Two-year-old Taylen Mosley was discovered dead inside an alligator’s mouth in St. Petersburg, Florida on Friday, a day after he went missing on Thursday, March 30.
Police in St. Petersburg began searching for the missing boy after learning that his mother, Pashun Jeffery, 20, had been found dead in her apartment from multiple stab wounds.
The boy’s father has been arrested for the murder of his son and the child’s mother.
According to the arrest report, the mother, Jeffery, hosted a party for the boy’s father, Thomas Mosley, on Wednesday at her Lincoln Shores apartment. She and her son were last seen at the party.
Mosley allegedly went to the lake with his son after the party, Wednesday night, and threw him in the lake before showing up at Jeffery’s house by himself around nine o’clock at night with severe cuts on his arms and stabbed her.
Jeffery’s family members went to check on her on Thursday around 2:30 p.m. after becoming concerned when they couldn’t reach her. They discovered the woman’s body in her home with over a hundred stabbing wounds and no sign of the boy or his father.
After issuing an Amber Alert for the toddler, police used a helicopter and drones to conduct a large-scale search.
Police officers responded after someone reported seeing what appeared to be a body inside an alligator’s mouth. They shot the beast in Lake Maggiore, causing the alligator to release the boy’s body.
According to police, the child’s body was intact, and it was unknown how the boy died before ending up in the alligator’s mouth. The medical examiner will determine the cause of the boy’s death.
Police have charged Thomas Mosley with two counts of first-degree murder, and he is currently being held without bond.