Tianna Parks Philadelphia babysitter charged in the murder of missing two year old Strawberry Mansion boy, King Hill. Child’s body yet to be recovered after video reveals boy was killed.
A Philadelphia babysitter has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to the disappearance of a two-year-old boy nearly two weeks ago.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Monday announced nine charges against Tianna Parks, 24, stemming from the presumed death of King Hill, including murder, endangering the welfare of children, interference with the custody of children, abuse of corpse, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice.
Parks was arrested on Sunday and arraigned on felony and misdemeanor charges on Monday afternoon, reported NBC Philadelphia. The caretaker was ordered held without bail.
Police said King was in Parks’ custody when he was reported missing on July 8 by his Strawberry Mansion mother after the boy’s stepfather put the toddler in Parks’ care. Officers arrested parks on Sunday after the investigation uncovered cell phone video confirming the child was killed.
King’s body still has not been found. The boy would have turned three at the end of the month.
Cell phone and video evidence showed the missing boy was dead
During a press conference on Monday, the lead homicide investigator said that King’s last sighting was on July 5. His stepfather, Marvin Reese, went to the police three days later.
Krasner’s press release stated that an investigation led by Philadelphia police and the FBI uncovered cell phone and video evidence that concluded Hill is dead.
According to officials, Parks was among the first people to be interviewed by police and the FBI in the wake of King’s disappearance.
‘Virtually everything that she told us was refuted by the evidence that the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department developed,’ said Anthony Voci, chief of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit.
Amber Hill, the boy’s mother, said her son had gone to stay with the father of her older daughter weeks earlier, which was routine.
But two weeks ago the man asked Hill if she picked up King from the home of his friend, Parks, at the corner of 33rd and Diamond Streets, reported Fox29.
Hill said she did not pick up King, and that she has not seen Parks in weeks. Commentators on the web wondered how it came to be the mother failed to keep tabs with the boy’s general well being during such an extended period.
BABYSITTER CHARGED: @DA_LarryKrasner says they charged 2YO King Hill’s babysitter, Tianna Parks, with murder, among other charges.
Officials say cell phone & video evidence led to their conclusion that King was killed @FOX29philly (🎥: Cody Jefferson) pic.twitter.com/wErBlIXUUh
— Kelly Rule (@KellyRuleTV) July 20, 2020
Why wasn’t Parks taken into custody sooner?
Parks told police Hill did collect her son, claiming that she handed off the toddler to his mother at the corner of 31st and Montgomery streets, Strawberry Mansion. Two weeks went past without any sign of the missing boy, with the babysitter only arrested this weekend.
‘I can’t even get his body, whatever she was doing to him, I can’t even get his body. It’s messing my whole family up. I just feel like this whole investigation was too long. I think they should have been incarcerated her,’ Amber Hill told CBS Philadelphia.
It wasn’t until after King’s stepfather realized the two-year-old was nowhere to be found, that he reported the child missing — some three days after handing the boy to the babysitter.
‘I blame myself for even trusting my baby’s father with my son,’ the distraught mother reiterated. ‘I thought he was in good hands and he gave him to this woman, this woman I don’t know, that he knows. And now my son is deceased.’
Police detectives and an official from the District Attorney’s Office broke the news of King’s death to his family on Sunday.
‘The death of King Hill is an unbearable tragedy that is compounded by Tianna Parks’ actions,’ Krasner stated. ‘This precious baby’s family and community deserve to know how he died. They deserve the opportunity to bury and mourn him with dignity.’
Kimberly Ward, King’s maternal grandmother, said all she wants now is to bring her grandson’s body home.
‘Wherever he is at, whatever happened to him, just bring him back so we can put King to rest,’ Ward told 6abc.
It remained unclear why or how the babysitter allegedly killed the missing boy and when exactly the boy came to die.
Commented one social media user, ‘The mother and stepfather need to be held accountable for this tragedy. No responsible mother leaves their child with someone who is not a blood relative for a month. There is more to this story, stay tuned.’
