Police Detains Tyler Dasher's Mother on Suspicion of First-Degree Murder: Report
St. Louis police investigating the death of 13-month-old Tyler Dasher on Wednesday detained his 20-year-old mother Shelby A. Dasher just one day after the toddler's remains were found near the edge of the New St. Marcus Cemetery.
KSDK, a local NBC affiliate, has reported Shelby Dasher's detention is based on suspicion of first-degree murder. No charges have been filed in the case as of midday Wednesday, MSNBC reports.
Antoinette King, a St. Louis County jail booking clerk, has told the media that Shelby Dasher was taken into custody around 2:30 a.m.
Dasher is on a 24-hour hold, which is a form of detention meant to give authorities a day to build a case, accoridng to MSNBC. If police find no charges against the toddler's mother in that timeframe, they must let her go.
A police source told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that authorities believe the mother killed Tyler after she became very, very angry.
Reports are that Shelby Dasher had put her young son to be bed around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, overslept Tuesday morning and reported Tyler Dasher missing to police after she awoke to find him goen from his crib around 11 a.m., according to FOX2now in St. Louis.
There is no way to explain how this child got out of his crib, out of his room and out of the house, said Officer Rick Eckhard of the St. Louis County Police Department to the Post-Dispatch.
People walking a dog discovered Tyler Dasher's body around 3:30 p.m. CT, near the cemetery, about a mile from the family's home in the 7700 block of Clevedon Street in Affton, said St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch in his Tuesday night press conference.
The Post-Dispatch reported that the medical examiner could not immediately determine Tyler's cause of death, and Fitch declined to discuss the condition of the body at a news conference Tuesday.
Police said no further information would be released until the prosecutor had reviewed the case.
Investigators consider the case an abduction or apparent homicide, but they don't have a possible motive for the killing, Eckhard said in a written statement.
Fitch said Tyler's mother and father, who live separately, were cooperating with police.
It says to me it's a pretty sick person, Fitch said. Anybody that would take a child and leave a child in a wooded area in that condition needs to be dealt with severely by the criminal justice system.
Earlier Wednesday, police brought a handcuffed person whose identity was concealed by a sweat shirt to the scene where the body was found and to the house, according to sources.
KDSK reports that friends and family will hold a vigil and moment of silence in Tyler's honor Wednesday evening at the River Des Peres Greenway at Olde English Road and River Des Peres in Affton.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.