Missing Toddler Found Dead in Louisiana Garbage Can

A missing Louisiana toddler was found dead in a duffel bag stuffed into a garbage can on Tuesday, and the 2-year-old’s mother and her live-in boyfriend face murder charges in his death.

On Wednesday, Houma police released still images from surveillance video showing Maya Jones and Jermaine Robinson leaving their home carrying what appeared to be the same black duffel and returning back home at about 5 a.m. without the duffel, WGNO reported.

They were arrested after Ezekiel Harry’s body was found at about 6 p.m.

Harry was reported missing around noon on Tuesday. After the missing persons reported, Houma police said they received a call that the boy may have been abducted.

When police contacted the boy’s mother, she said she had been out walking with her children when someone in a gray truck grabbed the boy and sped off. Houma police investigators determined that the story was “inaccurate.”

Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joseph Waitz Jr said that Harry had been the subject of abuse before.

“We are aware of abusive patterns in the past involving this young child,” he said. “Some of the stuff that early on investigations show, just shocks the conscious, that this type of abuse would go on.”

Waitz said that prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty in the case but would consider “the wants and the desires of the family” in making that decision.

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[Featured image: Ezekiel Harry/Houma Police Department via WGNO]