LaShanda Wilder and Martonio Wilder and the house they lived in in Columbus, Ohio. Police say she murdered him. (Police photo: Franklin County Jail; Martonio’s photo: Columbus Division of Police; House screenshot: WBNS)
The search for a missing Ohio boy ended in tragedy after his mother allegedly blocked law enforcement efforts and abruptly left the house with her lover Friday night, Columbus police said in reports from local NBC affiliate WCMH and CBS affiliate WBNS. Police said they obtained a search warrant and checked the attic, where they found 8-year-old Martonio Wilder dead in a garbage bag and sleeping bag.
His mother, LaShanda Delores Wilder, 32, and her lover, Johnna Lowe, 33, turned themselves in to police the following afternoon, police said.
Both are charged with obstruction of justice, but only the mother is charged with murder. The medical examiner determined that Martonio died by homicide and suffered “deep neck compression.”
Authorities did not provide any information about the motive.
“How could you do that when we’re all out here looking for him? They have drones, they’re searching and searching and the whole time he’s dead?” defendant Wilder’s aunt, Rachelle Knight, said in a WBNS report.
Martonio’s disappearance was reported Friday afternoon at his home in the 1000 block of Olmstead Avenue. His mother reportedly claimed he was last seen between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. when he was put to bed.
Police searched the house to no avail, but when they brought a cadaver dog to search the house, Wilder was reportedly “uncooperative” and would not let the dog into the house. She left the house with Lowe and two other children.
Johnna Lowe. (Mugshot: Columbia Division of Police)
At around 6:20 p.m., officers found the body hidden in a garbage bag and sleeping bag cover in the attic of the house.
After an Amber Alert, officers found the two children with Lowe’s mother, but there was no trace of the suspicious couple.
With Las Shanda Wilder and Lowe now in custody, their arraignment is scheduled for Monday.
“Martonio was a smart boy. He just wanted to be loved,” Knight is said to have said. “He wanted to be loved.”
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