Here on Stolen Lives, we discuss brutal and heartbreaking cases against children.

Themes may include child murder, torture, and sexual domestic and child abuse.

I do try my best to remain respectful for the babies in these stories

and leave out unnecessary details that honestly,

none of us need to know to understand the frustration

of why and how this ever happened. However, if you find any of these themes triggering,

this podcast may not be for you. Listener discretion is advised. This story will be hard to get your head around.

Her own family have been unable.

How could a loving and doting father commit the most brutal and disgusting crimes against his own daughter?

A daughter that by all accounts, he would give his own life for her. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to open this

episode, and I really don't know. I don't know how to describe what you're about to listen to

today. There were really no actual warning signs besides what could be excused away as a father

being frustrated with a moody and stubborn teenager.

There was no way of knowing this would happen, no failures of the system, no neighbours

turning a blind eye.

This is a story of a beloved and happy teenager, who went to spend a weekend with

her father, only to never return home, and to die in a way that no one should ever have to

imagine, let alone experience. This is Zaria's story.

Zaria Jocelyn Burgess was born December 23, 2003, to parents' 16-year-old Joshua Lee Burgess and 15-year-old Akisha Pope.

Burgess and Akisha were high school sweethearts, like many young teenage relationships that are already dealing with the additional stress of being parents, Burgess and Akisha's relationship did not work out.

But they were both committed to giving Zaria the best life they could and being the best parents

they could be. As they grew up alongside their daughter,

...