Three babysitters allowed a three-year-old boy to suffocate to death after tightly wrapping him in six layers of blankets as punishment.
Terrified Michael Lee McMullen was pinned down by his grandmother's friend Donella Trainor and then rolled in a king-sized blanket as a way of disciplining him called 'The Wrap' as his grandmother and stepfather looked on.
He was then put in his cot for a nap but continued to scream and plead to be released until he passed out.
Police Lieutenant Larry King said: "There were six layers of cloth over this child. The loose ends would be folded over his head and feet and tied into a knot, all in an effort to prevent the child from moving. You could use a mummy reference."
Manslaughter charges have been brought against Donella Trainor, 45, Douglas Garrigus, 21, and the child's grandmother, Gale Watkins, 56.
Trainor told investigators she had disciplined her own grandchildren that way, using a technique all three adults knew as 'The Wrap'.
The boy's grandmother, and his stepfather, Garrigus, checked on him at different times as he cried and struggled.
At one point, Garrigus said he could hear the boy crying and hyperventilating. Trainor returned, found the knot loose and retied it, then put pillows around the child.
She later found him unresponsive and soaked in sweat, a police report said.
Paramedics took him to a hospital in Fort Myers on Florida's southwest coast where he was declared dead, and the medical examiner classified the death as a homicide.
Trainor, Watkins and Garrigus were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.
Trainor, 45, was also charged with aggravated child abuse 'for the torture and unlawful caging' of the boy.
Watkins had custody of her grandson because the child's mother had been involved in domestic violence, and Trainor was helping her care for him.