Women charged in killings of girls on farm near Norwood

Two women have been charged with killing two young girls whose bodies were found on a farm in southwest Colorado.

The women were arrested in mid-September along with three other people after authorities discovered the bodies. All five initally were charged with fatal child abuse.

Prosecutors on Friday added the murder charges against Nashika Bramble and Madani Ceus.

An attorney for Ceus, a 37year-old from Haiti, declined to comment on Tuesday. An attorney for Bramble couldn’t be reached immediately.

A spokeswoman for 7th Judicial District Attorney Dan Hotsenpiller said Tuesday that she couldn’t comment on what led to the murder charges.

Police have said the girls were between ages 5 and 10. Investigators believe they were dead for several weeks before the bodies were found in mid-September on a farm outside Norwood, about 30 miles west of Telluride.

Authorities have shared few other details about the case that shocked the town of about 500 people.

It’s not clear how any of the defendants are connected to the children. Authorities haven’t released any details about what caused their deaths, and affidavits in the case have been closed to public view.

Two men and a third woman face other charges in the girls’ deaths.

Frederick Blair, a 23-year-old man from Norwood; Ika Eden, a 53-year-old woman from Jamaica; and Ashford Archer, a 50year-old man from Haiti, are charged with fatal child abuse.

Blair and Archer also have been charged with acting as an accessory to a crime.