Atlanta police find dead child in downtown motel

<p>A 6-year-old girl was found dead in a hotel room in what police say may have been a ritual gone wrong. The discovery came after a man and woman who had been staying in the room were found walking with two other children nude on a city street in near freezing temperatures.</p><p>The relationship between the two adults and three children was not immediately clear. Police said the dead child was brutalized and had suffered a broken back and other broken bones when she was found Monday.</p><p>Some of the unsolicited statements (from the adults) led investigators to believe they were involved possibly in a ritual of some sort, police spokesman John Quigley told The Associated Press. Some of the comments was that it may have had something to do with undemonizing the child in some manner.</p><p>The death came to light about 12:30 a.m. Monday when an unidentified man and woman were seen walking naked down a city street with two other children, ages 2 and 7, Quigley said.</p><p>The 7-year-old provided detectives with information that led investigators to the Savannah Suites motel near the Atlanta Civic Center, Quigley said. There, they found the little girls body. Police are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine how the child died.</p><p>The child had been brutalized, Quigley said. The childs body was severely broken. Im not aware of an instrument or weapon at the moment.</p><p>Police on Monday were talking to the occupants of nearby rooms at the hotel. A receptionist at Savannah Suites said no one there would comment about the case.</p><p>The two adults had apparently been living at the motel for an extended period of time, possibly through assistance from a church, Quigley said.</p><p>The two adults were charged with cruelty to children, public indecency and obstruction of police and were taken to a psychiatric ward at Grady Hospital. They were not immediately charged with the 6-year-olds murder. Police were continuing to investigate, Quigley said.</p><p>It seemed that they were aware that a child was in that room and something had been done, Quigley said. Their appearance in the street was obviously bizarre as was the manner in which they were clothed at that hour and given the temperature.</p>

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