Fort Worth, Texas — A 35-year-old Texas father has been charged with capital murder after police say he beat his 9-year-old daughter to death with a belt following a bedwetting incident, in a case that has horrified investigators and the surrounding community.
Marquise Anderson now faces capital murder charges in the death of his daughter, Joanna Shoulder, who died in February after suffering what medical examiners described as extensive blunt force injuries across her young body.
According to authorities, Fort Worth police were called to Anderson’s home at 3:15 a.m. on February 8, where they found Joanna unresponsive on the floor. When paramedics transported her to the hospital, medical staff discovered her body was covered in bruises. She did not survive.
Investigators say a woman present in the home that night told police that Anderson had disciplined Joanna with a belt the day before her death. In the middle of that same night, Anderson allegedly woke the woman, claiming Joanna had become ill in the bathtub.
When detectives questioned Anderson directly, he admitted that Joanna had wet the bed twice. After the second incident, he placed her in the bathtub for three hours. He acknowledged spanking her — but told police that when Joanna smirked at him, he escalated the punishment, allegedly beating her with a belt that had a metal buckle.
Following the beating, Anderson said Joanna began showing alarming symptoms — becoming sleepy, speaking with slurred speech, complaining of thirst and heat. She eventually collapsed and began vomiting before he called 911.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s autopsy revealed devastating injuries, including widespread hemorrhaging beneath soft tissues, multiple bruises across her back, thighs and lower extremities, blunt force trauma to her head and neck, and bleeding around her spinal canal.
On June 16, the medical examiner officially ruled Joanna’s death a homicide. Anderson was arrested and is currently held at Tarrant County Jail without bond.
Joanna was only 9 years old.
