Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Authorities Searching For Missing Mom After Toddler Son Found 'Wandering Alone' In Soiled Diaper
Leila Cavett has no known ties to Florida, where the boy was located, family members said.
Authorities in Florida are searching for the missing mother of a toddler who was found alone in a parking lot wearing only a T-shirt and a soiled diaper.
Miramar police said the young boy was found “wandering alone” near the 1860 block of SW 68th Ave. on Sunday but there was no sign of the toddler’s mother, according to a statement on social media.
After canvassing the area and putting a plea on social media to identify the boy, authorities identified his mother as Leila Cavett — a woman who had been living in Georgia and had no known ties to the Florida area.
“It’s not out of character for her to go places, but it’s definitely out of character for her to be in Florida," her sister Gina Lewis told local station WTVJ. "We’re in Alabama, she lives in Georgia. If it’s not those two states, we don’t understand why she would be here, for sure.”
Her family and investigators are now trying to determine what brought Cavett to the area, where she is now, and why her son — who family members have identified as 2-year-old Kamdyn — was left alone near a parking lot of an apartment complex.
Ebony Williams, a resident of the apartment complex, told the local station she spotted the toddler after returning from the store just before 9 a.m. Sunday morning.
“I heard him crying when I got out of the truck, but when I approached him, he wasn’t crying anymore,” she said.
She tried to help the 2-year-old find his family.
“I asked him, you know, ‘Where is your mommy?' And he kind of just pointed, kind of like everywhere. And I reached out my hand, and he grabbed my hand and I just walked around the complex hoping that I would find somebody looking for him,” she told local station WPLG.
After she was unable to find anyone who seemed to be looking for the young boy, Williams called police, who later posted a photo of the boy on social media in hopes of discovering his identity.
Lewis told the station the images eventually reached her family in Alabama.
“Someone sent it to my sister and they sent it to me and I said 100 percent that’s Kamdyn, but the question is why are they in Florida,” she said.
Police have said Cavett was last seen driving a mid-to-late 90s Chevy Silverado 3500, with a red or maroon tailgate and a “Baby on Board” sign in the passenger window.
Police said in an update online that they were concerned for the young mom’s “safety and well-being” as the investigation into her disappearance continues.
Cavett’s sister, Tyuania, said on Facebook that it is believed her sister was last seen sometime on Sunday.
Cavett’s sisters told the media on Tuesday that they had last spoken to their sister on July 17. She never mentioned anything at the time about traveling to Florida and her family does not know why she would have been in the area or left her child behind, according to The Miami Herald.
Although Cavett had been living in Georgia at the time she disappeared, she also has connections to Alabama's Walker County and used to live there, Carl Carpenter, an investigator with the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, told the Daily Mountain Eagle.
Cavett had previously been arrested on drug charges in Cordova in September and also received two traffic tickets in October, according to the local paper. Her license was suspended in March after she failed to appear in court for the traffic violations.
Anyone with information about the missing mom’s current whereabouts is urged to contact authorities.
