COLUMBUS, Ohio — Authorities are investigating after police found a body they believe is an 8-year-old boy who was one of three brothers reported missing in Columbus on Friday. The two other boys have since been safely located.
Around noon on Friday, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said 32-year-old LaShanda Wilder called police to report her 8-year-old son, Martonio Wilder, had been missing since Thursday night.
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Police and community members then began a search for Martonio, Bryant said.
Around 9 p.m. Friday evening, an AMBER Alert was issued for Martonio's two young siblings and LaShanda. The two siblings were safely located a short time later at a home with a family member of a friend of LaShanda's.
Bryant said that at an unspecified time, a body believed to be Martonio was recovered at the home LaShanda called police to on Friday afternoon.
Police are treating this as a suspicious death but could not say how the boy died.
Arrest warrants were issued for LaShanda and her girlfriend, 33-year-old Johnna Lowe, who are both charged with obstruction of justice.
Detectives and family members tried to reach both women with no success.
LaShanda and Lowe left during the active investigation and have not called detectives to explain their disappearance or ask about the investigation, court records say.
Anyone with information regarding this incident or the whereabouts of the two women is asked to call the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at (614) 645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at (614) 461-8477 (TIPS).
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