A mother and her ex-cop boyfriend are waging a sick blame game from behind bars — each accusing the other of beating a 7-year-old girl to death.
Jessica Savangsy and Retuquel Dupree, who are both charged with murder, conspiracy and felony child abuse, gave dueling jailhouse interviews to ABC10, sitting in separate cells at South Placer Jail and viciously pointing fingers at each other over little Adalynn’s brutal killing.
The nightmare unfolded Tuesday when cops rushed to Savangsy’s Roseville home, near Sacramento, and found Adalynn unresponsive and her 5-year-old sister badly injured.
“Detectives determined the suspicious death is in fact a homicide and child abuse,” Roseville cops said on Facebook.
Savangsy claims she woke up Monday morning to find her daughter already dead.
“I woke up around 7 and she was just stiff cold,” she said, through tears. “And I started crying and I just grabbed her. I was just like, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
She painted Dupree as a monster who terrorized the entire household. He is not the biological father of either girl.
“He punched her, he punched them both in the chest and had them stand in the corner,” Savangsy alleged. “And then I had to do it as well, so technically I did, but I didn’t want to, and if I try to stand up and say no, like this is going too far, he would beat me.”
Savangsy claims she is in an abusive relationship with Dupree and blamed him for her daughter’s fatal injuries. She alleged Dupree physically abused both children and her, according to ABC 10.
“He punched her, he punched them both in the chest and had them stand in the corner. And then I had to do it as well, so technically I did, but I didn’t want to, and if I try to stand up and say no, like this is going too far, he would beat me,” Savangsy said.
Dupree, dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, denied the allegations in the jailhouse interview.
“I never, I never abused, I never abused those kids,” he said.
He claims he wasn’t home the day before the incident and when he returned to the house, he went to sleep and was later awakened by Savangsy. That’s when he noticed injuries on the 7-year-old and believed the abuse came from Savangsy, he told the outlet.
“They didn’t even call her ‘my mom,’ they would call her Jessica and then they would tell me… ‘I want Jessica to leave. I want to stay with you,’” Dupree said.
Dupree was fired from his job as an officer with the Citrus Heights Police Department in 2021 after serving for just two months. He filed a civil lawsuit claiming he was fired because of his race, court documents show.
His attorney told ABC10 the case is ongoing and Dupree said he doesn’t care about that lawsuit, he said he would never beat a child.
“I will never hurt kids,” Dupree said. “I would never hurt a kid.”
Both Savangsy and Dupree are expected to be arraigned in court on Wednesday.
“Our hearts go out to those who have been impacted by this tragic loss,” Roseville Police Department posted to Facebook.
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