A two-year-old’s father has been arrested over his death and a grandmother charged with aggravated manslaughter
Florida is reeling after two separate cases in the state allegedly saw children die at the hands of their caregivers, according to authorities.
In St Petersburg, the body of a two-year-old boy was found Friday in an alligator’s mouth a day after his mother was discovered murdered, prompting his father’s arrest.
Meanwhile, about 80 miles east in Hardee county, a woman is demanding that her mother be imprisoned after she reportedly left her daughter in a hot car, killing the girl.
A year earlier, the girl’s brother had drowned, reportedly while her grandmother was supposed to be watching him but took a nap instead, according to local reports.
Police investigating the St Petersburg case reported that two-year-old Taylen Mosley’s corpse was found in a lake in the jaws of an alligator after a search prompted by the discovery of his mother’s body in their apartment earlier in the week.
The search for Taylen Mosley involved dive teams and drones, and eventually culminated in officers spotting an alligator in a lake a few miles from the apartment where his mother, 20-year-old Pashun Jeffery, was found dead.
Officers noticed the alligator “with an object in its mouth” and soon realized that it was Taylen Mosley’s body, the Associated Press reported. They quickly fired shots at the alligator and “were able to retrieve Taylen’s body intact”, St Petersburg police chief Anthony Holloway said at a press conference, the Associated Press reported.
“We are sorry it has had to end this way,” Holloway told reporters on Friday.
