A teenage Kentucky babysitter fatally abusedan 11-month-old boy, leaving the child’s stomach covered in teeth marks and stuffing his body in a couch — then concocting an elaborate tale to cover it up, cops say.
Elijah Mayes, 19, was arrested after little Grayson Walton’s tiny body was found Sept. 13 in the Cleaton home where the teen had been watching him.
Police were called to the home around 5 p.m. that day after Grayson’s father said he’d left his son in Mayes’ care while at work but that the baby was nowhere to be found when he returned.
A thorough police search of the home quickly ended with alarming results: Grayson’s body was found jammed into a couch, and his dead body was covered in bruises with what appeared to be teeth marks on his stomach, 14 News reported.
The alarming discovery upended the story Mayes had been telling police — that a family friend had picked the baby up from the home the night before.
Mayes had even shown officers supposed texts between him and that family friend — but when they found the woman, she denied taking the baby.
That led police to allege Mayes created a fake phone number and texted himself to cook up an alibi and hide whatever happened to Grayson.
Neighbors meanwhile reported seeing Mayes with Grayson at another property the night before his body was found.
The search of Grayson’s house also turned up a stash of meth police alleged belonged to Mayes.
He was charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, criminal abuse and meth possession.
Grayson’s step-grandfather was also arrested and charged with tampering with physical evidence, though it remains unclear why.
The baby was just two weeks shy of his first birthday when he died.
“They’re devastated,” Cleaton community member Jennifer Banks said of Grayson’s family at a recent vigil for the baby.
“And to live in a small community is to feel everything together. That’s what small community is. It’s like we’re all family,” Banks told WBKO.
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