2 year-old Taylen Mosley, has been missing since Thursday afternoon after his mother, Pashun Jeffery, 20, was discovered dead at their apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida. A state-wide Amber Alert was then issued. Pashun was brutally murdered on Wednesday night, with police describing a “very violent” murder scene, but her son was nowhere to be found.
The search for the missing toddler, which began after his mother was found murdered, has ended in tragedy, as Taylen Mosley was also discovered dead—clamped in an alligator’s jaws.
Detectives now believe that 21-year-old Thomas Mosley murdered his own child along with the boy’s mother, and he has been charged with the first-degree murder of both. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway told a press conference held on Friday night. “We are sorry it has had to end this way.”
Sniffer dogs, drones, and search teams had been deployed to try and find the missing child. Officers who had been searching Lake Maggiore a few miles away from his home spotted an alligator “with an object in its mouth,” the chief revealed.
Horrifyingly, they soon realized it was a toddler, and an officer fired a shot at the reptile, who dropped the body. “We were able to retrieve Taylen’s body intact,” the chief said. The alligator was later euthanized.
The cause of the death of Taylen Mosley has not been revealed, and it is unknown whether the alligator played a role in his death. According to NBC Miami, his mother had been stabbed multiple times.
Thomas Mosley is currently in the hospital with cuts on his hands and arms and “is not talking to us,” according to Holloway. Thomas Mosley’s injuries are unknown, and police have yet to reveal how they occurred.
According to NBC Miami, Jeffery was last seen alive with her son Taylen Mosley outside their Lincoln Shores apartment on 4th Street North around 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday. Neighbors later revealed that they heard a commotion at the home later that evening, around 8:30 p.m., but did not alert the authorities at that time.
Jeffery’s mother became concerned when she was unable to reach her daughter on Thursday, and asked the apartment’s manager to check on her and her grandson at around 2:30 p.m. That was when the alarm was raised and the search for the little boy began alongside a homicide investigation into the death of his mother.
The pair had reportedly only moved into the apartment complex about a month ago. Thomas Mosley is not believed to have lived there with them.
Mosley went to his mother’s house at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday with the cuts on his arms and hands, Holloway said, and he later admitted himself to a local hospital, where he remained as the search for his son continued.