Cousin Arrested in Bronx Double Murder

The police arrested a 20-year-old man in the stabbing deaths of Bronx mother Yolanda Beckford and her 6-year-old daughter Monique. Camor Harding, 20, Beckford's cousin, was charged with first degree murder; he confessed that the killing was accident - a claim the police do not believe.

After friends, family and school officials had wondered about their whereabout, the Beckfords were found by the police in their apartment in the Wakefield section of the Bronx on Tuesday. Harding, who moved to the Bronx from Florida this year, and Beckford were close as children in Jamaica, and he would babysit Monique. His family told the Daily News he has a history of mental illness, which they believe was aggravated by a car accident. It seems the Harding may have not been taking prescribed medicine.

Harding said that he was angry at Beckford because, as the Post reports, "she had stirred his drink with her fingers after touching herself and that the child's slaying was accidental," because she tried to stop him from stabbing her mother. However, the child had "multiple stab wounds to her neck" (Beckford was stabbed in the neck). Police sources also say that Harding was captured on surveillance video fleeing from Beckford's apartment via a fire escape.

Harding became a suspect after he "introduced himself to detectives as a family friend hoping to aid in the investigation" and even took the police to the home of one of Beckford's ex-boyfriends. But the police were suspicious because he kept his gloves on, hiding a hand with cuts on them, which is apparently a common injury to stabbers.

The Post has another sad note: A neighbor in Beckford's building says she heard Monique's screams, but thought that she was just being punished, so she didn't do anything.