Mother charged with murder of 3-year-old daughter after allegedly lying about child's abduction
A Maryland mother has been charged with the murder of her 3-year-old daughter after falsely reporting to police that the child was kidnapped at gunpoint, according to Maryland State Police.
Darrian Randle, 31, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of a minor under 13 and "other related criminal charges," police announced on Wednesday. She was also charged with filing a false police report in Delaware, according to Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.
Randle previously reported to police on Tuesday that her daughter, 3-year-old Nola Dinkins, had been kidnapped at gunpoint, which led to the issuing of an Amber Alert in Newark, Delaware, police said. Information "gleaned throughout the investigation revealed the initial report provided by Randle was false" and the Amber Alert was subsequently canceled, police said in a press release.
Through their search efforts, officials located human remains that are "consistent with that of a child" in a vacant lot in North East, Maryland, on Wednesday afternoon, police said. The identification of the remains -- and whether or not they are Dinkins' -- is pending autopsy results by the medical examiner, police said.
Randle previously stated she and Dinkins had left her apartment complex and arrived at a dead-end road, with the child beginning to "cry for an unknown reason," according to the arrest warrant.
While Randle was trying to figure out why her daughter was crying, she said an unknown black SUV with "either rust or dirt on its sides" pulled up behind Randle's vehicle, with a male voice asking if she was OK, according to the warrant.
Randle replied that she was OK and then "directed her attention back to looking in her car" to her crying child, the warrant said.
While she was looking inside her vehicle, she said an "unknown white male, approximately 40 years of age," wearing a black hoodie and gray shorts, exited the SUV and approached Randle's vehicle, she told police.
The male once again asked if Randle was OK and then removed a "black handgun from his shorts" and pointed it at the mother and the child, according to the warrant. She told police the male said he was "not going to hurt them," but then grabbed the child, "picked her up, placing her underneath his arm" and retreated to the SUV, which was driven by a white female.
At the time of the report, police issued an Amber Alert and an intensive search began overnight. The Amber Alert was canceled after police determined the mother lied to police, with the case then being investigated as a homicide, New Castle County Police said.
Randle later admitted to police she was lying about the kidnapping and the suspects involved, saying she made up the report to "divert attention from her then boyfriend," who was identified as 44-year-old Cedrick Antoine Britten, police said.
Britten was also arrested and charged with accessory to first- and second-degree murder, failure to report the death of the child and "other related criminal charges," police said.
Randle is currently being held at the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in Delaware, with her preliminary court hearing scheduled for June 23, according to jail records. Britten remains in police custody in Maryland awaiting transport to the Cecil County District Court for an initial appearance, police said.
Additional details on what led to the murder charges have not been revealed by officials.
It was not immediately clear whether Randle or Britten have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
