She had three jobs to make sure that her kids had everything they needed. Then one hot day in July, she went into work for her normal shift, leaving her children at home with a trusted babysitter. But a panicked call from that babysitter would come in for her while she was at work that day. And nothing would ever be the same again.
Welcome or welcome back. I’m Cassie and this is a Wicked World. The case that I have for you today is one that you probably haven’t heard of. It didn’t get a lot of media coverage, but it should have. Three little girls went missing at the same time. And then the same three little girls were later discovered dead in the same location on the same night.
But the investigation doesn’t seem like it’s gone very far. And these three little girls viciously lost their lives and need justice. This is the story of Zariel Oliver, Tamari Oliver, and Amaya Hughes. Zaryel Oliver was born on January 8th, 2013. She was a happy and lively little girl who loved dancing, reading, and playing with her siblings.
Amaya Hughes was born soon after on December 23rd, 2013. She was a sweet little girl who loved to play outside, sing, and dance. And then Tamari Oliver was born three years later on October 28th, 2016. She loved to have fun and made friends easily. She also loved to play with her dolls and her siblings, too. All three girls were born in Mount Pleasant, Texas to their mother, Shamanique Oliver.
The girls also had three other siblings. 28-year-old Shamanique Oliver went into her job on July 29th, 2022 around 100 p.m. She was a nurse and worked at a local home care facility in Tex Arcana. So Shamanik’s cousin, who was named Paris Props, had been living with her for around 2 years, and he was at the Atlanta, Texas home that night babysitting Shamanik’s six children.
Shamanique had a 9-year-old, an 8-year-old, a seven-year-old, a 5-year-old, a four-year-old, and a one-year-old. So, while she was at her job, she called in around dinner time to check in on the kids and see how everything was going. The children told her that they had been eating supper and then were watching TV together.
She asked what they were going to be doing for the rest of the night, and she was told that they were going to stay in and watch some more TV and then take their baths before bed. they wouldn’t be going anywhere as it was late and they knew better than to go outside once it started to get dark out.
So Shamanik’s shift was set to end at 10:00 that night and she lived about 25 minutes away. So by the time that she was supposed to arrive home, she figured all her children would be in bed sleeping. But then at 9:00 p.m., only an hour before her shift was set to end, she received a phone call from her cousin Paris saying that her children were missing.
He didn’t say how many kids or which kids were missing. She assumed it might be all of them. He also hadn’t called 911 yet. He had called Shamanique first. Paris had to run to a neighbor’s house to ask for her phone because apparently he didn’t have a cell phone or he just didn’t have it on him at the time. I don’t know.
Shamanique in a complete panic left work early, got in her car, and flew home. On the way, she called 911 to report that her children were missing. Though at this point, she still didn’t know how many or which children. She also called her aunt to ask her to rush there and start looking for the kids before she got home and then to stay and look for the children if they hadn’t found them yet once she got there. Now, by 10 p.m.
, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens, Cass County Fire and Rescue Crews, and Cass County Sheriff’s Office were on the scene to search for the missing children, who were discovered to be Zariel Oliver, who was 9 years old, Amaya Hughes, who was 8 years old, and Tamari Oliver, who was 5 years old. Shamanik’s other three children were discovered to be safe inside her home.
So, Texas game wardens brought in their K-9 units to help search for the missing three little girls. Officers took the K-9 to the last known location of the girls, which was their home, so that they could pick up a scent and then follow the trail to where they had gone. The dog found their scent and began leading officers to a neighboring property.
They continued down towards a pond, which was about 200 yd away from the girl’s home and along Highway 77. There they found a pair of tennis shoes by the water and they were identified as belonging to one of the girls. There was also a purple bicycle laying on its side next to the pond, though it hasn’t been revealed if that actually belonged to one of the little girls or not.
The police then noticed something more telling. There were footprints in the mud leading directly into the pond. Once they saw this, they called in a dive team to help search for the girls. Shamanique was confused as to why police were searching around the pond because her girls didn’t even know that there was a pond there.
They’d never wandered out that way and they wouldn’t be out at that time of night anyways because they knew better. About 35 minutes after Shaman got there, police came to her and asked her about some clothing that they had found. The officer said that they had found some jackets that had been tied together in the pond and he asked her if they belonged to her girls.
