Body of toddler found in alligator’s mouth
An alligator swims in a body of water in Florida (icon image)
Quelle: USA TODAY Sports/David Yeazell
For days, Florida police searched for two-year-old Taylen, who disappeared after an alleged murder of his mother. In a lake, officials now discovered an “alligator with an object in its mouth” – it’s the boy.
IIn a bizarre murder case, Florida police have recovered the body of a two-year-old child from an alligator’s mouth. The boy had been frantically searched for after his mother was found murdered in her home on Thursday. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said on Friday the child’s 21-year-old father was charged with double murder.
Search teams, including divers and officers with drones, had searched extensively for the missing child. A few kilometers from the apartment, an “alligator with an object in its mouth” was finally spotted in a lake. It was about the missing Taylen, “and we were able to recover Taylen’s body intact,” Holloway said. The alligator was euthanized.
The father was in the hospital with cuts on his hands and arms and refused to testify, the police chief said. “The father doesn’t talk to us.”
The 20-year-old mother was last seen around 5:20 p.m. local time on Wednesday. According to the police, neighbors in the residential complex noticed noise in the apartment around 8:30 p.m., but did not call the police. The next day, the woman’s mother called the property manager because she hadn’t heard from her daughter. As a result, as Holloway said, “a very violent crime scene” was found in the apartment with the body of the 20-year-old with many stab wounds.
Police didn’t say when Taylen was killed or if the alligator played a role. The suspect’s father appeared at his mother’s house around 9:00 p.m. with cut injuries. He then went to the hospital himself.
