A 2-year-old boy who had been missing since his mother was found dead in their St. Petersburg, Florida, apartment earlier this week was found dead in an alligator’s mouth on Friday. The boy’s dad has been taken into custody on suspicion of killing the boy.
Taylen Mosley’s body was found in an alligator’s mouth in a park, said St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway at a news conference on Friday night.
Friday afternoon, as detectives searched the area around Dell Holmes Park, they “saw an alligator with something in its mouth,” Holloway said.
Mosley said, “As the detectives got closer, they fired one shot at the alligator.” “The alligator dropped the thing he was holding, and we were able to get Taylen’s body back without any damage.”
Thomas Mosley, the boy’s 21-year-old father, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Pashun Jeffery, 20, and their son Taylen Mosley.
Holloway said that the exact cause of Taylen’s death is still unknown. He also said that Jeffery was found stabbed several times.
Family members last saw Jeffery and her son on Wednesday at 5:20 p.m. Later, around 8:30 p.m., neighbors heard a loud noise near their apartment, but they didn’t call the police.
The next day, Jeffery’s mother called the manager of the apartment complex where her daughter lived because she hadn’t heard from her. They found her dead at that time.
The FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement worked with local police to look for Mosley. Dive teams looked in the many lakes in the area, and drones searched in a grid pattern.
Holloway said that around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Thomas Mosley went to his mother’s house with cuts on his arms and hands. He then went to a nearby hospital and checked himself in.
Family members said that Jeffery and Taylen had just moved into the apartment complex about a month ago.
