The aunt of a Texas boy found dead at a landfill on July 11 was arrested on July 18.
Cedric Jackson, 1, was found dead at the landfill in Rowlett in the Dallas area after going missing for more than a day.
Chrystal Jackson, the boy’s aunt, had been given temporary custody of Cedric and told police she put him to bed after 11 p.m. on July 9. When she woke up the next morning he was gone.
“He’s dead. He’s gone,” Jackson told WFAA. “We don’t know 100 percent of what happened,” Jackson said as she paused and began to cry, “but we all loved that baby. He was just the sweetest baby.”
Chrystal Jackson is now facing charges for child endangerment. Her 18-month-old nephew was found dead in a North Texas landfill last week after being reported missing. https://t.co/PBGpFu15G9 pic.twitter.com/UIhPfxkzJW
— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) July 18, 2019
Jackson was arrested on Thursday morning on the charge of child endangerment, reported Fox 4. Her bond was set at $50,000.
Six other children were removed from her house after the boy’s death. Two were her own children and four were the children of her boyfriend, Sedrick Johnson.
Johnson confessed to police officers that he placed the dead boy’s body at the landfill.
According to the arrest affidavit, Johnson told officers he swaddled Cedric to restrict his movement. He swaddled Cedric on July 10 who then began throwing up before losing consciousness.
Johnson said he tried performing CPR but when that didn’t work he dumped the body in the landfill.
A juvenile had told the Dallas Police Department that they described someone who looked like a relative as having taken Cedrick, the department said in a previous statement.
That person was arrested and placed in jail in Keller on unrelated warrants. That man wasn’t identified by name but was said to be Cedric’s step-grandfather.
Vigil, balloon release for 18-month old #Dallas boy Cedric Jackson, who was found dead in a Rowlett landfill this week.
(@NBCDFW): https://t.co/XZPz9nEUIF pic.twitter.com/saiedWOrx7
— Jack Highberger (@JackHighberger) July 13, 2019
Jackson said she didn’t know what happened to the boy.
“It’s so crazy. I woke up and all I can remember is he wasn’t there. The first thing I did was start looking. He’s not going to get up and walk off on his own. He can’t even walk off curbs,” she told WFAA after he was found dead.
According to the Dallas Morning-News, Johnson pleaded guilty to a child abandonment charge in 2011 and later violated the probation he was sentenced to, resulting in an eight-month jail sentence.
It wasn’t clear if Jackson had a criminal record.
Dishundra Thomas said that her son’s placement with Jackson was made against her will.
“We just want our son back,” Thomas said outside Dallas police headquarters before he was found. “He’s not even 2 years old yet. I just want him back home with me.”
She said she doubted Jackson’s story of going to sleep and waking up to find her son gone.
“As far as her version of the story, I really don’t know how to wrap my head around it,” Thomas said. “It just baffles me that a child can get taken in the middle of the night without anybody hearing anything, a child that was sleeping next to you in your bed.”
