Justice for Quinton Simon

When almost 2 year old Quinton Simon goes missing from his bed, authorities hit the ground running to try to find the little boy.....but after talking to his mother, Leilani, they realized her stories weren't adding up........Could the very person who was suppose to protect this little boy be responsible for his disappearance?

Episode Transcript

(00:39):
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The Victim's
Voice. I am your host, Lorelai.
Today's case is out of West Savannah, GA, and it's the case
of Quinton Simon. Let's go ahead and dive right
in. Diana McCarthy got up around
5:00 AM every morning, not only to get her teenage daughter off

(00:59):
to school, but to also wait for her neighbors, Leilani Simon and
Leilani's boyfriend Danny Youngkin to drop their kids off.
She had been babysitting for thecouple for a little over six
months. They had three young children, a
three-year old named Zane, a 20 month old named Quinton, and a
six month old little girl named Sky.

(01:21):
Diana had met the young couple through a lady at church who
used to babysit the kids, but she could no longer do it due to
health problems, so she asked Diana about taking the job.
Diana loved watching kids and itwould be really convenient since
she lived right across the road.Leilani, Danny and their three
kids actually lived in the home of Billy Joel Howe and Thomas

(01:45):
Howe, Leilani's mother and stepfather.
Also living there was Leilani's adult brother Paul.
Leilani, Danny, Paul and the kids had the house to themselves
most of the time since Billy, Joe and Thomas worked out of
town. When Diana had first started
watching the kids, it was just the two boys, Quinton and Zane.

(02:06):
Then after Leilani had Sky, she started watching her also.
She didn't charge the couple much, only $30 a day for all
three kids, and they were there every day Monday through Friday,
like clockwork, by 6:00 AM and would stay until four or five in
the afternoon while Leilani and Danny work together at a
warehouse. And even if Leilani and Danny

(02:28):
weren't working that day, they would still bring the kids to
Diana's. Diana said there would be times
that she had the kids when Leilani was supposed to be at
work but wasn't. Diana and the kids would go
outside and glance over at Leilani's house and see her out
on the porch smoking. When Diana looked her way, she
would duck down behind somethinghoping not to be seen because

(02:51):
God forbid she had to take care of her own kids.
Sometimes the kids would stay the night with Diana and her
daughters, especially Quentin. Diana and her daughters had a
special place in their hearts for the almost 2 year old.
So on the morning of October 5thof 2022 when she got a text from
Danny at 5:29 AM saying that thekids were staying home with

(03:15):
Leilani that day, Diana thought it was strange, but she went on
about her morning. Then around 9:00 AM as she and
her oldest daughter were drivingback home from getting
breakfast, she received another text from Danny.
This message was asking if she had Quentin.
Instead of texting back, Diana called Danny to see what the

(03:37):
hell he was talking about, and that's when he told her that
Quentin was missing. She and her daughter rushed to
Leilani and Danny's home to helpthem look for the little boy.
They frantically ran into the house, but when they got inside,
they stopped dead in their tracks.
Leilani and Danny were just standing around, hanging out
like nothing was wrong. Leilani was smoking a cigarette

(04:01):
and Danny was just standing there.
There was no sense of urgency, no frantically searching for the
one year old, nothing. When Diane offered to help them
look for Quentin, telling them that he liked to hide in closets
and cabinets when he was at her house, they told her they had
already looked and that they didn't need her help.

(04:22):
That's when Diana found out thatthey hadn't even called the
police yet, and so she told themthat they needed to do that.
So they called. Well, Danny called.
Danny had sent the text to Dianaat 9:00 AM and the 911 call
didn't come in until 9:42 AM. At least 42 minutes had passed

(04:44):
since they had noticed that Quinton was missing and nothing
had been done. Danny seemed very calm on the
911 call, just as calm as he waswhen Diana had gotten to the
house. But Leilani, she was no longer
calm. You could hear her in the
background of the call screamingthat her son was missing and for
them to help find her baby. Her whole demeanor had changed.

