The Incredible Story of Lachele Nance

Lachele Nance was a beautiful and bubbly 8-year-old girl who lived in Lake Worth, Florida with her mom, Machele. The little girl was incredibly close with her godmother, Lisa Taylor, and Lisa’s three children.

One day in the spring of 2004, Lisa went outside and found a teenage boy sleeping inside her broken-down station wagon. His name was Milagro Cunningham and he was friends with her 16-year-old son, Eddie.

Born in the Bahamas to a drug-addicted mother, Milagro was shipped off to Florida to live with an aunt as a young child. After three arrests for burglary, she kicked him out and he became homeless. With nowhere else to go, a sympathetic Lisa invited Milagro into her home with open arms and he quickly became the fifth member of their tight-knit family.

Unfortunately, Lisa had no idea that the teenager sleeping on her couch and spending time with her children was a monster hiding in plain sight.

On May 21, 2005, Lisa invited her goddaughter to spend the night at her home as she often did on the weekends. The mom of three was awoken at 1 am by her frantic daughter Danielle, who claimed that Lachele was gone.

Seconds later, Milagro came running into the house with his shirt torn. The 17-year-old said he was sleeping on the couch when he saw a group of white men abduct Lachele. He claimed he chased them down but they beat him for 20 minutes. Oddly enough, Milagro didn’t have a single injury.

Lisa called Machele and she rushed over. Unable to find Lachele, they called the police and reported her missing. A massive search ensued and the authorities asked the public for help in locating a group of white men who may have abducted Lachele from her bed. They would later learn that Milagro’s story was simply a ruse to send them on a wild goose chase.

Eight hours later there was still no sign of Lachele anywhere. Working on a hunch, investigators put themselves in the mind of a killer and drove to a nearby landfill where they found underwear and a pair of shorts on the ground. They knew they were on the right track and yelled out for Lachele but not a sound was heard. With no time to waste they began searching each and every dumpster until they made a shocking discovery.

Inside one of the dumpsters, officers saw a yellow garbage bin on wheels laying on its side. They opened the lid and found large chunks of concrete. Sticking out from under the rocks was a hand — and it was moving. They worked quickly to remove 197 pounds of concrete and rescued Lachele just 10 minutes before her organs would have started shutting down.

“I kind of thought it was a dream. I just remember the officers pulling the rocks off of me, and I think one was crying, not really sure which one it was. But one of them was crying. I remember that.” — Lachele Nance

As Lachele was transported into an ambulance, she mustered up every last ounce of energy left in her weak body and said, “Milagro did it.”

Lachele explained that she woke up to Milagro touching her. He dragged her out of bed and forced her to walk to the landfill half a mile away where he sexually assaulted and choked her. The brave little girl outsmarted him by playing dead at which point he threw her into the dumpster head-first and covered her body with concrete, preventing her from escaping.

Weighing only 50 pounds at the time, Lachele recalled that the depraved teenager giggled manically and repeated the word “sorry” with each piece of rock he hurled onto her tiny body, ultimately leaving her for dead. Instead, she made a full recovery and went on to testify against him.

Milagro was charged with second-degree attempted murder, kidnapping, sexual battery, and aggravated child abuse. He pleaded not guilty by insanity and his defense attorneys asked for a lenient sentence, claiming he had the mentality of a 7-year-old, and was suffering from kidney disease. The jury rejected his plea and sentenced him to life in prison.

However, a year later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a juvenile to life imprisonment, and Milagro was re-sentenced to 50 years. Today, the 35-year-old sits in a cold, hard prison cell on dialysis, and is expected to die in as little as eight years.

Now 26 years old, Lachele Nance lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was nicknamed Miracle Girl due to her unwavering strength and courage.