Georgia Infant Found Dead In Woods; Father Arrested On Unrelated Charges

After the body of a 2-week-old baby girl, Caliyah McNabb, was found in a duffel bag in the woods near Eagle Point trailer park in Covington, Georgia, on Sunday, the father of the infant — who was out on probation — was arrested after an unsuccessful attempt to flee, on unrelated charges.

Chris McNabb, the father of the deceased baby, has been named as a person of interest in the case of infant’s death, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He jumped out of his girlfriend’s car and fled on foot before being caught by the police around 8 p.m. local time (12 p.m. EDT).

Chris is currently being held on a probation violation charge in Bartow County. The dead body is being autopsied to determine an official cause of death. The mother is presently not being considered a suspect.

Caliyah was born premature on Sept. 23 and weighed only about five pounds. The parents had reported they had last seen their infant at 5 a.m. local time on Sunday (9 p.m. EDT Saturday) when they had fed and changed her diapers. However, five hours later, when the couple went to check on their baby, she was nowhere to be seen, according to Newton County Sheriff's Capt. Keith Crum.

"I want my kid back, man. That's my child, man. I want my kid!" Chris had said at the time. The parents had been interrogated by the police, following the incident and released without any charges since they voluntarily went to the station to give their statement.

“Fifteen-day-old child obviously didn't leave by themselves," Crum said at the time, local news outlet WSB-TV reported. "It started out as a missing child, but we treat it as a potential homicide, kidnapping.”

Following the report by the parents, the police canvassed the area and used a search dog to track the baby's scent to about a mile away from the trailer park before rounding back. Volunteer search crews were also deployed to help scan the area for any signs of the missing child.

"I'm trying to take care of my kids and my mind is wrapped around what happened could this have happened," Megan Sorrells, Caliyah's aunt, said in a statement after her niece went missing, NBC affiliate 11 Alive reported. "I went through this house and tore this house to pieces. Dirty clothes, cabinets, refrigerators, freezers, toilets ... I even climbed up under this trailer because I finally got to thinking the worst has happened to this little girl."

"I looked in all these garbage cans," Sorrells said. "You shouldn't have to go to a garbage can to find a baby. I know this is crazy but I mean, it's just crazy to think someone came in this house in the middle of the night and took her. It's getting harder because I really hoped to hear something. I was hoping she would be found."

"She was so tiny. So innocent,” Tim Bell, Caliyah's grandfather, said. "She's just a little baby. Stuff like this ain't supposed to happen.”