Woman testifies cousin, husband were having affair as they plotted to starve daughter

An Elizabeth woman accepted a plea deal last month, testifying that her husband and the mother of Cyra Shantelle Marie Harrison plotted for months to starve the young woman who was found dead in 2018.

Marilyn Sue Maricle offered testimony on March 17 in an allocution statement — a formal statement given by a defendant before sentencing —before 9th Judicial District Court Judge Chris Hazel.

The body of Harrison, who had cerebral palsy and needed a wheelchair, was found in the Plainview-area home where they all lived after a call about a natural death was made to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office on Nov. 23, 2018.

Responding deputies found the home in "deplorable condition," read a release at the time. The Rapides Parish Coroner's report later described appalling conditions in the Leon Odom Road home, which is off La. Highway 112 in southwestern Rapides Parish.

It stated that Harrison's body was found on a mattress on a floor that was covered with rotting food, dog food and bodily fluids. She weighed between 65 and 70 pounds at the time of her death, which a pathologist attributed to failure to thrive and dehydration due to cerebral palsy and neglect.

Homicide was listed as the manner of death, according to the report contained in online court records. The home was described as being infested with roaches, animal feces and flies.

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Maricle testified that Karen Harrison, who is her cousin, and her two children, 25-year-old Cyra and a young boy, moved in with her and her husband around August 2018. She said her cousin and husband "had a sexual relationship together" that continued after they moved in, reads a transcript from the hearing.

Maricle said she was unaware of the affair until Harrison claimed to be pregnant.

She testified that she had told Rapides Sheriff's detectives during one of her statements after all three were arrested that nobody had fed Cyra since the family moved in with the Maricles.

She stated Karen Harrison let her young son, who was 7 when they moved in with the Maricles, take some food to his sister, though.

Cespiva asked Maricle if she overheard her husband and Harrison talk about a plan to starve Cyra, and she said yes. Maricle said that was around November 2018.

And she said they "finally admitted" what they had planned to do, reads the transcript.

"They were going to starve her to death, and they were going to move together, live together, them three," she testified, referring to her husband, Harrison and her young son.