Mother on Angel Dust Left Her Baby in a Dumpster — But When the Father Discovered the Truth, His Fight for Justice Took a Shocking Turn

Kion Jones was born in March of 2021. His mother, Ladonna Patrice Boggs, was 38 years old. His father, Carl Jones, was 43 at the time of our story. Kion was a petite two-month-old. Sadly, not much is known about this little boy, including what his true birth date is. What we do know is that he was born to a woman who should have rethought being a mother. Kion looked peaceful when asleep, a fringe of dark hair surrounding his face that resembled his father’s. His hands were tucked into white mittens to keep him from scratching his skin. At 2 months, he likely would have started to see in color, first being able to see the difference between green and red. He would have been able to see his mother’s face and follow her with his eyes. He would kick, and he would wriggle. He would gurgle and make sounds. He probably recognized the voices of his siblings who were around during his mother’s pregnancy. He would have been able to clasp tight onto a finger or an object, and he would have struggled to let go.

Ladonna lived in an apartment at 1511 Benning Road. It was in the Aziz Bates Court Apartment Complex in the northeastern section of Washington, D.C. She lived with two of her adult children and five younger children, ages 14, 9, 5, 1, and, of course, 2-month-old Kion. Before Kion was born, Ladonna had a long struggle with drug abuse. In May of 2008, she was charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. She completed a drug treatment program, was caught with drugs again a year later, pleaded to a lesser charge, and was given a suspended sentence. As part of the plea, she agreed to attend a drug treatment program and show up for regular drug tests. By September of 2009, she had violated her probation and had to serve 60 days in jail. She was also given additional probation for this.

Six years later, in September of 2015, Ladonna was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of property. As part of her guilty plea, she agreed to be placed in a residential drug treatment program and partake in additional screenings. She struggled to stay clean during her probation and often missed her mandated drug tests. In May of 2017, she had to serve 45 days in jail for failure to comply with her plea deal. By April of 2018, she was on a GPS monitor and was required to participate in an intensive drug program. Later the same year, she had some small success with a new case manager. In February of 2019, the case manager reported that Ladonna was doing well in her regular home visits. A little over two years later, Kion was born. He stayed at the hospital for a few weeks after his birth. Ladonna brought him home to the Benning Road apartment in April of 2021.

Kion’s father, Carl, had been living at the apartment, but Ladonna asked him to move out sometime in mid-April. On May 2nd, Carl and Ladonna had a heated argument via text. She told him she wished she hadn’t had his baby. She claimed that Carl didn’t care about Kion. She said that she would make Carl’s life a living hell and threatened to turn Kion over to CPS. For context, Carl already had three children in the child welfare system. Ladonna alleged that the mother of those children placed them there, and she threatened to do the same thing. Carl told Ladonna that she was angry right now and asked her to be patient with him. Two days later, on May 4th, Ladonna called Carl and told him to come get Kion and take all of his things. However, Carl didn’t visit the Benning Road apartment that day, nor did he pick up the baby.

On May 5th, Ladonna called Carl and told him CPS took Kion into their custody. She used the term “CPS,” but the official name of the agency is the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, or CFSA, which is what we’re going to be referring to them as for the remainder of this episode. She told Carl the baby was going to be gone for a long time. He asked where Kion was; she hung up on him. That evening, Ladonna met Carl at a hotel. Again, she told him CPS took the baby. What Ladonna didn’t take a moment to consider was that Carl already had a CFSA caseworker for his other children. He called that caseworker, and that caseworker told him they did not have Kion. Ladonna kept insisting that CPS had taken the baby. She named Wanda Davis as the person who came to take him. This added another level of confusion because Carl was related to a Wanda Davis who lived in Las Vegas.

Since the local CFSA had no record of the infant, Carl called the National Center for Children and Families on May 6th. They, too, didn’t have Kion and told Carl that no agency had taken their son. Next, Carl called the local CFSA and reported Kion missing. He also told them Ladonna was using angel dust, a drug that can cause hallucinations, difficulty thinking clearly, and bizarre behavior. Many of the parents that we cover on this channel have a history of substance use issues, but when angel dust comes into play, it is absolutely terrifying. If you need an example, look no further than our Siobhan Thomas episode. After Siobhan decapitated her son Zari while she was high on drugs, she proceeded to—since we can’t say the word on YouTube—self-checkout by a knife repeatedly.

