The massive, multi-state search for Birmingham, Alabama, 3-year-old Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney came to a tragic end Tuesday night.
Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith announced during a press conference that the toddler’s body discovered in a dumpster in a landfill in Warrior, Alabama—which is approximately 20 miles away from Birmingham, AL.com reports.
As ESSENCE previously reported, an Amber Alert had been expanded to surrounding states for the missing toddler, who was abducted from a birthday party in Birmingham’s Tom Brown Village housing community on Saturday, Oct. 12.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency canceled the Amber Alert at 9:29 p.m. Tuesday night.
“I wish I had all of you gathered here with good news. I wish I could share a high five or some other type of celebratory salutation but I cannot,” Smith solemnly told reporters.
Smith then confirmed that the remains found in a Santek dumpster were Kamille’s.
“Our investigators, along with the FBI, have worked tirelessly, 24 hours a day to locate this young child and bring her back home and to hold those accountable who were involved in her disappearance … and ultimately her demise,” Smith said.
Kamille’s family, including her mother April Thomas, and father Dominic McKinney, were called to the Birmingham Police Department headquarters at around 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night and told the news.
“This is a tough moment for this city. This is a tough moment for this family,” said Mayor Randall Woodfin.
Authorities plan to charge Patrick Stallworth, 39, and 29-year-old Derick Irisha Brown with capital murder and kidnapping in Kamille’s death.
Children at the party in Tom Brown Village had previously identified Stallworth as the man passing out candy at the party. His Toyota SUV was impounded the day after Kamille’s kidnapping when he was identified as the man seen in surveillance footage at a local store near where—and around the time—the child disappeared.
Stallworth was charged with “seven counts of possession of child pornography after investigators found multiple images in his phone. None of those images were of Kamille. He was released on $500,000 bond but taken back into custody about 7 p.m. Tuesday,” AL.com reports.
Brown was held on a previous kidnapping charge involving her children.
“Tonight, right now, at this moment that we’re standing in, I ask one of this community – not to take sides, not to finger point,” Woodfin said. “But if there is any finger point to do its at the perpetrator who would kidnap and innocent 3-year-old. We stand in solidarity beside this broken family.”
