Mother charged in death of son after she reported him kidnapped

Mother charged in death of son after she reported him kidnapped

January 27, 2006

By Russ Bynum

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALMA, Ga. – The body of a 3-year-old boy was found Friday after his adoptive mother reported him kidnapped and then finally confessed to slaying him, police said.

After a two-day search, police found Ahmad King's body on a tree farm off a dirt road in Appling County, about 15 miles from the boy's home in rural south Georgia.

“The body was approximately 20 yards off the road in a row of pines and concealed with straw,” said Jeff Evans, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation office in Douglas.

Evans said an autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death.

Mary Jane King reported her son was kidnapped Tuesday at a Wal-Mart in Jesup 30 miles from King's home near Alma. She said Ahmad had been taken from her car in the parking lot after she left him there briefly to get a shopping cart.

“Just bring him back or leave him with somebody,” King had pleaded tearfully during an interview with Savannah's WTOC-TV. “We just want him back.”

Investigators said Thursday that King, 34, admitted she concocted the story to cover up that she had slain the boy she had adopted just last year. She was charged with murder and concealing his death.

“She is aware” that Ahmad's body had been found, Evans said, though he declined to describe her reaction in detail. “When someone's a parent, you would anticipate a certain reaction that I didn't see.”

However, the news stunned residents of this small farming community, who knew King as a dedicated foster mother to several children in recent years. Joyce Cason, who owns a small grocery and barbecue restaurant less than a mile from King's home, said King babysat her 4-year-old grandson when he was barely a year old.

“This woman who's done this is about the best woman I know,” Cason said. “I have been to her house 100 times and it was always clean and neat. She was real gentle. I never heard her yell at anybody.”