Couple's 6-Month-Old Baby Found Dead In Alabama Hotel Freezer, Foul Play Suspected

A Georgia couple was arrested and charged with the abuse of a corpse after authorities found their 6-month-old son stuffed in a hotel freezer.

Carlton James Mathis, 28, from Gainesville (pictured above), and Amanda Gail Oakes, 36, from Murrayville (below), were arrested Tuesday in Bronson, Florida, after an armed confrontation with police, according to the Dothan Police Department. Police said they expect murder charges for the couple after an autopsy is performed on their son, Carlton James Oakes, and police find out exactly how he died.

On June 1, Dothan police received info from the Hall County Sheriff's Department in Georgia about a possible dead baby incident involving Mathis and Oakes. The couple was potentially in the Dothan area and the infant might be dead somewhere in an apartment, police were told. After investigating, cops couldn't find the couple but learned they might be in Florida. Dothan cops contacted Florida authorities to let them know what was going on.

Florida deputies found the couple in Bronson. When they tried talking to Mathis outside of apartment complex, he pulled out a gun and tried to flee, police said. Mathis was shot four times by an Alachua County SWAT Team member, but he survived. He was transported to a hospital and held on a parole violation for a charge in Georgia, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Authorities interviewed Oakes and Mathis while they were in custody, and said they had been staying at a InTown Suites in Dothan. Cops found the baby's body in the freezer. It had been there for about five or six days, police said. Witnesses on the scene led police to believe Oakes and Mathis were responsible for putting the baby in there.

Police think the child died before he was put into the freezer, and they suspect foul play. Oakes and Mathis were each given $15,000 bonds.

[Photo: Dothan Police Department]