LaShanda Wilder and Martonio Wilder and the home where they lived in Columbus, Ohio. Cops claim she murdered him. (Mug shot: Franklin County Jail; image of Martonio: Columbus Division of Police; screenshot of home: WBNS)
The search for a missing Ohio boy ended in tragedy after his mother allegedly stalled law enforcement efforts and abruptly left the home with her lover on Friday evening, Columbus police said in reports from local NBC affiliate WCMH and CBS affiliate WBNS. Cops said they obtained a search warrant and looked in the attic where they found Martonio Wilder, 8, dead in a trash bag and sleeping bag.
His mother, LaShanda Delores Wilder, 32, and her lover, Johnna Lowe, 33, turned themselves into officers the following afternoon, cops said.
Both are charged with obstruction of justice, but only the mother faces a count of murder. The coroner determined that Martonio died of a homicide and had sustained “deep neck compression.”
Authorities did not suggest a motive.
“How could you, when you got all us out here looking for him. They got drones, they looking, they looking and the whole time he dead?” defendant Wilder’s own aunt, Rachelle Knight, said in a WBNS report.
Martonio’s disappearance was reported Friday afternoon at the home in the 1000 block of Olmstead Avenue. His mother allegedly claimed he was last seen between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. when he was put to bed.
Cops searched the residence to no avail and yet when they brought a cadaver dog to check out the residence, Wilder allegedly became “uncooperative” and did not want the canine inside. She left with Lowe and two other kids.
Johnna Lowe. (Mug shot: Columbia Division of Police)
Officers at around 6:20 p.m. found the body hidden in a trash bag and sleeping bag cover in the home’s attic.
After an Amber Alert, officers found the two kids with Lowe’s mother, but no sign of the suspect couple.
Now that LasShanda Wilder and Lowe are in custody, their arraignment is set for Monday.
“Martonio was a bright kid. All he wanted was to be loved,” Knight reportedly said. “He wanted to be loved.”
More Law&Crime coverage: Mom and her 16-year-old ‘boyfriend’ killed her 4-year-old daughter, police say
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