Dallas authorities have found what could possibly be a murder weapon used in connection with the death of a 4-year-old boy.
According to CBS DFW, authorities searching inside the home of 4-year-old Cash Gernon found “a tissue paper in a bathroom that had blood drops on it. A small pocket knife was also located and seized.”
The discovery happened after Cash was found dead with multiple wounds, lying in the middle of a street in the Mountain Creek neighborhood of Dallas on May 15.
Police described the circumstances of the boy’s death as “unusual” and said that the boy died from violent injuries sustained from an “edged weapon.”
ABC 8 reports that the child’s caretaker, who was identified as Monica Sherrod (the girlfriend of the boy’s father), said Cash was a “happy-go-lucky” boy who had a twin brother.
Authorities on Saturday night arrested a man in connection with the boy’s death, identified as 18-year-old Darriynn Brown. He’s currently facing kidnapping and robbery charges, although authorities said charges will likely be upgraded after the official cause of death is released.
According to police, Brown lived around half a mile away from where the boy was found.
“Hard to believe. I don’t think he was in his right mind,” neighbor Jose Ramirez told ABC 8.
Neighbor Antwainese Square, 39, told Dallas Morning News that she was jogging when she discovered Cash’s body.
“I noticed the baby had ants at the bottom of his feet. So I knew he was deceased then,” Square said. “It was heart-wrenching because this baby could have been no more than 5.”
The boy’s face and upper part of his body were covered in blood, and he didn’t have a shirt or any shoes on.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the boy’s father, who was not named, has not been in the home since March, police said, and they don’t know where he is.
The arrest affidavit did not describe Brown’s relationship with Cash or his family, and Sherrod told ABC 8 that Brown had no relationship with the boy. But Kameron Mori, 18 — who lives at the home where Cash lived — told ABC 8 he was Cash’s brother and that his other brother, a teen, had been friends with the suspect.
“That was my brother. I don’t care if nobody told me he wasn’t,” Mori said. “He was.”
“There’s not a reason for none of this. It’s not from revenge. Not from hate. Not from none of that. Nothing. To get back at us? Nothing.”
Brown’s mother, who identified herself as Mimi Brown, told the Morning News that her son had been home all weekend.
“I think that 4-year-old boy was killed at them people’s home and I believe someone had transportation, like a car or truck, and transported his body to the body site,” she said.
Neighbors, however, told CBD DFW that Brown was known as a troublemaker in the neighborhood.
“This guy here is on NextDoor where he’s busted into cars, ring doorbells, he threatened other people’s lives,” said neighbor Joe Bubel. “People are asking, why didn’t the police pursue that? That’s just his side of the story. I don’t know the other side of the story.”
Meanwhile, Cash’s twin brother, who was not named, was taken from Sherrod’s home by state authorities, she said. Dallas police said the boy was now with his biological mother, Melinda Seagroves, and grandmother, Connie Ward, who had been searching for the boys for some time.
Seagroves had believed the twins were with their father and had no idea he had left them with Sherrod. Authorities continue to search for the child’s father.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Cash Gernon/Facebook]
