A man allegedly stabbed her stepdaughter to death before setting her on fire because she kept asking him for food.

Detective Chuck Buckland said in a preliminary hearing in the 55th District Court in Mason that 25-year-old Thomas McClellan “snapped” when her 5-year-old step daughter, Luna Michelle Younger, refused to leave his room until he gave her food.

He repeatedly stabbed the little girl and then set her body alight with vodka.

A medical examiner claimed that Luna was stabbed at least five times and died from those wounds. Her body was then burned in a fire after she died. She sustained burn wounds after her death from the fire.

McClellan lost control of the fire when he tried burning her in his bedroom. The Delhi Township fire department arrived on the scene and extinguished the flames.

Firefighter Corey Drolett thought the girl was hiding from the fire. He searched in the closet and under the bed – then he found her corpse wrapped in the burning blankets. He passed her body through a window to his colleagues.

“I knew the victim had expired,” Delhi Township Firefighter Corey Drolett testified. “Based on the situation [I] felt that would show [the mother] that we were attempting some effort.”

Commanding officer Jeffrey Young commanded another firefighter to perform CPR “very lightly” because the girl’s mother was there.

Victoria McClellan who is married to the murderer, was working when he killed her daughter. She later convinced Tom McClellan, who has no criminal history, to turn himself in to the police.

He has been bound over on charges of murder and arson, first-degree child abuse and first-degree arson.

As the trial starts, according to police and prosecutors McClellan stabbed Luna Younger to death in their Delhi Township home back in November then started a fire to destroy the evidence.

If he is found guilty he will be facing life in prison.

McClellan originally was to face a jury but has changed his mind and will have a bench trial before a judge instead.

The trial has recessed for the day and will resume Tuesday morning with more testimony scheduled from witnesses.

6 News has a crew inside the courtroom and will update this story online as it develops through the day.

Sources: Facebook, AWM, WLNS Video Credit: WLNS