A body of a child was found during search for a 2-year-old girl who went missing from an apartment complex’s playground while her mother was cooking.
Police are waiting to learn whether the remains discovered in Brays Bayou was that of the child who had been reported missing by her family.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said authorities suspect foul play was involved and are approaching the case as a murder investigation.
Acevedo said that there is a high chance that the body found during the search was that of the missing girl named Maliyah Bass.
It was a jogger who discovered the body about 17 miles away from the family’s home.
Maliyah was last seen at the apartment complex playground wearing a black tank top with matching pants and blue shoes, according to KTRK.
The 2-year-old girl’s mother Sahara Erving and boyfriend Travion Thompson were inside the flat when the child disappeared.
The next day, a jogger found the body in the bayou and contacted 911.
According to KPRC2, the body was pulled out of the water the Houston Fire Department water rescue team and sent to a medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
In an interview with KRPC, the grieving mother said: “It’s my best friend. I’m so sorry…they should have took me.”
Her boyfriend, Thompson, added: “It takes a little mistake…in a blink of an eye my baby was gone. And I feel like it’s my fault because I wasn’t watching her at the park. I was sitting playing a game.”
Chief Acevedo has vowed to capture the culprits and said during a press briefing: “We’re going to catch them. We’re going to find them, and we’re going to charge them.”
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