A couple has been denied bond in Warren County after a missing child case turned deadly.
According to the Vicksburg Daily News, Brooke Kathleen Mallett, 25 and John-Duke Walker, 22, have been charged with murder in the case and have been denied bond by a local judge after a three-year-old was found dead in a pond.
Details were confusing early in the case, but Sheriff Martin Pace told the VDN that a county resident called 911 around 9:30 a.m. Friday to say there was a 5-year-old special needs child at her home who appeared to be lost. When police got there, they found that the child was nonverbal and couldn’t communicate with police.
Police found the child’s mother, who they said was asleep and didn’t know the child was missing. As they investigated they found that a 3-year-old child was also missing.
A search was launched and every available resource was employed, authorities said. The missing 3-year-old was found unresponsive in a nearby pond, and rescuers attempted CPR until the paramedics got there.
The child was pronounced dead by Coroner Doug Huskey.
Details of the child’s cause of death have not been released.
