Father of Michigan baby wrote mother he killed her by accident, left body in 'peaceful place'
4/3/2014
Judge Peter J. Wadel holds up a piece of evidence during the preliminary examination for Sean Phillips in Mason County's 79th District Court in Ludington, Mich., Thursday, April 3, 2014. Phillips is charged with open murder of his daughter, Katherine 'Baby Kate' Phillips and is accused by authorities of killing his 4-month old daughter on June 29, 2011. Phillips was convicted on April 27, 2012 of unlawful imprisonment of his daughter. The baby has not been found. (AP Photo/The Muskegon Chronicle, Ken Stevens)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ariel Courtland.
LUDINGTON, Mich. — Authorities say a man wrote a letter to the mother of their baby, telling her he accidentally killed the 4 ½-month-old girl and left the body in a “peaceful place.”
Sean Phillips.
The evidence came out today on the first day of a hearing to decide if 24-year-old Sean M. Phillips should stand trial on an open murder charge in Mason County Circuit Court in Ludington.
Authorities say he killed Katherine Phillips in 2011, but they’ve never found her body.
Sean Phillips already is serving 10-15 years in prison for unlawful imprisonment in the girl’s disappearance.
Authorities say he wrote the letter from prison in 2012 to the baby’s mother, Ariel Courtland.
Courtland was Thursday’s first witness, talking about the last time she saw her daughter.