A father who falsely reported that his 2-year-old son was kidnapped last week has been named a person of interest in the boy’s disappearance, police confirmed Tuesday.
It’s been six days, and authorities don’t know what happened to J’Asiah Mitchell. He was last seen Wednesday night, when 23-year-old Artavious North told the child’s mother that their son was taken during an armed robbery in the Panthersville area. Police have found no evidence of such a crime, and North was arrested Thursday on charges of making false statements and false report of a crime.
Sweeps of a drained pond at North’s East Point apartment complex and at a Griffin landfill over the weekend yielded no clues.
East Point police have declined to release many details on their investigation, but Chief Shawn Buchanan told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution on Tuesday that they are chasing down leads. While investigators are hopeful the boy is being held somewhere, they are also looking into the possibility he won’t be found alive.
There “is a lot we are investigating,” he said.
Credit: DeKalb County Police Department
Credit: DeKalb County Police Department
J’Asiah’s mother, Asia Mitchell, has focused her efforts on finding her only child, organizing search parties and making round-the-clock pleas on social media for help in looking for the little boy. Searches have been conducted in East Point, Panthersville and downtown Atlanta, and police have also confirmed connections in Carrollton.
The significance of the downtown location is not clear.
“Everybody’s night is back to normal and here I am still crying and wondering where my baby is,” Mitchell wrote in a public Facebook post Sunday just before 3 a.m.
During a Facebook live stream late Friday night, she shared that she hasn’t been able to eat since J’Asiah’s disappearance. That came after a long day of searching the area around The Elite at Lakeview Apartments, where the boy was last seen. The complex’s retention pond was drained earlier that day.
“What I ate, I haven’t really been able to finish,” she said. “I just get a bite out of it and I just lose my appetite.”
The toddler was supposed to spend Wednesday night with his father, but North reportedly called Mitchell around 11:30 p.m. to tell her their son had been taken from his car while he was stopped near the intersection of Flat Shoals and Lloyd roads.
After hours of untangling the details of the alleged crime, DeKalb police determined no kidnapping or robbery occurred, and the investigation was handed over to East Point police.
“I’m exhausted. I’m sad,” Asia Mitchell said during the live stream. “I gotta go back to sleep tonight without my baby. Everybody trying to ask me if I’m OK. No, I’m not OK. I’m not gonna be OK until I see my baby again,” she added, choking back tears.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to raise money to help with search efforts.
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