Nevaeh Liyla Allen had been missing for more than a day, and multiple law enforcement agencies scoured Louisiana looking for her in September 2021.
When search and rescue teams questioned the family about the supposed disappearance, one of Nevaeh’s stepsisters told an FBI agent, “Baby’s in the forest.”
It turned out the report of Nevaeh’s disappearance was a hoax. Her stepfather, Phillip Kegan Gardner, beat the toddler to death, then stuffed her lifeless body into a suitcase and drove to a wooded area along the Pearl River in Mississippi, where he buried the girl in a shallow grave…