Authorities in Alabama have arrested a woman whose infant son is presumed dead months after he vanished without a trace.
Kahleb Collins, 1, was last seen in Winfield, Ala., on Sept. 4, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) said on Dec. 17. His disappearance had not come to light until a car crash that killed his father and 2-year-old sibling earlier this month.
He was not reported missing to authorities, who were alerted about his disappearance only following a Dec. 8 car crash which killed his father Steven Bradley Collins, 40, and 2-year-old sister RyLeigh Collins, the Fayette County Sheriff’s office said at the time.
His mother, 22-year-old Wendy Jean Bailey, was hospitalized in critical condition following the crash. On Monday, Dec. 30, Alabama authorities announced several charges against her, including abuse of a corpse, aggravated child abuse, domestic violence, and criminally negligent homicide.
The homicide charge is related to the death of RyLeigh, who was allegedly not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
Kahleb’s grandfather John Elton Bailey is also under arrest for allegedly failing to report the child missing, the sheriff’s office previously told PEOPLE.
Authorities have not announced a cause of death for Steven and RyLeigh. An Alabama Uniform Traffic Crash Report previously stated that Steven had been driving the car at twice the speed limit before the crash and no one in the car had their seatbelts on, WBMA, AL.com and WBRC reported.
The announcement of Kahleb’s presumed death makes official what investigators had previously suspected.
Investigators alleged in a complaint against John Bailey that the child likely “suffered serious bodily harm or death” and was believed to have been “removed from the home and taken to an unknown location.”
Now, the sheriff’s office says they believe Kahleb “had been deceased for some time” before the Dec. 8 crash brought his disappearance to the attention of law enforcement.
His body has not been found, per the sheriff’s office, and a search is underway to recover his remains.
A neighbor previously told WWMT that while they knew the couple had a son, they never saw him. The parents told the neighbor — and documented on social media — that Kahleb was sick, PEOPLE previously reported.
In a Facebook post shared two months after Kahleb’s disappearance, Steven wrote about the child being ill with a “long road to recovery.”
“He is not growing and has major back issues. His organs are growing but not his body,” Steven wrote, adding that the child would need surgery at some point.
“Keep him in your prayers. Been rough and just seems going to be a long rough tough road ahead of us,” he wrote.
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It wasn’t immediately clear if Wendy has entered pleas or retained an attorney to speak on her behalf.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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