A Florida woman accused of sending deeply disturbing messages to a child over the gaming platform Roblox — allegedly encouraging the child to kill a baby — has had her most serious criminal charges dropped, according to court records.
Tara Sykes, 37, was arrested in October 2024 after authorities said she exchanged messages with a 10-year-old child that encouraged extreme violence. She initially faced charges including attempted murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder, and child abuse without causing great bodily harm.
The case began after the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report involving a 2-month-old infant who suffered serious injuries after being dropped onto a kitchen floor. Investigators later determined the infant had been injured by a 10-year-old child who, authorities said, had been communicating with Sykes through Roblox.
According to investigators, Sykes allegedly instructed the child on multiple ways to kill the infant through online messages. Law enforcement said those messages included directions to drown the baby in a bathtub, burn the infant with scalding water, and drop the child on the floor.
Court records show that on January 22, prosecutors agreed to dismiss all murder-related charges as part of a plea deal. Sykes entered a no-contest plea to a single charge of child neglect without great bodily harm. She was sentenced to 11 months and 30 days in jail and received credit for 462 days already served, effectively completing her sentence.
Authorities previously said the disturbing messages went beyond the infant. Investigators allege Sykes also told the child to kill the adults the child was temporarily living with, including instructions to cut their throats while they slept and burn down their home by soaking bedsheets in aerosol spray and setting them on fire. The sheriff’s office said the child poured liquid on the sheets but did not follow through with the rest of the instructions.
“I have been in law enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything quite like this,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said at the time of Sykes’ arrest. “There is something really wrong here.”
Roblox previously said it cooperated with investigators but stated that an internal review did not find messages containing the alleged violent instructions that led to Sykes’ arrest.
The case was not Sykes’ first encounter with the criminal justice system. Earlier in 2024, she was arrested on a child neglect charge related to a situation involving her teenage daughter. She was later charged with extortion after allegedly threatening to kill an adult man connected to that case, according to local reports. Sykes is scheduled to appear in court on those charges in April.
The case has sparked renewed concern over child safety online and the risks posed by unsupervised communication on gaming platforms.
