The Columbus Division of Police announced early Friday that 5-year-old Darnell Taylor has been found d*ead.
Moments before the 7 a.m. press conference was scheduled to start, the Ohio Attorney General announced a statewide Amber Alert for the boy had been canceled.
Police said in the press conference that the body of Taylor was found in a sewage drain in the 1000 block of Marsdale Avenue in Columbus shortly after 1 a.m. on Friday.
The custodial mother and suspect in the case, Pammy Maye, 48, was taken into custody at a business in the 4000 block of Tiedeman Road in Brooklyn.
Police said they received a 911 call from a business in the area reporting a woman, later confirmed to be Maye, wandering around suspiciously. Maye was “described as being distraught and crying,” and was not wearing shoes, reads a Friday afternoon update from Brooklyn police Lt. Cindy Eschweiler.
Maye refused to give her name to the 911 caller or dispatcher. She asked workers there to contact her husband, but he could not be reached, according to a police report released Friday.
Officers dispatched just after 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, confirmed her identity and arrested her. She was transported to a local hospital for medical attention, according to the release.
Maye then told officers where to find Taylor’s body, as reported by FOX 8 sister station NBC4.
“It is not the resolution we had hoped for and we extend our condolences to the family of Darnell Taylor,” Eschweiler wrote. “The Brooklyn Police Department will continue to work in cooperation with members of the Columbus Police Department with this investigation.”
Police said the case is now a homicide investigation. Maye is expected to be returned to Franklin County to face a mu*rder charge, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said Friday.
Police had been searching for Taylor and Maye since Wednesday. Police feared the boy could be in grave danger.
The Jeep Maye was believed to be driving was found in the parking lot of a Brooklyn apartment complex a few hours after the Amber Alert was issued. The vehicle was about 150 miles from the home in Columbus where the situation first began.
On Friday morning, FOX 8 News cameras spotted police back on the scene near the Brooklyn apartment complex.
On Wednesday, Maye’s husband called 911 shortly before 3 a.m.
According to FOX 8’s sister station, NBC4 in Columbus, an affidavit filed with Franklin County Municipal Court details the call. According to the court document, the man told a 911 operator that his wife, Pammy Maye, said she killed the child. Maye allegedly said the boy was no longer alive and had not been seen since Monday or Tuesday.
The document said while he was on the phone with dispatchers, Maye tried to cover her husband’s mouth while telling him she had a plan, WCMH reported.
Police said during that 911 call, Maye fled their Columbus house.
Police asked Greater Cleveland residents — especially those living in Brooklyn and along Memphis Avenue and in Linndale and along West 117th Street — to try to recall if they saw her Jeep SUV between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
The Columbus police tip line is 614-645-2228.
