Mother charged with killing 2-year-old daughter commissioned 'after life' photos

Jeanie Ditty, 23, an active soldier, has been charged with murder

Jeanie Ditty, 23, an active soldier based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has been charged with murder (Sunny Jo Photography)

A mother charged with the murder of her two-year-old daughter commissioned “after life” photos of herself and the toddler, it has been revealed.

Jeanie Ditty, 23, an active soldier based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was arrested last week and charged with the murder of her daughter, Macy Grace. Her boyfriend, Zachary Keefer, was also arrested and charged over the child’s killing.

Now it has emerged that one month after her daughter’s death, Ms Ditty contacted a photographer in Pennsylvania to commission a series of striking, even unsettling images, that appear to show the mother with an angel-like version of her daughter.

One of the images was posted on Ms Ditty's Facebook page (Facebook)

Photographer Sunny Jo said that on January 4, exactly one month after the death of the little girl, Ms Ditty contacted him and request a series of so-called “after life” images, in which he specialises. In the photographs, a transparent image of a deceased loved one is superimposed onto a photo to make them look like an angel.

“She offered to pay, and honestly, I couldn't do it,” Mr Jo told The Independent. "I thought she was a grieving mother. I did it out of my heart."

The images were posted on Ms Ditty’s Facebook page with the words: “Sunny Jo did some amazing work for me of my angel and I.”

Ms Ditty and her boyfriend Zachary Keefer appeared in court this week (Fayetteville Police Department)

Mr Jo said that most of his clients commissioned such a photograph a year or two after the death of the loved one, when the grieving process had eased a little. He said that on reflection, it was strange that Ms Ditty had commissioned the images just one month after her daughter’s death.

Mr Jo, who has been a photographer for five years, now said he felt used. “Everyone I spoke to thinks she did this because she wanted to pose as the grieving mother. To be honest, I feel sick in the stomach."

In one photo, it appears as if Ms Ditty, who serves with the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade at Fort Bragg, is walking hand-in-hand with her daughter in a graveyard.

Another image shows her reading to Macy Grace while sitting on a picnic blanket. A third image shows Ms Ditty staring longingly at a makeshift memorial with Macy Grace placing her hand upon her shoulder.

Ms Ditty has been held in jail awaiting her next court appearance (Sunny Jo Photography)

At court hearing this week in Fayetteville, prosecutor Billy West said the injuries to the girl were “homicidal.”

“This is a truly innocent victim and we are going to do everything we can to get justice for this child,” he said, according to WNCN.com.

The case dates to 2 December 2015 when police were called to Cape Fear Valley Medical Centre about an unresponsive child.

That child, Macy Grace, was covered in bruises and medical staff determined the child had suffered life-threatening injuries consistent with child abuse.

Macy Grace was transferred to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill where police said it was determined her injuries were inflicted within 24 hours of the child being taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Centre. She died two days later.