Due to Carl’s report, police were sent to the Benning Road apartment for a welfare check. Ladonna advised the officers that there was no baby living there. She also told them that no small children lived there, which was not true. Even worse, the police took her at her word, and they left without even entering the apartment. The next day, on May 7th, a CFSA social worker went to Ladonna’s apartment. She told the social worker that a “CPS lady” had taken the baby because of an anonymous call alleging drug use and neglect, and claimed that she had been sober for a year. The social worker interviewed the other children living in the apartment, who said their mother told them that a CPS lady took their brother. The children said the last time that they had seen Kion awake was on Tuesday, May 4th, three days earlier. CFSA again verified that they didn’t have Kion in their custody, which led to the social worker calling the police to report Kion missing.

When the police arrived, Ladonna said the CPS lady who took Kion drove a blue Toyota, didn’t have a badge, and she took the baby, the car seat, all of the formula, and all of the baby’s clothes. First, Ladonna said the removal happened at 11:00 p.m., but she also said it happened when all her other children were outside playing. When she realized that didn’t make sense, she changed her story to say he was taken during the day. She told the police that the CPS lady was Wanda Davis, the same name she had given to Carl the day before. First, she said that Kion was removed because of an anonymous call, but then said Carl told Wanda to take the baby. The police contacted Ms. Davis, who, if you recall, was a relative of Carl’s living in Las Vegas. She did not have Kion, obviously.

Ladonna changed her story multiple times over the course of the next few hours and continued to change her story over the next few days. She told the police she didn’t have a phone number for Carl, but then gave them his number. She said that she hadn’t talked to Carl in a month, which wasn’t true. She said she hadn’t had any angel dust at all, and then said she had some 4 months earlier. Ladonna told police she couldn’t deal with him (referring to Kion), so she gave the little boy to her godmother. When they asked for contact information, Ladonna said she deleted it all from her phone. Police tracked down the woman, who was the grandmother of one of Ladonna’s other children. She didn’t have Kion. Eventually, Ladonna admitted she hadn’t given the baby to her. When detectives asked Ladonna why she had lied, she said, “I didn’t want my baby because me and his father were going through whatever we were going through.” Then, Ladonna said she gave the baby to someone else—this time a friend who lived on Good Hope Road. She didn’t have the friend’s phone number, and police couldn’t find anyone with that name living on that road.

Police conducted a search of the apartment and surrounding areas looking for signs of Kion, but there was no sign of him in the apartment—no crib, no toys, no infant food, no baby items, no clothes, no car seat. On May 7th, Washington D.C. police listed Kion as a missing child on their Facebook page. The media was alerted, and the community was encouraged to report any information that they had.

“Tonight, baby Kion Jones is listed as critically missing. D.C. police say he was last seen in a home here off Benning Road on Wednesday. He wasn’t reported missing to police until Friday, and tonight people in this apartment complex tell me they hope he makes it home safely. ‘It looked like a crime scene, that’s what it looked like ’cause I saw so many police officers, so I just… I just walked away from it. But ’cause I already knew what they was looking for, ’cause I… I know the, you know, I know the mother of the, uh, child, so that kind of made it a little… made it a little worse.’ Twenty-four hours later, the same parking lot is quiet, but the search is still on for missing Kion Jones, who police have released very little information on, only that he was last seen Wednesday and not reported missing until two days later.”

On May 8th, Ladonna called the police and said that she had more to say. Detectives came out to the Benning Road apartment to conduct yet another interview. Now, during this interview, Ladonna told them Kion was sleeping in bed with her. She was lying on her right side, and the baby was lying on his stomach. He was between her and the wall. When she woke up later, she found him beneath her stomach, and he wasn’t breathing. She also told detectives that she had been under the influence of angel dust when the incident happened. She told one detective that she had been hallucinating the day Kion died, but told another detective she couldn’t remember what she was hallucinating. She would proceed to change the story several more times.

