After police say she killed her daughter, mom transferred girl posthumously to another school

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — One strategy Latasha Mott is suspected of using to hide her 5-year-old daughter’s death was transferring her, in name only, to another school after she had already died, NewsChannel 9 has confirmed.

Because she never showed up at her new school, Mott is accused of lying to teachers who questioned her attendance by claiming her daughter transferred to another school out of state.

A spokesperson for the Syracuse City School District told NewsChannel 9 that 5-year-old Nefertiti Harris was transferred from McKinley-Brighton Elementary School to Meachem Elementary School on January 16, 2024 along with some of her siblings.

Court paperwork indicates Harris being beaten to death by her mother ten days earlier, on January 6, 2024.

Because she had already been killed and her remains hidden, police say, after being transferred to Meachem, she never showed up for a single day of school.

“SCSD employees at Meachem were concerned with her attendance and raised those concerns to her mother who informed school employees she would be attending school in Georgia and living with family there,” said spokesperson Amanda Hull for the Syracuse City School District.

“SCSD never received transfer requests from any schools in Georgia and continued to follow up with her family about attendance concerns,” she added.

Mott also lied to her mother (the child’s grandmother) and friends, sources tell NewsChannel 9.

Mott told her mother that the child was staying with a family friend, but told the family friend the girl was with her grandmother. This past weekend, the two women ran into each other, checked in on the girl and uncovered the lie.

On paper, it seemed that Latasha Mott was doing everything she was supposed to in order to care for her seven children as a single mother, sources aware of her situation tell NewsChannel 9.

Two days before she’s accused of beating her 5-year-old daughter to death, child protective services from Onondaga County visited her home at 127 West Beard Avenue and were satisfied enough to close a previously opened case.

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