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Luna Younger Murder: 5-Year-Old’s Stepfather Admitted To Stabbing Her, Burning Remains With Vodka, Because She Was Hungry [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 10:11 PST, Dec 30, 2016

New details are emerging in the tragic November murder of 5-year-old Luna Younger. The little girl was reportedly slain on November 1, and as the Lansing State Journal reports, investigators now believe they know what happened in Luna Younger’s final moments.

Allegedly, the Luna Younger murder was carried out by the child’s own stepfather, 25-year-old Thomas McClellan. As the child’s brutal death was investigated by the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office, the perpetrator of the murder reportedly became clear early on. According to Detective Chuck Buckland, McClellan admitted to police that he brutally murdered the 5-year-old.

According to the stepfather of Luna Younger, the murder was the result of him having “snapped” at the child. The trigger that caused him to lose control? According to investigators, Luna Younger simply wanted something to eat.

Detectives and prosecutors in the murder case claim that Luna was bugging her stepfather for food and refused to leave his room on the day of her murder. It was then that McClellan claims to have “snapped.”

The suspect in the Luna Younger Murder reportedly told law enforcement that he knocked the little girl to the ground, sat on her, and stabbed her repeatedly in the chest. According to the medical examiner, Luna suffered from at least five stab wounds. After he murdered the 5-year-old, McClellan says he covered her remains with blankets, doused her with vodka and lit her on fire in the bedroom.

The family lived in a ground-level apartment, and reportedly the fire spread quickly, resulting in the Delhi Township Fire Department being called to the scene. At first, fire fighters thought that Luna Younger may have been hiding, frightened, somewhere in the apartment, and they tried desperately to find the child.

It was soon thereafter that she was discovered, already dead, in the pile of burning blankets. By this time, Luna’s mother was reportedly on the scene. According to the fire department commanding officer, it was obvious that Luna Younger was dead when her scorched body was found, but he ordered his colleague to perform light CPR on the child for her mother’s sake.

As CBS News reports, it didn’t take long for investigators to hone in on Luna Younger’s stepfather as a suspect in the child’s murder. Reportedly, the moment that firefighters found the little girl’s stabbed, scorched remains in the pile of burned blankets, they zeroed in on McClellan.

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According to investigators, at the time of her murder, little Luna’s mother, Victoria McClellan, was at work. Luna was being tended to solely by her stepfather. Reportedly, prior to the murder of Luna Younger, her stepfather and mother had been arguing.

Prior to the murder of Luna Younger, suspect McClellan, a graduate of Everett High School, had no prior criminal history. At the time of the barbaric crime, he was an employee of a Lansing-area restaurant.

Reportedly, Luna’s mother is the one who convinced her husband to turn himself in to law enforcement voluntarily in connection with her child’s murder.

Thomas McClellan has been charged with first-degree arson, first-degree child abuse, and murder in connection with the death of his stepdaughter, Luna Younger. Despite the heinousness of the crimes he reportedly admitted to committing, McClellan will not face the death penalty.

Rather, the maximum sentence upon conviction is life in prison.

Thomas McClellan faced the judge in a preliminary hearing regarding the murder of Luna Younger on December 29 at the 55th District court.

[Featured Image by Younger Family]

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