A missing toddler has died after being found in the jaws of an alligator after his mother was found murdered in their apartment.
Taylen Mosley, two, had been declared missing after his mother, Pashun Jeffery, 20, was found stabbed to death in her home on Thursday after a trail of blood was seen leading from her car.
Police had been hunting for the two-year-old since 2:30 PM on Thursday, but tragically found his body in the alligator's mouth on Friday evening around 10 miles away from his mother's home, per Daily Mail.
St. Petersburg police Chief Anthony Holloway said officers were investigating the area of Dell Holmes Park when the alligator was seen with "an object in its mouth" in Lake Maggiore.
The alligator was shot dead by police, causing it to drop Mosley's body. It is currently unknown how the child died and whether he was alive when he entered the water, and the case has been referred to the medical examiner after his body was retrieved.
Chief Holloway added: "We didn’t want to find him this way, but at least we can bring some closure to that family now. We are sorry that it had to end this way."
The child's father, Thomas Mosley, 21, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, for his son and for Jeffery, who died from "multiple stab wounds".
He had immediately been named a person of interest after he checked himself into a local hospital with "cuts to his hands into his arms", per The New York Post.
An Amber Alert had been put out for the toddler and a large volunteer search was assembled after Mosley checked in to the hospital without him, leading to concerns the child was in danger.
Dive teams were deployed in nearby retention ponds before moving 14 miles north of the mother and son's home, where his body was eventually found.
The pair had last been seen on Wednesday at around 5:30 PM and Jeffery's mother had requested a welfare check the following day after she was unable to contact her.
Neighbors reported hearing a loud commotion near Jeffery's apartment at around 8:30 PM but police were not called. Mosley turned up at his mother's house allegedly covered in cuts a short while later.
Jeffery was found dead the following day after her mother called for the apartment manager to perform a welfare check after she missed their daily FaceTime call and she was found dead by an employee.
Her apartment door was reportedly locked when the employee arrived and Chief Holloway described the scene within as "very violent".
Jeffery and her son had recently moved in to the apartment according to WGXA, and the boy had celebrated his second birthday just 19 days before he was tragically found dead.
Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.
