Bryeon Hunter has been missing since Tuesday and is now presumed dead, although authorities have yet to find a body.
His mother, Lakeshia Baker, 22, had originally told police in Maywood, a suburb of Chicago, the toddler had been kidnapped sparking a huge search and rescue operation by police.
Now it appears the story was made up and prosecutors are alleging that Baker and her boyfriend Michael Scott, 21, beat the little boy with a belt and plastic hangers, leaving him to die on their bathroom floor.
Scott covered the child's mouth so that his grandmother would not hear the baby scream or cry.
Once the couple realised the child was dead, they quickly hatched a plan to get rid of the the body in a backpack and devised an elaborate cover-up which included pretending that the child had been abducted.
Baker made her other 4-year-old son practice their story over and over in case he was questioned
The report of his kidnapping prompted an Amber Alert and set off a search of abandoned buildings, trash bins and industrial areas by authorities and volunteers.
Canine units were brought in, and a search of the Des Plaines River was carried out with divers and sonar equipment.
Baker told police her son was snatched from her on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters that she and her son were attacked and beaten by three Hispanic men.
She even picked three out in a police mug book.
'They pulled up out of the alleyway and told me, 'Didn't we say we didn't want to see you here no more?' They pulled down my hair and pulled me in the car and started beating me and all I heard was my baby just screaming,' Baker told the local TV station at the time.
She even appeared in news reports with a swollen eye.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to CBS Chicago that police didn't believe her story. 'I think it is horrific. We are talking about a 20-month-old child and to be continuously beaten and left on the toilet, you could just imagine what this child has gone through,'
Baker had two black eyes in court which she claimed were from the abduction but according to prosecutors they were as a result of an earlier beating by boyfriend Scott. Baker went on live television to reiterate her abduction story.
Under police questioning, Baker admitted that the story was a ruse and that the couple had beaten the child so severely on Monday, that he died the next day.
According to prosecutors, both defendants said the boy's body was placed in a backpack, but they have each accused the other of dumping it in the Des Plaines river.
Baker is being held without bond whilst her boyfriend, Scott, is being held on $750,000 bail.
Source: UKDaily Mail
