Police suspect the mother of slain Shaniya Davis could possibly have owed money to the suspect and given her daughter as a payment, CNN reports.

Police found instruments used to manufacture drugs in the home of Antoinette Davis in a raid over the summer.

Shaniya was last seen alive in a hotel surveillance footage where suspect Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, is seen carrying the 5-year-old girl.

According to the report Davis and McNeill have a drug history together.

Shaniya's body was found alongside a North Carolina highway near her Fayetteville hometown in North Carolina Monday afternoon.

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