Taylen Mosley, a 2-year-old boy who went missing on Wednesday, was found dead on Friday in the jaws of an alligator near his family’s apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The child Mosley’s mother Pashun Jeffrey was also found dead inside her apartment after she sustained stab wounds, CBS 12 reported.
The boy’s father, 21-year-old Thomas Mosley, is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder, police said.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said officers “spotted an alligator with an object in its mouth” as they were searching for Taylen near Dell Holmes Park.
“As the detectives got closer they fired one round to the alligator,” Holloway said at a press conference on Friday. “The alligator dropped the object that he had in his mouth and we were able to retrieve Taylen’s body intact.”
Neighbors told police that they heard a loud commotion near the family’s apartment around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, CBS News reported. However, police were not called at that time.
Jeffery’s mother contacted the apartment complex property manager the next day after not hearing from her daughter.
The FBI joined the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and local authorities, along with dive teams, to look for Taylen. That’s when they found the 2-year-old in the mouth of an alligator in a recreation area near his home.
Taylen’s exact cause of death is not determined.
Holloway said Thomas Mosley went to his mother’s house around 9 p.m. on Wednesday with cuts on his arms and hands, then admitted himself to a local hospital.
