New court documents detailing the death of 2-month-old Kyon Jones provide a disturbing account from the infant’s mother.
Earlier this month, 37-year-old LaDonia Boggs stood by claims her son was missing and provided contradicting accounts of where he might be, but according to court documents, Boggs eventually told police she rolled on top of the infant while sleeping.
Upon realizing he was unresponsive, she “put him out in the dumpster.” Surveillance camera footage in an apartment complex showed her taking a plastic bag, cardboard box and a car seat to a dumpster. The box is described as being “large enough to carry a 2-month-old infant.”
Boggs told police she reacted out of panic and allegedly admitted she was under the influence of PCP at the time of the infant’s death and had been hallucinating — although she would walk that back in later accounts given to police, saying the last time she smoked PCP was a day or two before she rolled on top of her son.
Before confessing to police, Boggs allegedly told Kyon’s father a different story, claiming the infant was taken by child protective services. The child’s father then contacted the National Center for Children and Families.
Documents state that a social worker confirmed the infant was not in their custody and reported “concerns of a missing infant and the mother’s PCP use” to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency hotline.
Boggs has since been charged with murder and is currently out on bail, at no cost. She is scheduled back in court Nov. 19.
Timeline of events leading up to Boggs’ arrest
Court documents state that LaDonia Boggs, the mother of nearly 2-month-old Kyon Jones, called the baby’s father, who is not named, “on or about” Tuesday, May 4, asking him to come get the baby and to pack “all his stuff.” But the father didn’t go to the residence on Tuesday.
The father lived at a different location, but he would stay with Boggs at her apartment on-and-off.
On Wednesday, May 5, Boggs contacted the father again, saying the baby would be gone for a long time because D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), which she referred to as “CPS” (child protective services) took custody of their child.
The baby’s father received another call from Boggs the same day. This time she said the baby was gone. When the father asked where the baby was, Boggs hung up on him, according to court records.
Boggs then called him back and said “CPS” had taken the baby. A child in the background backed up Boggs’ story, the father said.
That same night, Wednesday, Boggs spent the evening at a hotel with the baby’s father. Boggs again gave him the false name of who at “CPS” allegedly took the baby. The name was Wanda Davis, a relative of the father’s.
While at the hotel, the baby’s father contacted Child and Family Services asking for additional information about the baby. The agency said they had not taken custody of the child.
On Thursday, May 6, the infant’s father called the National Center for Children and Families asking a social worker to look into the whereabouts of the child. NCCF would explain that CFSA had not taken custody of his son.
The father then called the Child and Family Services hotline with concerns about the missing infant and the mother’s use of PCP.
The same day, D.C. police responded to the mother’s home in the 1500 block of Benning Road in Northeast to conduct a welfare check. Boggs told police the baby did not live at that address, adding that no small children lived at the residence. The police then left.
Records would show, however, that at least eight people, including five children under the age of 18, lived at the apartment.
On Friday, May 7, Child and Family Services visited Boggs at her residence. Boggs said the infant had been removed by “CPS.” Child and Family Services checked their records and confirmed the infant had not been removed.
The Child and Family Services agent also spoke with Boggs’ children who were under the impression “CPS” removed the infant from the home, claiming that is what their mother told them.
Child and Family Services then called police to report a missing child.
When police arrived, Boggs told them a lady from “CPS” had taken custody of the infant, taking the baby’s car seat, clothes and formula away in a blue Toyota.
“The defendant also told [CFSA] and the police that a person who did not have badge took the decedent. … She gave varying accounts on when the decedent was removed, first saying it was during the nighttime and then saying it was daytime,” court records of police accounts stated.
“The Defendant reported that the ‘lady’ had gotten an anonymous call that the Defendant was using drugs and neglecting the child.”
Boggs gave an alleged name of the woman who turned out to be a relative of the father’s, who lived in Las Vegas.
The Youth and Family Services division of D.C. police also interviewed Boggs’ children on May 7. One child told police their mother, who appeared to be under the influence of some substance, said “CPS” took the baby.
The child said the last time they saw the baby awake was on Tuesday, May 4.
Boggs told police she did not have a phone number for the infant’s father, but then ultimately gave police his number. She said she hadn’t spoken to him “in a month.”
While the infant’s father told police he had been concerned about Boggs’ accelerated drug use, admitting he had used PCP with her recently, Boggs told police she had not been under the influence of “anything” and claimed she had been sober for a year.
At the police station on Friday, May 7, Boggs initially said she hadn’t seen her baby for several days because CPS’s Wanda Davis took custody of her child. She then added that the lady said the baby’s father told her to go to the house and take the baby.
Boggs said she gave the lady all of the baby’s belongings. She said the visit occurred at 11 p.m.
Boggs then told police she had not called the baby’s father to inform of the incident and that she hadn’t seen him all week. She said all of her children were outside playing when the alleged “CPS” woman visited.
Boggs then changed her story and told police she had given her baby to a different woman because she couldn’t cope with caring for the baby. Boggs said the woman was her godmother, but told police she had deleted the texts and contact information from the phone, when police asked for it.
Police contacted the alleged godmother who said she did not have the baby. At that point Boggs admitted that the woman was actually the paternal grandmother of one of her children and that she knew she didn’t have the child.
Then Boggs said she gave the baby to a friend who lived on Good Hope Road. She told police, “I didn’t want my baby because me and his father was going through whatever we was going through.”
But detectives said no one with the name Boggs gave them lived on Good Hope Road. When asked by police for the friend’s phone number, Boggs said she didn’t have it.
After giving police several stories, Boggs admitted she was in bed with the infant when she woke up and said he was no longer breathing.
Boggs then told police she wrapped the baby in a blue blanket and put him the trash dumpster, according to court documents.
She then suggested she rolled on top of her baby while sleeping. She also said she gave all the baby’s clothes to a neighbor with a similar aged infant, court records of police accounts stated.
Inconsistent versions of Boggs’ story continued. “Hours after her interview was completed, the Defendant contacted a homicide Detective and reported that she had given the decedent to one of the individuals she has previously named.”
On Saturday, May 8, Boggs contacted police and told them that the baby died in her house. According to Boggs, she was sleeping in the same bed with the baby and when she woke up “her stomach was on top of him.” She said she rolled off the baby, but he was no longer breathing.
She said she was on PCP at the time and had been hallucinating during the day.
On Sunday, May 9, Boggs gave an interview to a missing person’s activist saying she fell asleep with the baby on her chest, rolled over and the baby was unresponsive.
She said she went outside, came back in and the baby was still not breathing. Then she went for a walk around the block “a few times” and came back to check on the baby, who was still not breathing.
And that’s when, she said, she wrapped the baby in a blanket, got his car seat and disposed of the infant in the trash.
Boggs said she didn’t call the police or an ambulance at the time, saying she was afraid and panicked.
After reviewing surveillance footage of Boggs’ apartment complex, police said she was seen carrying an infant car seat, a plastic bag and a cardboard box.
“The Defendant was captured carrying these items through a door of the premises to the outside. Surveillance footage from the premises also captured the Defendant at the trash dumpster. Moments afterward, the Defendant was seen on surveillance footage reentering the building without any of the above described items.”
A Virginia law enforcement agency joined in the search for the baby at a landfill in Charles City County, Virginia.
The baby’s remains have not been located.
