Police have released the cause of death of theFlorida toddler who was found dead inside the jaws of an alligatorearlier this month.
St. Petersburg police sayTaylen Mosley, 2, died of drowning after his father, Thomas Mosley, allegedly killed the boy’s mother and then took him to Lake Maggiore, where he allegedly threw or placed the boy into the water,WTTAreported Monday.
The toddler’s death came just weeks after he celebrated his second birthday, leaving the family heartbroken.
“We’ve had to prepare funeral arrangements the last two days and it’s so very, very difficult to bury one [person]. But then to turn around and bury two — a mother and a son — you can’t even realize the pain,” Theo Brickhouse-Sails, Taylen’s great aunt,told PEOPLErecently.
Taylen Mosley.St. Petersburg Police Department/Facebook
Records from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office show Mosley, 21, pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial for two first-degree murder charges.
Fox 13reportedthat Mosley was at Jeffrey’s apartment in late March for his 21st birthday party. Family and friends left shortly after 5 pm and about three hours later, authorities say his phone was pinged at Lake Maggiore.
Mosley, who is now being held without bond, had checked himself into the local St. Anthony’s hospital. He received surgery and treatment for wounds investigators say are consistent with slippage from the act of stabbing, according to the Fox 13 report.
Pashun Jeffrey.St. Petersburg Police Department
Brickhouse-Sails, the boy’s great aunt, told PEOPLE she spoke with Jeffrey three-to-four times a day and became worried when she hadn’t heard from her niece. Brickhouse-Sails then went to Jeffrey’s apartment, where she and a maintenance man found her niece’s body and realized Taylen was missing.
“My heart wanted Taylen to be somewhere safe,” Brickhouse-Sails said. “But my mind was afraid because I knew his mother had been killed.”
The next day, authorities said they found Taylen’s body in the mouth of an alligator.
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The family has organized aGoFundMeto help cover costs resulting from Taylen and his mother Pashun’s murder, including the funeral.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
