Georgia · Marietta, Cobb County · Crime & Courts

Messiah Harris, 2, Found Dead in Marietta, GA: What Is Known in the Cobb County Investigation

A 2-year-old boy was reported missing from a Marietta apartment complex on Friday, Aug. 7, and was found dead the same day. A 23-year-old man has been charged with two felonies and denied bond. His cause of death has not been released, and no one has been charged with killing him.

What is known

A 2-year-old boy, Messiah Harris, was reported missing from a Marietta apartment complex on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, and was found dead in a wooded area near that complex the same day. Five newsrooms under five separate owners carry that core: Atlanta News First, WSB-TV, CBS News Atlanta, FOX 5 Atlanta and People.

One man has been charged. Atlanta News First reports that “Dairon Keith, 23, is charged with concealing the death of another and making false statements. Police said that he is the boyfriend of the child’s mother.” A judge denied him bond. He is in the Cobb County jail.

Two things are not established, and they are the two things most readers arrive wanting. The first is how Messiah died: the cause of death has not been released, and it is a formal determination that has not been made public. The second is whether anyone will be accused of causing it. Neither of the two counts filed against Keith is a homicide count, and Atlanta News First reports that he is “not facing murder charges at this time.”

That is the whole of the settled ground: a child, a date, a city, a discovery, an arrest, two felony counts, a bond denial, an open investigation and a blank where a cause of death will eventually go. Everything else on this page is either attributed to a named newsroom, attributed to a named agency, or marked as unknown.

The child, and why we publish his name

The Local Alert does not name children lightly, and it does not name children who are accused of anything at all. This page names Messiah Harris because five separate newsrooms already have, because his own family has spoken publicly using his name, and because a child who died is not a suspect who needs protecting from a search engine.

His name is spelled Messiah Harris. He was 2 years old. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “Harris was just shy of turning three on Aug. 22 when he passed away, his aunt, Tiara Redding, revealed.” CBS News Atlanta describes him as “just weeks away from his third birthday.” People describes him as “just weeks away from his 3rd birthday.”

No other child is named or described anywhere on this page. Not a sibling, not a neighbour’s child, not a child who may have been in the home or on the property. That is a standing rule here and it is not negotiable, and it holds even where an account we read named or counted them.

His mother is not named on this page either. She has not been charged with anything, no account compiled here names her, and there is no version of this story that is improved by identifying her.

Where this happened, and what we will not publish

Marietta, in Cobb County, Georgia. That much every account agrees on. Below the city line, our sources describe the location differently, and this page publishes the difference rather than picking a winner.

Atlanta News First reports that “Messiah Harris was reported missing just after 2 p.m. Friday at an apartment complex off Franklin Gateway SE.” WSB-TV places the complex on Ridge Run. CBS News Atlanta and People also place it on Ridge Run, and both give a street number that this page does not repeat. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “the toddler was found dead the night of Friday, Aug. 7, near Briggs at Powers Park off Ridge Run Road.”

We are not merging those into one tidy address, and we are not treating them as a contradiction either. They may all be describing the same ground at different levels of zoom. Nobody in the reporting compiled for this page says so, and so we do not say so.

What this page will not carry: a street number, an apartment or unit number, a map, a plotted pin, a set of coordinates, or a photograph of anything. A family is living inside this story right now. There is no public interest served by making it easy to stand in front of their door, and the location detail a Cobb County reader actually needs — a city and a general area — is above.

The timeline, as each newsroom reports it

The sequence is short, and the sources are close but not identical on the clock. Both versions of the first time are published below.

Friday, Aug. 7, early afternoon. People reports that an individual watching the boy told police he was last seen around 1:30 p.m. at an apartment complex in Marietta, citing a statement the Marietta Police Department posted on social media.

Friday, Aug. 7, about 2 p.m. — the reported-missing call. Atlanta News First reports it came “just after 2 p.m.” WSB-TV reports that “Keith reported Messiah missing just before 2 p.m. Friday.” CBS News Atlanta reports that officers were called shortly before 2 p.m. That is a few minutes either side of the same moment, and we are not resolving it.

Friday, Aug. 7, about 7:20 p.m. — the discovery. WSB-TV reports that “Messiah’s body was found at around 7:20 p.m.” CBS News Atlanta reports the same time. People reports that in an update posted at 8:50 p.m. that Friday, the Marietta Police Department said his body had been found, and quotes the department: “Detectives are on scene working to collect evidence and determine what happened.”

