Body of missing Florida toddler found in alligator’s jaws after search
- Two-year-old Taylen Mosley was subject of a frantic search after his mother was found murdered in their flat earlier this week
- Police also charged Mosley’s father with murder in the killing of his wife, but declined to reveal if the reptile played any role in the boy’s death
The body of a two-year-old Florida boy who had been the subject of a frantic search after his mother was slain was found on Friday in a lake in the jaws of an alligator, police said.
St. Petersburg police chief Anthony Holloway also said the boy’s father, 21-year-old Thomas Mosley, will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of the boy’s mother, 20-year-old Pashun Jeffery, and their young son Taylen Mosley.
Searchers, including dive teams and officers using drones, had been intensely looking for the boy since his mother’s body was discovered in their flat earlier this week and he was nowhere to be found.
“We are sorry it has had to end this way,” Holloway said during a Friday night news conference.
Officers searching for the toddler at a lake a few kilometres from the apartment complex noticed an alligator “with an object in its mouth” that they quickly realised was a child’s body, Holloway said. They fired shots at the reptile, which dropped the body.
“We were able to retrieve Taylen’s body intact,” the chief said. The alligator was euthanised.