The search for a missing child in Florida came to a tragic end Friday night when the boy's body was found inside the mouth of an alligator.
This is a 2-year-old boy identified as Taylen Mosley, who had been declared missing in St. Petersburg, Florida.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway told a news conference late Friday that the body was found in the jaws of an alligator in Lake Maggiore, south of the city.
Holloway said police officers investigating the case noticed that the animal had something in its jaws and that when they approached they realized that it was the body of a minor.
Officers fired a bullet at the alligator, killing it and forcing it to drop the boy's body, though police said it's still unclear how he died or if he was dead before ending up in the lake.
Local media said Saturday that no details of the child's death are known and that the victim's father is hospitalized and faces two counts of homicide.
Police had been searching for Taylen since 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, when they found her mother Pashun Jeffery, 20, dead from "multiple stab wounds" inside her apartment after following a trail of blood from her vehicle. Her son, the 2-year-old, was reported missing.
Thomas Mosley, Taylen's father, went to the local hospital with "cuts on his hands and arms." He is now suspected of two murders.
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