A mother and her toddler were found knifed to death in their Cary home Wednesday evening, sending law enforcement officials in search of a suspect and friends and neighbors into shock and grief.

The body of Karitha Carrol1, 31, was found on a bedroom floor of the home on U.S. 61 with multiple stab wounds, Sharkey County Coroner Angelia Eason said. The body of her 3-year-old daughter, Jamiaha Carroll, was found with her throat cut on a bed in the same room, Eason added.

Their bodies were taken to the Mississippi Crime Lab in Jackson just after midnight. Eason said preliminary autopsy findings were expected this afternoon.

Eason said the mother and daughter were discovered by a family member who went to Carroll’s home to check on her after she did not show for work at Church’s Chicken on Race Street in Rolling Fork.

Law enforcement sources said they had not identified a suspect. The area was taped off while crime scene investigators worked and a crowd of onlookers grew. Cary, a South Delta farming town with fewer than 500 residents, is bisected by U.S. 61 about eight miles south of Rolling Fork, the county seat, and 40 miles north of Vicksburg.

Carroll was a cook at the Rolling Fork restaurant and was “always on or before time.” She was “never late,” said a woman who identified herself as the restaurant’s manager.

Carroll “always had a smile,” said her manager, who thought the same of Jamiaha. “We used to always see her daughter laughing, playing and giggling — just like her mama.”

The restaurant manager said she and other co-workers were having difficulty performing their duties today without Carroll.

“We don’t know which way we’re going today,” she said. “Our hearts go out to her family.”

Officials from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and Rolling Fork and Anguilla police departments were assisting the Sharkey County sheriff with the investigation.

Carroll is survived by a teenage son and daughter.

*

Contact Tish Butts at tbutts@vicksburgpost.com