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EAST POINT, Ga. (TCD) — Investigators searching for a missing 2-year-old boy discovered a toddler’s body at a garbage site Wednesday, though the child has not been positively identified yet.
J’Asiah Mitchell was reported missing to the DeKalb County Police Department on Aug. 17 after he was allegedly kidnapped the night before at approximately 11:23 p.m. Police said he was last seen wearing Buzz Lightyear pajamas.
About 12 hours after posting the missing person alert, police said the investigation “revealed that a kidnapping did not occur in DeKalb County,” and they were “working through inconsistencies in the reporting of the alleged kidnapping.” DeKalb County Police officers arrested Mitchell’s father, Artavious North, that night on charges of false statements and false report of a crime.
According to WAGA-TV, North allegedly told police he was leaving his apartment when armed robbers approached him and kidnapped the little boy.
Police argued there was “no armed robbery nor kidnapping in DeKalb County.”
At a news briefing, East Point Police Chief Shawn Buchanan said North’s family members “have tried to talk to him, and they are pleading with him, ‘Tell the truth.'”
Buchanan said North was “not being cooperative.”
Investigators reportedly drained a pond near North’s apartment complex while searching for Mitchell, but he was not there.
WXIA-TV reports East Point Police announced officials located a body at the East Point Transfer Station, a garbage facility, Wednesday afternoon. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took custody of the body to conduct an autopsy and identify the child.
East Point Police said in a statement, “We have not confirmed the identity of the child J’Asiah Mitchell; however, there is high probability based on the circumstances surrounding this case.”
Police named North as a suspect “because he was the last person seen with the child.”
Buchanan described North as being “elusive in his stories and very deceiving.”
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