A missing 2-year-old boy — whose mother was killed in the family’s St. Petersburg, Florida, apartment earlier this week — was found dead in the mouth of an alligator on Friday. The boy’s father has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Dylan Mosley’s body was found in an alligator’s mouth at a recreation area, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said at a news conference Friday evening.
While detectives were searching the area around Del Holmes Park Friday afternoon, they “saw an alligator with an object in its mouth,” Holloway said.
“As the detectives approached they fired a round at the alligator,” Moseley said. “The alligator dropped the object in its mouth and was able to retrieve Taylon’s body intact.”
The boy’s father, 21-year-old Thomas Mosley, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Bashoon Jeffrey, 20, and their son, Taylon Mosley, Holloway said.
The exact cause of Taylon’s death is unknown, Holloway said, adding that Jeffery was found to have been stabbed multiple times.
Jeffrey and his son were last seen by family members on Wednesday around 5:20 p.m. Later, around 8:30 p.m., neighbors reported hearing loud noises near their residence, but police were not called, police said.
The next day, Jeffrey’s mother contacted the manager of the apartment complex after not hearing from her daughter. That’s when she was found dead.
The FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, along with local authorities, searched for Moseley, including dive teams and drones searching the area’s lakes.
Thomas Mosley went to his mother’s house around 9 p.m. Wednesday with cuts on his hands and arms, Holloway said, and later admitted himself to a local hospital.
Family members said Jeffrey and Taylan moved into the apartment only a month ago.
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