Indianapolis man charged with murder, claimed baby taken
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indianapolis man who claimed strangers abducted his 6-week-old son was charged with the child's murder Wednesday after investigators found online searches related to abducted children on his phone and surveillance video contradicted his story, a prosecutor said.
Willie Wilson, 24, has been charged in connection with the death of Delano Wilson, whom the man reported missing Aug. 27, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said.
The child's body hasn't been found.
Internet searches related to child abductions and missing infants were conducted on Wilson's phone before the reported abduction, Curry said in a news release.
Wilson told police he was carrying Delano in his arms near his home when a car pulled up to him and a man and woman robbed him and took the child. However, surveillance video recorded one minute before his 911 call showed him walking by not carrying a child, Curry said.
Wilson reported he was punched in the mouth and pistol-whipped, but he had no visible injuries, Curry said.
Search dogs separately tracked Wilson's scent and that of Delano to the same wooded area on the city's near west side, the prosecutor said.
The child's mother, Taniasha Perkins, gave a statement to investigators shortly after the abduction saying Wilson's story didn't add up, according to a probable cause affidavit.
"I don't want to say Willie did it, but in the back of my mind I have a funny feeling, but this is not in his character, all he does is work," an investigator wrote in the affidavit.
Wilson was arrested Wednesday afternoon. Online court records did not show an attorney for him. His initial hearing hasn't been scheduled.
Lou Johnson, Delano's cousin, told The Indianapolis Star that she and the rest of the family were shocked by the arrest.
"We're hurt. We couldn't believe it," Johnson said. "It doesn't make any sense. It really doesn't. If it's true, we want to do something to him. If you did something to the baby, justice should be served. "
Johnson said Perkins was distraught.
"She lost her baby," Johnson said, "and she's about to lose the man that she loved."
The search for the missing child dominated local headlines for several days after the reported disappearance, with Perkins and other relatives giving television interviews pleading for Delano's safe return. Police issued an Amber Alert for the child but canceled it two days later.