Shaman confirmed that they did indeed belong to her girls. But the thing was those coats had been recently thrown in the trash because they didn’t fit the girls anymore. So, how did they get there? The police officer also said that the jackets had been tied together by the sleeves almost like someone was trying to use it as a rope.
And it was right after this that police officers had to give Shamanique some terrible news. They had pulled a body out of the pond and it was 8-year-old Amaya. Shamanik was beside herself. So much so that she started to have a heart attack. And she knew that it was a heart attack because she had experienced one only a year prior and was on medication for it at the time.
Though with all the ruckus, she had forgotten to take her medication. Shamanik was sent to a local hospital and it was while she was at the hospital that she got the terrible news. Officers had found the other two girls’ bodies. Zaryel and Amaya’s bodies were both also found at the bottom of the pond. Police told her that all three girls had drowned.
Shamanique barely remembers the moment that she heard about her other two girls’ bodies being discovered because they had to sedate her so she wouldn’t suffer another heart attack. All three girls had been found fully clothed, though two of them were missing their shoes. The little girl’s bodies were sent in for autopsies.
And when the autopsy results came back, everyone was in shock. They had not drowned at all. Their cause of death was strangulation, all three of them. There were also lacerations to their faces. And to make matters even worse, all three little girls were also sexually assaulted. And it wasn’t until March 23rd, 2023 that a statement was released letting the public know that the girl’s cause of death was not an accidental drowning, but rather homicide.
The Cass County DA said that there had been a delay in the autopsy for some reason, and that’s why there had also been a delay in letting the public know that there was still a child killer out there on the streets. And 31-year-old Paris Props, who had previously been living with the family, now wasn’t even speaking to Shamanique.
He was ignoring her. Since the girls had been discovered dead, police hadn’t even interrogated him. They had asked him a few questions once they got to the scene that night, but he was never brought in for any type of formal interview, and he was the last adult that was known to be with them.
At the time, he was living with his mother, and his mother was telling him not to speak to police, and she was telling everybody to stay away from the house as well. So, keep in mind that Paris’s mom is Shamanik’s aunt, therefore also the three girls aunt, and she’s trying to protect her son, who knows something about the death of three innocent little girls instead of giving them justice.
And although Paris did attend the girl’s funeral, he slept through the entire service. Paris also has a long criminal history that included misdemeanor weapon charges, narcotics charges, and criminal mischief charges. But Shamanik said that in the two years that he had lived at her house, there had never been any issues with him.
Shamanik’s four-year-old daughter, whose name hasn’t been revealed, spoke to Texas Rangers, and she told them that she had seen Paris going into the woods with the three little girls prior to their disappearance. But they wouldn’t listen to her, stating that she was too little. Let me tell you, if my four-year-old said something like this unprompted, I would absolutely believe her.
Kids make up [ __ ] like princesses and unicorns, not this kind of stuff. The neighbor who had lent Paris her phone that night to call Shamanique said that she felt like something wasn’t right. And she also says that she told police officers a very key piece of information. She said that when Paris had showed up to her house, he was wet.
And not just wet like he had sweat a lot, but drenched. She said during the girl’s funeral, Shamanique noticed that Tamari and Amaya didn’t really seem to have many lacerations on their face, as had been noted in the autopsy report. However, it looked like Zariel had sustained lacerations, as her mother said that her face looked like it had to be partially reconstructed for the funeral.
Now, no one has been named a person of interest yet in this case. Nobody. It’s been over a year now and Shamnik has tried to reach out to the Texas Ranger who’s working on the girl’s case, Josh Mason, to ask him how the investigation’s going and where they’re at, but he never has returned her phone calls or emails.
Oh, sorry. There was one time that he did. He called her from an unknown number and asked her if people had been trying to contact her since a press release had gone out. So, it seemed that he was only concerned about possible bad press rather than what actually happened to the girls. >> Texas Rangers are investigating the murders of three young girls in Cass County.
And now, a controversial organization is injecting itself into the situation. >> NBC 6’s Donald Britain shares the latest. >> The mother of the three Cass County girls who were murdered last summer now has the support of the new Black Panther Nation. We are hurting with this mother and her family because we don’t understand how three beautiful little black girls could be murdered in this county.
