Missing Missouri Baby: Tyler Dasher's Mother Charged With Murder (VIDEO)
Tyler Dasher, a missing 1-year-old boy, was found dead near St. Louis County cemetery only hours after he was reported missing by his mother. Now, the same woman that reported him missing, Shelby Dasher, has been charged with his murder.
Only 16 hours after Dasher told police she had discovered her son was missing from his crib on Tuesday morning, the 20-year-old single parent was arrested for his murder. Upon her arrest, Dasher admitted to repeatedly hitting her son.
Bob McCulloch, a St. Louis County prosecutor, said at a news conference that Dasher hit her son because “the baby was crying, the baby wouldn’t lay down, wouldn’t go back to sleep.”
The medical examiner reported the cause of death as trauma to the head but McCulloch declined to give further details on the death. However, McCulloch said that Dasher admitted to disposing of her son’s body.
Dasher is being charged with second-degree murder.
Prosecutors say Dasher stayed out late Monday night and got angry when her son woke her up early Tuesday morning.
Two women walking their dogs near the New St. Marcus Cemetery in St. Louis found the body of the 13-month-old toddler at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
The toddler's body was discovered just blocks away from the home he shared with his mother and maternal grandmother.
Following the discovery of the body, St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch said at a news conference, “It says to me it’s a pretty sick person.”
“Anyone that would take a child into a wooded area like this needs to be dealt with severely by the justice system,” he added.
The boy’s father, 24-year-old Joe Ellington, does not live with Dasher. Ellington’s parents were appointed as the boy’s co-guardians by a St. Louis County Circus County judge this past April because Ellington was deemed incapacitated or disabled.
Friends and neighbors close to the family expressed shocked and disbelief at the news.
Tyah Mangum told the Associated Press, “Everything she does is revolved around Tyler.”
“I really don’t believe that Shelby Dasher did anything to her child,” Mangum said.
