Paulsboro man accused of killing stepdaughter agrees to remain in jail, as new 911 records emerge
Sean Scott, 45, is charged with first-degree murder and related crimes in the death of Maya Thomas.
A Paulsboro man authorities say killed his 9-year-old stepdaughter will remain incarcerated until his case is resolved, a judge ruled Friday following a hearing in Gloucester County Superior Court.
Sean Scott, 45, is accused of killing Maya Thomas last week, and fabricating a story about a hit-and-run to conceal the crime. He and the girl’s mother, India Miller, 27, have been charged with first-degree murder, making fictitious reports to police, and other related offenses.
The allegations against the couple have raised questions about what else may happened inside the family’s Swedesboro Avenue home before Maya’s death on Oct. 13, and whether the girl had been abused before that night. The New Jersey Department of Children and Families has launched an investigation, according to a department spokesperson, and removed a 4-year-old child from the home.
Following their arrests, prosecutors asked that the couple be held without bail until their case is resolved. And on Friday, Scott appeared virtually before Judge Michael Silvanio and waived his right to challenge prosecutors’ request that he remain in jail, agreeing to stay incarcerated.
A detention hearing for Miller has been scheduled for Tuesday.
A review of dispatch records by The Inquirer shows that police had been called to the family’s home at least eight times in the last two years. One 911 call, on Feb. 2, 2025, came from an out-of-state relative who requested a well-being check after a commotion inside the house.
The relative, who identified herself to dispatchers as the grandmother of two girls living in the home, said she had been on the phone with someone inside when she heard screaming, cursing, and what sounded like something being thrown. Someone yelled, “Who are you talking to? Get off phone,” she told dispatchers. The relative tried calling back, she said, but no one answered.
Officers who went to the house minutes after the 911 call found the doors locked and no one home, the records show. The police department did not respond to questions about the incident or a request for additional records. Attempts to reach the relative on Friday were also unsuccessful.
Several months before the out-of-state relative called 911, Scott’s mother, Valerie Scott, also called police to the house for help, the records show.
On Sept. 13, 2024, she told dispatchers that her son was “screaming and aggressive” inside the home, following an argument about why the back door’s screen was “messed up,” according to the records. Two officers spoke with Valerie Scott at the house, the records show, but the dispatcher’s log leaves unclear what happened after that, and the police department did not respond to questions.
Valerie Scott did not return a phone call on Friday.
The case against the couple began with another 911 call on Oct. 13 to report that Maya had been seriously injured.
Paulsboro police officers who responded to the call found Maya unconscious and breathless at the couple’s Swedesboro Avenue home, and attempts to revive her failed, they said. She died later that day at Cooper University Hospital.
The couple told officers that they believed Maya had been struck by a vehicle as she walked the dog sometime after midnight that day. They described the sound of screeching tires, and said Scott had found Maya outside, collapsed near a shed.
Officers searched for evidence of a hit-and-run, including damaged vehicles parked in the area and surveillance camera footage that had captured a crash, they said. But they found none.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, medical staff told investigators that Maya’s injuries didn’t align with being struck by a vehicle, according to the couple’s arrest complaints. And later, an autopsy found extensive blunt-force wounds on Maya’s body, including trauma to both eyes, a ruptured colon, abrasions on her lower body, and multiple broken ribs in various stages of healing.
At the couple’s home, officers found children’s clothing in an upstairs bathtub and what they believed was blood on the bathroom floor, a Swiffer WetJet, and cleaning supplies.
On Friday morning, the home’s front gate remained covered with more than 150 stuffed animals, toys, candles, cards, and deflating balloons left during an evening vigil held last week in Maya’s honor.
Children frolicked on the playground at Loudenslager Elementary School, where police searched for video footage that would have revealed a crash, and found none.
At the house, a man mowed and weed-whacked the property’s grassy perimeter. He declined to provide his name before walking down the driveway to an SUV parked just feet away from the shed where Scott told police he found Maya.
“Don’t get in other people’s business,” the man said.
Later, the man began removing items — toys, flowers, and candles — from the fence and put them in a trash bag.
Several neighbors declined to comment when a reporter knocked on their doors. But Angela Guerreiro, who has lived on the block for 17 years, said she was unaware of what may have happened inside the house where Maya lived.
“The crazy thing is that ... I didn’t even think anyone lived in the house,” she said. “It always looked empty.”
Guerreiro added: “I never saw anybody coming. I never saw anybody going. I never saw kids, let alone an adult. I think that’s the biggest shock of all.”
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