by Oge Okonkwo

A 25-year-old woman, Melinda Lynn Muniz has been arrested for allegedly killing her fiance’s 2-year-old daughter, Grace Lillian Ford and lying about the murder in Texas, USA.

Muniz was arrested after the police found a  surveillance video which showed her buying supplies which will be used to carry out the murder when she went out on a shopping trip with her fiance’s daughter.

According to the police, the victim was found with her mouth covered in duct tape, lying unconscious in her crib. She was rushed to a hospital, but could not be saved.

Daily News reports:

Melinda Lynn Muniz, 25, initially told police that an intruder attacked her and little Grace Lillian Ford after the woman was found tied up with her pants down inside her fiancé’s Plano home on Jan. 12, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The child’s death was ruled a homicide days later, after a medical examiner determined she was suffocated.

Muniz told investigators that the suspect — who she described as having dark hair, black gloves and black boots — sexually assaulted her during the attack, but the evidence didn’t support her claim, KTVT reported.

After speaking to Grace’s father, Mitch Ford, police learned the couple — who were engaged in December — had a fight that morning and that Muniz was told to move out of the home in the Eastside Villages Apartment complex, KDFW-TV reported.

Police retraced Muniz’s steps before the alleged attack and found that she took the little girl to a nearby dollar store, where the woman was captured on a security camera buying several disturbing items: duct tape, zip ties, kitchen shears and cotton swabs.

“She took the child with her to purchase the items that she was going to use during the commission of the crime,” Plano police spokesman David Tilley told WFAA-TV. “Clearly premeditated.”

Once cops had enough evidence to prove Muniz staged the crime scene, they made the collar.

Muniz was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail after she was charged with the murder on Tuesday.