5-year-old girl Zoey Felix murdered after mom kicks her out the house

A 5-year-old Kansas girl was sexually assaulted and killed after neighbors say her mother kicked her out of their home.

Around 6 P.M. on a warm Monday evening, police responded to a medical call at a Dillion’s gas station. Upon arriving at the location, emergency medical personnel with the Topeka Fire Department were already on the scene performing life-saving measures on 5-year-old Zoey Felix before rushing her to a hospital for treatment.

Unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead a short time after arriving at the hospital.

In connection to the death Mickel W. Cherry, 25, was arrested on charges of murder in the first degree and rape of a victim less than 14.

Cherry’s bond was set at $2 million.

Neighbors told the Topeka Capital-Journal that Cherry had previously been living in the same home as Zoey, along with several other people. About two weeks ago,  Zoey’s mother reportedly kicked out a group that included Zoey; Ezequiel Felix-Guerrero, who was Zoey’s father; a teenage girl who was Zoey’s sister; and Mickel Cherry out of the house where they lived with her in the block of 2200 S.E. Market, neighbors said. The group went to live in a tent in a campsite in southeast Topeka.

Zoey’s father had legal custody of her, meaning her mother, Holly Felix, couldn’t keep him from taking her with him

Neighbors told The Topeka Capital-Journal that Zoey had lived in a decrepit house that often had no lights or running water with her mother, a teenage sister, and an adult male who was allegedly a convicted child molester.

Zoey’s cause of death has not been announced. Neighbors told WIBW that she was beloved in her community, but her upbringing was allegedly unstable. She allegedly lived in a house that did not have utilities, and she was sometimes left home alone, per the neighbors who spoke to the station.

Neighbors added that they allegedly helped to keep Felix bathed, clothed and fed, even reporting her living conditions to local authorities.

Despite the claim of reports, the Kansas Department for Children and Families did nothing, community members alleged to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Shaniqua Bradley, who lived next door to the house, told the Capital-Journal that the 5-year-old “pretty much took care of herself.”

“Everybody on the block took care of Zoey,” Sheryl Tyree, a local who frequents the neighborhood, told the news outlet. “Everybody loved Zoey, except her parents.”

“It was, like, ‘Hey mom, hey mom,’ and I was, like, ‘Well, hey baby, what’s going on?,’” Bradley said. “She was just the sunshine and the rain really.”

Bradley said Felix used to come over to her house often asking for food and water, other times just to play with the other neighborhood kids.

“We would clean her up and comb her hair, whatever needed to be done,” Bradley said.

“It was always ‘Can I stay? Can I stay?,’” Bradley said. “Normally when a kid is persistent about staying like that, something’s going on at home.”

“I just reported the neglect that was going on,” Williams said. “She’s always dirty, no food unless some of us fed her, but they didn’t obviously take it serious.”

Neighbors who spoke to WIBW described Zoey as a “loving girl” who played with children in the area but was living in a less-than-ideal home that lacked utilities.

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