A 2-year-old girl reported missing from Seminole County on Monday has been found dead in Putnam County, and the toddler's mother admits to putting the body in a suitcase and then burying it.

Rachel Fryer faced a Seminole County judge Tuesday afternoon on charges of aggravated child abuse.

Hours earlier, Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith confirmed the body of Tariji Gordon was recovered Tuesday morning in a shallow grave behind a home on Madison Avenue in Crescent City, just off Highway 17.

In Fryer’s arrest affidavit, Fryer said she found the toddler unresponsive after a Feb. 6 visit with a case worker at Community Based Care of Central Florida. The agency, through contracts with the Florida Department of Children and Families, had been supervising and regularly visiting the family since November.

She said she tried to revive the toddler for 30 minutes, but did not call 911, despite having a working cell phone.

According to the affidavit, Fryer “placed the child victim in a leopard print suitcase, fully dressed in a jacket, purple shirt, blue jeans, socks and pink and white shoes.”

Fryer told police she then hitched a ride with a friend to Crescent City where she buried her daughter in a shallow grave, covering the girl with dirt, plywood and a sheet of tin.

She said she slept on the attached porch of the residence before she was picked up by her friend around 11 a.m. Feb. 7 and returned to Sanford.

On Monday, Feb. 10, a CBC of Central Florida case manager asked Sanford police to conduct a well-being check of the family's four children at their home, near 13th Place and Oleander Avenue.

When officers arrived, the parents and their four young children were nowhere to be found. Neighbors said they hadn't seen the family for a week.

Police said Fryer arrived at the department's lobby around 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Officers were able to locate three of the children later that night. All were placed with foster parents.

Police confirm they have made contact with Fryer's boyfriend, Timothy Gordon. They also interviewed a woman named Tonya Grooms, whom they believe may have known something about the toddler's death.

According to the arrest affidavit, Tariji's paternal grandmother turned over text messages the 32-year-old sent on Jan. 31.

"I'm bout to have a nervous breakdown… I can't take it no more my child is retarded … I don't know what else to do… I need my depression medicine asap this is too much I'm about to lose it."

Fryer remains at the Seminole County jail on $950,000 bond.

Investigators said Fryer has a long list of previous criminal charges, including battery on a police officer.

She’s due back in court in April.

Vigil held for dead Sanford toddler

A group of people gathered Tuesday night outside the Sanford home where Fryer and her 2-year-old daughter lived.

A group known as “Mothers on Duty” led the vigil.

Some members of the group knew the family, while others wanted to remember the toddler.

“Everybody’s heart is broken because she was a 2-year-old child,” said Shantee Hall of Mothers on Duty. “We’re also praying for the mom that she gets the help that she needs, and not to be bashed or singled out because she was a mother and she needed help, and she didn’t get it.”

Some of the women at the vigil said they wish there’s something they could have done to prevent the child’s death.