| By Big Radio News Staff |

A Rock County criminal compliant shows the 8-year-old girl found dead last week in a town of Fulton home was in a plastic storage tote in a laundry room, and she’d been brutally stabbed to death with a tactical knife.

In an initial court appearance Friday afternoon, Rock County Court Commissioner Mason Braunschweig ordered 20-year-old Dayveon Lathrop held without bond pending a competency hearing early next week.

Though not formally charged Friday, Lathrop is suspected of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. Investigators suspect he fatally stabbed an 8-year-old girl who authorities say was his younger sister, then hid her body in a storage tote in the basement.

A criminal complaint released Friday by the Rock County District Attorney’s Office describes in detail police discovering traces of blood in a downstairs bathroom last Saturday evening at Lathrop’s family’s home at 5587 W. Miles Road, along with a tactical knife and a pocketknife.

Police say the bathroom had laundry detergent spilled on the floor, and a storage tote appeared to be out of place in an adjacent laundry room. Detectives say the tote was stuffed with empty bottles of cleaning products and paper towels soaked with bleach and hydrogen peroxide, some also soaked with blood.

Police say it was at the bottom of that tote where detectives discovered the lifeless body of the girl, riddled with stab wounds on the torso, neck, arm and hand. Officers said they discovered the girl inside the tote when they spotted a single braid of her hair poking through the cleaning debris packed in above her.

An autopsy determined the stab wounds were fatal, and likely were caused by a knife like the tactical knife police found in the basement of the girl’s home.

The father of both Lathrop and the young girl told police he’d gone to Menards for less than two hours that Saturday to get building materials, leaving the girl under Lathrop’s care during his errands. He said he came home to find the girl missing.

Neighbors apparently reported they saw Lathrop and the girl arguing in the front yard outside their home earlier that Saturday, before the girl went missing. A friend of the father who came to the house that day to help with a construction project was waiting outside in his vehicle for the father to return from Menards.

The father found Lathrop standing naked near the downstairs bathroom, with water running in the bathroom. He said it appeared Lathrop was filling a bucket.

The father’s friend said Lathrop a short while later tried to keep him from going farther into the house, and then followed him around as the friend tried to help the father search for the girl.

Before police arrived and later discovered the girl’s body, Lathrop apparently told the father that the girl was “dead” – but the father said Lathrop would not elaborate.

Authorities say Lathrop told police he smoked cannabis and drank alcohol that day, but told a town of Fulton officer who was the first to arrive at the home to investigate on Saturday “he is not aware of what happened,” according to an affadavit.

Lathrop’s hearing Friday was closed to the public, although Braunschweig live streamed audio online of the brief court proceedings.

Lathrop’s attorney, Kevin Smith, asked Braunschweig on Friday to delay setting a bond for Lathrop pending a competency hearing, which the court commissioner granted. A hearing could be slated early next week.

Lathrop has no prior history of violent crimes, according to statewide circuit court records.

Police had been quiet for days about the girl’s death as an investigation continued, but details emerged from court documents released Friday and from a search warrant affidavit filed last Sunday by a Rock County sheriff’s detective.

A sheriff’s detective filed the affidavit to get blood, hair and tissue samples and DNA that police say could yield more clues into the girl’s death. Police already have said they do not suspect sexual assault.

Newer photos posted on one of the family’s Facebook feeds show images of multiple children at the home, playing, gardening, and spending time with adults.

Other, older Facebook images show members of the family, including Dayveon Lathrop, actively involved in religious services at a local church.