Mother of missing 3-year-old girl at center of Amber Alert in Delaware charged with murder
NEWARK, Del. (WPVI) -- The mother of 3-year-old Nola Dinkins, the missing girl who was at the center of an Amber Alert in Delaware, is facing murder charges, officials announced during a news conference on Wednesday night.
Darrian Randle, 31, is being charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of a minor under thirteen, and other related criminal charges in Maryland, according to state police.
She was also charged with filing a false police report in Delaware.
Cedrick Britten, 44, of North East, Maryland, was charged with accessory to first- and second-degree murder after the fact, failure to report child death, and other offenses.
Britten, who police say is Randle's boyfriend, is in police custody in Maryland.
The charges come after a body was found around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday in a vacant Cecil County lot during the search for Dinkins.
It's not yet known if the body is that of Dinkins, but police say the remains are "consistent with that of a child." Positive identification is pending autopsy results by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.
Further details on what led to the murder charges have not been revealed.
"Our homicide unit investigators had enough information gleaned through the investigation that connected these two individuals with the disappearance of this 3-year-old," said Elena Russo, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Police.
The 3-year-old girl was reported missing on Tuesday night in Delaware, but the alert was canceled late Wednesday morning. Chopper 6 was over Perryville Community Park as the search expanded to Perryville, Maryland, by the afternoon.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Action News, Randle admitted to lying about the kidnapping and the suspect involved. Randle allegedly told police she falsely reported the kidnapping to "divert attention from her boyfriend," the complaint said.
Police say Randle told them that Nola was taken by a man at gunpoint along the 500 block of Gender Road around 7:16 p.m. Tuesday in Newark, Delaware.
Randle allegedly told police that Nola was upset, so she pulled over to the side of the road. That's when, police say, Randle allegedly told them the little girl was abducted by a man with a gun.
Randle and Britten lived at a home on the 300 block of Elk Nest Drive in North East, Maryland.
Neighbors, who did not want to go on camera, say Britten attended a neighborhood HOA meeting Tuesday night, around the same time the little girl was reported missing.
Randle is being held on $1 million cash bail and is awaiting extradition to Cecil County.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Maryland State Police North East Barracks at (410) 996-7800 or 911.