(05:09):
Danny told the dispatcher that he was at work when his
girlfriend called him and told him that her 20 month old son
was missing. He said that she had woken up
around 9:00 that morning and herthree-year old son and nine
month old daughter were there, but Quentin was nowhere to be
found. Units were immediately
dispatched to the home at 535 Buckhalter Road to talk to the

(05:31):
hysterical mother to find out what exactly had happened.
Leilani, Danny, Diana and Leilani's brother Paul were
standing outside when the officers arrived.
At that point, Diana took littleZane and went back to her house.
Leilani told officers that when she woke up at 9, she noticed
Quinton was gone and that the door that led outside from their

(05:53):
part of the house was open. When they talked to Danny, he
stated that the last time he hadseen Quentin was around six that
morning when he left for work. So what could have happened to
Quentin in that three hour period?
It was boots on the ground when it came to finding the little
boy. Search parties were immediately

(06:13):
formed and everyone was looking for missing Quentin Simon.
The agencies involved included the Savannah Police Mounted
Patrol, a Liberty County Sheriff's Office K9 team, a
Mosquito control helicopter, andwithin three hours of being
called, the FBI was in Chattin County.

(06:34):
Buckhalter Rd. was shut down fora while and neighbors joined in
the search. They checked people, sheds,
garages, yards and any wooded areas around the neighborhood.
They searched and searched that whole first day but came up
empty handed. While everyone was searching,
investigators talked to Leilani.They wanted to get her statement

(06:56):
and also go over the previous day's events.
Leilani told them that the day before, on October 4th, the kids
had gone to the babysitter whileshe and Danny went to work.
They clocked out after being there for only a couple of
hours. Because Leilani was having
really bad tooth pain, they wereable to get her into an
emergency dentist where they ended up pulling a wisdom tooth

(07:20):
right then. After leaving the dentist, they
went back home, getting there ataround 1:30 or 2:00 PM.
Danny called Diana and told her that Leilani was still a little
loopy from the meds the dentist had given her and that she was
going to try to sleep for a little bit while he cleaned up
the house. So we asked her if they could

(07:40):
pick up the kids at the normal time around 430.
Diana told him that would be fine.
So after doing whatever they were doing, Leilani said they
went and got the kids and came home.
She said they made dinner, gave the kids bath and then they went
to bed just like any other normal evening.

(08:01):
She said that Danny had gone to bed before she did and that she
was in bed by midnight. They asked Leilani about any
drug use, to which she replied that she smoked marijuana and
that Danny drank about a six pack of beer a day, but that was
it. It may not seem like it because
of how much the media covers it when it happens, but child

(08:24):
abduction by a stranger is very rare.
Usually when a child goes missing, it involves a parent or
someone close to the child. Because of this, investigators
spent no time at all obtaining search warrants for phones,
tablets, and any other digital devices that was in the home.
Once they started looking into Leilani's phone, red flags

(08:46):
started going off and they realized that she might not have
told them the entire truth of what had happened the night
before, so they asked her to come into the station and talk
to them. They asked Leilani if there was
any chance that maybe her mouth was hurting and she had left the
night before to get something for the paint.
Knowing that they wouldn't ask that if they didn't know she had

(09:08):
left at some point, Leilani offered up the information that
she had met with a friend at theChevron station up the road from
her house. This friend, who she said was
named Misty, gave her some Oreo gel for her dental pain.
The detective asked her what time that was and she said that

(09:28):
she was back home by 1:25 AM. However, this wasn't the trip
that they were talking about. They then told her that they had
found a text message in her phone at 10:40 PM from her to
Danny that said she was heading to Two O 4.
Leilani then suddenly rememberedthat she had gone to the drug
dealer to pay back a $20 debt that Danny owed for getting a

(09:52):
front on some weed. She said Danny was awake when
she left and that Quinton had just stopped all of his crying
and had gone to sleep. The detectives in Leilani then
go back and forth on what is considered crying and then asked
Leilani why she hadn't told him about leaving the house when
they had asked her earlier. She started crying and said that

(10:13):
she had just forgotten and didn't think it was a big deal.
She said she had been replaying the day and night over and over
and she was just stressed out. She then swore that all of her
kids were home by 4:30 PM on the4th and went nowhere else.
But now instead of saying that she had also stayed home and

(10:33):
went to bed at midnight, she wassaying that she made two and
only two runs. That was the run to two O 4 to
pay the $20 and then later to get Ora Gel from her friend.
This Ora gel details she gave tothem accidentally and they would
definitely be checking into it. They also talked to Danny that

(10:56):
day. They hadn't found much on his
phone that was helpful to them regarding Quentin's
disappearance. It showed that he had been home
the night before until he left alittle before 6 that morning for
work. They know Danny said that he had
seen Quentin that morning, so they wanted to ask him about it
in more detail, but were shockedwhen Danny admitted that he

(11:18):
didn't actually see Quentin thatmorning.
Danny had said on the 911 call that he had seen Quentin before
he went to work at around 6:00 AM, but when he thought about it
later, he realized that he didn't actually see him.
He had just assumed that he was in his pack and play.
This means that the three hour window that detectives thought

(11:40):
Quentin had disappeared in was actually a much bigger window.
They also asked Danny about the text to Diana that morning and
why the kids didn't go to the babysitter like they normally
did. He said that he was frustrated
that Leilani wouldn't get up andgo to work, so he decided if she
was going to stay home then she could watch the kids instead of

(12:03):
paying a babysitter. Investigators believed Danny's
story and everything he said wascorroborated.
On Thursday, October 6th, Jeff Hadley, the police chief for
Savannah Police Department held a press conference.
Hadley stated quote, this remains a missing child

(12:24):
investigation. At this time there was no
evidence pointing to abduction or foul play, but everything is
on the table. End Quote.
When a reporter asked about the family and if they were
cooperating, Hadley said yes andat that point they were victims
also. It was also on this day that

(12:45):
Quinton's grandparents, Billy Joe and Thomas, did an interview
for the local news. In tears, Billy Joe said that
all they wanted was to find their baby safe.
Then what she said next shocked everyone.
She said that she had legal custody of Quinton and his
brother Zane and that Leilani didn't always do the right

(13:05):
thing. That sometimes she did great,
but other times she didn't. Then she said she wasn't sure if
she could trust her or not. That left everyone wondering,
was Leilani a grieving mother whose son had been abducted from
right under her nose? Or did something more nefarious
happen? Investigators decided to take a

(13:29):
look into the family at 535 Buckalter Road, and what they
found was that everything wasn'tsunshine and rainbows in the
home. Apparently, about a year before
Quentin's disappearance, Billie Joe was awarded legal custody of
Leilani's sons, Zane and Quinton.
Skye hadn't been born yet. Leilani had voluntarily signed

(13:51):
her rights over to her mom in order to work on getting her
life together, or so she says. But even though Billie Joe had
custody of the boys, she still left them with Daniel Leilani
when she and her husband were out of town, which was all the
time. So I'm not sure what the point
of her taking custody was when she wasn't even there to make

(14:14):
sure the babies were taken care of and protected.
Obviously there was a reason shethought she needed to have
custody, so she should be held responsible.
Also, if it was found that Leilani was responsible for
whatever happened to Quentin, investigators also found out
that Leilani lied to them when she said that she only smoked

(14:36):
weed. They found that she had a long
history with substance abuse. Her preference was cocaine, but
she was also known to take Percocet into smoke meth.
They also found that on September 7th of 2022, right
around a month before Quentin died, the police had been called

(14:56):
to the house on Buckhalter Road by Leilani over a dispute
between her and her mom. The fight was over, of all
things, the washing machine. Billy Joe wanted to use it, but
Leilani had her clothes in it soit turned into a knock down drag
out fight. I think the washing machine was

(15:17):
just the icing on the cake. Nobody gets that mad over a
washing machine unless they werealready having issues, which
seems to be the case. Billy Joe and Leilani had not
been getting along for a while and Billy Joe had asked her and
Danny to leave the house severaltimes.
Leilani told the officers that Billy Joe had pushed her,

(15:40):
leaving a red mark on her arm and that she was on probation,
which we will talk about in a minute.
And that's why she had called, because she didn't want to fight
that. She didn't want the fight to
escalate any further. However, she didn't want to
press charges against her mom either.
Leilani's brother showed up, a different brother than Paul, the

(16:01):
one who lived in the house with them and also talked to the
officer, and he had some things to say about his sister and none
of it was good. He said that his mom was fed up
with Leilani because she lied all the time and would steal
money from her to go buy drugs. Billy Joe ended up going with
her son and leaving the house for a few days to put some

(16:24):
distance between herself and Leilani.
But that's not all she did. Billy Jo wanted them out of her
house immediately, but she knew they weren't going on their own.
So the next day she went to the courthouse and filed for an
eviction notice. But it was strange because even

(16:47):
though she had custody of the boys, their names were also on
the eviction notice. What in the hell kind of home
were these poor kids living in? Another strange coincidence was
found by investigators. Apparently in April of 2022, six
months before Quentin's disappearance, the state of

(17:08):
Georgia was suing Leilani for child support for the two boys
since Billy Joe had custody. What was strange was that on
October 5th, the day Quentin went missing, Leilani found out
that she had lost the Child Support battle.
Since she failed to show up in Superior Court on September

(17:29):
21st, she was now being ordered to pay $150.00 a month in child
support starting in November. The amount would only be lowered
if one of the boys died. Let that sink in.

(18:23):
The amount would only be loweredif one of the boys died.
Let that sink in. Not long after Quentin went
missing, Leilani told the policethat she thought maybe Henry
Moss, also known as Bubba, mighthave taken Quentin.
Bubba is Quentin's biological father.
All three of Leilani's kids havedifferent fathers.

(18:45):
Of course, we know that baby Skyis Danny's, but Zane and Quentin
also have different dads. Leilani had no problems with
Zane's dad, Cody, which is part of the reason Zane was her
favorite child. Her ride or die, if you will.
However, there was bad blood between Leilani and Bubba.
In fact, investigators found a Google search on Leilani's phone

(19:08):
from October 1st, 4 days before Quentin went missing, it said.
Is it common for a mother to have resentment or even anger
towards her child because of thefather or another reason?
Wow, people using Google like it's their diary gets them every

(19:30):
time. Henry Moss and Leilani had met
in 2019 and had started dating. In February of 2021.
Leilani had broken into someone's home through a screen
door and stole $50.00 out of their change jar.
She then proceeded to try to blame it on Bubba, but that

(19:52):
didn't work and she was put on probation for the offense.
She was still on probation for this when the washing machine
fight took place. After this happened, Bubba ended
their relationship. He told investigators that
Leilani was evil. He said she was a liar and a
cheater and spent her days doingcocaine and smoking weed.

(20:17):
He also said she had a violent temper and would physically
assault him when she wanted moredrugs.
He also told investigators that Leilani would sleep with other
men to get money for drugs. As far as taking Quinton, he
said he hadn't had any contact with Leilani for the past six to
seven months and after checking the CCTV footage, his work and

(20:42):
other evidence, the investigators cleared him of any
involvement into Quentin's disappearance.
Bubba had actually came to Savannah, GA shortly after
Quentin went missing and stoppedby to see Billy Joe and Leilani.
He was shocked at what he saw. He walked into the house and

(21:06):
both of them were high as hell and drunk off their asses.
Bubba said there wasn't a tear to be seen, it was the complete
opposite. They were laughing and having a
good time with each other, almost like they were having a
party while their son and grandson was missing.

(21:28):
Leilani is starting to give me Casey Anthony vibes.
The babysitter, Diana, and one of Leilani's former neighbors,
Melanie, who had also been a close friend of Leilani's, also
had a lot to say to investigators about Leilani.
And none of it was good, either.Diana told the police that she

(21:50):
had concerns about how Quentin was treated be like by Leilani.
She said Leilani didn't seem to favor him as much as she did her
oldest child or her youngest. She said there would be times
Leilani would come home with food and would give some to Zane
while Quentin stood by and criedand begged for something to eat.

(22:12):
She said Leilani would eventually feed him after making
him upset and making him think that he wasn't getting anything.
It was like she loved seeing hermiddle child upset and crying.
She got some kind of joy from it.
Diana had always had concerns about the kids safety when they

(22:35):
were with Leilani. There was a time that Diana saw
both Zane and Quinton out in theditch next to the road all by
themselves with no adult insight.
She said when Danny would pick up the kids, Quinton had no
problem going with him, but whenLeilani picked them up, Quinton

(22:57):
cried and didn't want to go withher.
When Leilani brought the kids toDiana's, she never brought
formula for Sky, never brought diapers for the kids, and never
brought them clean clothes. Most of the time when Quentin
came over, he had a dirty diaper, dirty clothes, and dirty

(23:18):
rings around his neck. Diana said she hated to say that
a kid smelled bad, but Quentin did.
He would smell like sour milk almost every time he was dropped
off. The worst thing Diana always had
to do was bathe them. There were a lot of times when

(23:39):
Billy Joe was out of town and Diana would see bruises on
Quentin, so she would call BillyJoe, you know, Quentin's legal
guardian. Billy Joe would ask Diana to
keep the kids until she got backinto town, whenever that may be.
Diana would always agree to keepthem.
I mean, she had them most of thetime anyway, but then a couple

(24:02):
of hours later Billie Joe would call her back and tell her never
mind that she was going to give Leilani another chance though.
Diana was forced to send the kids back home with Leilani no
matter how much she didn't want to.
Diana straight out told the investigators that Leilani was a
crappy mother and had even told her that Zane, the oldest child,

(24:26):
was her favorite and that she never had really bonded with
Quentin. What Leilani's friend Melanie
had to say about her was even worse.
The two had been friends for a few years, but there would be
times where they would go long periods of time without talking.
Melanie had never met Quentin inperson, but had been around
Leilani when she was pregnant with him and would see all of

(24:49):
the kids when they Facetimed over the next couple of years.
She said that after Leilani and Bubba broke up, Leilani told her
that maybe she should have had an abortion like he had wanted
and then he would have still been with her.
Leilani said this on multiple occasions.

(25:10):
Melanie also heard Leilani call Quentin a fucking asshole and a
bastard child. She also heard her spanking him
over the phone, but had no idea how or where she was hitting
him. By October 7th, detectives were
working 18 to 20 hours a day looking for Little Quentin.

(25:31):
Dive teams were using waders andpoles to search a nearby pond,
and there had also been a searchwarrant issued for the family
pool. The residents of the Burkhart
Rd. could hear the giant pump extracting the water from the
family swimming pool. If you're wondering why they had
to extract the water from the swimming pool, it's because the

(25:55):
pool was so green you couldn't see anything in it.
Chief Hadley told the public that they had exhausted the grid
search of where Quentin might have wandered.
He also made sure to state that Quentin's disappearance at that
time was still considered a missing persons case.

(26:16):
However, by October 10th, this had changed.
That day, Chief Hadley announcedthat they were looking at
Quentin's disappearance as a criminal investigation.
From that point on, 40 FBI investigators started assisting
with the investigation and researched Billie Joe and Thomas

(26:36):
Howe's home. The last place Quentin was seen,
FBI agents were observed taping dark plastic to the windows.
Hadley made sure to emphasize that everyone was being looked
at except for Bubba Moss, Quentin's biological dad, who
had already been cleared. Then at the one week mark of

(27:01):
Quentin's disappearance on Wednesday, October 12th, the
Chaton County Police Department and the FBI issued this
statement. Quote.
Today marks one week since Quinton Simon was reported
missing. We will be at his home where he
was last seen with the team of search dogs and investigators.

(27:23):
We will spend today gathering and analyzing evidence.
We expect to schedule a media briefing tomorrow.
End Quote. Later that night, they came back
and issued another statement andunfortunately, it was what a lot
of people have been thinking butno one wanted to say.

(27:47):
Quote, We are saddened to reportthat CCPD and the FBI have
notified Quinton Simon's family that we believe he is deceased.
We have named his mother, Leilani Simon, as the prime
suspect in his disappearance anddeath, but no arrests have been

(28:08):
made and no charges had been filed.
This news caused an uproar in the area and people started
gathering outside of Leilani's home.
And we're doing some peaceful protesting if you will.
Some of these people, however, decided that they were pissed
and didn't want to be so peaceful.

(28:30):
They wanted to be heard. So they decided to knock on the
windows and doors of the home and block the driveway so that
no one could get out. They were even yelling.
They were even yelling and calling the family names any
time someone came out of the house.
Other residents of Buckhalter Rd. were being disturbed by some

(28:51):
of the protesters as well and over 50 phone calls were made to
law enforcement by these residents.
So what did investigators discover that LED Leilani to be
in their prime suspect? They had been doing a lot of
work behind the scenes while searching for Quentin.
Leilani had admitted in her interview the day Quentin went

(29:11):
missing that she had gone out twice the night of October 4th
to a drug dealer on 204 named Red to pay Danny's $20 debt and
to meet a friend named Misty at the Chevron station to get Ora
gel. Of course, detectives looked
into both of these trips and what they found was interesting.

(29:36):
They first found out that Leilani didn't go to the drug
dealer to pay a $20 debt of Danny's on her phone.
They found an $80.00 payment made to Cash App to the drug
dealer on that night. After looking into it, they
found that Leilani had bought cocaine and Percocet for
herself. They then went and found

(29:58):
Melissa, the girl that Leilani supposedly met up with that
night to get the Ora gel from. First of all, Melissa goes by
Missy, not by Misty. If you're going to lie about
your alibi, at least get their name right.
Missy told investigators that she had worked with Leilani at a

(30:19):
bar and restaurant called Bojangles, but it had been
months since Missy had seen Leilani.
This LED investigators to pull surveillance video to see
exactly where Leilani went that night on her second venture out
of the house. They got the CCTV footage from
the Chevron station, and they did catch Leilani's vehicle on

(30:40):
it, but she didn't pull into their parking lot.
Instead, she pulled into the Azalea mobile Home Park next
door to the gas station, so theygot the footage from there.
They watched as Leilani drove upto the complex's line of
dumpsters, got out and threw something into them, and drove
away, heading back in the direction towards her house.

(31:05):
They decided it was time to bring Leilani in and ask her
some more questions. On October 12th, the same day
they announced that they believed Quentin was deceased
and that Leilani was their main suspect, they brought her in to
talk to her about everything they had discovered.

(31:26):
Of course, Leilani tried to cover her ass, insisting that
she had met Misty for the origeland when they tell her they know
she never pulled into the Chevron station but had pulled
into Azalea instead, she changedher story and said that she met
her next to the Chevron station at the mobile Home Park.

(31:49):
They then told her that she is full of shit and Missy had told
them that she hadn't talked to her for months.
Then when they confronted Leilani about pulling up to the
dumpsters and throwing somethingin, she had the audacity to say
that it was a bag of trash from her house and it was smelly

(32:10):
because it had shrimp pasta in it, so why drive it to a
dumpster elsewhere? That makes no sense.
They then told Leilani that theyknew that she knew where Quentin
was, which she continuously denied, and at that point they
didn't have definite proof so they had to let her go.

(32:34):
But they weren't done with her yet.
On October 18th, a press conference was held and Chief
Hadley told reporters that they were entering a new phase in the
search for Quentin. He said early that morning a
search had begun at the landfillin Chatham County.

(32:56):
He stated that they believe little Quinton was placed in a
quote UN quote specific dumpsterat a specific location and was
brought to the landfill by regular means.
He said he fully believed that they would find Quinton's
remains at the landfill. Searching a landfill for human
remains is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

(33:17):
They have to go through every pile of trash with a fine tooth
comb, hoping that they find something, but also hoping that
they don't. On October 19th, the day after
the searchers started working tirelessly in the landfill,
mother and grandmother of the year Leilani and Billy Joe were
busy drinking shots of vodka at a Tybee Island bar and

(33:40):
restaurant. Apparently they drank too much
and had to stay the night at a hotel in the area where police
were called twice because the mother and daughter duo or being
harassed. Poor things.
They ended up leaving and no onewas arrested.
After word got out about their antics, they felt they needed to

(34:03):
do damage control, especially Leilani since she had yet to
even do an interview with the media.
On October 24th, both she and her mother stood in front of the
camera and it was pathetic. Billy Joe and Leilani pushed out
a few tears and said that they hoped Quentin was alive and

(34:24):
happy. Leilani said.
Quote, we want him back in our arms holding us.
That's what we want. We're just hoping that he's in
somebody's house and they're feeding him.
And maybe they wanted a baby or couldn't have a baby.
Maybe they thought they were hissavior.
That's our best hope at this point.

(34:45):
End Quote. She also said something strange
for someone claiming to be innocent.
She said, quote, I'm not runningand I'm not hiding, and if
something does come up that I amat fault, I will take
responsibility and I will take myself to the police station.

(35:08):
Then Billy Joe had to pipe in with her two cents to say that
she would walk in right beside her.
Leilani then decided to try to get the heat off of her and
texted an FBI agent and told them she was tired of covering
for Danny. So now she's going to try to
blame this on Danny. Kind of like when she blamed the

(35:31):
theft on Henry Moss. Any boyfriend of Leilani's
better watch out. She then told the FBI agent that
Danny was actually the one that left the house that night and he
was the one who told her to tellthe origel story.
As you probably already know, the FBI agent did not buy her

(35:55):
bullshit. On Wednesday, October 26th, the
Chatham County Police Departmentissues a statement on the
ongoing search. Quote.
We are now three weeks into our search for Quentin Simon and

(36:15):
finding his remains are the top priority for the Chaton County
Police Department. We are committed to giving
Quentin the professional, detailed and thorough
investigation that he deserves. Thanks to the expertise of the
FBI, we have had the advantage of using every investigative and
technological tool available. No expense has been spared.

(36:40):
No work has been deemed too muchor too difficult to undertake.
The exhaustive search of the landfill where we believe
Quentin's remains are located continues.
As we told you last week, this is not a quick process.
At the same time, our investigative team is working
diligently to put together everypiece of evidence to determine

(37:03):
the facts in this case. The search for Quentin has been
the most massive undertaking ever for our department and has
involved the work of well over 100 law enforcement and civilian
personnel. Then on November 10th, the
search of the landfill was suspended due to Hurricane
Nicole, but they picked right back up on November 14th.

(37:26):
Everyone was working hard to find Quentin, especially those
people in that landfill. As they searched for baby
Quentin, they hoped and prayed that they didn't find him there,
thrown away like a piece of trash.
On the morning of November 18th,Diana Quinton's babysitter had a
memorial service at her home forthe little boy that she was so

(37:50):
close to and loved like her own.Even though a couple of weeks
earlier she had a prayer circle at her house for anyone who
wanted to come to pray for Quentin, Billy Joel thought she
was having a memorial service atthat time and came over, barged
into Diana's house and started screaming at her and accusing

(38:12):
her of taking Quinton. The whole thing was caught on a
camera by Diana's daughter. I'll post it on the Victim's
Voice Facebook page. These kids didn't seem to have a
chance between Leilani and Grandma Billy Joel.
That same day that Diana held a prayer circle, there was a break

(38:33):
in the case. After searching through more
than £1.2 million of trash, human bones were found at the
landfill. After testing, it was confirmed
that they did belong to Quinton Simon.
During a press conference announcing that the remains had
been found, a reporter questioned Chief Hadley on

(38:57):
Leilani's whereabouts. He said that it was unknown
where she was at that time, but that she wasn't considered a
flight risk. It was later found that Leilani
had actually signed into a treatment facility for substance
abuse. Two days after Quentin's remains
were found, Billy Joe heard thatLeilani was planning on signing

(39:20):
herself out. She made one of the hardest
decisions of her life, but also the right decision and called
the FBI. She let them know that Leilani
was going to sign herself out and that she was not welcome
back at her home. Billy Joe picked Leilani up from
the treatment center, took her out to have her last free meal,

(39:42):
and drove her to Savannah's FBI office where she was arrested.
On November 21st, Leilani sat down with an FBI agent.
The agent told Leilani that theyknew she had hurt Quentin, and
this time she doesn't deny it. She admitted that she was high
on cocaine that night and that when she would do drugs, she

(40:02):
would lose touch with reality, hallucinate, and that she
doesn't remember what she does. There would be chunks of time
that she didn't remember. She said at times she would also
hear and see things that weren'tthere.
She said she would be so high that her brain would shut down.
She told them that she struggledto remember what happened the

(40:24):
night that Quinton disappeared. She said the last thing she
remembered seeing was Quentin's face, then she conveniently
blacked out. The next thing that she
remembered was driving home fromAzalea Mobile Home Park and two
hours had lapsed. Seems funny to me that she

(40:47):
remembers right before and rightafter whatever happened to
Quentin, but not during one of the investigators asked.
Leilani of Quinton was inside one of the two trash bags she
had put in the dumpster and she told them she didn't remember
grabbing a trash bag. When they asked about her

(41:09):
debunked alibi that she went outin the middle of the night to
pick up Ora gel from Misty, she said that was a theory she had
come up with because she couldn't remember what she had
done or where she had been. So you assume you went and met a
person that you hadn't talked toin months to give you some
origel in the middle of the night?

(41:32):
That makes no sense. The investigators did not
believe Leilani's bullshit storyof selective memory and she was
charged with 19 counts and a count of malice murder, 2 counts
of felony murder, 1 count of concealing the death of another,

(41:52):
one count of false report of a crime, and 14 counts of making a
false statement to which she pled not guilty.
The prosecution told the jury how Leilani treated Quentin
differently than the other children and not in a good way,
that there was instability in a relationship with her boyfriend

(42:14):
at the time. Danny testified that he was only
with Leilani at the time of Quentin's death because of his
daughter, and that Leilani had substance abuse problems, the
prosecutor stated. She killed him, her own son,
then got into her car with his body, drove to a dumpster and

(42:35):
threw him away like a piece of trash.
The jury was presented with over100 pieces of evidence,
including video interviews and body Cam footage, and more than
40 witnesses. The jury took six hours to
deliberate. Leilani Simon was guilty on all
counts. After the jury's verdict, Police

(42:59):
Chief Hadley made the statement.Quentin Simon truly became
Chatham County's child during the weeks that our community was
gripped by his disappearance. It is fitting today that 12 men
and women from our community delivered the final measure of
justice for little Quentin with their guilty verdict.
We hope that this brings some measure of peace and justice to

(43:22):
those who love Quentin. Leilani Simon was sentenced on
November 21st of 2024. In Georgia.
A murder charge binds the judge to only two options for a
sentence, life in prison withoutthe chance of parole or life in
prison with the chance of parole, in order to weigh out

(43:43):
the aggravating and mitigating circumstances to determine which
sentence Leilani would get. Several people spoke at the
sentencing hearing, either on Leilani's behalf or on behalf of
the prosecution. The prosecution stated that
Leilani had still not taken accountability for murdering her
son and that she had not shown she was sorry for what she had

(44:05):
done, only that she had gotten caught.
Judge Stokes asked Leilani if she wanted to say anything at
the sentencing. She declined.
Leilani did release Quentin's remains to her family for a
proper proper burial. Authorities had kept them in
case more forensic testing was needed.

(44:25):
After signing the paper to release his remains, Leilani had
the audacity to say, quote, my son's been through enough.
I want my baby home. As if what he went through
wasn't her fault. Before handing down her
sentence, Judge Stokes said quote clearly little Quentin

(44:45):
Simon's life and death impacted many, many individuals, but also
the community at large. Judge Tammy Stokes sentenced
Leilani to life in prison with the chance of parole after 40
years plus 10 years for concealing Quentin's body.
Those sentences would run consecutively with her life

(45:08):
sentence. So if Leilani would be eligible
for parole when she is 62 years old, and even if there is a
sliver of a chance they will give it to her, she would then
have to serve the 10 extra years.
So Leilani Simon most likely will never see the light of day
again. And little Quentin got some sort
of justice, even though nothing will ever bring him back.

(45:34):
Check out The Victim's Voice Facebook page and Instagram for
photos from this episode, and come back next week for a new
case. Until then, peace out.