On May 9th, missing persons activist Henderson Long went to the Aziz Bates Court complex to pass out flyers for Kion. The police were still investigating what Ladonna had shared with them, but as far as the public knew, including Henderson, Kion was still a missing child. Henderson was moved by Kion’s story, and because of his young age, he felt like he should help. “If you hear anything, just give MPD a call, all right? Okay, number down at the bottom. All right, I got you, here you go, man. It’s not like me and you, like we can take care of ourself, we can, you know, we can ask for help. A two-month-old is totally dependent on their surroundings.” While at the complex, Henderson asked Ladonna to do a Facebook Live interview. She agreed, and he and a reporter from WUSA-TV conducted this interview. Carl was there too, but he didn’t appear on camera. Henderson expected Ladonna to ask the community for help and information that would lead to the return of her missing baby. Instead, in a quiet and flat voice, she told the reporter she woke to find Kion not breathing:

“Will you say and spell your name for me?” “Ladonna, L-A-D-O-N-I-A, last name B-O-G-G-S.” “Yes. Tell us about your son, Kion Jones, and how old is he?” “Two months old.” “What happened this week?” “Um, he was in the house, and the last time that I had him was… he was in the bed with me, and I had… he was sleeping on the bed with me, and I had rolled over and noticed that, uh, he was, um, on the bed with me on my chest. And the last thing that I remember was that I had rolled over and he was on my chest after that. When I was asleep, rolled over, noticed that he was unresponsive, breathing, and I panicked. And after that, a lady called my phone and questioned me about the whereabouts about him, and I got frustrated about the situation about him in the household. And she just was like, can she come and take a look at him? And after that, she came to the house, and I panicked. And after that, I went outside and talked to the lady out front on the porch, and we was just having a mutual conversation about him. And after that, she just was like… she just was going to call me back, and she just left. So after that, I came back in the house with Kion; he was still in here. And after that, he was still in the bed. So me, after I noticed that he was unresponsive, wasn’t breathing no more, I had took him outside to see if… wasn’t breathing no more. And I noticed that he wasn’t breathing no more, so I panicked. And then I went outside, came back in the house, walked around the block for a couple of times to get a breath of mind, and when I came back in the house, I still noticed that he wasn’t breathing anymore. So I went outside, I came back in the house, and got a blanket and his car seat, and wrapped [him] up, and took it outside, and disposed it in the trash.” “When you called authorities, what did they say?” “I didn’t call anybody. I was scared.” “Yes, are police still…?” “Police are still searching. They still searching.” “And look for…” “No, I’m just getting this information that y’all just got just now. I mean, I just got it about 30… 30 minutes ago.” “What happens next for your family? What’s the next…” “All I need to do is locate the body. I mean, she’s saying that he wasn’t breathing, that she threw him in the trash, so I need to find out where… where he’s at.” “Do you know the area where people could find him? Did doctors give you any warnings or anything? You know he was premature.” “He was already premature at the hospital.” “When he left the hospital, how long had he been home for?” “For 6 weeks.” “Six weeks with five and a half almost… he’ll be 8 weeks. He would have been 8 weeks this week. Okay, so he… he’s where… wherever he’s at, or if he good or not, he’s only 7 weeks old in the day. Well, thank you so much for talking with us.” “Yes, ma’am.”

Carl said he was still looking for his missing son. He was not satisfied, and he would not be until he found Kion’s body. Carl also noted that the dumpster behind the building had already been emptied, and the contents were taken away before police could check for them. Ladonna said she had no idea where Kion’s body could be. On May 11th, police questioned Carl. He thought Ladonna’s drug abuse was getting worse but swore he never saw her harm her children. He said she always had food in the house. He thought that Ladonna loved Kion. He also admitted to using angel dust with her recently. Police began the search for Kion’s remains, looking in dumpsters and garbage trucks servicing the D.C. area. On May 10th, cadaver dogs were brought in to search a large landfill in Charles City County, Virginia. The landfill was over 120 miles south of the apartment where little Kion was last seen—a long way for someone so tiny and fragile. Police finished their search on May 13th, and they were unable to locate him.

