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Parents of missing 2-year-old arrested after toddler's body found under Huey P. Long bridge
Onterio Thompson and Gabrielle Whittington, both 21, were arrested and booked with improper disposal of remains and obstruction of justice Thursday July 7, Jefferson Parish arrest records said. The couple, whose 2-year-old son was reported missing by a relative, was arrested after the badly-decomposed body of a toddler was found buried inside of a garbage bag underneath the Huey P. Long bridge in Elmwood.
The parents of a 2-year-old boy reported missing by his grandmother have been arrested after the body of a toddler was found buried in a garbage bag under the Huey P. Long bridge in Elmwood, according to Jefferson Parish Correctional Center records.
Gabrielle Whittington and Onterio Thompson, both 21, of St. Tammany Parish, were booked Thursday (July 7) with unlawful disposal of human remains and obstruction of justice. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office did not comment on the investigation Thursday.
Autopsy inconclusive on toddler found buried under bridge
Autopsy inconclusive on toddler found buried under bridge
The Jefferson Parish coroner's office has not positively identified the badly decomposed remains, but authorities believe the toddler is the missing 2-year-old son of Whittington and Thompson.
"This was a circumstantial identification," Jefferson Parish Deputy Coroner Granville Morse said. "Circumstantially, things point towards it being him."
An autopsy was performed Thursday morning, but authorities have not yet determined how the toddler died.
"The body was badly decomposed so there was no obvious, identifiable cause of death," said Morse, who estimated the toddler was in the ground for at least two weeks.
The missing 2-year-old's grandmother contacted the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office Tuesday evening and asked authorities to conduct a welfare check on the boy, according to Capt. Daniel Seuzeneau, spokesman for the department. She hadn't seen the child in several weeks.
Deputies couldn't find the boy in St. Tammany Parish. They contacted the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office because the boy's parents had recently moved from Marrero.
Jefferson Parish detectives questioned Whittington and Thompson on Wednesday. Investigators then recovered the toddler's body about 8 p.m. on east bank batture of the Mississippi River underneath the Huey P. Long bridge, JPSO Spokesman Col. John Fortunato said.
The toddler's body was inside of a plastic white garbage bag, buried in a shallow grave in the thick and muddy brush of the river batture, according to Morse. Authorities did not say how they located the body. But Morse noted it was highly unlikely that anyone would have stumbled upon the well-hidden grave on his or her own.
Neighbors near Whittington and Thompson's house in the 2100 block of Constantine Drive in Marrero said Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office investigators arrived at the house around 11 a.m. on Wednesday. They searched the residence for several hours, leaving around 3 a.m.
Neighbors didn't know much about the family, but some noted they seemed to have moved away about two weeks ago. Whittington and Thompson was being held without bond Thursday evening at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna.
The coroner's office will likely use DNA to positively identify the toddler's remains, a process that will take a few weeks. Pathologist will continue to try to determine just how the toddler died.
"It's tragic that a child was left in a garbage bag," Morse said
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Update:Bond Set
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