Police find body of missing 5-year-old Darnell Taylor, foster mother faces murder charge

Authorities say that 5-year-old Darnell Taylor, who had been missing since early Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, has been found dead. Police say his foster mother will now face murder charges.

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant made the announcement Friday morning at a press conference.

Police took the child's foster mother, Pammy Maye, into custody shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday night in the 4000 block of Tiedeman Road in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn. Police found her wandering in a nightgown, and she told investigators where they could locate Darnell's body, Bryant said.

Maye told police that she left Darnell's body in a sewage drain in the 1000 block of Marsdale Avenue in Franklin County. Investigators located the body shortly after 1 a.m. Friday.

Darnell had been the subject of an Ohio Amber Alert since early Wednesday when his foster father called 911 around 3 a.m. to say his wife had told him the boy was dead, and he couldn't find the boy in the house on the 900 block of Reeb Avenue.

Officers searched Maye's family and friends' homes looking for her and the child before requesting a statewide Amber Alert, which was issued after 5 a.m., though delivery issues were reported with the system.

Franklin County Children Services said Thursday that Maye and her husband had become the legal custodians of Darnell, despite police calling Maye the foster mother of Darnell.

Who is Pammy Maye?

Maye remains in custody, and Bryant said police will seek to add murder charges to counts of kidnapping and endangering children. Maye has been Darnell's foster mother since May 2023, according to Columbus police and the Ohio Amber Alert website.

Bryant said that police have notified Darnell's biological family of the death and Maye's arrest.

Court records do not yet detail when Maye is expected to make her first appearance in court in Franklin County. Maye has no discernible criminal history. Public records show that she and her husband married in 1998 and bought their Reeb Avenue home in 2021. 

Learn more on case:What we know about Darnell Taylor kidnapping and Pammy Maye

Police searched neighborhood around Pammy Maye's home

A Columbus police officer in a patrol car sat guard Thursday afternoon outside Maye’s Reeb Avenue home and told reporters no one was home and not to approach.

Neighbors who spoke to The Dispatch at their residences Thursday said they did not know Maye except in passing. They said that area of Reeb Avenue was generally a quiet neighborhood.

Neighbor Saria Guardado, whose son acted as a translator during the interview, said she had only interacted with Maye once, when the woman dropped off some vegetables. While she spoke with The Dispatch, an officer came to her side door to ask permission to search the garage, which she granted.

Another neighbor said she’d provided Ring doorbell footage to police, though it didn’t appear to her that any of the footage would be useful.

Police had asked residents in the 43207 ZIP code, which is in the South Alum Creek neighborhood in Columbus' South Side that includes the Reeb Avenue home where the foster mother and child reside, to search their property for anything that may look suspicious or out of place. Court filings and the searches Thursday suggest police are concerned that the boy may have been left somewhere in the area.