Friday night into Saturday. WSB-TV reports that “police say they worked throughout the night on this case, and they are continuing to investigate the child’s death.”

Saturday, Aug. 8 — the arrest. Atlanta News First reports that “Keith was arrested on Saturday.” People reports that “Keith, 23, was arrested on Saturday, Aug. 8, and is being held without bond in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center,” citing inmate records it reviewed on Monday, Aug. 10.

Sunday, Aug. 9 — court. Atlanta News First reports that “Keith appeared in court for an arraignment hearing at 9 a.m. Sunday,” and that “a judge Sunday ordered that a man charged in the death of a Marietta toddler whose body was found in the woods be held without bond.” FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “a judge denied him bond on the charges.”

Wednesday, Aug. 12 — the family speaks. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that family members made public statements at Marietta Square around 10:30 a.m. that Wednesday. WSB-TV reports that “Keith remains in the Cobb County jail” and that police say the investigation is still active.

A summary of what is on the record and what is not, not to scale and not a map. This page carries no photograph of anyone and plots no location.

The man who has been charged

Dairon Keith, 23, of Kennesaw. CBS News Atlanta reports that “Marietta police said 23-year-old Dairon Keith of Kennesaw was the person who called 911 to report Messiah Harris missing.” WSB-TV reports that “police said Dairon Keith of Kennesaw was the 911 caller who reported Messiah Harris missing.”

Police describe him as the boyfriend of the boy’s mother. Atlanta News First states it plainly and adds a line worth keeping in view: “Keith was allegedly the boy’s caretaker at the time of his death and is the boyfriend of the child’s mother. He is not the boy’s father.” FOX 5 Atlanta describes him the same way.

Whether he was responsible for the child at the relevant moment is described differently by different newsrooms, and we publish both. Atlanta News First reports that “according to police, Keith is the boyfriend of Harris’ mother and was watching Harris when he died.” FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “Keith was tasked with watching the boy when he placed a 911 call claiming Harris was missing.” People, writing on Aug. 11, put it differently: “It is not immediately clear if Messiah, who was just weeks away from his 3rd birthday, was in Keith’s care when he went missing.”

Those are not the same statement, and the difference is not cosmetic. The first two are attributed to police; the third describes what was not yet clear to a newsroom at the time it wrote. Both go in the comparison table below, neither is deleted, and this page does not decide between them.

The two charges, in plain language

Two felony counts appear in every account compiled for this page, and only two. Neither one is a charge of causing a death.

Concealing the death of another. In Georgia this offence sits at O.C.G.A. § 16-10-31, in the chapter on offences against public administration. It addresses a person who, by concealing the death of another person, hinders the discovery of whether that person was unlawfully killed. It is a felony. What it punishes is interference with finding out — not the death itself. A person can in principle be convicted of it whether or not anybody is ever convicted of causing the death, and being charged with it is not a finding that a killing occurred.

Making false statements. Georgia’s false-statements felony is O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20, which covers knowingly and wilfully making a false statement, or concealing a material fact, in a matter within the jurisdiction of a state or local government department or agency. WSB-TV reports that police “accuse him of making false statements to Cobb County 911 and responding officers.” FOX 5 Atlanta reports the charge as making false statements “to 911 dispatchers and investigators.”

Attention: statute numbers are ours, not the charging document’s. No account compiled for this page prints a code section, and we have not seen the warrant or the accusation. We name the Georgia sections that carry those offence titles so a reader can look up the law; we are not representing that these are the exact counts on the paperwork, and a prosecutor can add, drop or recast counts at any point.

No one has been charged with killing him

This is the single most misread thing about a case shaped like this one, and it deserves its own heading.

Atlanta News First reports: “Keith is not facing murder charges at this time, but Marietta police say the investigation is ongoing.” That sentence is doing two jobs at once, and both matter. There is no homicide count now. And the case is not finished.

Police have said the charges may not stay as they are. WSB-TV reports that “police say this is still an active investigation and charges could be upgraded.” CBS News Atlanta reports that “police said the investigation remains active and additional charges could be filed depending on the findings of detectives and the medical examiner.” FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “officials noted that the investigation remains active and additional criminal charges may be filed.”

A charge that might be filed later is not a charge that exists now, and this page does not narrate one that does not exist. Nothing here says what happened to Messiah Harris, because nothing on the public record says it. A reader who finishes this page believing a killing has been established has read something we did not write.

A charge is an accusation, not a verdict

Dairon Keith is charged. He is not convicted. Everything attributed to police on this page is an allegation, and every allegation is carried with the words that mark it as one: police say, police allege, he is accused, investigators said.

Anyone accused in Georgia is presumed innocent unless and until the case is proven in court. That presumption is not weaker because a child died, not weaker because the accusation is ugly, and not weaker because a judge denied bond. A bond denial is a decision about release pending trial. It is not a finding of guilt, and it does not preview one.

No trial, no plea, no defence account and no verdict appears in the reporting compiled for this page. No attorney for Keith is named here, and no response from him appears here. An accusation with no answer yet attached to it is exactly as unproven as it sounds.

What Marietta police have said

Almost everything factual in the coverage traces back to one agency: the Marietta Police Department. It is worth being clear about that, because it means most of this story is one source’s account, repeated by five newsrooms.

On his statements. Atlanta News First reports that “at a news conference Friday, police called Keith’s initial statements ‘inconsistent.’” FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “investigators said Keith made inconsistent statements to responding officers and failed to make sense during questioning.”

On the sequence. WSB-TV reports that Marietta police spokesperson Chuck McPhilamy said early indications were that the child was likely dead before the caregiver called 911. WSB-TV reports the same point again on Aug. 12: “police say they later learned the child was dead before Keith called 911.”

Read those as what they are: a police characterisation, early in an investigation, of what investigators believed at the time. “Early indications” is not a determination, and a police account of a timeline is not a medical finding about when or how a person died. That finding belongs to a different office and has not been released.

This page does not repeat the physical details police have alleged about how the child was found. They are in the accounts linked at the foot of this page for any reader who wants them. They do not belong in a page whose job is to tell a Cobb County parent what is established and what is not, and we decline to publish them here.

Why the cause of death is still blank

There is no cause of death on this page because there is no cause of death on the public record. The three newsrooms that stated it directly said the same thing.

Atlanta News First: “Officials are still working to determine Harris’ cause of death.” WSB-TV: “Officials have not released a cause of death.” FOX 5 Atlanta: “Police have not released Messiah’s exact cause of death while the medical examiner completes an autopsy.”

That blank is not evasion and it is not a gap in the reporting. It is the normal state of a death investigation at this stage, and it is very likely the entire truth of the matter. A determination of this kind is not made in six days.

We are not calling this a homicide, a murder or foul play, because none of those words is ours to apply. Two of them are formal findings and one is a conclusion, and all three belong to people who have evidence this page has never seen.

What a medical examiner actually does

Two separate questions get answered by a medical examiner, and readers routinely collapse them into one.

Cause of death is the medical answer — the injury or disease that ended a life. Manner of death is the classification placed around it, drawn from the same short standard list an examiner applies to every death anywhere: natural, accident, suicide, homicide, or undetermined. That list is a professional vocabulary, not a set of possibilities anyone has floated in this case. Undetermined is a real, permanent option, not a placeholder, and small children are among the hardest cases in forensic pathology precisely because several very different histories can leave very similar findings.

Getting there is not a same-day process. An examination is the first step, not the last. Toxicology and other laboratory testing go out to a lab and come back on the lab’s schedule; medical and other records are gathered from third parties; and the final report is written only once all of it is in hand. Until that is finished, an office will typically say exactly what these ones have said: pending.

This page does not put a number of days on it, because the office that would set that number has not published one for this case, and inventing a date only sets a reader up to believe something has gone wrong when it has not. What we can say is that CBS News Atlanta reports that “the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office is working with Marietta police to determine Messiah’s cause and time of death.”

The statute is O.C.G.A. § 45-16-24, the Georgia Death Investigation Act, and Cobb County cites it by number on its own Medical Examiner pages. That section sets out which deaths must be reported for investigation. Two of the categories the county lists are strikingly on point for a case like this one: deaths “in any suspicious or unusual manner, with particular attention to those persons 16 years of age and under,” and deaths “after birth but before seven years of age if the death is unexpected or unexplained.” Cobb County lists Marietta among the municipalities its Medical Examiner’s Office serves.

The office publishes a main number, 770-528-2200, and office hours of Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A family member with a case-specific question is in a completely different position from a member of the public, and that call goes to the office rather than to a news page.

Who investigates a child’s death in Cobb County

Three separate machines run at once, and they answer to different people.

