Mourners remember Gwinnett girl allegedly starved to death by parents

Even though she was neglected and abused at home, Emani Moss never failed to brighten a room.

“She was the life of the party at school,” said Trish Lard, whose daughter was friends with the 10-year-old girl starved to death, Gwinnett police say, by her father and stepmother. “It’s incredible she maintained her spirit despite everything she was going through.”

Photographs of Emani flashing that big smile were on full display at her funeral Wednesday, a reminder of happier times for the girl known to her grandmother as “Angelface.”

Emani was raised mostly by her paternal grandmother, Robin Moss, where she lived for five ye ars. Then, in 2009, Emani's father took custody of his six-year-old daughter, telling his mother he wanted his family, which would later include two more children, intact. A few months later, Eman Moss' new wife, Tiffany Moss, was arrested and charged with cruelty to children after a counselor at Emani's school noticed several marks on her body.

Other complaints would follow but they were dismissed by state child welfare workers. Nearly two weeks ago, police discovered her charred, emaciated body dumped in a trash can outside the Lawrenceville apartment where her father and stepmother had recently moved.

“Honestly, we shouldn’t even be here right now,” Doron McCarthur, one of Emani’s paternal uncles, told mourners. “I feel like I should’ve done more.”

“I just want to say I’m sorry,” McCarthur said, breaking down in tears.

But there was little McCarthur and other family members could do. Emani’s parents took her out of school and kept her from relatives. When she died, police say she weighed just 32 pounds.

“(Emani) is safe in the arms of the Lord,” said pastor Antonio Thomas, who delivered the eulogy. “No one will bother her anymore. No more suffering. No more crying.”

Robin Moss had to go to court for the right to bury her granddaughter. Emani’s birth mother, who surrendered custody of her daughter when she was 3, did not speak at the ceremony and was not listed among the surviving family in the program.

Eman and Tiffany Moss are being held without bond at the Gwinnett County Detention Center. Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter said Emani’s father and stepmother are likely eligible for the death penalty.

“In 30 years of doing this, this is probably the worst case I’ve seen,” Porter said earlier this week adding he is likely to decide in the next 30 days whether to purse the death penalty for Eman and Tiffany Moss. “I think once we learn more about the mechanism of starvation and the suffering that is involved it may qualify as torture.”