Pair to Stand Trial in Case of Missing Girl

A mother and her live-in boyfriend will stand trial on child abuse charges involving her 3-year-old twin daughters, one of whom has been officially missing for nearly a month.

Pomona Superior Court Judge David Milton ruled there was sufficient evidence to try Simona Denise Demery, 19, and Jeffrey Jones, 24, after hearing testimony from a Pomona police detective. The couple were held in lieu of $200,000 bail and will be arraigned June 16.

On May 7, Demery told police that her daughter, Alicia Versluis, vanished from Ganesha Park, two miles from the storefront where the family lived in Pomona. The child’s whereabouts remain under investigation.

Alicia’s twin sister, Ebony, has told authorities that her mother “took Sissy and wrapped Sissy in a jacket and put her in the drain,” but despite several searches police have found no evidence to support the claim.

A day after reporting the child missing, Demery and Jones were arrested and charged with felony child endangerment. Ebony is now in protective custody, as is a daughter Demery gave birth to last month.

An additional charge of child abuse was added May 17 to two other child abuse counts against Demery and Jones, based on a doctor’s physical examination of Ebony, according to prosecutors.

The family lived in a former herb store and apparently relied on a hot plate and an ice chest for a kitchen, police said. The only food authorities found was a partial loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter.