HOLLYWOOD, Fl. — A man long suspected in the disappearance of a Georgia mother whose toddler was found wandering alone has been charged with second-degree murder.
Hollywood Police Department filed the murder charge against Shannon Ryan, 40, in the Leila Cavett case Tuesday. Ryan is also charged with tampering with evidence.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Cavett, who had been living in Atlanta and had ties to Jasper, Alabama, was last seen on video July 25 at a gas station in south Florida. Neighbors found her 2-year-old son wearing a dirty diaper and no socks or shoes wandering alone at an apartment complex.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Colonial Pipeline restarts operations; governor urges Georgians not to hoard gasoline
- Pictures show thousands of cicadas emerging in Blairsville
- Move over peanuts, is hemp becoming Georgia’s next big crop?
Ryan claimed he saw Cavett and her son get into another person’s car at a RaceTrac station, but video surveillance showed her in the passenger seat of Ryan’s car, according to a criminal complaint.
Investigators located Cavett’s vehicle abandoned in Hollywood on July 28.
Investigators also said Ryan bought odor eliminator, duct tape and extra-large garbage bags around the time of her disappearance. A federal search warrant executed on Ryan’s phone shows that he had made various Google searches, including “What day does commercial garbage pickup for Hollywood, Florida?” and “Does bleach and alcohol make chloroform?”
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Ryan was arrested in August on charges that included child neglect, kidnapping and lying to authorities. WPLG in Miami reported a federal kidnapping charge against Ryan was dropped last month.
Before his arrest in August, Ryan allegedly posted several videos on Facebook “describing his relationship and interactions with Leila Cavett and called Cavett “a manipulative thief who wasted his time and hustled him,” according to WPLG. Ryan also describes himself as a “witch” and “god” in social media posts.
Ryan remains in the Broward County jail. Police and the FBI have conducted multiple searches in south Florida, but Cavett’s body has never been found.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
