Couple Sentenced in 1-Year-Old Girl’s Tragic Murder

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis couple was sentenced this week for their involvement in the death of a 1-year-old girl in 2023.

The Marion County Coroner’s Office ruled that the death of Oaklee Snow was a homicide. Her body was found inside a dresser drawer in an abandoned home in Indiana after she was reported missing from her father’s home in Oklahoma.

Authorities say Roan Waters and Madison Marshall had left Oklahoma with Oaklee and her younger brother, who had been taken from their biological father. The couple moved to Indiana and were living in a “trap house” before abandoning the children.

The two pleaded guilty to the little girl’s murder with Waters getting 45 years in prison and Marshall receiving 25 years. They were arrested in April 2023 and both accepted plea deals the following month.

“That 45 years is an important number because although he was not convicted of murder, it’s a sentence that murderers do serve,” said Dan Cicchini, chief trial deputy at the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.

Waters pleaded guilty to three counts: Neglect resulting in death, neglect placing a dependent in danger, and neglect involving abandonment or cruel confinement. Marshall pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent.

As part of the agreements, all other charges, including murder, were dropped.

“The fact that two adults who had the care of this child would let these things happen to her and do these things to her is just terrifying,” Cicchini said.

Both Marshall and Waters will serve their sentences in the Indiana Department of Correction.

“I mean, it’s a tragedy,” said Cicchini. “The facts are horrifying.”