Mother accused of leaving 2-year-old’s body in dumpster: ‘Find my baby’
A tearful-sounding Diaja Smith, who is accused alongside Jacoby Robinson in the killing of their 2-year-old son, can be heard telling a 911 operator that her child had gone missing in a recording of the call released by police on Thursday.
“You have to find my baby,” Smith told the operator when she got on the phone. “He’s only 2.”
Police were called on the evening of June 6, when Smith initially reported that her son was missing, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.
She told police that she had taken her three children to the park and the 2-year-old disappeared when she was changing another child’s diaper, police said.
That evening, a man called 911 from the 702 Mart at 1468 E. Charleston Blvd. He said that a lady had come in saying her child had been kidnapped, according to a recording of the call.
The 911 operator asked to speak with the woman. “They want to speak with you,” the man said to Smith.
Smith, taking the phone, told the officer that her child had been taken from a nearby park around an hour before the call. “He was on the slide,” Smith said. “I turned my back for one minute, and he was gone.”
The boy’s body would be found at around 1 a.m. on June 7 inside a dumpster in the 1300 block of Lewis Avenue, according to police.
Surveillance footage showed Smith pushing the boy, Jacoby Jr., in a stroller leaving her apartment complex. The boy was not moving, and Smith was also shown walking in the direction of the dumpster.
“I can’t think right now,” Smith said on the 911 call. “I don’t understand what happened.” Smith told the operator she would wait for Metro officers to arrive at the 702 Mart.
The officer asked Smith what made her think he had been taken rather than running off. “He doesn’t just do that,” Smith said. “I walked around the block just calling his name. He wasn’t nowhere.”
The operator asked if that’s what the delay was, as Smith had waited around an hour to make the call. Smith said yes.
“I can’t breathe,” Smith told the operator before an officer arrived to the store and the call ended.
She and the boy’s father, Robinson, are both facing charges of child abuse or neglect and murder with a deadly weapon, court records show.
Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com.
