By Mark Woolsey
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Relatives of a 2-year-old boy found dead in a wooded area behind a Marietta apartment complex say they want justice and full accountability in the case.
The body of toddler Messiah Harris was found last Friday evening behind the Briggs at Powers Park apartments, several hours after the boy’s mother’s boyfriend reported him missing.
The twenty-three-year-old boyfriend is being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. He’s charged with making false statements about the case to a Cobb 9-1-1 dispatcher and to officers arriving on the scene. He’s also charged with concealing a death. Police say the boy’s body was placed in the woods and then covered loosely with leaves and vegetation.
The boyfriend also told police that he had seen the boy shortly before, at around 1:30 that afternoon. But authorities who found him deceased said his body had been there “for a considerable amount of time.”
The boyfriend had been watching the boy while the child’s mother was elsewhere.
Police add that charges could be upgraded.
At a news conference on Marietta square Wednesday morning the boy’s aunt said the family never imagined that something like this would happen. And that they were heartbroken.
Tiara Redding said “His life was precious. And his loss has left a hole in our hearts that can never be filled.” She described the toddler as “having the biggest smile and the brightest eyes,” and that he loved animals, especially dinosaurs.
She also said that a Go Fund Me account had been established to help defray expenses of the parents, so that they can focus on mourning Messiah’s loss and pursuing justice for the boy ”without the weight of daily stress.”
Several other family members also attended the event, some of them holding pictures of the toddler.
There’s no word at this point on the cause of death. Police continue to look into the circumstances surrounding the case, and the Cobb County Medical Examiner planned to perform an autopsy on the little boy.
Messiah Harris was to have turned 3 on August 22.