Inset: Messiah Harris (Marietta police). Background: The apartment complex in Marietta, Georgia, where Messiah went missing and was tragically discovered dead (WSB/YouTube).
In a heart-wrenching case, a Georgia man stands accused of concealing the body of a two-year-old boy in a wooded area behind their apartment complex and later falsely reporting him as missing after a significant delay.
The suspect, 23-year-old Dairon Keith, faces charges for both concealing the death of another individual and providing false statements to law enforcement in relation to the tragic demise of Messiah Harris, according to an email from Marietta police received by Law&Crime.
Keith, identified as the boyfriend of Messiah’s mother, alerted authorities to the child’s disappearance around 2 p.m. on Friday from their apartment located on 8 Ridge Run. He alleged that Messiah was last seen approximately half an hour before making the 911 call. Unfortunately, Messiah’s lifeless body was discovered by police nearly five hours later, hidden behind the apartment complex.
Investigators reported that Keith allegedly gave conflicting accounts that raised suspicions of deceit. He is accused of transporting Messiah’s body into the wooded area behind the complex, where he attempted to conceal it under soil and loose vegetation.
“Preliminary indications are that his body had been in the woods for a considerable amount of time,” cops wrote.
A medical examiner is conducting an autopsy that will determine a cause and manner of death that could lead to additional charges. Cops did not mention Messiah’s mother in the press release.
Officers arrested Keith and took him to the Cobb County Jail, where he is being held without bond. His next court date is not listed.
Messiah was just weeks away from his third birthday. He lived in the apartment complex with his mother, her boyfriend and other siblings, next-door neighbor Matt Ducre told local ABC affiliate WSB. Ducre said he remembered last seeing Messiah in Keith’s arms.
“He was holding him and saying he was fixing to be three,” Ducre said.
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