Missing Quinton Simon: Chatham County investigators search landfill
Georgia police officials said Tuesday they had reason to believe Quinton Simon's body was discarded in a "specific dumpster" and transported to a local landfill by "regular means."
Georgia mom Leilani Simon was allegedly high on drugs when she used an "object" to beat little Quinton Simon to death before she discarded his body in a dumpster, prosecutors charge.
Simon, 22, was arrested Nov. 21 when investigators found her 20-month-old son's remains in the Chatham County landfill after combing through the city's trash for weeks.
The 19-count indictment, handed down Wednesday, charges Simon with three counts of murder, concealing a death, making false statements and other alleged crimes.
Simon reported her son missing Oct. 5 from her Savannah home and initially suggested to police that he had been abducted by an intruder.
MISSING TODDLER QUINTON SIMON'S MOM ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH HIS MURDER
Leilani Simon, 22, (right) was charged with her son Quinton's murder Nov. 21, nearly two months after she had reported him missing. (Facebook/ Chatham County Detention Center)
A week into the investigation, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley announced at a press conference that authorities believed Quinton was dead, and Simon was the sole suspect.
Days later, the mother of three was spotted at a local bar with her mom and friends slamming Patrón shots. In a tearful interview with a local news outlet, she denied any involvement in her son's disappearance.
MISSING GEORGIA TODDLER MAY HAVE DROWNED IN POOL, BABYSITTER SAYS
The indictment offers new details about the disturbing killing. Simon allegedly used an unknown object to beat her son, which did "result in serious bodily injury" and "cause Quinton's death," the document says.
Police and the FBI conducted an exhaustive search of these dumpsters at the Azalea trailer park near Simon's home before his mother was arrested. (Facebook/Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
The Oct. 5 assault caused the toddler "cruel and excessive physical pain," according to the court papers.
That same morning, Simon allegedly traveled to Azalea Mobile Home Plaza and "discarded her son's remains in a dumpster," the indictment charges.
A map showing the distance from the Azalea Mobile Home Plaza dumpsters to the road Leilani Simon lived on. (Google maps)
She allegedly admitted to police she'd gone to the trash bins but falsely insisted that "all she had discarded was normal household garbage."
QUINTON SIMON: FBI INITIALLY FOCUSED ON SPECIFIC DUMPSTERS FOR MISSING TODDLER'S REMAINS
Fox News Digital exclusively reported in November that the FBI and police had focused on the dumpsters at the Azalea Mobile Home Plaza – about two miles from her home.
Azalea Mobile home park in Savannah, Georgia on Friday, October 28, 2022. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
Within 48 hours of Quinton's disappearance, more than a dozen police officers and FBI agents descended on the park, scouring the dumpsters for evidence and knocking on nearly every door, residents told Fox.
The indictment says that Simon met her drug dealer Oct. 4 and had "used controlled substances" before the killing.
Simon has been jailed since her arrest.
Leilani Simon, mother of Quinton Simon, posing for an undated photo. (Chatham County Police Department/ Facebook)
During a press conference Wednesday, Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones vowed to hold Simon accountable.
"It’s a matter that calls our very humanity into question," she said. "These are the cases that keep us up at night."
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Simon's attorney, Robert Attridge, did not immediately return a request for comment.
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