A wandering 2-year-old’s mom has mysteriously vanished. Family and police need help
Leila Cavett’s three sisters drove more than 800 miles Monday night to South Florida in hopes of finding out how and why their 2-year-old nephew was found wandering alone in a Miramar apartment complex.
And even more concerning: Why their sister — the mother of the boy who they said is named Kamdyn — has not yet been found.
“We just want to know that my sister is OK,” Gina Lewis told reporters Tuesday outside of Miramar police headquarters. “We’re really not sure what’s going on.”
Lewis, who drove from Jasper, Alabama, Tuesday morning, added that Cavett, 21, lives in Georgia and the rest of their family lives in Jasper, which is about about 40 miles northwest of Birmingham.
Lewis said her sister didn’t have any known ties to South Florida.
“If you are OK, please let someone know,” Lewis said. “She would have never just left him like that.”
Cavett is approximately five-foot-four, and has a cursive tattoo that says “Kamdyn” on her right arm and a Jesus fish symbol on her right wrist, according to her sister Tyuania Cavett.
On Sunday, the little boy was found wandering near the 1800 block of Southwest 68th Avenue, in the Willowbrook Apartments in Miramar.
Miramar detectives met with the boy’s family Tuesday, but are still trying to figure out why the 21-year-old mother has mysteriously disappeared.
At about 8 a.m. Sunday, Ebony Williams returned to the Miramar apartment complex after getting vanilla creamer for her coffee. She saw the little boy in the parking lot and then heard him cry.
She walked over and realized the boy — who was only wearing a T-shirt and a diaper — was alone. She walked the boy through the neighborhood looking for his parents, but had no luck. She then called police.
Miramar police put the picture of the little boy on social media and it soon went viral. By Monday evening, Miramar police said they were looking for Leila Cavett.
Cavett was last seen driving a mid-to-late 90s white Chevy Silverado 3500, with a red tailgate and a “Baby on Board” sign on the passenger window, according to police.
“The police stated the last sighting was this Sunday in Florida. We sadly do not know more than that,” her sister Tyuania said in a post on Facebook, adding in a comment that the sighting happened in Miami sometime before Kamdyn was found.
Cavett’s sisters told reporters Tuesday that they heard from her July 17 and she didn’t say anything about going to Florida.
TJ Armstrong, a public information officer for Walker County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama, said the department is doing whatever it can to help in the search for Cavett.
While it is not believed that Cavett lived in Jasper in recent months, Armstrong said it’s a small town and “everybody knows everybody,” and if they “can help one of their own, they will.”
“We want to do whatever we can to reunite this little boy with his mother,” Armstrong said.
Alabama court records show that Cavett was arrested in Walker County on Sept. 16, 2019, on a charge of having a controlled substance and marijuana. It was not clear whether the case has been settled.
According to the Daily Mountain Eagle, the Jasper daily newspaper, Cavett received two traffic tickets in October. The paper reported that Cavett skipped a February court date and her license was suspended in March.
Cavett was in Dawsonville, Georgia, in February, according to the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office. She lists her hometown on her Facebook page as Atlanta. Dawsonville is about 50 miles north of Atlanta.
A family member filed a report with the office claiming that Cavett had been using crack cocaine in a residential home, and had “thrown a can of soda at her and yelled at her,” the report said.
There was no mention of a child in the report, according to deputies.
Her sisters just want answers.
“I just feel so lost right now,” Lewis said. “I was hoping coming down here we would get a little more.”
Anyone with information about the child should call the Miramar Police Department at 954-602-4000.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 9:29 PM.
