Father's tragic letter about daughter before she was killed

A father penned a tragic letter to authorities months before his daughter's death in a bid to warn them about the abuse he believed his daughter was suffering at the hands of her mother and her partner.

Mickhal Garrett, from Cleveland, US, sent a chilling letter to Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court in December about the alleged abuse of his four-year-old daughter by her mother, Sierra Day, 23 and her mother’s boyfriend, Deonte Lewis, 26, News 5 Cleveland reported.

Aniya Day-Garrett died on March 11 after suffering from a stroke after she was allegedly beaten severely.

But her father said the warning signs were evident months before.

“I truly, truly, truly feel as though our daughter is being abused at home physically/mentally and that her life could possibly be in danger,” Garrett wrote in the letter.

He said he had become increasingly concerned over his daughter's welfare when he discovered Aniya's body covered in cuts and bruises in September 2017.

When he asked Day what had happened to their daughter, she stopped Mr Garrett from seeing Aniya.

"After trying to communicate with Sierra about our daughter's wounds is when Ms. Day began to tell me false stories, reject all my phone calls, my visitation and all quality time with our daughter," Garrett wrote in the letter.

Aniya's daycare had also noticed markings on her body as early as 2015 and kept a log of all her injuries before contacting Child Family Services (CFS).

In December, Mr Garrett's letter to juvenile court officials pleaded for his daughter's safety.

"All I want to do is be in our daughter's life and make sure she's safe and happy each and every day of her life," he said.

Mr Garret had been given a pre-trial custody hearing for Aniya on February 26 following his letter.

Another hearing was set for March 15, but four days before the hearing Aniya's body was found burned and unresponsive.

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She was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Authorities say the cause of her death was blunt force trauma to the head.

Day and her boyfriend Deonte Lewis have been charged with her death.

A Cuyahoga County spokesperson said in a statement on Monday that an internal investigation was underway after Mr Garrett led a protest outside CFS' offices saying that he had been "failed" by the CFS.

"We know that we are expected to see and recognize patterns of abuse and neglect and if the internal investigation determines we did something wrong there will be discipline. We will continue to cooperate with police and the prosecutor," they said.