Lashanda Wilder didn’t want a cadaver dog in her house and left no evidence. Police later found her nine-year-old son’s body in a garbage bag in the attic, a detective claims in court documents.
Columbus Police: Missing 9-year-old who triggered Amber Alert found dead
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant confirms that 9-year-old Martonio Wilder was found dead on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Shahid Meighan/Columbus Dispatch)
Columbus police are searching for two women accused of murdering a 9-year-old girl who was reported missing in the Milo-Grogan neighborhood on Friday.
Lashanda D. Wilder, 32, of the Near East Side, is charged with murder and obstruction of justice, and Johnna Sloma-Marie Lowe, 31, of the North Side, is charged in Franklin County Municipal Court with obstruction of justice in connection with the death of Wilder’s son, Martonio. Police say they found what they believe to be the body of the 9-year-old at the family’s home in the 1000 block of Olmstead Avenue on Friday afternoon.
Police Chief Elaine Bryant said at a news conference late Friday night that police do not know how Martonio Wilder died and will await the results of an autopsy by the Franklin County coroner. Investigators are treating the death as suspicious, she said.
Late Saturday afternoon, police announced that the medical examiner had ruled Martonio’s death a homicide and charged Wilder with murder.
Bryant said Wilder called police shortly after noon Friday to report that Martonio, who police initially incorrectly said was 8 years old, had been missing since about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. She said her son had previously been wandering around the neighborhood. She told police he was last seen near Olmstead and St. Clair avenues.
Police responded to the Wilders’ home and used drones and a helicopter to search the area for the missing boy. When police brought a cadaver dog to search the house, Wilder was uncooperative and would not let the dog into the house, a detective alleged in court documents.
While the dog was searching, Wilder, Lowe and Wilder’s two other children, King Wilder, 3, and Mikhael Simon, 9, left the house and went to Lowe’s home in the 900 block of East 18th Avenue, the detective alleges in court documents. Wilder and Lowe left the children there with Lowe’s mother and then each went off on their own. Police and relatives tried unsuccessfully to reach Wilder and found her phone was turned off.
On Friday afternoon, police released Martonio as missing. Due to his age, he was classified as “endangered missing” by the missing persons office.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the Wilder family’s home and found Martonio’s body in the attic Friday afternoon, hidden in a plastic garbage bag in a “bivouac cover,” according to court documents.
Columbus Amber Alert lifted for missing boys; mother still sought
According to Columbus Police Sergeant James Fuqua, an Amber Alert has been lifted for two boys, ages 3 and 9, after they were found safe and sound on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Shahid Meighan/Columbus Dispatch)
Columbus police issued a wide-area alert late Friday afternoon, which Delaware County and other police agencies later repeated, reporting that Lashanda Wilder was wanted as a suspect in murder.
However, at the press conference late Friday night, police said Wilder was a suspect and not a murder suspect, but acknowledged that anyone standing near a person in a suspicious death could be considered a suspect. Police said they would review the wanted notice identifying them as suspects.
An Amber alert for “child abduction” was issued for the other two boys at 9:07 p.m. Friday, saying they may be with their mother. At 9:30 p.m., Columbus police Sergeant James Fuqua held a brief press conference to report that the two children had been found.
Meanwhile, police were still searching for Wilder late Saturday afternoon. The wanted notice described her as a black woman, 5’7″ tall, weighing 220 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
According to the Amber Alert, Wilder was last seen wearing a red hat, black T-shirt, black pants and red slippers, but Chief Bryant told reporters late Friday night that she did not know what Wilder was wearing.
Police also have no information about what vehicle she may have been driving, Bryant said.
Court records describe Lowe as a black woman, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 135 pounds, with brown hair.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about Martonio’s death or the whereabouts of Wilder or Lowe, who they say are suspects, to call the Columbus Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).
Dispatch writer Nathaniel Shuda contributed to this report.
@ShahidMeighan
