Man arrested hours after rape and killing of 5-year-old girl in Kansas

A Kansas man has been arrested in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old girl, authorities said Tuesday.

Officers responded just before 6 p.m. Monday to a medical call at a Topeka gas station and found a fire crew attempting to save Zoey Felix, police said in a news release. She was rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

Investigators identified a 25-year-old man as a suspect and booked him into jail Tuesday morning on suspicion of first-degree murder and rape.

Mickel Cherry, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Jail around 4:15 a.m., CBS affiliate WIBW-TV reported. His bond is set at $2 million and no attorney is listed for him, said Timothy Phelps, deputy director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.

Booking records indicate that Cherry was listed as homeless, WIBW reported. 

No formal charges were immediately filed, court records show.

The news release said that the man was known to Zoey, but police spokesperson Rosie Nichols said she couldn’t provide additional details on how.

She also declined to release information on the girl’s cause of death.

Neighbors told WIBW that Felix lived a life of instability. The house where she and her mother stayed had no water or electricity and the girl was sometimes left home alone, they told the station.

“Loving girl,” neighbor Desiree Myles told the station. “Love the children, all the kids play with her. They all looked out for everybody, looked out for Zoey. She was a Curious George with nowhere to go. Nowhere to go.”