A man is in custody for the disappearance of Leila Cavett, the 21-year-old missing woman from Georgia whose toddler was found wandering in a South Florida complex parking lot alone last month.
What We Know:
- Cavett, originally from Georgia, was last seen on July 25th outside a Hollywood, Florida Walmart parking lot. Her son Kamydn, 2, was found barefoot in a t-shirt and soiled diapers in a Miramar complex parking lot a couple of miles from the store. The child’s image sparked a national search for anyone who recognized the little boy and could help authorities locate his family. Cavett was still breastfeeding the child and had not mentioned that she was traveling out of town or that she had plans to drive down to Florida, according to her family.
- According to the criminal complaint filed on Monday by FBI Special Agent Samuel Band, Shannon Demar Ryan, 38, was charged with kidnapping and two counts of lying to a federal officer. The suspect, a self-proclaimed witch doctor, posted an hour-long video on Aug. 9th to Facebook claiming he helped support Cavett when she was homeless, that he was being set up, and that she drove to Florida to sell him her white truck.
- Detectives said Ryan told them he met Cavett at a Hollywood RaceTrac gas station to buy the truck for $3,000. Before completing the sale, he took Cavett and her son to the beach and out to eat. Ryan alleges that when they returned back to the gas station, he saw Cavett get into a black sedan with several black men and never heard from her again after that.
- Ryan also used another person’s debit card at Walmart, where Cavett was last spotted alive. Receipts and the video surveillance footage confirm that Ryan purchased “Hefty Strong 39 Gallon Extra Large Trash Drawstring Bags and two boxes of Extra Strength Carpet Odor Eliminator,” said Band in the complaint. The suspect returned 15 minutes later to the same store and “purchased a roll of Advanced Strength Duct Tape”. They also have surveillance video of a vehicle consistent with Ryan’s car, a gold Lexus that’s missing the front bumper, directly in front of the apartment complex where the abandoned toddler was found.
- A police warrant for Ryan’s iPhone showed Google searches for: “What day does commercial garbage pickup for Hollywood, Florida?” and “Does bleach and alcohol make chloroform?” Chloroform is a substance commonly used to incapacitate victims and make them unconscious.
- An employee from the gas station told detectives he recognized Ryan and saw him using the gas station’s dumpster. Another employee said they found women’s clothes and children’s toys in the same dumpster on July 26th, according to the criminal complaint.
- Authorities found Cavett’s white mid-to-late 90s Silverado 3500 pickup truck three days after she went missing with no signs of the mother. There were small red droplets of a red substance and a shovel recovered from the vehicle.
Ryan has a detention hearing scheduled for Friday. The FBI and local South Florida law enforcement have asked anyone with information about Leila Cavett to contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
