Authorities say Marcela Hope Yellowbear was tortured to death over a period of several weeks, starting around May 15, 2004, to July 2, 2004. According to the testimony of the girl's mother, Macalia Blackburn (born December 20, 1981), who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for her role as an accessory, Yellowbear beat the girl daily in the couple's Riverton, Wyoming apartment using a variety of objects, including the handle of a claw hammer, a sports sandal, a two-by-four, and a plastic stabilizer bar from a child's swingset.