The criminal investigation belongs to the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the place where the death is discovered — here, the Marietta Police Department, a city agency. It collects evidence, interviews people, applies for warrants and makes arrests. What it decides is who to arrest. What is ultimately filed in court is a prosecutor’s decision, made later, in a different office, and the two do not always match.

The death investigation belongs to the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office, which is not a police agency and does not work for one. Its product is a cause and a manner of death. It can reach a conclusion that helps a prosecution, undercuts one, or supports neither.

The review layer is the part almost nobody outside the system knows exists. Georgia maintains a child fatality review structure in statute: O.C.G.A. § 19-15-3 provides for a county or circuit child fatality review committee, and O.C.G.A. § 19-15-4 provides for the Georgia Child Fatality Review Panel. These are multi-agency bodies that review eligible child deaths after the fact, looking at manner and cause and at whether a death was preventable. They are not a court and they do not charge anybody, and their work generally happens long after the news coverage has stopped.

Nothing in the reporting compiled for this page says a review committee has taken up this case. We describe the machinery because a reader asks how a case like this is handled, not because we are placing this case inside any part of it.

These agencies are not interchangeable

Metro Atlanta readers merge these constantly, and merging them is how a records request dies in a mailroom.

An arrest is the arresting agency’s call. What a grand jury or a prosecutor does with it comes later, and does not always resemble the way an incident was first described.

DFCS, and what Georgia law keeps confidential

A question arrives on every story like this one: had the state been involved with this family before? Nothing in the reporting compiled for this page answers that in either direction, and this page does not speculate about it.

It is worth understanding why that silence is normal rather than suspicious. Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services, DFCS, is the state agency that receives and investigates reports of child abuse and neglect. Its records are confidential by statute. O.C.G.A. § 49-5-40 declares records concerning reports of child abuse in the department’s custody confidential and prohibits access except as the following sections allow, and O.C.G.A. § 49-5-41 is the provision that lists who may get at them and on what terms.

The practical effect is that a member of the public asking whether a particular family had a case history will normally be told nothing at all, and that answer is the statute working as written. Georgia’s open records law reinforces it: O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72 lists the categories where public disclosure is not required, including records specifically made confidential by other law.

Attention: the absence of information about agency involvement is not evidence of agency involvement, and it is not evidence against it either. A blank is a blank. Filling it with an assumption about a grieving family is the exact failure this page is built to avoid.

How to report a concern about a child in Georgia

This is the one section on this page that can change an outcome for somebody, so it is written plainly.

To report suspected child abuse or neglect in Georgia, call 1-855-GA-CHILD — that is 1-855-422-4453. The number is published by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services on dfcs.georgia.gov, and the agency states that child abuse and neglect reports are taken 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 first. A state intake line is not an emergency response. Police and fire are, and the two calls are not alternatives to each other.

Georgia also has a mandated-reporter statute, O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5, which requires people in certain roles — among them teachers and school staff, physicians and other medical personnel, child care workers and law enforcement — to report suspected child abuse, with an oral report required promptly and in no case later than 24 hours from the point there is reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused. The intake line is open to anybody, mandated reporter or not.

You do not need proof, and you are not required to be right. The intake line exists to receive a concern and let trained people assess it. A person who waits until they are certain is a person who waits.

How to get the incident report, and what gets redacted

The agency that holds the record is the Marietta Police Department, because Marietta police are the agency named throughout this coverage. Not Cobb County police, not the sheriff, not the GBI. A request sent to the wrong agency is not forwarded; it is simply not answered.

Marietta publishes its process on mariettaga.gov. The city states that records requests are completed online through its Sages tool, with the option to complete a written request and mail it in or bring it to the Marietta Police Department front desk. Requests are directed to Marietta Police Department — Records, 240 Lemon Street, Marietta, GA 30060. The city notes that requests for police reports are processed immediately whenever possible, and that a three-day period allowed by O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 may be used when needed. For questions, the city lists 770-794-5300, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Attention: expect a thin return while this investigation is open. Georgia’s Open Records Act, at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72, is the section that sets out when public disclosure is not required. It carries an exemption for records of a pending investigation or prosecution — while preserving public access to initial arrest reports and initial incident reports. In practice that means the first page may come out and the file behind it may not.

When a minor is involved, expect more redaction on top of that. Material identifying children who are not the subject of the case, anything touching a child abuse report protected by O.C.G.A. § 49-5-40, medical detail, and material an agency treats as part of an active file are the categories that routinely come back blacked out. A heavily redacted document is the ordinary result of a correct request, not a sign that the request was mishandled or that anyone is hiding anything.

