Timeline of events in case of child found in freezer

BRADENTON (FOX 13) - What happened to Janiya Thomas is something only her mother, Keishanna Thomas, knows.

Details continue to come out in the disturbing case of the missing Bradenton girl whose body police believe they found inside a freezer.

How long she'd been missing remains a mystery, but investigators say the body was likely in that freezer for a long time. A timeline of events shows how an 11-year-old could have gone undetected for so long.

Manatee County Schools say the last time they saw Janiya Thomas in school was May of 2013. She was a third grader at Manatee Elementary.

In August of 2013, her parents registered her as homeschooled. The district keeps tabs on parents, requiring them to submit annual evaluations, but Manatee school officials aren't saying how many they got from Keishanna Thomas.

In June of 2014, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office made contact with Keishanna Thomas in a case regarding her son. It was later closed.

Detectives say the last time Janiya was seen was in August of 2014.

Then, in January of 2015, Manatee Schools say they were clearly informed Janiya was living out of the district and out of state.

Manatee County Sheriff's Office Child Protective Services had no further contact until September 23rd, regarding alleged child abuse on Keishanna's 12-year-old son at a Walmart.

Two of Thomas' five children were missing, a 2-year-old, and 11-year-old Janiya. Eventually, the toddler reappeared, but Janiya did not.

Last Wednesday, neighbors say Keishanna Thomas dropped off a locked freezer at her grandmother's home.

"It was something that was off," said Maria Barger, who watched the freezer being delivered. "It needed to stay plugged in. That was their big thing."

After weeks of giving investigators the runaround, Thomas finally faced a judge Friday.                     

"She showed up in court, but all the questions the judge asked her, she took the Fifth and she would not answer those questions," said Lieutenant James Racky with Bradenton Police Department.

Thomas was taken into custody on contempt of court. Finally, Sunday night brought the gruesome discovery of what's believed to be Janiya's body stuffed in that freezer. It came as a shock to the rest of the family.

"There are too many people that want children [and] can't have them," Barger said. "There are several neighbors in this neighborhood that would have been willing to take her, including us. These people don't realize the gifts from God that they have."

Keishanna Thomas doesn't have a violent criminal history, just a prostitution arrest in 2003.

Child protection services had investigated her 10 different times since 2003, even before Janiya was born. Now, the Florida Department of Children and Families says her four other children are now under their care.

DCF is sending a review team to go over the details in this case, including the previous investigations involving Keishanna Thomas.

Thomas remains in the Manatee County Jail. She is expected to appear again before a judge Tuesday on the contempt of court charge.