Mother’s 911 calls show confusion over Amari Nicholson’s disappearance

Las Vegas police on Wednesday released audio recordings of Amari Nicholson’s mother calling 911 to report the boy missing.

Tayler Nicholson first called the Metropolitan Police Department at 7:01 a.m. on May 5 to report that someone had apparently taken her 2-year-old son from the Emerald Suites apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, 27-year-old Terrell Rhodes, located at 3684 Paradise Road. She was calling from Colorado, where she told police she had recently traveled to care for her mother, who had been attacked by a dog.

In the 911 call, Nicholson relayed to police what Rhodes had told her: That he was awoken by a knock at their apartment door, and that when he answered, a woman who claimed to be Amari’s paternal aunt took the boy.

Nicholson said she was confused as to how the woman would have found them, because “nobody knows where we live.”

Eleven minutes later, at 7:12 a.m., police then called Rhodes, who explained that he did not know who took Amari or which direction they went when they left the Emerald Suites complex.

“I had no idea she was even coming over here,” Rhodes said in a shaky voice when asked about the woman whom he claimed took Amari. “Ma’am, I don’t know.”

Rhodes was arrested and charged with murder May 11 in connection with the case.

The same day she reported her son missing, Nicholson flew back to Las Vegas and called 911 again at about 2:58 p.m. to ask police why no Amber Alert had been issued for Amari.

“I don’t understand why there’s been no Amber Alert all morning while he’s been gone for half the day,” Nicholson said in the 911 call released Wednesday, adding that she was at the Emerald Suites and willing to speak with police. “He could be out of the state by now.”

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has said Amari’s case did not meet the requirements necessary to issue such an alert in Nevada. Those requirements include specific information about an abductor or an abductor’s vehicle. Police had neither.

Homicide investigation

The day Amari was reported missing, police searched family homes in Nevada and Southern California but did not find Amari. Homicide detectives began assisting with the investigation the next day.

Police located Amari’s body May 12, a week after he was reported missing and a day after Rhodes was arrested. The discovery centered on the Siegel Suites complex at 454 E. Twain Ave., less than a mile away from the Emerald Suites where the toddler was last seen alive.

According to Rhodes’ arrest report, Nicholson told Rhodes days before Amari’s disappearance that she was breaking up with him. He later told police that he hit Amari after the toddler urinated in his clothes, the report said.

Investigators who searched the couple’s home found “a sample of blood” on a bedroom wall and a plastic bag with “soiled children’s clothing” in a closet, according to the report.

Rhodes also faces two counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, four counts of assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon, and four counts of resisting a public officer with a firearm, court records show. The additional charges stem from an altercation in a police interview room, during which homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Rhodes grabbed an officer’s gun as he was being taken into custody.

‘An angel’

Officers initially viewed the case as “a civil matter over a possible child custody dispute” and cleared the call, according to Rhodes arrest report.

Amari’s maternal grandmother has said the boy was “an angel” who always had a smile on his face.

Jrygio Hayes, Amari’s father, traveled from Reno to Las Vegas on Monday with relatives to visit a makeshift memorial at the Emerald Suites complex and attend Rhodes’ court hearing.

“He was a beautiful spirit,” Hayes said. “I love him and I always will. I want justice for him and everybody involved.”

Rhodes is scheduled to appear in court again on June 1, court records show.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.