DARRINGTON, Wash — A Darrington woman who police said called 911 to report killing her 5-year-old daughter before allegedly burying her body pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder on Wednesday, April 10.
Alyssa Sanchez is being held on $5 million bail.
Sanchez is alleged to have stabbed her daughter multiple times in the backseat of a vehicle on Feb. 14 with a knife she stole from the Darrington IGA.
On Feb. 26, Sanchez called 911 to report killing her daughter and leaving her body in the vehicle for several days, according charging documents. She told dispatchers she buried her daughter in a neighbor's yard.
Sanchez told a dispatcher that she had been hearing voices and admitted to stabbing the child multiple times, but did not know the exact number.
A 26-year-old man replaced Sanchez on the phone with 911 and told them he had not seen her child since Feb. 14. He told the dispatcher that Sanchez dropped him off at work on that date with the child in the backseat. When she picked him up later that day, Sanchez apparently told the man that she met her mother at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and her mother had taken the child to California.
A few days after the alleged stabbing, Sanchez spoke to the man in the "middle of the night" and said she "had done something bad" to her daughter, but he "thought she was talking nonsense," according charging documents. The man said Sanchez had not allowed him to get anything from or look in the backseat of her vehicle. Between Feb. 16-18, he said Sanchez said she wanted to plant flowers and wanted him to buy a shovel.
While still on the phone with a dispatcher, Sanchez got back on the phone and stated she killed her child, placing a blanket from the movie "Frozen" on her and another blanket. She also stated she threw away the knife, all of her daughter's clothes and her clothes a few days after the killing, according charging documents.
Sanchez later showed a deputy where her daughter was buried. A shovel was about 20 feet away.
Detectives found the girl buried in a shallow grave on Feb. 28.
On Feb. 29, a detective obtained video from the IGA showing a woman who appears to be Sanchez and her daughter. At one point, Sanchez is seen reaching toward a rack and taking an item, concealing it in her sweater. On March 1, a detective confirmed the store sold knives where the woman is seen in the video.
On March 5, a detective and members of the Washington State Patrol Crime Scene Response Team searched Sanchez's car, where they found blood in the backseat.
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