Missing Boy Taylen Mosley Found Dead in Alligator's Mouth, Father Arrested

The hunt for a missing toddler sparked when his mother was found murdered has ended in further tragedy as the little boy was also found dead—clamped in an alligator's jaws.

A search for 2-year-old Taylen Mosley was launched on Thursday afternoon with a state-wide Amber Alert issued after the body of his mother Pashun Jeffery, 20, was discovered at their apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida. She had been brutally killed on Wednesday night, with police describing a "very violent" murder scene, but there was no sign of her son.

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." He also extended his condolences to the pair's family.

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 shot the reptile in order to retrieve the body. "We were able to retrieve Taylen's body intact," the chief said.

The cause of death for Taylen has not yet been revealed and it remains unclear whether the alligator played a role in his passing. Jeffery had been repeatedly stabbed, according to local news channel NBC Miami.

Thomas Mosley is currently hospitalized with cuts on his hands and arms and "is not talking to us," Holloway said. It is unclear how Mosley sustained the injuries, with police not yet revealing how they occurred.

Jeffery, who worked at a CVS store according to NBC Miami, was last seen alive with her son outside their Lincoln Shores apartment on 4th Street North at around 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday. Neighbors subsequently revealed they heard a commotion at the home later that evening, at 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.

St. Petersburg Police spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez told Newsweek on Saturday: "The detectives and officers of the St. Petersburg Police Department worked tirelessly on this case. The Department would like to thank all of the agencies that assisted in this investigation... Chief Holloway would also like all of the many volunteers who planned to join us Saturday morning searching for Taylen. Unfortunately, their assistance is no longer needed."

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), some 600,000 people go missing in the U.S. every year.

Sadly, many of those missing people are very young. While some searches end happily when the children are found safe and well, such as the case of six missing siblings who were found in Tennessee last March, others end in tragedy, such as the hunt for missing Athena Brownfield.

Update 4/1/22 12:00 p.m. EDT: This article was updated to include a comment from St. Petersburg Police spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez.