May 26, 2025 • 49 mins
In the quiet suburbs of Savannah, Georgia, 20-month-old Quinton Simon was reported missing from his crib in October 2022. His mother said he vanished without a trace. But as investigators dug deeper, it became clear - something wasn’t adding up.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Will say, always come dressed.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Several times we got Quinton and he would be in
a long onesie and he would have poop from all over.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Savannah and Georgia is a city where the past never
truly disappe. With its cobbled streets, moss straped oak trees,
and centuries old architecture, it feels almost suspended in time.
The Historic District draws visitors from around the world, lured
by tales of Antebellum mansions, civil war ghosts, and Southern charm.
But beyond the postcard perfect squares and quiet courtyards, Savannah
(01:19):
is a place like any other one, where beauty and
tragedy often exist side by side. In the suburban neighborhood
of Buckholter Road, just a short drive from the city
storied Heart, life tends to move a little slower. The
homes here are daughdl along a road surrounded by dense
woodland and open spaces of grain. One morning in October
(01:42):
twenty twenty two and nine, one one call came from
one of these homes. A young mother reported that shea
hade woken up to find her twenty month old son gone,
and the front door was lying wide open.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Her one year old man is missing and woke up.
Her door was opened as.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
A tunny able to open a door things.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
One came in and he pound.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Savannah, Georgia is a city known for its cobblestone streets,
moss striped oaks, and historic charm. But just on the
outskirts of this southern city there's a quieter, more rural
stretch of road called bock Halter Road. It's there, surrounded
by dense woodlands where a young family lived in a
modest home. That home belonged to Billy Howell and her
(02:39):
husband Thomas. It was home not just to them, but
also to their daughter, Leilanie Simon and her children. Among
them was twenty month old Quentin Simon, a little boy
with bright eyes and a massive smile. Quentin had been
born into a world that quickly became complicated. His biological parents,
Ley Lannie Simon and Henry bust Or didn't stay together
(03:01):
for long. Their relationship had fractured early on, and Henry
wasn't a consistent presence in Quinton's life. Quentin lived with
his mother, Leilanie, her boyfriend Daniel Youngkin, and his two siblings,
an older brother and sister The family lived under the
roof of Quinton's grandparents, Billy and Thomas Hoyle, who helped
(03:22):
raise the children and provide support for their daughter. Despite
the instability that often clauded the household, Quentin was deeply
loved by his grandparents. His grandfather, Thomas Hoyle, would fondly say,
he's a great kid, smart, always smiling. I mean, he
lights up your life. To Thomas, Quinton wasn't just a grandson.
(03:43):
Thomas spoke about how Quinton loved being picked up and
played with. He was happiest in his grandfather's arms, giggling
and reaching for the television remote or a cell phone.
Like most oddlers, Quinton was curious, always exploring, always wanting
to be like one of the big kids. And there
was no one he wanted to be like more than
his older brother. He adored him, chasing after him through
(04:06):
the house, copying his every move. Whatever his big brother did,
Quentin was right behind, eager to follow. It was the
kind of innocent admiration that only as Holdler could give.
His Boby sitter, Michelle fondly recalled, he loved cheese.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Every time I would get home from work, he would
won't Mac and cheese, and he would go to the
refrigerator and he would get my cheese out, my block
of cheese for me to cut it for him. And
if I would have let him, he'd ate the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
He loved bloody bee. He loved bubbles.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Anytime we could go to the store get him bubbles,
he just loved them.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
He was a very happy baby, and he was with us.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Quentin was described by family as a bright, happy, fun,
smart and loving little monkey. In the mornings, he would
wake up down spinning in a circle the music, clapping
his little hands with delight. There was an emic kindness
in Quintin that bellied his young age. He was polite,
always sank thank you, always giving hugs. If he saw
(05:13):
somebody standing nearby, he'd run up and wrap his tiny
arms around their legs. And when Quentin was proud of himself,
which was often, he had a special way of showing it.
He would look up the nearest adult with his eyes
shining with pride, and ask for a boom, his version
of a fist bump. Quintin loved cartoons, including PJ. Masks,
(05:33):
Paul Patrol, and Dragon Tales. These weren't just shows to him,
They were entire worlds, heroes, adventures, friendships. They were a
reflection of a world where good triumphed, where bad things
were solved by the end of the episode, a world
where children were always safe. But the real world doesn't
(05:54):
follow these rules, and sometimes the monsters aren't on television screens.
Sometimes they live closer than we'd like to imagine. It
(06:17):
was just after nine thirty a m. On the morning
of October fifth, twenty twenty two. It's Vanna's nine one
one dispatch center. It's business as usual. Operators moved through
their routine shifts, headsets on, voices calm, ready to guide
emergencies across Chatham County. Then a call came in. On
the other end of the line was Leilani Simon and
(06:39):
her boyfriend Daniel Junkin. Their voices were panicked. Leilani could
be heard in the background wailing. She cried out, I
can't find my son. Twenty month old Quentin Simon was gone.
According to Leilani, she had gone to bed just after midnight. Quentin,
she said, had been asleep in this pack and play. Daniel,
(07:02):
who had left her work around six a m. Came
rushing home when Leilani called him in a panic. The
front door, she said, had been left open. This was
a seemingly important detail, as Leilanie explained that Quinton couldn't
yet open doors. I could only mean one thing in
her eyes. Somebody must have come in and taken him.
(07:22):
Police arrive swiftly at the home on Buckholter Road, a
semi rural strip tucked into the outskirts of Savannah. It's
a place where thick woodland brushes up against aging homes,
where the quiet of the morning is only broken by
bird song and the occasional passing car. But this morning
it was flooded with patrol vehicles. Officers immediately began searching,
(07:43):
calling out Quinton's name through the yard, through the thick
brush that bordered the property. They moved quickly but carefully,
checking behind sheds, under porches, inside trash binds, any place
that a curious toddler might wander or hide. It became
clear quickly that he wasn't in the house, and he
wasn't in the yard, and he wasn't anywhere nearby. The
(08:04):
search then expanded outward. Officers moved in widening circles, searching
nearby ditches, overgrown trails and even the roadside drains. The
streets around the Simon home were soon corded off with
yellow tape as uniformed officers redirected traffic and volunteers began
to arrive. Neighbors who were shaken by the news joined
(08:25):
the efforts. Casey Bower's, a nearby resident, helped search the area.
She expressed the urgency that many were feeling when she said,
it's a kid that's probably scared. Michelle Miller echoed her.
She said that if it were her child, she want
the entire community outlooking, and the community did come. They
canvassed in nearby woods, combed through grassy ditches, and peered
(08:49):
into the murky ponds that dotted the area. The land
out there with thick and wild imparts, pockets of swampy lowland,
and clusters of pine that made visibility difficult. At tracking
dog was brought in, its nose pressed to the earth
as it searched for even the faintest trace of quintin.
A helicopter, which was typically used for moscado control, hovered
(09:10):
above the trees, scanning from the air. The dive team
was called in next, outfitted in black neoprine, slipping into
the nearby streams and ponds to search the waters. By nightfall,
darkness had forced the search to a halt, at least
on the ground, but overhead, a thermal imaging helicopter stayed
in the air, scanning the landscape with infrared. The next morning,
(09:32):
the search for Quinton resumed. Police officers, volunteers, dogs and
divers again spread out a crossbock Halter Road and beyond.
The FBI then stepped in, offering their resources and support
to the increasingly urgent investigation. They obtained to search weren't
for the family home. It was a necessary procedure, standard
(09:53):
protocol and missing children cases. They said. Agents could be
seen coming and going from the home carrying bro paper
evidence bags. The front yard, which was once scattered with
children's toys and a tiny slide, had become a scene
of law enforcement activity. Chadam Conney Police Chief Jeff Hadley
addressed the growing media presence outside the family's home. He stated,
(10:17):
we're very concerned about Quintin. We're hoping we can find
him safe and bring him home to his parents. He
was careful to emphasize that at this point there was
no evidence of an abduction, no science of foul play,
but the undertone was clear. Hope was growing more fragile
with each passing r Still, the message remained steady, as
he said, we're going to hold out hope that he's
(10:38):
still alive and that we can find him and bring
him home safe to his parents. But behind that hope,
behind the police tape, the media lines, and the public reassurances,
there were questions. As news of Quintin's disappearance spread. His grandparents,
(11:06):
Thomas and Billy Hoyle, were out of torn, but the
moment they heard what had happened, they dropped everything and
raced back to Savannah. Thomas, Quinton's grandfather, was visibly shaken.
Speaking to reporters outside the family home, he said, it's
been rough, real rough. He stood in the yard where
his grandson once played, trying to make sense of something
(11:27):
that made no sense at all. For Thomas, one thing
stuck out as particularly odd Lelanie had initially told him
that Quinton had been picked up by his biological father,
that he was maybe with him, but when detectives contacted
Quinton's father, Henry Moss Junior, they quickly rolled them out.
He hadn't seen Quinton, he hadn't been anywhere near the
(11:49):
house that morning. He hadn't seen his son or Leilanie
for months. The police exhaustively searched his home, and they
combed through his whereabouts minute by minute. Alibi was airtight,
confirmed not only by witnesses but by his cell phone records.
He was miles away, and that path led to a
dead end. Leilani also suggested that Quinton may have opened
(12:11):
the door and wandered off, but that detail didn't add
up to Thomas. Quinton, he explained, had never opened doors
on his own. Thomas stated, so, I mean, that's what's
crazy about everything. The house was secure. The front door,
according to Leilani, had been left open. But if Quinton
(12:32):
couldn't open it himself, somebody else must have. That thought
lingered heavily in the air. And yet, despite Thomas's certainty,
other voices in the neighborhood began to paint a very
different picture. Several neighbors came forward with memories that complicated
the story. They claimed to have seen Quintin outside before alone.
(12:53):
One woman recalled the time when she'd spotted him in
the street running back and forth. She'd been terrified that
he dare into the road and be struck by a car.
If those sightings were true, then Quinton might have opened
the door before, or maybe somebody had left it open
for him. The stories did in the line, and family
members said one thing, neighbors another. Leilani had given a
(13:18):
version of events that quickly changed, first saying that Quinton
was in his bed, then later suggesting he had been
picked up by his father. Police weren't yet ready to
accuse anybody of anything, but behind closed doors, the inconsistencies
weren't going unnoticed. Detectives were beginning to realize that this
wasn't just a simple missing child case, and while the
(13:39):
search continued and the community clung to hope, investigators were
quietly beginning to look much closer to home. The next
day passed in a blur. Police combed the woods. Search
(14:02):
crews walked shoulder to shoulder through the brush and ditches.
Helicopter circled above, but there was still no sign of
quintin Simon, and as the son began to dip below
the tree line on that second night, it seemed like
something else was unraveling. Something inside the home on bock
Halter Road. According to neighbors, voices carried through the thin
(14:26):
walls and odd into the night. He did, arguments, accusations, tears,
and while the chaos of that night was especially intense,
those who lived near by said that this wasn't anything new.
That house had always been volatile. Quinton and his two
siblings had grown up in the thick of it, a
(14:46):
home rife with instability, addiction, and a long standing cycle
of dysfunction with Lannie Simon, Quentin's twenty two year old mother,
had a long history of drug use. She was addicted
to cocaine, and according to Quinton's father, Henry, it was
her addiction that ultimately drove them apart. He stated she
(15:08):
did cocaine every day, all day, as much as she could.
Their relationship, much like everything else in that home, was combustible.
They had been arrested together more than once for theft.
He remembered the darker side of those days, nights, where
she'd get violent if she didn't have money to buy drugs.
(15:28):
He recollected, she hit me in the face. He also
claimed that when the money ran dry, Leilani found other
ways to get what she wanted, using her body in
exchange for cash and When Henry came to the house
after Quintin disappeared, what he saw shocked him. He stated,
every one of them was high as a kite and
(15:49):
drunk as hell. Lelanie was on something. She wasn't crying
when I walked up. She was laughing and having a
good time with everybody. It looked like a party. Our
wasn't the reaction one would expect from a mother whose
twenty month old son was missing. The family's history with
law enforcement went back years. In twenty twenty one, the
(16:11):
land had been arrested in North Carolina for stealing two
packs of cigarettes, a bag of popcorn, and a drink
from the Love's truck stop where she worked. Since the
items were taken from her place of employment, the charge
was upgraded to felony larceny. She moved her family to
Georgia shortly thereafter, but the problems didn't stop. If anything,
(16:32):
they intensified. Quentin's babysitter, Michelle McCarter, had witnessed firsthand the
neglect that Quinton experienced. She recalled how he often showed
up to her home in soiled clothing, smelling like saur milk.
Sometimes he had bruises and he never wanted to go home.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Will Zay always come dressed.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Several times we got Quinton and he would be in
a long onesee and he would have poop from all over.
I don't want to say a baby didn't smell good,
but he smelled like rotten milk. He had wings around
his neck. We'd immediately bathe him and put him fresh
(17:14):
clothes on.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
When it came time to drop him off in the evening,
she said he would cry cling to her and beg
to stay. Which that wasn't the only one that was concerned.
Quinton's grandparents, Billy and Thomas, had seen the warning signs
as well. Eventually they stepped in. They filed for custody
of Quinton and his siblings, citing Leilani's addiction and her
(17:36):
inability to provide safe care. In court documents, Leilani was
described as a chronic, unrehabilitated substance abuser of cocaine and cannabis.
It was even revealed that she had tested positive for
cookaine at the birth of one of her children. Despite
losing Costady, Leilani still lived in the home with her
children under the roof of her parents, but things were
(17:59):
far from Harmonium. Lelanie had been ordered to pay child support,
but she failed to do so. In April, the Georgia
Department of Human Services sued her to enforce the payments.
By the time October rolled around, things were reaching a
breaking point. Lannie was in the process of being evicted.
On September seventh, less than a month before Quinton vanished,
(18:21):
police were called to the home after a domestic dispute
between Leilanie and her mother. The fight had started over laundry,
but it wasn't really about laundry. When officers arrived, Leilanie
was panicked. She told them that she was on probation
and she didn't want any trouble. She accused her mother
of shoving her. Billy, on the other hand, told police
(18:43):
that she was fed up, tired of being the one
who kept the household together while her daughter and her
boyfriend contributed nothing but chaos. Billy wanted them out. The
next day, she fouled the viction paperwork, accusing Leilani and
her boyfriend Daniel, of causing damage to the home. In
the document, she had written, no one is living in peace.
(19:05):
The eviction proceedings were soon followed up by a child support.
Hearing Lelannie didn't show up, a judge signed a default
order requiring her to pay one hundred and fifty dollars
a month. The payments never came, and now, just weeks later,
her son was missing. By now, the search for Quinton
(19:29):
had gone from hopeful the heartbreaking. The scent of suspicion
hung heavy in the air, not just around Leilanie Simon,
but around the entire household at five three five buck
Alter Road. While Leilani was Quintin's biological mother, custody had
legally belonged to her parents, Billy and Thomas, But in
the wake of Quintin's disappearance, that arrangement came under the
(19:53):
microscope as well. Child Protective Services swiftly removed Quinton's two
siblings from Billy's care. Their reasoning was blunt. They said
that Billy had failed to provide adequate supervision. She had
left the children in the care of Leilanie to go
out of state despite knowing her daughter's volatile history and
substance abuse. In the words of CPS, she knew or
(20:15):
should have known, her daughter was unfit to provide proper care.
The children were placed into foster care while the court
worked to determine what should happen next. But the deeper
that investigators looked, the more troubling details came to light.
Billy Hoyle had her own problems, ones that raised serious
questions about her ability to provide a stable home. She too,
(20:39):
had a lengthy criminal record, eighteen arrests over the years
for crimes ranging from grand larceny to burglary to cocame
possession and prostitution, as sault and fraud. It painted a
picture not of stability, but of a lifetime spent dodging consequences,
a noy in the eyes of the growing storm. Billy
and Thomas were starting to voice their own doubts about Leilani.
(21:03):
Thomas didn't mince his words when he said, she's lied
to us so many times, and I don't know it's
bad to say, but she just likes to lie. Are
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dot com. Let them support you on your journey to wellbeing. Billy,
who found herself between the role of mother and grandmother,
was more conflicted. In a moment of quiet honesty, she
stated she hasn't always done the right thing. Sometimes she
(22:10):
does really great, sometimes she doesn't. I don't know what
to think right now. I don't know what to believe.
But privately her fears ran deeper. In a recorded phone
call with Quintin's father, Henry, Billy revealed what she really
thought had happened. She said, honestly and frankly, Bubba, I'm
(22:30):
not going to lie to you. I feel like there
was an accident. She went on to say she believed
that Leilanie and her boyfriend Daniel had been high, that
maybe Quinton had drowned in the bathtub, and in their
drug field panic, they covered it up. Henry was stunned
and he said if that were true, they should have
called the police. Billy responded with chilling simplicity. If you're
(22:55):
high as hell, ma'am, you do stupid shit. Billy and
Thomas weren't the only ones whose trust had been chattered. Michelle,
Quinton's babysitter, had spent the past six months caring for
him and his older brother Zan. Every weekday morning she
would welcome them into her home, even on the days
where Leylanie didn't have work. Michelle knew the children well.
(23:18):
She knew their moods, their habits, their fears. She told
detectives that Quinton often arrived at her home dirty, hungry,
or with bruises, and that while Leaylanie showed some degree
of affection towards seeing her, behavior towards Quinton was different.
She stated it was loveless. To the other kids. She
showed love, she showed concern to Quintin it wasn't concern
(23:42):
and love. On the morning of the fifth of October,
at five thirty a m. Michelle had received a text
message from Leylanie. It said she wouldn't be bringing the
kids that day. This was just ours before she reported
Quinton missing. By the ninth of October, the hope of
(24:07):
finding Quentin Simon alive was beginning to fade. The search
efforts had grown into one of the most intents in
Chatham County history. The FBI was now involved and detectives
were working around the clock, and on that day they
launched an new anonymous tip line, hoping that maybe someone
who knew something would finally speak up. But that wasn't
(24:27):
the only announcement. For the first time since Quentin's disappearance,
authorities confirmed what many had already feared. This was not
a criminal investigation. Police chief hardly announced we don't have
anything confirmed, so we can't say anything absolutely, but it
is fair to say that our efforts and the coordination
(24:47):
and the cooperation with the FBI providing an abundance of
resources to us, means that we are looking at the
criminal investigation aspect of it as well. Just days later,
detectives publicly stated that they believed Quentin Simon was dead
and they had a suspect in mind, his own mother,
Lei Lannie Simon. Lannie had spoken with police after reporting
(25:10):
her son missing, but from the beginning her story didn't
add up. At first, she said she had been home
all night, but that was a lie. Investigators checked flock,
which is an automated license plate recognition system, and discovered
that her vehicle had been seen driving laid on October fourth,
and again in the early morning hours of October fifth.
(25:32):
Got in a lie. Leilanie changed her story. This time
she claimed she had left the home to meet her
drug dealer and pay off an old debt. But once
again this wasn't the truth. She wasn't just paying off
a debt, she was purchasing more drugs. At first, i
Lannie tried to downplay her drug use. She said she
had only smoked marijuana and had only used that in
(25:54):
the past twenty four hours. However, she had actually been
using cocaine and percoset, and this wasn't the only suspicious
trip she took that night. Leilani later told police that
she had also gone out in the early morning ours
to meet a friend somebody named Misty, to get oragel
from her wisdom tooth pain. She said that they had
(26:15):
met at a gas station, but surveillance footage showed another story.
Leilanie never stopped at the gas station. Instead, cameras picked
her up at a very different location, the dompsters at
az Aaliah mobile Home Park. When confronted with this, Leilanie
shifted her story once more. She claimed that she had
(26:36):
in fact met Misty at the dompsters instead, But detectives
tracked this woman down. Her real name was Melissa Bray,
and Melissa hadn't seen Leilanie in months, not since July,
when she lent her a gas can that was never returned.
Lelanie then said that she was actually at the domsters
to throw away spoiled shrimp pasta. Detectives, of course, didn't
(26:58):
buy it. Her story was full of contradictions. One minute,
she claimed it was Daniel, her boyfriend who went out
that night, the next she admitted it was her. When
they pressed her on her actions at the mobile home park,
she became defensive agitated. She said she couldn't actually remember
what she did there, but one thing stood out the
(27:20):
fact that she had driven to another location to use
the dumpster when she had a perfectly good dumpster where
she lived. Detectives began to formulate a theory that Leilani
had killed Quinton and disposed of him in the trash
(27:41):
on ocsober attained. The investigation into Quentin Simon's disappearance took
detectives to a grim new location, the landfill off Little
Neck Road. They believed that Quinton's tiny body had been
discarded like garbage, tossed into a dumpster collect by sanitation
workers and unknowingly transfer here. Now among thousands of tons
(28:03):
of trash, they were determined to find him. The search
was brutal. Detective's, FBI agents and volunteers from the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources worked side by side, moving minds
of trash onto a massive search deck, then combing through
it inch by inch with rakes and gloved hands. Chief
hadly spoke emotionally about the effort. Our team posted this
(28:26):
picture of Quinton here on the wall of the operations
centre as a reminder of who we're searching for and
why we continue to work so terribly hard. But there
was more than just the sheer scale of the landfill
working against them. Once the trash arrived, bulldozers had shoved
it into compacting cells. Each cell was crushed by a
fifty ton machine, compressing the waste beyond recognition. If Quinton
(28:51):
was here, it was unlikely that his body would be intact.
And while this grim search unfolded, Lei Lannie Simon and
her mother, Billy Joe, were seen drinking tequila shots at
Stingray Bar on nearby Tybee Island. A server remembered their
behavior vividly. They were having a great time, like they
didn't have a care in the world. They were drinking
(29:12):
patron shots in the deck area, being lloyd and laughing.
It's almost like they were trying to draw attention to themselves.
At this point, Leilani was still the lead suspect in
her son's murder, and yet she was free. Detectives insisted
that she wasn't a flight risk. They were carefully building
their case, particulously gathering the evidence they needed to ensure
(29:35):
that when an arrested come it would stick. Legal analyst
Philip Hollowey explained, if they make mistakes now, it could
actually jeopardize the long term success of the prosecution, something
they'll have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Photographs of
Leilani and Billy drinking spread quickly across the media, and
public outrage excluded. People were horrified, how could a woman
(29:59):
suspect of killing her own child be out drinking in
the public with her mother, who had previously claimed to
believe her daughter was responsible. Protesters began gathering outside the
family's home, demanding justice and screaming baby killers. Among them
was Quinton's babysitter, Michelle. She commented in the media, if
(30:20):
my child or grandchild was missing, I wouldn't sleep, I
wouldn't eat, I wouldn't do nothing. I'd be out looking
for my child. In response to the backlash, Billy eventually
spoke to the media. She said that going out was
a mistake. She claimed that France had encouraged her and
Lelanie to get out of the house. Leilanie also broke
(30:41):
her silence.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
I'm here.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
I've been here every day since this.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I am not.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Running and I'm not hiding, and if something does come
up now, I am at fault.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
I will take myself to that police station.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
She insisted that she was innocent and that the public
had turned on her without knowing the fact. But behind
the scenes, the search of the landfill continued with relentless determination,
and then after weeks of digging, there was a breakthrough.
Officer so via Zerki was coming through the mountain of
debris when she noticed something strange, a small white object
(31:20):
out of place against the dark, matted waste.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
I was breaking through the garbage, and then I had
observed a white small object could fit in the palm
of my hand, and it looked like bound to me.
So I remember seeing my lieutenant, Lieutenant Foster, because they
were all on the side and you know, contacting him,
(31:43):
and they came over and removed it.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
It was bone, a human bone. More bones were then discovered,
including a small child sized skull. The remains were carefully
transported to the FBI Laboratory Division. The results came back
it was Quintin Simon. The morning that Quintin's remains were identified,
(32:14):
there was more urgent calls to be made. Billy Joe
Howell picked up the phone and contacted the FBI. She
told them that her daughter, Leilanie, was in a treatment center,
but she was planning on checking herself out. She feared
that her daughter was going to flee, and with a
key suspect now tied to her recovered body, there was
no room for delay. Detectives quickly formed a plant. Billy
(32:39):
was instructed to pick her daughter up and then stall.
She collected Leilani from the center and took her out
for a meal, buying detective's precious time. It worked. Before
Leilani could run, they closed in and she was arrested
without incident. Leilanie Simon was formally charged with the murder
of her son. The charges included my malice, murder, concealing
(33:01):
the death of another, false reporting, and multiple kinds of
making false statements. She waived her initial court appearance, but
entered a play if not guilty. The judge then ordered
that she beheld without bond. Leilani was sent to Chatham
Condy Detention Center, where she was placed under protective Costady.
(33:21):
Sheriff John Wiltshier commented the costady care and well being
of each inmate, regardless of their charges, is of the
utmost priority. Each sworn member of the Sheriff's office takes
an oath to treat every person humanely. But the fallout
didn't end there. On December twelfth, Billy Jo Howell herself
was arrested. The charge was unrelated to Quintin's murder. She
(33:44):
ad violated a court order and was sentenced to ten
days in jail. Then, just one day later, the case
against Leilani deepened. A grand jury handed down nineteen indictments,
including one kind of malice murder and two kinds of
felony murder. According to the indictment, detectives believed that the
night before Quinton was reported missing, Leilani had gotten high
(34:07):
and then brutally beat her son to death with a
heavy object. She then discarded his body in the trash.
Prosecutor cooked Jones address the press and stated, it's a
matter that calls our very humanity into question. These are
the cases that keep us up at night. In March,
Leilani's defense team filed the motion. They argued that the
(34:30):
prosecution hadn't provided enough detail to support the murder charges
and requested that they be thrown out entirely. The judge
denied their request, and so over a year after Quentin
Simon was killed and thrown away like garbage, Leilani would
stand trial for his murder. By October fifteenth, twenty twenty four,
(34:57):
the trial for the murder of Quentin Simon was ready
to begin a jury had been seated. Leilani Simon, now
twenty four years old, was escorted into court and took
her place alongside her defense team. She appeared composed prosecutor
Tim Dane delivered the state's opening statement. He painted a
picture of Leilani's life unraveling, a volatile relationship with her
(35:21):
boyfriend and a growing dependence on drugs. He told the
jury that on the night of October fourth and into
the early hours of the fifth, Leilani had used cocaine
and purkisset. Sometime during the night, they believed that she
killed Quinton, then, with chilling cam she drove to a
domster and discarded his body before returning home and going
(35:43):
to sleep. Dan looked each jur in the eye as
he said she killed him her own son, got in
her car with his body, drove to a domster, and
then threw him away like a piece of trash. He
warned the jury that they wouldn't hear a definitive cause
of death because le Dannie had gone to great lengths
to cover her tracks. He stated, the evidence will show
(36:05):
that her specific intent from the outset was that he
was never to be found at all, and him being
found in peaces was the next best thing. In a
case like this, we don't have to prove how she
killed him, only that she did. Defense attorney Robert Purse
kept his opening remarks brief he accused the state of
relying on rumor's speculation and circumstantial evidence. He stated, the
(36:31):
core conclusion is that Leilanie Marie Simon murdered her child.
The evidence will simply not support that bold conclusion, and
with that the testimony began. The prosecution's first witness was
Sergeant Bobby Stuart, the officer who responded when Quinton was
reported missing. He was asked about Leilani's demeanor. Did you
(36:51):
view her demeanor as consistent with that of other parents
you've spoken to in missing cases? He was asked, no, Sir,
I didn't. He replied, most parents are hysterical. He explained,
Leilanie wasn't crying, she wasn't panicked, there were no tears.
Testimony followed about Leaylani's claims that she never left the
house that night, something proven false by license plate tracking
(37:14):
in cell phone data. On day two of the trial,
the jury watched the footage of Leilani's interrogation. At one point,
she referred to her son in the past tense, staring
he was my happy baby. The prosecutor then paused the
video was not his. He asked the jury next to
(37:34):
testify was Daniel Youngkin. He said his relationship with Leilani
had been deteriorating, and that when he got a call
from Leilani about Quinton being missing, he was at work.
Surveillance footage showed him sprinting from the warehouse desperate. He
said when he arrived home, Leilani was sitting outside. She
hadn't even called the police. It was ultimately Daniel who
(37:57):
called nine one one, and when officers are he learned
that Leilani had told them things she hadn't told him.
Daniel later agreed to cooperate with the FBI, helping them
bug a hotel room that he shared with Leilani. He
asked her questions, pressed her for the truth. She grew
suspicious and accused him of working with the Feds. Then
(38:18):
came downing testimony about Leilani's drug use and how she
treated her children, particularly Quintin. His babysitter, Michelle, said Leilani
frequently left her kids with her or her daughter to
Leah while she went off to buy drugs. Often it
was Daniel dropping them off and picking them up. Rarely,
leilani former friend Melanie Bolling described how Leilani regularly threatened Quentin.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
There's been times when she has been getting long to Quentin, saying, well,
you get the fuck down, you stupid little shit. She
will call them ass wholes, you little assholes.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
I told you to.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Go do this, now, get go do what the fuck
I said before I beat your ass, called him a
bastard child out of anger. I guess he was doing
something like that.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
She testified that Leilani even considered getting abortion, like what
kind of.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
Comments, the comments that wish I at the time, I
wanted to think maybe she was like depressed and going
through something that was my thought process. But thinking of
it now, I don't I don't know, but she would
say how she wished Maybe if I would have didn't
(39:35):
have Quentin, if I would have had the abortion like
Bubba wanted me to, he would still be here.
Speaker 9 (39:42):
Is that something she said to you you after Quentin
had before?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Uh? She has mentioned it after and while.
Speaker 10 (39:49):
She was pregnant.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Talia testified that she saw Leilani push Quinton from behind
into a poll, slap him with the back of her hand,
and show.
Speaker 11 (39:58):
Him with the console like the PlayStation remote control. When
she said that quinnam got ahold of it, and it
was the night before, and I guess she still got
mad talking about it, so she pushed him down.
Speaker 9 (40:13):
Okay, let's pretty good, down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Where were you when this push happened?
Speaker 11 (40:18):
I was. She was by the t key bar and
I was by closer towards the pool where the little
s step is. Okay, So whose house were you at,
Billy Joes?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Okay, you're out back between the TV bar area, yes, sir, okay?
Speaker 8 (40:36):
And what was it that caused uh let Nanni to
push Quentin?
Speaker 11 (40:42):
She got mad because he had supposedly broken the controller
to her PS four.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Okay, p how was this come off?
Speaker 11 (40:51):
When I walked up, I asked her if I could
get Quentin, and she said, yes, please take him, and
then she just let off the conversation because he got
a hold. I'm pretty sure she said it was her
brother arms controller and he was going to be mad
at her.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
He was singled out, treated differently, fed after the other kids,
if he was ever fed at all, Michelle recollected, Quentin
loved us, he was close to us, and I just
felt like he would have been better off at our house.
She told the jury that Quintin often arrived at her
home in per condition. She stated he would be in
(41:28):
a long onesie and he would have poop all over it.
I don't want to say a baby didn't smell good,
but he smelled like rotten milk. He had rings around
his neck. We would immediately bathe him. Finally, cell phone
evidence contradicted Leilani's alibi. Text messages between herself and her
drug dealer were rattled out so.
Speaker 10 (41:48):
Pretty much from when Leilani saved Craig into her phone,
it appears that they began a sexual relationship and were
scheduling meetups to meet sexual airworse.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
And where was it today? Appear to be meeting at
his place of residence. And where's the half of arc
right okay? On art right round?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Half of Highway two or four?
Speaker 6 (42:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Her cell phone had pinged near the azalie A mobile
home plaza, then remained stationary for several minutes, and when
the surveillance footage was grainy, it showed Leilani throwing something
into the dumpster. After eight harrowing days of testimony, the
trial of Leilani Simon came to a close. It was
time for the closing arguments. Prosecutor Tim Deane stood before
(42:35):
the jury one final time. He played video clips of
Leilani's numerous, ever changing stories, each more contradictory than the last.
He stated, she might be calculating, she might be manipulative,
but she's not necessarily that smart. She doesn't understand that
when a child goes missing, they pull out all the stops.
(42:56):
She seriously underestimated the capabilities of people like the Chatham
County Police Department. Then came defense attorney Martin Hilliard. He
urged the jury not to let a motion cloud their judgment.
He stated, we said at the beginning that most, if
not all, of the state's case was based on speculation
and character assassination. The jury listened, then they left the
(43:19):
courtroom to deliberate. Eight hours later, they returned with a verdict.
Leilani Simon was found guilty on all nineteen charges. Outside
the courthouse, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Haley spoke to
the media. Quentin Simon truly became Chatham Condy's child during
the weeks that our community was gripped by his disappearance.
(43:41):
It is fitting that today twelve men and women from
our county delivered the final measure of justice for little
Quintom With their guilty verdict, we hope this brings some
measure of peace and comfort to everybody who loved Quinton.
(44:01):
The sentencing phase followed in November. The prosecution turned the
spotlight back on Nilanni's behavior, not just the crime, but
what came after. They described how she had blamed innocent
people went out drinking the night the landfill search began,
and had even developed a penpower relationship with a convicted
child molester while awaiting trial in jail. Prosecutor Dane stated
(44:25):
she still hasn't accepted responsibility for what she did. They
called on several witnesses to speak about Quintin.
Speaker 12 (44:34):
Talia said Quentin was like a little brother to me,
Quentin in alt just seeing him smile every day, waking
up next to him. He would stay at the house
a lot, missing him every day, not waking up to
see Quentin, not being able to go get Quentin no more.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
It's a lie. My family loved him a lot. I
missed him walking around the house which she's in his hand,
Sam bubbles. I miss him just lighting up the room.
I missed looking at his little bow legs, just run
across the kitchen son.
Speaker 7 (45:08):
It's justice.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
The defense called on le Nannie's family. Her aunt, Jockie Madden,
explained toile Nanni had lived with her as a child
because her mother, Billy, was addicted to drugs. Jackie told
the court.
Speaker 6 (45:23):
I was and am angry at the fact that drugs
caused the tragedy to happen in our family. Drugs took
Quentin and Leilani from us. Quentin will forever be in
my heart, my thoughts, and loved by me, but his life,
his body, his love will never be seen or fulfilled
due to the influence of drugs. As for Leilani, her
(45:47):
life will never be the same.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Even Leilani's mother, Billy Joe, took the stunt. She admitted, Oh, my.
Speaker 7 (45:57):
Drugs has taken down had a huge impact on our
entire lives. Even as Leilani's childhood, I felt.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Her as a mom.
Speaker 7 (46:11):
I allowed addiction to take over my life at a
young age, and you and your brother were just babies
and you lived with my sister and I made sure
you were okay.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
And through those times, it was still really.
Speaker 9 (46:29):
Hard on you because she wanted your mom, just like
I know they're gonna want their mom when.
Speaker 7 (46:40):
You come to live with me. I'd already changed my
life and I'd been working really hard. But I had
changed my addiction.
Speaker 9 (46:48):
From drugs to work, and I still neglected your needs,
your emotional needs. I still wasn't there for you to
be your mom. My decisions have played an impact, oh,
(47:08):
things that have happened in your life, and there is
absolutely not that I could do to take it away.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
When Leilani was offered the opportunity to speak, she declined,
but she did provide one final statement. She gave permission
for Quinton's remains, formed at the landfill, ravaged by time
and waste, to be released to her family. She said,
my son's been through enough. I want my baby home.
(47:39):
Leilanie Simon was then sentenced to life in prison with
the possibility of parole. Quentin Simon was just twenty months old,
a little boy with a bright smile, big eyes, and
a life that never got the chance to begin. He
deserved love, he deserved safety, he deserved so much more,
(48:00):
and while justice can never bring him back. Well, Bestie's
that is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always,
(48:22):
thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
say a massive thank you to my newest supporter up
on Patreon Kitlin. The link to Patreon is in the
show notes. If you'd like to join, you can join
for as little as one dollar a month and there
are absolutely no obligations. You can cancel your subscription at
any point. As an independent show, the support upon Patreon
seriously goes such a long way, and I genuinely am
(48:44):
eternally grateful. If you didn't know, Morbidology is now up
on YouTube and the episodes there are presented in a
documentary style, so please do head on over to YouTube
and hit that subscribe button. Remember to check us out
at morebidology dot com for more information about this episode
and to read some trig Grim articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.
Will say, always come dressed.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Several times we got Quinton and he would be in
a long onesie and he would have poop from all over.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Savannah and Georgia is a city where the past never
truly disappe. With its cobbled streets, moss straped oak trees,
and centuries old architecture, it feels almost suspended in time.
The Historic District draws visitors from around the world, lured
by tales of Antebellum mansions, civil war ghosts, and Southern charm.
But beyond the postcard perfect squares and quiet courtyards, Savannah
(01:19):
is a place like any other one, where beauty and
tragedy often exist side by side. In the suburban neighborhood
of Buckholter Road, just a short drive from the city
storied Heart, life tends to move a little slower. The
homes here are daughdl along a road surrounded by dense
woodland and open spaces of grain. One morning in October
(01:42):
twenty twenty two and nine, one one call came from
one of these homes. A young mother reported that shea
hade woken up to find her twenty month old son gone,
and the front door was lying wide open.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Her one year old man is missing and woke up.
Her door was opened as.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
A tunny able to open a door things.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
One came in and he pound.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Savannah, Georgia is a city known for its cobblestone streets,
moss striped oaks, and historic charm. But just on the
outskirts of this southern city there's a quieter, more rural
stretch of road called bock Halter Road. It's there, surrounded
by dense woodlands where a young family lived in a
modest home. That home belonged to Billy Howell and her
(02:39):
husband Thomas. It was home not just to them, but
also to their daughter, Leilanie Simon and her children. Among
them was twenty month old Quentin Simon, a little boy
with bright eyes and a massive smile. Quentin had been
born into a world that quickly became complicated. His biological parents,
Ley Lannie Simon and Henry bust Or didn't stay together
(03:01):
for long. Their relationship had fractured early on, and Henry
wasn't a consistent presence in Quinton's life. Quentin lived with
his mother, Leilanie, her boyfriend Daniel Youngkin, and his two siblings,
an older brother and sister The family lived under the
roof of Quinton's grandparents, Billy and Thomas Hoyle, who helped
(03:22):
raise the children and provide support for their daughter. Despite
the instability that often clauded the household, Quentin was deeply
loved by his grandparents. His grandfather, Thomas Hoyle, would fondly say,
he's a great kid, smart, always smiling. I mean, he
lights up your life. To Thomas, Quinton wasn't just a grandson.
(03:43):
Thomas spoke about how Quinton loved being picked up and
played with. He was happiest in his grandfather's arms, giggling
and reaching for the television remote or a cell phone.
Like most oddlers, Quinton was curious, always exploring, always wanting
to be like one of the big kids. And there
was no one he wanted to be like more than
his older brother. He adored him, chasing after him through
(04:06):
the house, copying his every move. Whatever his big brother did,
Quentin was right behind, eager to follow. It was the
kind of innocent admiration that only as Holdler could give.
His Boby sitter, Michelle fondly recalled, he loved cheese.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Every time I would get home from work, he would
won't Mac and cheese, and he would go to the
refrigerator and he would get my cheese out, my block
of cheese for me to cut it for him. And
if I would have let him, he'd ate the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
He loved bloody bee. He loved bubbles.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Anytime we could go to the store get him bubbles,
he just loved them.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
He was a very happy baby, and he was with us.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Quentin was described by family as a bright, happy, fun,
smart and loving little monkey. In the mornings, he would
wake up down spinning in a circle the music, clapping
his little hands with delight. There was an emic kindness
in Quintin that bellied his young age. He was polite,
always sank thank you, always giving hugs. If he saw
(05:13):
somebody standing nearby, he'd run up and wrap his tiny
arms around their legs. And when Quentin was proud of himself,
which was often, he had a special way of showing it.
He would look up the nearest adult with his eyes
shining with pride, and ask for a boom, his version
of a fist bump. Quintin loved cartoons, including PJ. Masks,
(05:33):
Paul Patrol, and Dragon Tales. These weren't just shows to him,
They were entire worlds, heroes, adventures, friendships. They were a
reflection of a world where good triumphed, where bad things
were solved by the end of the episode, a world
where children were always safe. But the real world doesn't
(05:54):
follow these rules, and sometimes the monsters aren't on television screens.
Sometimes they live closer than we'd like to imagine. It
(06:17):
was just after nine thirty a m. On the morning
of October fifth, twenty twenty two. It's Vanna's nine one
one dispatch center. It's business as usual. Operators moved through
their routine shifts, headsets on, voices calm, ready to guide
emergencies across Chatham County. Then a call came in. On
the other end of the line was Leilani Simon and
(06:39):
her boyfriend Daniel Junkin. Their voices were panicked. Leilani could
be heard in the background wailing. She cried out, I
can't find my son. Twenty month old Quentin Simon was gone.
According to Leilani, she had gone to bed just after midnight. Quentin,
she said, had been asleep in this pack and play. Daniel,
(07:02):
who had left her work around six a m. Came
rushing home when Leilani called him in a panic. The
front door, she said, had been left open. This was
a seemingly important detail, as Leilanie explained that Quinton couldn't
yet open doors. I could only mean one thing in
her eyes. Somebody must have come in and taken him.
(07:22):
Police arrive swiftly at the home on Buckholter Road, a
semi rural strip tucked into the outskirts of Savannah. It's
a place where thick woodland brushes up against aging homes,
where the quiet of the morning is only broken by
bird song and the occasional passing car. But this morning
it was flooded with patrol vehicles. Officers immediately began searching,
(07:43):
calling out Quinton's name through the yard, through the thick
brush that bordered the property. They moved quickly but carefully,
checking behind sheds, under porches, inside trash binds, any place
that a curious toddler might wander or hide. It became
clear quickly that he wasn't in the house, and he
wasn't in the yard, and he wasn't anywhere nearby. The
(08:04):
search then expanded outward. Officers moved in widening circles, searching
nearby ditches, overgrown trails and even the roadside drains. The
streets around the Simon home were soon corded off with
yellow tape as uniformed officers redirected traffic and volunteers began
to arrive. Neighbors who were shaken by the news joined
(08:25):
the efforts. Casey Bower's, a nearby resident, helped search the area.
She expressed the urgency that many were feeling when she said,
it's a kid that's probably scared. Michelle Miller echoed her.
She said that if it were her child, she want
the entire community outlooking, and the community did come. They
canvassed in nearby woods, combed through grassy ditches, and peered
(08:49):
into the murky ponds that dotted the area. The land
out there with thick and wild imparts, pockets of swampy lowland,
and clusters of pine that made visibility difficult. At tracking
dog was brought in, its nose pressed to the earth
as it searched for even the faintest trace of quintin.
A helicopter, which was typically used for moscado control, hovered
(09:10):
above the trees, scanning from the air. The dive team
was called in next, outfitted in black neoprine, slipping into
the nearby streams and ponds to search the waters. By nightfall,
darkness had forced the search to a halt, at least
on the ground, but overhead, a thermal imaging helicopter stayed
in the air, scanning the landscape with infrared. The next morning,
(09:32):
the search for Quinton resumed. Police officers, volunteers, dogs and
divers again spread out a crossbock Halter Road and beyond.
The FBI then stepped in, offering their resources and support
to the increasingly urgent investigation. They obtained to search weren't
for the family home. It was a necessary procedure, standard
(09:53):
protocol and missing children cases. They said. Agents could be
seen coming and going from the home carrying bro paper
evidence bags. The front yard, which was once scattered with
children's toys and a tiny slide, had become a scene
of law enforcement activity. Chadam Conney Police Chief Jeff Hadley
addressed the growing media presence outside the family's home. He stated,
(10:17):
we're very concerned about Quintin. We're hoping we can find
him safe and bring him home to his parents. He
was careful to emphasize that at this point there was
no evidence of an abduction, no science of foul play,
but the undertone was clear. Hope was growing more fragile
with each passing r Still, the message remained steady, as
he said, we're going to hold out hope that he's
(10:38):
still alive and that we can find him and bring
him home safe to his parents. But behind that hope,
behind the police tape, the media lines, and the public reassurances,
there were questions. As news of Quintin's disappearance spread. His grandparents,
(11:06):
Thomas and Billy Hoyle, were out of torn, but the
moment they heard what had happened, they dropped everything and
raced back to Savannah. Thomas, Quinton's grandfather, was visibly shaken.
Speaking to reporters outside the family home, he said, it's
been rough, real rough. He stood in the yard where
his grandson once played, trying to make sense of something
(11:27):
that made no sense at all. For Thomas, one thing
stuck out as particularly odd Lelanie had initially told him
that Quinton had been picked up by his biological father,
that he was maybe with him, but when detectives contacted
Quinton's father, Henry Moss Junior, they quickly rolled them out.
He hadn't seen Quinton, he hadn't been anywhere near the
(11:49):
house that morning. He hadn't seen his son or Leilanie
for months. The police exhaustively searched his home, and they
combed through his whereabouts minute by minute. Alibi was airtight,
confirmed not only by witnesses but by his cell phone records.
He was miles away, and that path led to a
dead end. Leilani also suggested that Quinton may have opened
(12:11):
the door and wandered off, but that detail didn't add
up to Thomas. Quinton, he explained, had never opened doors
on his own. Thomas stated, so, I mean, that's what's
crazy about everything. The house was secure. The front door,
according to Leilani, had been left open. But if Quinton
(12:32):
couldn't open it himself, somebody else must have. That thought
lingered heavily in the air. And yet, despite Thomas's certainty,
other voices in the neighborhood began to paint a very
different picture. Several neighbors came forward with memories that complicated
the story. They claimed to have seen Quintin outside before alone.
(12:53):
One woman recalled the time when she'd spotted him in
the street running back and forth. She'd been terrified that
he dare into the road and be struck by a car.
If those sightings were true, then Quinton might have opened
the door before, or maybe somebody had left it open
for him. The stories did in the line, and family
members said one thing, neighbors another. Leilani had given a
(13:18):
version of events that quickly changed, first saying that Quinton
was in his bed, then later suggesting he had been
picked up by his father. Police weren't yet ready to
accuse anybody of anything, but behind closed doors, the inconsistencies
weren't going unnoticed. Detectives were beginning to realize that this
wasn't just a simple missing child case, and while the
(13:39):
search continued and the community clung to hope, investigators were
quietly beginning to look much closer to home. The next
day passed in a blur. Police combed the woods. Search
(14:02):
crews walked shoulder to shoulder through the brush and ditches.
Helicopter circled above, but there was still no sign of
quintin Simon, and as the son began to dip below
the tree line on that second night, it seemed like
something else was unraveling. Something inside the home on bock
Halter Road. According to neighbors, voices carried through the thin
(14:26):
walls and odd into the night. He did, arguments, accusations, tears,
and while the chaos of that night was especially intense,
those who lived near by said that this wasn't anything new.
That house had always been volatile. Quinton and his two
siblings had grown up in the thick of it, a
(14:46):
home rife with instability, addiction, and a long standing cycle
of dysfunction with Lannie Simon, Quentin's twenty two year old mother,
had a long history of drug use. She was addicted
to cocaine, and according to Quinton's father, Henry, it was
her addiction that ultimately drove them apart. He stated she
(15:08):
did cocaine every day, all day, as much as she could.
Their relationship, much like everything else in that home, was combustible.
They had been arrested together more than once for theft.
He remembered the darker side of those days, nights, where
she'd get violent if she didn't have money to buy drugs.
(15:28):
He recollected, she hit me in the face. He also
claimed that when the money ran dry, Leilani found other
ways to get what she wanted, using her body in
exchange for cash and When Henry came to the house
after Quintin disappeared, what he saw shocked him. He stated,
every one of them was high as a kite and
(15:49):
drunk as hell. Lelanie was on something. She wasn't crying
when I walked up. She was laughing and having a
good time with everybody. It looked like a party. Our
wasn't the reaction one would expect from a mother whose
twenty month old son was missing. The family's history with
law enforcement went back years. In twenty twenty one, the
(16:11):
land had been arrested in North Carolina for stealing two
packs of cigarettes, a bag of popcorn, and a drink
from the Love's truck stop where she worked. Since the
items were taken from her place of employment, the charge
was upgraded to felony larceny. She moved her family to
Georgia shortly thereafter, but the problems didn't stop. If anything,
(16:32):
they intensified. Quentin's babysitter, Michelle McCarter, had witnessed firsthand the
neglect that Quinton experienced. She recalled how he often showed
up to her home in soiled clothing, smelling like saur milk.
Sometimes he had bruises and he never wanted to go home.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Will Zay always come dressed.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Several times we got Quinton and he would be in
a long onesee and he would have poop from all over.
I don't want to say a baby didn't smell good,
but he smelled like rotten milk. He had wings around
his neck. We'd immediately bathe him and put him fresh
(17:14):
clothes on.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
When it came time to drop him off in the evening,
she said he would cry cling to her and beg
to stay. Which that wasn't the only one that was concerned.
Quinton's grandparents, Billy and Thomas, had seen the warning signs
as well. Eventually they stepped in. They filed for custody
of Quinton and his siblings, citing Leilani's addiction and her
(17:36):
inability to provide safe care. In court documents, Leilani was
described as a chronic, unrehabilitated substance abuser of cocaine and cannabis.
It was even revealed that she had tested positive for
cookaine at the birth of one of her children. Despite
losing Costady, Leilani still lived in the home with her
children under the roof of her parents, but things were
(17:59):
far from Harmonium. Lelanie had been ordered to pay child support,
but she failed to do so. In April, the Georgia
Department of Human Services sued her to enforce the payments.
By the time October rolled around, things were reaching a
breaking point. Lannie was in the process of being evicted.
On September seventh, less than a month before Quinton vanished,
(18:21):
police were called to the home after a domestic dispute
between Leilanie and her mother. The fight had started over laundry,
but it wasn't really about laundry. When officers arrived, Leilanie
was panicked. She told them that she was on probation
and she didn't want any trouble. She accused her mother
of shoving her. Billy, on the other hand, told police
(18:43):
that she was fed up, tired of being the one
who kept the household together while her daughter and her
boyfriend contributed nothing but chaos. Billy wanted them out. The
next day, she fouled the viction paperwork, accusing Leilani and
her boyfriend Daniel, of causing damage to the home. In
the document, she had written, no one is living in peace.
(19:05):
The eviction proceedings were soon followed up by a child support.
Hearing Lelannie didn't show up, a judge signed a default
order requiring her to pay one hundred and fifty dollars
a month. The payments never came, and now, just weeks later,
her son was missing. By now, the search for Quinton
(19:29):
had gone from hopeful the heartbreaking. The scent of suspicion
hung heavy in the air, not just around Leilanie Simon,
but around the entire household at five three five buck
Alter Road. While Leilani was Quintin's biological mother, custody had
legally belonged to her parents, Billy and Thomas, But in
the wake of Quintin's disappearance, that arrangement came under the
(19:53):
microscope as well. Child Protective Services swiftly removed Quinton's two
siblings from Billy's care. Their reasoning was blunt. They said
that Billy had failed to provide adequate supervision. She had
left the children in the care of Leilanie to go
out of state despite knowing her daughter's volatile history and
substance abuse. In the words of CPS, she knew or
(20:15):
should have known, her daughter was unfit to provide proper care.
The children were placed into foster care while the court
worked to determine what should happen next. But the deeper
that investigators looked, the more troubling details came to light.
Billy Hoyle had her own problems, ones that raised serious
questions about her ability to provide a stable home. She too,
(20:39):
had a lengthy criminal record, eighteen arrests over the years
for crimes ranging from grand larceny to burglary to cocame
possession and prostitution, as sault and fraud. It painted a
picture not of stability, but of a lifetime spent dodging consequences,
a noy in the eyes of the growing storm. Billy
and Thomas were starting to voice their own doubts about Leilani.
(21:03):
Thomas didn't mince his words when he said, she's lied
to us so many times, and I don't know it's
bad to say, but she just likes to lie. Are
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dot com. Let them support you on your journey to wellbeing. Billy,
who found herself between the role of mother and grandmother,
was more conflicted. In a moment of quiet honesty, she
stated she hasn't always done the right thing. Sometimes she
(22:10):
does really great, sometimes she doesn't. I don't know what
to think right now. I don't know what to believe.
But privately her fears ran deeper. In a recorded phone
call with Quintin's father, Henry, Billy revealed what she really
thought had happened. She said, honestly and frankly, Bubba, I'm
(22:30):
not going to lie to you. I feel like there
was an accident. She went on to say she believed
that Leilanie and her boyfriend Daniel had been high, that
maybe Quinton had drowned in the bathtub, and in their
drug field panic, they covered it up. Henry was stunned
and he said if that were true, they should have
called the police. Billy responded with chilling simplicity. If you're
(22:55):
high as hell, ma'am, you do stupid shit. Billy and
Thomas weren't the only ones whose trust had been chattered. Michelle,
Quinton's babysitter, had spent the past six months caring for
him and his older brother Zan. Every weekday morning she
would welcome them into her home, even on the days
where Leylanie didn't have work. Michelle knew the children well.
(23:18):
She knew their moods, their habits, their fears. She told
detectives that Quinton often arrived at her home dirty, hungry,
or with bruises, and that while Leaylanie showed some degree
of affection towards seeing her, behavior towards Quinton was different.
She stated it was loveless. To the other kids. She
showed love, she showed concern to Quintin it wasn't concern
(23:42):
and love. On the morning of the fifth of October,
at five thirty a m. Michelle had received a text
message from Leylanie. It said she wouldn't be bringing the
kids that day. This was just ours before she reported
Quinton missing. By the ninth of October, the hope of
(24:07):
finding Quentin Simon alive was beginning to fade. The search
efforts had grown into one of the most intents in
Chatham County history. The FBI was now involved and detectives
were working around the clock, and on that day they
launched an new anonymous tip line, hoping that maybe someone
who knew something would finally speak up. But that wasn't
(24:27):
the only announcement. For the first time since Quentin's disappearance,
authorities confirmed what many had already feared. This was not
a criminal investigation. Police chief hardly announced we don't have
anything confirmed, so we can't say anything absolutely, but it
is fair to say that our efforts and the coordination
(24:47):
and the cooperation with the FBI providing an abundance of
resources to us, means that we are looking at the
criminal investigation aspect of it as well. Just days later,
detectives publicly stated that they believed Quentin Simon was dead
and they had a suspect in mind, his own mother,
Lei Lannie Simon. Lannie had spoken with police after reporting
(25:10):
her son missing, but from the beginning her story didn't
add up. At first, she said she had been home
all night, but that was a lie. Investigators checked flock,
which is an automated license plate recognition system, and discovered
that her vehicle had been seen driving laid on October fourth,
and again in the early morning hours of October fifth.
(25:32):
Got in a lie. Leilanie changed her story. This time
she claimed she had left the home to meet her
drug dealer and pay off an old debt. But once
again this wasn't the truth. She wasn't just paying off
a debt, she was purchasing more drugs. At first, i
Lannie tried to downplay her drug use. She said she
had only smoked marijuana and had only used that in
(25:54):
the past twenty four hours. However, she had actually been
using cocaine and percoset, and this wasn't the only suspicious
trip she took that night. Leilani later told police that
she had also gone out in the early morning ours
to meet a friend somebody named Misty, to get oragel
from her wisdom tooth pain. She said that they had
(26:15):
met at a gas station, but surveillance footage showed another story.
Leilanie never stopped at the gas station. Instead, cameras picked
her up at a very different location, the dompsters at
az Aaliah mobile Home Park. When confronted with this, Leilanie
shifted her story once more. She claimed that she had
(26:36):
in fact met Misty at the dompsters instead, But detectives
tracked this woman down. Her real name was Melissa Bray,
and Melissa hadn't seen Leilanie in months, not since July,
when she lent her a gas can that was never returned.
Lelanie then said that she was actually at the domsters
to throw away spoiled shrimp pasta. Detectives, of course, didn't
(26:58):
buy it. Her story was full of contradictions. One minute,
she claimed it was Daniel, her boyfriend who went out
that night, the next she admitted it was her. When
they pressed her on her actions at the mobile home park,
she became defensive agitated. She said she couldn't actually remember
what she did there, but one thing stood out the
(27:20):
fact that she had driven to another location to use
the dumpster when she had a perfectly good dumpster where
she lived. Detectives began to formulate a theory that Leilani
had killed Quinton and disposed of him in the trash
(27:41):
on ocsober attained. The investigation into Quentin Simon's disappearance took
detectives to a grim new location, the landfill off Little
Neck Road. They believed that Quinton's tiny body had been
discarded like garbage, tossed into a dumpster collect by sanitation
workers and unknowingly transfer here. Now among thousands of tons
(28:03):
of trash, they were determined to find him. The search
was brutal. Detective's, FBI agents and volunteers from the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources worked side by side, moving minds
of trash onto a massive search deck, then combing through
it inch by inch with rakes and gloved hands. Chief
hadly spoke emotionally about the effort. Our team posted this
(28:26):
picture of Quinton here on the wall of the operations
centre as a reminder of who we're searching for and
why we continue to work so terribly hard. But there
was more than just the sheer scale of the landfill
working against them. Once the trash arrived, bulldozers had shoved
it into compacting cells. Each cell was crushed by a
fifty ton machine, compressing the waste beyond recognition. If Quinton
(28:51):
was here, it was unlikely that his body would be intact.
And while this grim search unfolded, Lei Lannie Simon and
her mother, Billy Joe, were seen drinking tequila shots at
Stingray Bar on nearby Tybee Island. A server remembered their
behavior vividly. They were having a great time, like they
didn't have a care in the world. They were drinking
(29:12):
patron shots in the deck area, being lloyd and laughing.
It's almost like they were trying to draw attention to themselves.
At this point, Leilani was still the lead suspect in
her son's murder, and yet she was free. Detectives insisted
that she wasn't a flight risk. They were carefully building
their case, particulously gathering the evidence they needed to ensure
(29:35):
that when an arrested come it would stick. Legal analyst
Philip Hollowey explained, if they make mistakes now, it could
actually jeopardize the long term success of the prosecution, something
they'll have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Photographs of
Leilani and Billy drinking spread quickly across the media, and
public outrage excluded. People were horrified, how could a woman
(29:59):
suspect of killing her own child be out drinking in
the public with her mother, who had previously claimed to
believe her daughter was responsible. Protesters began gathering outside the
family's home, demanding justice and screaming baby killers. Among them
was Quinton's babysitter, Michelle. She commented in the media, if
(30:20):
my child or grandchild was missing, I wouldn't sleep, I
wouldn't eat, I wouldn't do nothing. I'd be out looking
for my child. In response to the backlash, Billy eventually
spoke to the media. She said that going out was
a mistake. She claimed that France had encouraged her and
Lelanie to get out of the house. Leilanie also broke
(30:41):
her silence.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
I'm here.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
I've been here every day since this.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I am not.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Running and I'm not hiding, and if something does come
up now, I am at fault.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
I will take myself to that police station.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
She insisted that she was innocent and that the public
had turned on her without knowing the fact. But behind
the scenes, the search of the landfill continued with relentless determination,
and then after weeks of digging, there was a breakthrough.
Officer so via Zerki was coming through the mountain of
debris when she noticed something strange, a small white object
(31:20):
out of place against the dark, matted waste.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
I was breaking through the garbage, and then I had
observed a white small object could fit in the palm
of my hand, and it looked like bound to me.
So I remember seeing my lieutenant, Lieutenant Foster, because they
were all on the side and you know, contacting him,
(31:43):
and they came over and removed it.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
It was bone, a human bone. More bones were then discovered,
including a small child sized skull. The remains were carefully
transported to the FBI Laboratory Division. The results came back
it was Quintin Simon. The morning that Quintin's remains were identified,
(32:14):
there was more urgent calls to be made. Billy Joe
Howell picked up the phone and contacted the FBI. She
told them that her daughter, Leilanie, was in a treatment center,
but she was planning on checking herself out. She feared
that her daughter was going to flee, and with a
key suspect now tied to her recovered body, there was
no room for delay. Detectives quickly formed a plant. Billy
(32:39):
was instructed to pick her daughter up and then stall.
She collected Leilani from the center and took her out
for a meal, buying detective's precious time. It worked. Before
Leilani could run, they closed in and she was arrested
without incident. Leilanie Simon was formally charged with the murder
of her son. The charges included my malice, murder, concealing
(33:01):
the death of another, false reporting, and multiple kinds of
making false statements. She waived her initial court appearance, but
entered a play if not guilty. The judge then ordered
that she beheld without bond. Leilani was sent to Chatham
Condy Detention Center, where she was placed under protective Costady.
(33:21):
Sheriff John Wiltshier commented the costady care and well being
of each inmate, regardless of their charges, is of the
utmost priority. Each sworn member of the Sheriff's office takes
an oath to treat every person humanely. But the fallout
didn't end there. On December twelfth, Billy Jo Howell herself
was arrested. The charge was unrelated to Quintin's murder. She
(33:44):
ad violated a court order and was sentenced to ten
days in jail. Then, just one day later, the case
against Leilani deepened. A grand jury handed down nineteen indictments,
including one kind of malice murder and two kinds of
felony murder. According to the indictment, detectives believed that the
night before Quinton was reported missing, Leilani had gotten high
(34:07):
and then brutally beat her son to death with a
heavy object. She then discarded his body in the trash.
Prosecutor cooked Jones address the press and stated, it's a
matter that calls our very humanity into question. These are
the cases that keep us up at night. In March,
Leilani's defense team filed the motion. They argued that the
(34:30):
prosecution hadn't provided enough detail to support the murder charges
and requested that they be thrown out entirely. The judge
denied their request, and so over a year after Quentin
Simon was killed and thrown away like garbage, Leilani would
stand trial for his murder. By October fifteenth, twenty twenty four,
(34:57):
the trial for the murder of Quentin Simon was ready
to begin a jury had been seated. Leilani Simon, now
twenty four years old, was escorted into court and took
her place alongside her defense team. She appeared composed prosecutor
Tim Dane delivered the state's opening statement. He painted a
picture of Leilani's life unraveling, a volatile relationship with her
(35:21):
boyfriend and a growing dependence on drugs. He told the
jury that on the night of October fourth and into
the early hours of the fifth, Leilani had used cocaine
and purkisset. Sometime during the night, they believed that she
killed Quinton, then, with chilling cam she drove to a
domster and discarded his body before returning home and going
(35:43):
to sleep. Dan looked each jur in the eye as
he said she killed him her own son, got in
her car with his body, drove to a domster, and
then threw him away like a piece of trash. He
warned the jury that they wouldn't hear a definitive cause
of death because le Dannie had gone to great lengths
to cover her tracks. He stated, the evidence will show
(36:05):
that her specific intent from the outset was that he
was never to be found at all, and him being
found in peaces was the next best thing. In a
case like this, we don't have to prove how she
killed him, only that she did. Defense attorney Robert Purse
kept his opening remarks brief he accused the state of
relying on rumor's speculation and circumstantial evidence. He stated, the
(36:31):
core conclusion is that Leilanie Marie Simon murdered her child.
The evidence will simply not support that bold conclusion, and
with that the testimony began. The prosecution's first witness was
Sergeant Bobby Stuart, the officer who responded when Quinton was
reported missing. He was asked about Leilani's demeanor. Did you
(36:51):
view her demeanor as consistent with that of other parents
you've spoken to in missing cases? He was asked, no, Sir,
I didn't. He replied, most parents are hysterical. He explained,
Leilanie wasn't crying, she wasn't panicked, there were no tears.
Testimony followed about Leaylani's claims that she never left the
house that night, something proven false by license plate tracking
(37:14):
in cell phone data. On day two of the trial,
the jury watched the footage of Leilani's interrogation. At one point,
she referred to her son in the past tense, staring
he was my happy baby. The prosecutor then paused the
video was not his. He asked the jury next to
(37:34):
testify was Daniel Youngkin. He said his relationship with Leilani
had been deteriorating, and that when he got a call
from Leilani about Quinton being missing, he was at work.
Surveillance footage showed him sprinting from the warehouse desperate. He
said when he arrived home, Leilani was sitting outside. She
hadn't even called the police. It was ultimately Daniel who
(37:57):
called nine one one, and when officers are he learned
that Leilani had told them things she hadn't told him.
Daniel later agreed to cooperate with the FBI, helping them
bug a hotel room that he shared with Leilani. He
asked her questions, pressed her for the truth. She grew
suspicious and accused him of working with the Feds. Then
(38:18):
came downing testimony about Leilani's drug use and how she
treated her children, particularly Quintin. His babysitter, Michelle, said Leilani
frequently left her kids with her or her daughter to
Leah while she went off to buy drugs. Often it
was Daniel dropping them off and picking them up. Rarely,
leilani former friend Melanie Bolling described how Leilani regularly threatened Quentin.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
There's been times when she has been getting long to Quentin, saying, well,
you get the fuck down, you stupid little shit. She
will call them ass wholes, you little assholes.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
I told you to.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Go do this, now, get go do what the fuck
I said before I beat your ass, called him a
bastard child out of anger. I guess he was doing
something like that.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
She testified that Leilani even considered getting abortion, like what
kind of.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
Comments, the comments that wish I at the time, I
wanted to think maybe she was like depressed and going
through something that was my thought process. But thinking of
it now, I don't I don't know, but she would
say how she wished Maybe if I would have didn't
(39:35):
have Quentin, if I would have had the abortion like
Bubba wanted me to, he would still be here.
Speaker 9 (39:42):
Is that something she said to you you after Quentin
had before?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Uh? She has mentioned it after and while.
Speaker 10 (39:49):
She was pregnant.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Talia testified that she saw Leilani push Quinton from behind
into a poll, slap him with the back of her hand,
and show.
Speaker 11 (39:58):
Him with the console like the PlayStation remote control. When
she said that quinnam got ahold of it, and it
was the night before, and I guess she still got
mad talking about it, so she pushed him down.
Speaker 9 (40:13):
Okay, let's pretty good, down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Where were you when this push happened?
Speaker 11 (40:18):
I was. She was by the t key bar and
I was by closer towards the pool where the little
s step is. Okay, So whose house were you at,
Billy Joes?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Okay, you're out back between the TV bar area, yes, sir, okay?
Speaker 8 (40:36):
And what was it that caused uh let Nanni to
push Quentin?
Speaker 11 (40:42):
She got mad because he had supposedly broken the controller
to her PS four.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Okay, p how was this come off?
Speaker 11 (40:51):
When I walked up, I asked her if I could
get Quentin, and she said, yes, please take him, and
then she just let off the conversation because he got
a hold. I'm pretty sure she said it was her
brother arms controller and he was going to be mad
at her.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
He was singled out, treated differently, fed after the other kids,
if he was ever fed at all, Michelle recollected, Quentin
loved us, he was close to us, and I just
felt like he would have been better off at our house.
She told the jury that Quintin often arrived at her
home in per condition. She stated he would be in
(41:28):
a long onesie and he would have poop all over it.
I don't want to say a baby didn't smell good,
but he smelled like rotten milk. He had rings around
his neck. We would immediately bathe him. Finally, cell phone
evidence contradicted Leilani's alibi. Text messages between herself and her
drug dealer were rattled out so.
Speaker 10 (41:48):
Pretty much from when Leilani saved Craig into her phone,
it appears that they began a sexual relationship and were
scheduling meetups to meet sexual airworse.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
And where was it today? Appear to be meeting at
his place of residence. And where's the half of arc
right okay? On art right round?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Half of Highway two or four?
Speaker 6 (42:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Her cell phone had pinged near the azalie A mobile
home plaza, then remained stationary for several minutes, and when
the surveillance footage was grainy, it showed Leilani throwing something
into the dumpster. After eight harrowing days of testimony, the
trial of Leilani Simon came to a close. It was
time for the closing arguments. Prosecutor Tim Deane stood before
(42:35):
the jury one final time. He played video clips of
Leilani's numerous, ever changing stories, each more contradictory than the last.
He stated, she might be calculating, she might be manipulative,
but she's not necessarily that smart. She doesn't understand that
when a child goes missing, they pull out all the stops.
(42:56):
She seriously underestimated the capabilities of people like the Chatham
County Police Department. Then came defense attorney Martin Hilliard. He
urged the jury not to let a motion cloud their judgment.
He stated, we said at the beginning that most, if
not all, of the state's case was based on speculation
and character assassination. The jury listened, then they left the
(43:19):
courtroom to deliberate. Eight hours later, they returned with a verdict.
Leilani Simon was found guilty on all nineteen charges. Outside
the courthouse, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Haley spoke to
the media. Quentin Simon truly became Chatham Condy's child during
the weeks that our community was gripped by his disappearance.
(43:41):
It is fitting that today twelve men and women from
our county delivered the final measure of justice for little
Quintom With their guilty verdict, we hope this brings some
measure of peace and comfort to everybody who loved Quinton.
(44:01):
The sentencing phase followed in November. The prosecution turned the
spotlight back on Nilanni's behavior, not just the crime, but
what came after. They described how she had blamed innocent
people went out drinking the night the landfill search began,
and had even developed a penpower relationship with a convicted
child molester while awaiting trial in jail. Prosecutor Dane stated
(44:25):
she still hasn't accepted responsibility for what she did. They
called on several witnesses to speak about Quintin.
Speaker 12 (44:34):
Talia said Quentin was like a little brother to me,
Quentin in alt just seeing him smile every day, waking
up next to him. He would stay at the house
a lot, missing him every day, not waking up to
see Quentin, not being able to go get Quentin no more.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
It's a lie. My family loved him a lot. I
missed him walking around the house which she's in his hand,
Sam bubbles. I miss him just lighting up the room.
I missed looking at his little bow legs, just run
across the kitchen son.
Speaker 7 (45:08):
It's justice.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
The defense called on le Nannie's family. Her aunt, Jockie Madden,
explained toile Nanni had lived with her as a child
because her mother, Billy, was addicted to drugs. Jackie told
the court.
Speaker 6 (45:23):
I was and am angry at the fact that drugs
caused the tragedy to happen in our family. Drugs took
Quentin and Leilani from us. Quentin will forever be in
my heart, my thoughts, and loved by me, but his life,
his body, his love will never be seen or fulfilled
due to the influence of drugs. As for Leilani, her
(45:47):
life will never be the same.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Even Leilani's mother, Billy Joe, took the stunt. She admitted, Oh, my.
Speaker 7 (45:57):
Drugs has taken down had a huge impact on our
entire lives. Even as Leilani's childhood, I felt.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Her as a mom.
Speaker 7 (46:11):
I allowed addiction to take over my life at a
young age, and you and your brother were just babies
and you lived with my sister and I made sure
you were okay.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
And through those times, it was still really.
Speaker 9 (46:29):
Hard on you because she wanted your mom, just like
I know they're gonna want their mom when.
Speaker 7 (46:40):
You come to live with me. I'd already changed my
life and I'd been working really hard. But I had
changed my addiction.
Speaker 9 (46:48):
From drugs to work, and I still neglected your needs,
your emotional needs. I still wasn't there for you to
be your mom. My decisions have played an impact, oh,
(47:08):
things that have happened in your life, and there is
absolutely not that I could do to take it away.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
When Leilani was offered the opportunity to speak, she declined,
but she did provide one final statement. She gave permission
for Quinton's remains, formed at the landfill, ravaged by time
and waste, to be released to her family. She said,
my son's been through enough. I want my baby home.
(47:39):
Leilanie Simon was then sentenced to life in prison with
the possibility of parole. Quentin Simon was just twenty months old,
a little boy with a bright smile, big eyes, and
a life that never got the chance to begin. He
deserved love, he deserved safety, he deserved so much more,
(48:00):
and while justice can never bring him back. Well, Bestie's
that is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always,
(48:22):
thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
say a massive thank you to my newest supporter up
on Patreon Kitlin. The link to Patreon is in the
show notes. If you'd like to join, you can join
for as little as one dollar a month and there
are absolutely no obligations. You can cancel your subscription at
any point. As an independent show, the support upon Patreon
seriously goes such a long way, and I genuinely am
(48:44):
eternally grateful. If you didn't know, Morbidology is now up
on YouTube and the episodes there are presented in a
documentary style, so please do head on over to YouTube
and hit that subscribe button. Remember to check us out
at morebidology dot com for more information about this episode
and to read some trig Grim articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.
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