The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s report is a separate record, held by a separate office, and it does not exist until the examination is complete.

What the family has said

Messiah’s family spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday, Aug. 12. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that family members made statements at Marietta Square around 10:30 a.m. that day. Atlanta News First and WSB-TV also covered it. His aunt, Tiara Redding, spoke on the family’s behalf and is named by all three.

The part of what she said that bears on this investigation is this, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta: “Messiah deserves justice, and we are trusting that law enforcement will conduct a thorough and complete investigation to ensure full accountability for his death.”

WSB-TV reports that “the family did not want to talk about Keith, but said they want justice.”

We are not reprinting the rest of what a grieving family said about a 2-year-old. Those words were theirs, they were spoken in the worst week of their lives, and they are available in full at the outlets linked below. This page is not going to turn them into traffic.

Where our sources differ

We publish disagreements rather than picking a winner. “Not stated” below means the point does not appear in what we compiled from that outlet — it is not a claim about everything that newsroom published. Atlanta News First is Gray Media; WSB-TV is Cox Media Group; CBS News Atlanta is CBS; FOX 5 Atlanta is Fox Television Stations; the People report reached us through Yahoo. Eight reports, five owners.

The live disagreements are the second row, the third row and the sixth. Nothing in this table resolves how Messiah Harris died, because nothing in the public record does.

What we don’t know yet

Nothing above is filled in by inference. A blank stays a blank on this page.

What this page will not do

It is worth being explicit, on a story about a dead 2-year-old, about the things we decided against.

We do not describe the child’s body or the condition he was found in. Some of that detail is in the linked accounts and none of it is here. It tells a reader nothing they can act on, and it is the part of this story a family will have to live beside for the rest of their lives.

We do not narrate the death as something a person did. No one has been charged with causing it and no cause of death has been determined. Every allegation on this page is marked as an allegation and attributed to the agency that made it.

We publish no photograph of anyone — not the child, not the accused, not the family, not the scene. We publish no address, no unit, no map and no coordinates. We name no other child. We carry no fundraiser link, because a page like this one is a target for people who set up fake ones.

And we do not promise to come back. This page is a record of what named newsrooms and named agencies had established when it was written. It is not a live tracker, and saying so is more honest than a promise nobody keeps.

If you are close to this

Most people who read a page like this one are not strangers to it. They live in the complex, they know the family, they are the family, or they are a Cobb County parent who saw a headline and needed to know whether their own street was in it.

The honest answer is that the offices that can tell you what happens next are not newsrooms. The Marietta Police Department holds the investigative file. The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office holds the death investigation and can be reached at 770-528-2200 during office hours. A prosecutor, once one is assigned, decides what is filed. Those offices move on their own clocks, and none of them moves on a family’s.

If you are worried about a child right now, the number is 1-855-GA-CHILD, 1-855-422-4453, and it is answered around the clock. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911.

The Local Alert is not a police department, not a law firm and not a medical examiner. What we can do is show you exactly what five named newsrooms established, mark plainly where they disagree, refuse to fill the blanks, and decline to publish the parts of this that serve nobody.

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Frequently asked questions

Who was Messiah Harris?
Messiah Harris was a 2-year-old boy from Marietta, in Cobb County, Georgia. He was reported missing on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, and was found dead the same day. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that his aunt, Tiara Redding, said he was just shy of turning three on Aug. 22. Atlanta News First, WSB-TV, CBS News Atlanta, FOX 5 Atlanta and People all publish his name.

How old was Messiah Harris?
Two. Every outlet compiled for this page describes him as 2 years old. FOX 5 Atlanta reports his aunt said he was just shy of turning three on Aug. 22. CBS News Atlanta describes him as “just weeks away from his third birthday.” People describes him as “just weeks away from his 3rd birthday.”

When and where was Messiah Harris found?
He was reported missing on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, from an apartment complex in Marietta, and was found dead in a wooded area near that complex later the same day. WSB-TV and CBS News Atlanta both report that his body was found at around 7:20 p.m. This page does not publish a street number, a unit, a map or any coordinates.

What was Messiah Harris’s cause of death?
It has not been released. Atlanta News First reports that “officials are still working to determine Harris’ cause of death.” WSB-TV reports that “officials have not released a cause of death.” FOX 5 Atlanta reports that police have not released his exact cause of death while the medical examiner completes an autopsy. Cause and manner of death are formal determinations made by a medical examiner, and this page does not guess at either one.

