A father is alleged to have abandoned his one-year-old daughter to burn to death in a car following a police chase in South Carolina. Imhotep Osiris Normal, 26, is accused of fleeing the vehicle after it caught fire on the side of the road in Spartanburg.
Normal had allegedly refused to stop for a trooper who caught him speeding, leading to a pursuit in the early hours of Saturday. His car began to spark and smoke from its undercarriage before becoming engulfed in flames.
He is said to have slowed down, jumped out and fled, leaving his daughter Xena Ra’Liah Norman in the back seat. Firefighters discovered the child’s body after extinguishing the blaze.
A bag thrown from the car during the chase was found to contain illegal drugs. Normal was later apprehended and has been charged with homicide by child abuse.
Xena’s mother, Thaisha Young, expressed her grief on a GoFundMe page set up to cover funeral costs, writing: ‘I have lost the love of my life MY BABY, MY HEART, MY FIRST CHILD AND ONLY.’
