A federal grand jury has indicted the uncle of slain 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, saying he drugged, sexually assaulted and smothered her with a plastic bag this summer.
Authorities say 42-year-old Michael Jacques of Randolph could face the death penalty.
Jacques is accused of kidnapping, production and possession of child pornography and other charges. Brooke, who disappeared June 25, was found dead a week later. A medical examiner determined she’d been strangled and smothered with a plastic bag.
Yesterday’s indictment marks the first time authorities have said how Brooke died.
It also marks the first time they’ve said definitively that an alleged child sex club called Breckenridge did not exist.
Instead, authorities say it was a fiction created by Jacques to intimidate another juvenile girl he recruited into making child pornography tapes and helping him with Brooke’s abduction