ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Searchers combed the area around a Florida apartment complex Friday for a missing 2-year-old boy whose mother was found slain in their apartment, police said.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said the boy’s father, 21-year-old Thomas Mosley, is considered a “person of interest” in the killing of the mother, 20-year-old Pashun Jeffery.
But the father is hospitalized with cuts on his hands and arms, Holloway said — and 2-year-old Taylen Mosley is nowhere to be found. The police chief said Thomas Mosley, who has not been charged with a crime, is not cooperating with investigators as he recovers.
“We are going to continue to search throughout our city. Our goal is to find Taylen,” Holloway said at a news conference Friday at the apartment complex where Jeffery died. “The father is not talking to us.”
The FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement have joined local authorities in the search, which includes dive teams looking in lakes that dot the area as well as drones doing a grid search.
“We want to make sure we check everything in this area,” Holloway said. “This is all hands on deck.”
Jeffery and her son were last seen by family members around 5:20 p.m. Wednesday. Police say later, around 8:30 p.m., neighbors heard a loud commotion near their apartment but police were not called.
The next day, Jeffery’s mother contacted the apartment complex property manager after not hearing from her daughter. That’s when they found her dead in what Holloway described as “a very violent crime scene.” Police have not revealed how Jeffery was killed.
Thomas Mosley went to his mother’s house about 9 p.m. Wednesday with the cuts on his arms and hands, Holloway said, and then admitted himself to a local hospital.
A search including neighbors and other volunteers is being organized for Saturday if the boy is not found by then. The boy is described as Black, with black hair and brown eyes, about 2 feet (0.6 meters) tall and weighing about 30 pounds (13 kilograms).
Family members said Jeffery and Taylen had just moved into the apartment complex about a month ago.
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