarily spoke with investigators and is cooperating. Keyes and Ayahna's father split up several years ago.

When Kathy Comb inquired about her granddaughter, Keyes would just tell her "She's fine," according to the affidavit. Why relatives never demanded to see her is unclear.

In an interview after an emergency custody hearing for Keyes' younger daughter earlier this week, Kathy Comb explained why she didn't see her older grandchild much.

"I didn't see her a lot because, like I said, she had special needs. And a lot of times, when Ayahna would be at the house, it would kind of make me nervous and upset because I didn't know what to do for her," she said.

In the affidavit, Keyes alleged that the family wasn't interested in helping her care for her older daughter.

That is a claim some family members dispute.

Kleyahla Richardson, Ayahna's aunt, said, "I kept asking about her, but (Amber) always told me she was with a family member."

'Just for fun'

After Ayahna's death, Keyes continued to receive Social Security disability payments and food stamps for her daughter, renewing them in May, the document shows.

Investigators also interviewed Ayahna's younger sister.

She told investigators that the day she returned home from school, Keyes told her that her older sister had died. The little girl told investigators her mother didn't like having to clean up when her sister vomited, according to the affidavit.

She and two of her playmates found her sister's body in the refrigerator while looking for a snack, she told investigators.

One of her playmates then told a sibling what they had seen.

That eventually led to a family friend entering Keyes' apartment and finding the body Tuesday, the day after Keyes had dropped off her younger daughter at the home of the girl's father, Armand Comb.

The friend called police, then called Keyes, who told him that after dropping off her younger daughter the day before, she had driven to Tyler with a friend of hers "just for fun."