The search for a two-year-old Michigan toddler has reached a tragic conclusion.
The child’s lifeless body was discovered on Wednesday evening, July 5, by FBI agents, in a deserted alley on the east side of Detroit, nearly 100 miles from her hometown.
This unsettling turn of events transpired three days after the mysterious disappearance of Wynter Cole Smith, 2, coinciding with an attack on her 22-year-old mother. This development has consequently redirected the scope of the investigation from a simple missing person’s case to a more serious homicide inquiry.
Lansing’s Police Chief, Ellery Sosebee, was the one to relay the news, expressing profound grief. Despite holding back additional information, Chief Sosebee guaranteed the devastated family that they would see justice.
Wynter and her mother lived in Lansing, approximately 90 miles west of Detroit. Law enforcement has identified Rashad Trice, a 26-year-old man who had an earlier romantic involvement with Wynter’s mother, as the main suspect in the child’s kidnapping. It is alleged that Trice assaulted the mother, stabbing her before fleeing the scene with her car and Wynter. He was taken into custody after a 90 mile car chase and crash the next morning but the toddler was not with him. He is being charged with multiple crimes, and held without bail.
Despite not being Wynter’s biological father, Trice’s relationship with her mother triggered alarms about the child’s wellbeing. The scope of the search operations extended over a vast region along a major interstate, from Detroit to the state capital. However, it tragically ended with the finding of Wynter’s body in a desolate alley.
As the probe now shifts to a homicide investigation, the focus is on uncovering the truth behind the unfortunate incident.
