Mid-week Mini | What Starts Out as a Missing Baby Case Becomes a Tale of Lies and Murder | Leilani Simon

Love and murder’s midweek mini features Leilani Simon

What began as a report of a missing toddler unraveled into a heartbreaking story of betrayal, neglect, deception and murder. For your midweek mini, I tell you the case of Leilani Simon. Welcome lambs. Welcome to love and murder, heartbreak to homicide. Your midweek mini edition. If you’re new here, hi, my name is Kai and I will be your host. Why don’t you go ahead, take a listen all the way to the end and if you like it, don’t forget to subscribe. If you’re returning lamb. Thank you so so much for your continued support. If you didn’t know, you can also subscribe on my Patreon patreon.com loveandmurder by subscribing over there, you could either become a sponsor of Love and murder or if you’re not ready to become a paid sponsor yet, you could actually still sign up to the Patreon for free where you still get some benefits for being a freelance patreon patreon.com lover. Uh, love and murder. Speaking of sponsors, I do want to take a moment to thank the sponsors of love and murder, which is my lamb patreons. Thank you so much for trusting in me and being a continued lamb Patreon.

Leilani Simon reported her son Quentin Simon missing on October 5, 2022

Now let’s get into your midweek mini. The morning of October 5, 2022 began with a 911 call at 9:40am from the Buck Halter Road residence outside of Savannah, Georgia. 23 year old Leilani Simon reported her 20 month old son Quentin Simon missing from his indoor playpen. Saying that the last time she had seen him was 6am that day. She claimed the front door was open and Quentin had probably been abducted from his playpen. This started a massive search with local authorities and the FBI combing through the area for weeks. Officers found vomit in Quentin’s pack and play and what appeared to be blood or vomit on a pillow in the house. During the search, Leilani made public pleas for help in finding Quentin, telling WTOC TV quote, we’re just hoping that he’s in somebody’s house and they’re feeding him. Maybe they wanted a baby or couldn’t have a baby. Search efforts expanded across multiple locations such as neighborhood grid searches, local pond investigations with dive teams and uh, targeted outdoor searches with trained volunteers. Forty FBI agents conducted a thorough re examination of the Buck Halter road home. The FBI’s child abduction rapid development team assisted with detailed questionnaires for neighborhood canvassing. By October 10, however, the investigation, uh, shifted direction from a missing person’s case. Police Chief Jed Hadley Said, quote, we are looking at the criminal investigation aspect of it as well. Investigators had become suspicious as inconsistencies emerged in Leilani’s statements. Detective Kiana Robbins analyzed data from the Flock camera system, which tracked Leilani’s car movements between October 4th and 5th. Surveillance footage, GPS data and phone records indicated her car was at the Azalea mobile home plaza dumpster about two miles from her home early in the morning of October 5th. This contradicted an earliest statement that she gave about visiting a Chevron statement on that day. Then, uh, there were the alcohol bottles found in Leilani’s car and potential blood evidence in the driver’s seat. On October 11, Leilani was named as the only suspect in her son’s disappearance. Investigators maintained close surveillance of Leilani’s activities. After becoming skeptical of her timeline, they got a warrant to record her hotel room conversations. On November 18, 2022, after weeks of searching through over 1.2 million pounds of trash in a Savannah landfill, Officer Sophia Zurke made a horrible discovery. Quote, I was raking through the garbage, and I had observed a white, small object that could fit in the palm of my hand. It looked like a bone to me. FBI forensic anthropologist Dr. Angie Christensen confirmed the remains belonged to a child between one and two years old with evidence of pre death trauma. However, the exact cause of death could not be determined due to the state of the remains. DNA tests later confirmed that the remains did belong to Quentin. Leilani was arrested three days later on Nov. 21. Leilani’s trial started on Oct. 14, 2024, in Chatham County. Special assistant district attorney Tim Dean delivered a lengthy opening statement ending with quote, she drove her son to the dumpster and threw him away like trash. The defense made a short opening statement saying that the prosecutors would not be able to prove anything. The prosecution constructed their case around Leilani’s inconsistent statements, behavioral patterns, and their digital forensics. Prosecutors accused her of killing Quinton in the early hours of October 5th and disposing of his body in the dumpster. They presented 19 charges against her, including malice murder, felony murder, making false statements concealing a death, and 14 counts of lying to investigators. They told the court about an incident involving Leilani and her boyfriend, Daniel Youngskin, that happened a few months before her son’s murder. Leilani told Daniel that she was feeling unloved and neglected. She made him a four minute suicide video where she talked about how the relationship was going downhill and that she felt her feelings for him were not being reciprocated. On the video, she says, quote, I don’t hear love in your voice or the love in your touch. I don’t see the love in your eyes anymore. When I was carrying your child, you didn’t want to have sex with me. You didn’t want me. That feeling was only one way. That love, that loyalty, all one way. She ended the video telling Daniel, quote, to take care of her kids when she got to the river. She ended the video with the intent to kill herself by driving into the river. The prosecution went on to tell the court about Leilani’s lack of accountability throughout the entire investigation. And they talked about Leilani’s behavior during the investigation as well as after her arrest. At one point, while she was hysterically crying over her missing child, she used the past tense to refer to her son. Son. So this was even before they found the body of the sun. Quote, he was warm. His cheeks were pink. Please don’t do that. I can’t live with that. He was alive last time I seen my baby. He was my happy baby. They said she implicated innocent people and was out drinking. The night investigators announced the landfill search for Quentin’s body on Leilani’s phone, prosecutors told the court that a few days before Quentin disappeared, she had searched, quote, is it common for a mother to have resentment or even anger towards her child because of the father or another reason? Prosecutor Dean talked about Leilani’s deteriorating relationship with her boyfriend and her increase in drug use. On the night of October 4th, Leilani fought with Daniel and left the house to buy cocaine and Percocet. Surveillance footage and GPS data then showed her at the Azalea Mobile Home Plaza dumpster for approximately two minutes around 1:17am Then a babysitter, Talia McCart, testified that Leilani treated Quinton horribly, often favoring his older sibling, Zayn, who is Daniel’s son. Talia said that she witnessed that Leilani pushed Quinton into a pool before Talia could even put floaties on him. And another time, she saw her backhand him across the face, which knocked the toddler off his feet. Pause here. Question. Isn’t it time to call cps? If I saw somebody throw. Push whatever, their toddler into the pool, I don’t know if I could chalk that up to accidental. Unless she jumped in after him like, oh, crap. Oh. Jumps in and saved them. I can’t believe what I did. Yeah, so just that one. I’m calling CPS and the cops. