Man beat his 6-year-old daughter and buried her alive

A Pennsylvania man is facing felony charges for allegedly beating, choking and burying his 6-year-old daughter in the yard because he thought she was lying, police said. The girl told investigators her dad, John Kraft, 50, often hit her with a belt and with his arm, which has a metal rod from a surgery, KDKA reported, citing a police report. 

She said he buried her in a hole in the yard and left her there overnight. “The allegations are that this child was beaten brutally, that the child had bruises all over her body, that she was choked to the point that she had passed out,” Greene County District Attorney David Russo said. Social workers in September found severe bruising on the girl’s face and body. Two weeks ago, police interviewed the child and a sibling, who told them Kraft allegedly buried the girl in a hole in the yard. 

 The girl said her dad would leave her in the yard “until she told the truth and that she would come out of the ground dirty and smelling like sewage,” according to the police report. Kraft has been charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, strangulation, endangering the welfare of children, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment of a minor and unlawful restraint of a minor. His bond was set at $125,000. The two children have reportedly been placed in foster care.