It was an arduous, multiday search for a missing 6-month-old that left a family and community in anguish, wondering what could have happened.
From the beginning, Clayton County police investigators said they knew something wasn’t right about a father’s story that his young son had been kidnapped by robbers. On Tuesday night, they found what they feared all along: baby Nnakai Pratt’s lifeless body.
Less than 24 hours after the horrific discovery, the boy’s father, Antonio Pearce, was charged with murder, court records revealed.
Since Sunday morning, authorities had worked tirelessly to locate the child. Police said the baby was eventually discovered in the backyard of a home on Green Valley Road, which is near the apartment complex where Pearce reported the kidnapping.
A more detailed report about the child’s death should be available later this week, medical examiner’s office director Brian Byars told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.
Pearce, 38, was initially arrested Monday on unrelated charges, and a new charge of making false statements was added Tuesday, according to jail records. During a first appearance hearing Wednesday morning, a judge explained that the charge was tied to the baby’s disappearance.
“You did provide contradictory statements in an investigation of a missing child, and when witness accounts verified your contradictory statements, you admitted to concealing and falsifying material facts,” the judge told Pearce.
It was only after that hearing, during which Pearce was denied bond, that more charges were filed. In addition to murder, court records show Pearce faces charges of concealing the death of another, unlawful disposal of a human body, tampering with evidence, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, first-degree cruelty to children and false report of a crime.
The earlier charges were possession of marijuana, driving on a suspended or revoked license and a child restraint violation, according to police and jail records.
Nnakai’s mother’s role in the incident is under investigation, police said Wednesday. The boy’s twin sister, who was said to have been in the mother’s care, has been placed in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services.
Officials have not said when they believe Nnakai died, but officers were called to the apartment complex at 100 Valley Hill Road just outside Riverdale shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday.
There, Pearce reported the robbery and kidnapping at gunpoint, according to police. He told officers that unknown suspects stole his valuables and took his son from his car seat carrier, then left the scene, police said.
On Monday afternoon, police issued a statement saying they considered Pearce a suspect.
Bloodhound tracking dogs from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, as well as cadaver dogs, were used in the search. Multiple search warrants were also served.
Pearce has another pending case out of Clayton. He pleaded not guilty in May to charges of family violence simple battery, simple battery and trespass damage, court records show.
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