COLUMBUS, Ohio — The suspect in last week’s statewide AMBER Alert was booked in a northeast Ohio jail Sunday and charged in connection to the death of a 5-year-old boy.
A press secretary for Cuyahoga County said 48-year-old Pammy Maye is charged with murder, kidnapping and child endangerment. She is now in Cuyahoga County Jail after authorities recovered the body of Darnell Taylor in a sewage drain near southwest Columbus on Friday.
What happened?
An AMBER Alert was issued for Taylor on Feb. 14 after police received a call that he may have been harmed. The call came out of a home in the 900 block of Reeb Avenue around 3 a.m. An AMBER Alert was issued later that morning.
During a press conference held Thursday, Columbus police played a 911 call from a man claiming that his wife told him that "she had just killed our foster child." A woman could be heard screaming throughout part of the call. Police identified the woman as Maye.
The man later said on the 911 call that his wife left the home. Authorities were searching for a Jeep Cherokee that Maye reportedly drove away in. They later found it in Brooklyn, Ohio.
Just before 9:40 p.m. on Thursday, the Brooklyn Police Department was called to a business on Tiedman Road after receiving a report of a woman walking suspiciously around the building. Officers identified the woman as Maye and took her into custody without incident.
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said she was taken to a hospital in the Cleveland area for medical treatment.
Detectives interviewed Maye, where they learned that Darnell’s body may have been in a sewage drain on Marsdale Avenue in Franklin County. Authorities responded to that area on Friday and found Taylor’s body.
On Sunday, Maye was booked at the Cuyahoga County Jail.
Bryant said police will work with the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office to charge Maye with murder and extradite her back to Franklin County.
10TV is awaiting information on her extradition hearing in Cuyahoga County.