A Washington mother who admitted to murdering her 8-year-old adopted daughter — then hauling the child’s body across state lines in a U-Haul — has been sentenced to more than three decades behind bars.
Mandie Miller, 36, was sentenced to 32 years in prison Friday in Spokane County Court after pleading guilty to homicide by abuse, second-degree child assault, and two counts of unlawful imprisonment tied to the death of her niece and adopted daughter, Meela Miller, KREM reported.
Miller and her boyfriend, Aleksander Kurmoyarov, were arrested in South Dakota in December 2022 after authorities learned they were traveling from Washington State to the Pine Ridge Native American reservation with the girl’s body inside a U-Haul trailer.
A funeral home tipped off police when the couple arrived with a coffin containing the girl’s remains but did not have proper burial documentation, according to court records obtained by the outlet.
The pair later admitted the coffin holding Mandie’s juvenile daughter was inside the trailer.
They were initially charged with failing to report a child’s death before prosecutors escalated the case, filing second-degree murder charges against both, a South Dakota jail official said.
During questioning, the couple allegedly gave conflicting accounts.
Kurmoyarov told Mitchell police Meela died on Halloween in Airway Heights, Washington, while Miller claimed the girl died weeks earlier, on Sept. 10.
He admitted they did not seek medical attention or alert authorities because they “wanted to spend more time with her” and feared getting in trouble, police said.
Investigators determined Meela endured months of abuse before becoming so frail that she died in September 2022 at the couple’s Washington State home.
“[The] defendant neglected, abused and starved an 8-year-old little girl,” Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Emily Sullivan said at sentencing, according to KREM.
“By the time officers in South Dakota found a corpse in a coffin in a U-Haul, [she] weighed only 26 pounds.”
Sullivan said home surveillance cameras recorded the abuse, including footage of Meela being restrained for hours and tied to a car seat with zip ties.
“The facts before this court are undisputed. They did assault her, they did starve her, they did restrain her, they did torture her, and they did kill her,” she said.
Andrea Miller, Meela’s biological mother, tearfully condemned her sister during the sentencing hearing.
“You did this with no remorse, murdering my third child, my beautiful daughter, Meela Rose Miller,” she said.
“Named after our sister, Amelia Rose Miller, my best friend, my sister and auntie to my children, a Marine who died in 2013 at 23.”
The grieving mother also offered forgiveness.
“I forgive you, and Jesus Christ loves you,” she said. “And I pray this never happens to another child.”
Under a plea agreement that took life in prison off the table, prosecutors recommended a 30-year sentence.
But Judge Rachelle Anderson rebuked Miller before imposing a 32-year term — two years more than prosecutors sought.
“We’re here because a little girl was tortured, she was starved, her interests were not protected,” Anderson said.
“And as a parent, this is the worst crime a person can commit against their own child, their adopted child, their own family member.”
Miller addressed the court, speaking about her difficult childhood in foster care but offering little discussion of her actions.
“My daughter did not deserve any abuse or neglect from me. She most definitely didn’t deserve any abuse from Alex,” she said.
Kurmoyarov also accepted a plea deal eliminating the possibility of life behind bars after admitting to murder, assault and unlawful imprisonment, KREM reported.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.
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