Has anyone been charged in connection with Messiah Harris’s death?
Yes. Dairon Keith, 23, of Kennesaw, has been charged. Atlanta News First, WSB-TV, CBS News Atlanta, FOX 5 Atlanta and People all report the charges. He is charged, not convicted, and nothing has been proven against him.

What is Dairon Keith charged with?
Two felonies. CBS News Atlanta reports that “Keith has been charged with felony concealing the death of another person and felony making false statements.” Atlanta News First reports the same two counts. WSB-TV reports that “Keith is charged with two felonies, concealing the death and making false statements.” Those are the only counts that appear in the reporting compiled for this page.

Is Dairon Keith charged with murder?
No. Atlanta News First reports that “Keith is not facing murder charges at this time, but Marietta police say the investigation is ongoing.” WSB-TV reports that police say this is still an active investigation and charges could be upgraded. CBS News Atlanta reports that police said additional charges could be filed depending on the findings of detectives and the medical examiner. A charge that could be filed later is not a charge that exists now.

Has Dairon Keith been convicted of anything in this case?
No. A charge is an accusation. Anyone accused in Georgia is presumed innocent unless and until the case is proven in court, and that presumption applies here in full. No trial, no plea and no verdict appears in the reporting compiled for this page.

Is Dairon Keith in jail, and was he given bond?
He was denied bond. Atlanta News First reports that a judge ordered on Sunday, Aug. 9, that he be held without bond, and that he appeared for an arraignment hearing at 9 a.m. that day. FOX 5 Atlanta reports that “a judge denied him bond on the charges.” CBS News Atlanta reports that he was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and held without bond. WSB-TV reported on Aug. 12 that “Keith remains in the Cobb County jail.”

Who is investigating the death of Messiah Harris?
The Marietta Police Department is the agency named throughout the reporting compiled for this page, and CBS News Atlanta reports that the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office is working with Marietta police to determine the cause and time of death. Marietta police are a city department. They are not the Cobb County Police Department, not the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and not the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

What does the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office do in a case like this?
Cobb County publishes the categories of death that fall under its Medical Examiner, and it cites O.C.G.A. § 45-16-24, the Georgia Death Investigation Act. Two of those categories are deaths “in any suspicious or unusual manner, with particular attention to those persons 16 years of age and under” and deaths “after birth but before seven years of age if the death is unexpected or unexplained.” The office determines cause of death and manner of death. Cobb County lists Marietta among the municipalities its Medical Examiner serves.

How long does a cause-of-death determination take in Georgia?
Longer than a news cycle. An examination is only the first step: toxicology and other laboratory testing are sent out, records are gathered from other parties, and the final report is written after all of it comes back. This page does not put a number of days on it, because the office that would set that number has not published one for this case. The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office can be reached at 770-528-2200, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Was DFCS involved with this family?
Nothing in the reporting compiled for this page says one way or the other, and this page does not speculate. Georgia law makes records of child abuse reports confidential under O.C.G.A. § 49-5-40, with access limited to the people and agencies the statute allows. That means the absence of information is what the law normally produces, and it should not be read as an answer in either direction.

How do I report a concern about a child’s safety in Georgia?
Call 1-855-GA-CHILD, which is 1-855-422-4453. That is the intake line published by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services on dfcs.georgia.gov, and the agency states that child abuse and neglect reports are taken 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 first. Georgia’s mandated-reporter statute, O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5, requires certain professionals to report suspected abuse, but the intake line is open to anyone.

How do I get the Marietta police incident report?
Marietta publishes the process on mariettaga.gov. Reports are requested through the department’s online Sages tool, or by mailing or bringing a written request to Marietta Police Department — Records, 240 Lemon Street, Marietta. The city notes that a three-day period allowed by O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 may be used when needed, and lists 770-794-5300, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., for questions. Expect a narrow return while an investigation is open.

Where exactly in Marietta did this happen?
Our sources describe the location differently and this page does not resolve it. Atlanta News First places it at “an apartment complex off Franklin Gateway SE.” WSB-TV places it at the apartment complex on Ridge Run. CBS News Atlanta and People place it on Ridge Run and give a street number this page does not repeat. FOX 5 Atlanta reports the toddler was found “near Briggs at Powers Park off Ridge Run Road.” No map, no coordinates and no unit number appears on this page.