And yet the lead investigative agencies did not even know it was a murder. They looked at it as an accidental drowning. Nine-year-old Robinson Oliver. 8-year-old Amaya Hughes and 5-year-old Tamari Robinson Oliver were reported missing on July 29th by their cousin who was responsible for their care while their mother was working.
The next day, their bodies were found in a pond off Texas Highway 77 outside of Atlanta, Texas. Recent autopsy reports show evidence that all three girls have been strangled and suffered lacerations to their faces and their deaths are now being investigated as homicides. New Black Panther Nation is demanding the Texas Rangers get the FBI involved.
>> Every citizen in this county, no matter what your race is, no matter what your class or status is, should be outraged and absolutely concerned and walking around paranoid that a child killer is on the loose. >> So far, no arrests have been made. If you have any information, contact the Texas Rangers. >> Not a day goes by that the girl’s mother doesn’t think about Zarya >> and Tamari.
She says, “All I ever tried to do was work and be a good mother for my kids, but now she says it’s hard to make a living, and she’s barely getting by because she still continues to mourn. Though she is bringing in some money at the moment, designing and selling t-shirts and cups.” Since the girl’s story hit the news, Shaman says that she has been repeatedly harassed by complete strangers.
People will call her from fake numbers and message her on Facebook from fake accounts saying that she’s a deadbeat mom and that she got what she deserves and that her kids are better off dead as well. She was trying to support her kids. She was working three jobs at the time. How the hell can anybody sit there and try to say that she’s a deadbeat mom? She trusted her cousin.
He had lived there for two years with no problems, according to her. So, of course, she would trust him with her kids. He’d been there for two years around the children. The Cass County DA says that investigators have questioned a number of people and DNA testing is still going on. And as I said, no suspects have been named and no motive for the three homicides has been revealed yet.
and Cass County Sheriff Larry Row says that it is a very active investigation, but won’t give any other details. A funeral service in the girl’s honor was held on Saturday, August 13th, 2022 at the Atlanta High School Auditorium in Atlanta, Texas. They were buried together at Gum Spring CME Cemetery in Douglasville, Texas. The family also held a balloon release for Zariel, Tamari, and Amaya on Saturday, July 29th, 2023, near the home where the girls disappeared from.
On February 22nd, 2025, the girl’s older cousin and babysitter that night, Paris Props, was murdered inside his home. There haven’t been many other details released, but in the comment section in his obituary, there have been many people who have said things about him killing his younger cousins. They also stated that he was a known drug dealer and criminal.
One person said that Paris had actually been touching the three young girls for years and other people in the family knew about it, but did nothing. This individual also alleges that one of the girls stabbed Paris because he tried to take her and the girl’s mother knew about it, but put her daughter in a mental hospital for stabbing him.
However, it’s not known if these allegations are true or not. >> Wednesday marked three years since the bodies of three young East Texans were found in a pond in Cass County. This case was investigated as a homicide. Authorities say evidence shows the three sisters, 5-year-old Tamari Oliver, 8-year-old Amaya Hughes, and 9-year-old Zariel Oliver, were strangled.
Their bodies were found around 2 a.m. on July 30th, 2022 in a private pond off State Highway 7 near Atlanta, Texas. Their cousin, Paris Props, reported them missing around 9:00 p.m. the day before. He was watching the children while their mother was at work. Raiden Edwards was the reporter in Cass County when this case happened and he says he’s still searching for answers to bring justice for the girls and their family.
>> Them three little girls did not deserve to die like that. One, every time I see someone, they ask me what have I heard? Did I get any new information and my heart goes out because I don’t have any new information for him? >> Right now, their cases remain unsolved. Then over a year after Paris was murdered in May of 2026, the Cass County District Attorney’s Office announced that they were still investigating the girl’s deaths.
They said that over the past four years, they’ve been working diligently to pursue all leads in the case, but I don’t understand what exactly they expect to find at this point. I’m pretty sure the killer is dead. Unless, of course, there were someone else involved, too. >> Thank you for listening to all of Zyel, Tamari, and Amaya’s stories today.
More people need to know about this case. These three beautiful little girls deserve justice, and their family as well. So, if you do like true crime and you want to hear it from me, then don’t forget to hit that subscribe button below. And turn on those notifications, too, so you’ll know when I upload a new video, which is two to three times every week.
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