A missing two-year-old boy — whose mother was found murdered in the family’s apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida, earlier this week — was found dead Friday in the mouth of an alligator. The boy’s father was arrested on suspicion of murder.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said at a press conference on Friday evening that Tylen Mosley’s body was found in a crocodile’s mouth in a recreational area.
Holloway said detectives were searching the area around Holmes Park alternative on Friday afternoon when they “spotted an alligator with an object in its mouth.”
“When the investigators got close, they fired a single shot at the crocodile,” Mosley said. “The crocodile dropped the thing it had in its mouth and we were able to recover Taylin’s body intact.”
Holloway said the boy’s father, 21-year-old Thomas Mosley, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of 20-year-old Passion Jeffrey and their son Tylen Mosley.
The exact cause of Tylen’s death remains unknown, Holloway said, adding that Jeffrey was found stabbed multiple times.
Family members were last seen by Jeffrey and her son at around 5:20pm on Wednesday. Police said later, around 8:30 p.m., neighbors heard a loud bang near their apartment but the police were not called.
The next day, Jeffrey’s mother calls the apartment complex’s property manager after not hearing from her daughter. That’s when they found her dead.
The FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement joined local authorities in the search for Mosley, which included diving teams searching the area’s dotted lagoons, as well as drones searching the net.
Thomas Moseley went to his mother’s house around 9 p.m. Wednesday with injuries to his arms and hands, Holloway said, and then admitted himself to a local hospital.
Family members said Jeffrey and Tylen just moved into the apartment complex about a month ago.
