MEMPHIS, TN - Memphis Police confirm the body of a child found in a Downtown Memphis dumpster is 3-year-old Maurice Brown, Jr. The child went missing Sunday night. His Father Maurice Brown, Sr. Is in jail on a million dollar bond, but not yet charged with murder.
Alexis Ford lives in the apartment complex on Allen and Butler. She was visibly shaken by the scene, "It made me feel bad because I just came out and brought some trash outside last night, it made me feel like I threw that trash on top the little boy."
Neighbors can't believe the search for the missing 3-year-old ended in their dumpster. Zachary Harris runs the complex, he didn't even know a child was missing, "A baby in there? That's the issue. The fact that the baby's dead and I had put garbage on top of him."
Memphis police began their search Sunday night. Police Director, Toney Armstrong says, "Officers responded to a call concerning a missing child... Officers met with the child's father, 28-year-old Maurice Brown, Sr."
According to police, Brown said he was asleep when his son went missing. Monday was a frantic day of searching for the toddler that lead to nothing except Maurice Brown, Sr., behind bars, charged with aggravated child neglect or endangerment. A gory affidavit reports pools of blood found inside the father's apartment on Pauline. Police received a break on Tuesday, during a systematic grid search.
Armstrong says, "An officer assigned to the South Main Station located the body of a small child inside the dumpster on Allen and Butler." Less than two miles from Brown's home.
The dumpster, with the toddler's body inside, was taken from the scene. Police won't say what happened or how he got there.
Neighbors had no idea until the swarm of police locked down their complex. Ford says, "I've never been this close to something like that and when I am it's a 3-year-old?"
Now, knowing the smell in the air was the body of Maurice Brown, Jr, it's too much for neighbors to bear. Ford held her nose, "It is making me sick to my stomach just to be honest."
Harris says if the father was involved in his son's murder, he should pay, "I don't know what he was thinking, but I know one thing, they should never let him out."
Armstrong says MPD will meet with the District Attorney General to discuss any additional charges against Maurice Brown, Sr.
One neighbor told abc24.com he saw a dark burgundy car go slowly by the dumpster around 7:30 Sunday night, the car lapped the block and returned, the second time pausing at the dumpster. Police towed Brown's car and brought it into evidence, a 2002 dark purple Toyota Camry.