On May 14th, Ladonna was arrested for homicide and evidence tampering. Without Kion’s body and the evidence it contained, prosecutors decided to drop the homicide charge. If more evidence was found, they could choose to reinstate it. The maximum sentence for evidence tampering was 3 years in prison. Ladonna was released the next day without bond. As a condition of her release, she was not allowed to have any unsupervised contact with children, including her own children and grandchildren. She was scheduled to return to court on November 19th, 2022. While in custody on May 14th, Ladonna gave yet another version of her story. She told the investigators Kion had been having stomach issues, but he hadn’t been taking any medicine for it. She had talked to the doctor about possibly changing his formula because he had been constipated. She was supposed to take him for a medical checkup, but his health insurance had not yet started.

She admitted she made up the story about CPS because she was upset with Carl. She claimed Kion was sleeping on her chest the night he died. She rolled over on him while sleeping. She woke up on top of Kion, and he wasn’t breathing. She panicked and didn’t know what to do, so she wrapped Kion in a blue baby blanket. In this version of the story, she placed him in his car seat and threw the car seat into the dumpster. She said she put his clothes in a box and threw that in the trash too. She said she had smoked angel dust a day or two before his death. In this version of her story, she was not hallucinating and had not taken the drug on the day he died. The police consulted a pediatrician from Children’s National Medical Center. The doctor said sleeping with an infant can cause death. The risk of death is even higher if the parent is under the influence of drugs. The police also obtained surveillance footage from the apartment complex. In footage recorded on May 5th, Ladonna wore a red shirt and blue pants. She carried a car seat out the complex door, and she made another trip. This time, she carried a full plastic bag in one hand and pulled a cardboard box with the other. A cloth or blanket was visible in the box. Police said it appeared large enough to contain a 2-month-old. Footage from outside showed Ladonna at the trash dumpster. Footage at the door showed her coming back inside; her hands were empty. This footage supported the most disturbing part of this story: Ladonna threw little Kion away in the dumpster along with all the evidence of his very short life.

While awaiting trial, Ladonna was still living at the apartment on Benning Road. On April 27th, 2022, police were called to her apartment at 3:00 a.m. They found her unresponsive in the bedroom. She had been stabbed in her stomach and her right calf. When EMS responded, they found no signs of life. They pronounced Ladonna dead at the scene and transported her body to the medical examiner. Inside the apartment, police found a trail of blood in the bedroom and living room. They also found blood on the couch. The same surveillance cameras that once recorded Ladonna throwing her son in the garbage now showed Carl holding a knife and throwing a bloody carpet into the dumpster. Carl was arrested later that day. He was charged with second-degree homicide while armed. The judge asked if he killed her. He said, “If I did, would I be wrong for doing that?” He later admitted he argued with Ladonna about Kion’s death, and he ultimately stabbed her. He also admitted he still occasionally smoked angel dust with her. In December of 2022, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison. The judge believed that Kion’s death was the root cause of Carl’s crime and ordered him to get counseling while he was behind bars.

Ladonna was a troubled woman who had many issues, and those issues led to the death of her son. We will never know if Kion’s death was an accident or not, but if it was truly the result of co-sleeping, then it bears mentioning that co-sleeping takes the lives of hundreds of children every year. Now, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, at least 95 babies died from accidental suffocation while sleeping in 2020. Most of these deaths were caused by co-sleeping. In 2023, some areas are seeing a rise in these preventable deaths. Doctors say parents should never keep an infant in bed with them and should never place an infant on their chest while taking a nap. They recommend the ABCs of safe sleep: A is for Alone, B is for on their Back, and C is for in a Crib. Kion’s body has still not been found. He never had an obituary, funeral, or public memorial. He doesn’t even have a headstone. His grave is, unfortunately, a landfill. Even if Ladonna’s version of events wasn’t exactly truthful, it is important to remember these safe sleeping guidelines. For many new parents, the ABCs of safe sleep could save a baby’s life.