The mother of a five-year-old North Carolina girl has confessed to handing her daughter over to a man to cover a $200 debt, a transaction that ended with the child being raped and murdered, authorities said. Antoinette Davis, 30, admitted to investigators that she gave her daughter, Shania Nicole Davis, to Mario Andrette McNeil, known as Mono, in exchange for money she owed him, according to court documents. The horrifying admission came after a frantic two-day search for the little girl, who vanished from her family’s trailer in the Sleepy Hollow trailer park in Fayetteville in the early morning hours of November 10, 2009.
Shania was a kindergartner at Morganton Road Elementary School, described by her father, Bradley Lockhart, as a happy and loving child who loved to play dress-up with her Barbie dolls and ride her scooter. She had only recently moved in with her mother after Lockhart agreed to give Antoinette a chance to be a parent again, believing she had overcome financial struggles. The arrangement was made despite concerns from Shania’s aunt, Carrie Lockhart Davis, who had long doubted Antoinette’s ability to care for her children.
The tragic chain of events began late on November 9, when Mono, who had previously dated Antoinette’s sister Brenda, began a night of drinking and using cocaine. He texted multiple women, eventually heading to the Sleepy Hollow trailer park around 2:52 a. m.
to meet another woman, but she had fallen asleep. Undeterred, he continued to try to contact Brenda, who lived in the same trailer as Antoinette and her children. At around 5:30 a.
m. , Brenda woke up thinking she heard the door open but did not investigate.
Half an hour later, Antoinette woke everyone, asking if they had seen Shania.
The child was gone. A search of the trailer park revealed disturbing evidence: feces smeared on the stairs and railings of the trailer, with what appeared to be yellow writing scrawled within the mess. Antoinette initially hesitated to call police, but at 6:52 a.
m. , she finally made the call, claiming she did not know where her daughter was. Meanwhile, Shania’s seven-year-old brother, Carl, told Brenda and her boyfriend that Mono had been at the trailer that night.
At 6:06 a. m. , Mono checked into the Comfort Inn and Suites in Sanford, about an hour north of Fayetteville, using his own identification.
Hotel security footage showed him returning to his car and then carrying a child covered in a blue blanket into the hotel. The desk clerk, Jacqueline Lee, noticed the child’s hair texture and later recalled the image when an Amber Alert was issued. Another guest, Seth Chambers, passed Mono in the hallway and saw him carrying a child.
Later that morning, Mono was seen on camera leaving the hotel with the child, still covered, and placing her in his car. A maintenance worker, Matthew Argyle, observed the interaction and felt something was wrong, but did not act until the next day when he saw the Amber Alert. Mono returned to the front desk to retrieve his security deposit, claiming he needed to drive his daughter to Virginia.
The housekeeper later found small plastic packets with white residue in his room, believed to be cocaine.
Police, aided by the FBI, began a massive search for Shania after the hotel video came to light. Cell phone records placed Mono near the intersection of Highways 87, 24, and 27 in an area known for deer hunting.
During a police interview on November 12, Mono initially denied knowing Shania or being at the hotel, but eventually admitted to taking her. He claimed he received a text message to pick her up and later handed her over to unknown people in a gray Nissan Maxima. His story quickly unraveled.
During a break in the interview, Mono was seen on video making the sign of the cross, then using a key to shock himself in an electrical socket. He later told investigators he was “waiting to get a call to come and šš¾šš her.” The interview ended with his arrest for kidnapping.
It was then that Antoinette Davis confessed the unthinkable: she had given her daughter to Mono to cover a $200 debt, telling police, “I gave her to him to cover two hundred dollars. He was only supposed to have ššš.”
Antoinette was arrested and charged with human trafficking, but was released on $51,000 bail.
The search for Shania continued along Highway 87. On November 13, a defense attorney contacted police with a tip to look for green porta potties along the highway. The information was vague, but on November 15, another attorney said to look for areas where hunters dress deer.
The next day, a canine team from the Virgin Islands found Shania’s body partially under a log near deer carcasses at the intersection of Highway 87 and Walker Road. She was wearing only an adult-sized black sweatshirt and underwear.
An autopsy revealed injuries consistent with sexual assault, a small bruise on her face, and two linear abrasions on her inner thighs.
The cause of death was determined to be external airway obstruction, or asphyxiation. DNA evidence linked Mono and Shania to blood, hairs, and bodily fluids found on her clothing, a blanket from the trailer, and bedding from the hotel. Soil samples from the recovery site matched those found in Mono’s car.
In 2011, Antoinette Davis was rearrested and charged with first-degree murder. She was denied bond. Mono was offered a plea deal for life in prison without parole but rejected it, opting for trial.
In May 2013, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder based on malice, premeditation, and deliberation. During the sentencing phase, Shania’s father, Bradley Lockhart, testified about the profound loss, saying he still finds it hard to sleep and has suffered two collapsed lungs from the stress. The jury recommended the death penalty, and the judge sentenced Mono to death.
In October 2013, Antoinette Davis entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder, human trafficking, first-degree kidnapping, and other charges. She was sentenced to between 210 and 261 months in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2027. At her sentencing, she apologized to Bradley Lockhart, saying, “I did the best I could with my children.”
Judge Jim Ammons rejected her statement, telling her, “You could have saved your daughter’s life and you did not. You are not a good mother.”
Bradley Lockhart, in an interview, said he forgives Antoinette, believing Shania would have wanted that.
He hopes his daughter’s story will prevent future tragedies. “There’s so much to be said about that precious angel,” he said. “She’s definitely touched a lot of hearts.
I just hope that we can curb it from happening to another child.” Shania’s funeral was attended by over 1,500 people, with basketball star Shaquille O’Neal paying for the service after being moved by her story on television. She was laid to rest in a tiny pink coffin beneath a heart-shaped gravestone inscribed, “God’s angel called home.”
The tragedy did not end there. In May 2017, Shania’s older half-brother, Chavez Lockhart, who was one of her pallbearers, was shot and killed in Hoke County. He was 20 years old.
The family, already devastated by Shania’s death, was forced to grieve a second loss. Chavez was buried next to his little sister. His mother and aunt had also been killed in a triple homicide in 1998, a grim pattern of violence that has haunted the Lockhart family.
Mono remains on death row, his appeals ongoing. The case has drawn national attention to the horrors of child trafficking and the failures of a system that allowed a mother to sell her own child. Bradley Lockhart continues to advocate for stronger protections for children, hoping that Shania’s legacy will be one of change.
“I try to keep my heart as pure as possible,” he said. “One day, I will be able to sit down and talk to her and try to understand what was going through her mind.” For now, he holds onto the memory of a little girl who loved pink and yellow, who dreamed of singing in a choir, and whose life was cut short by an unimaginable betrayal.
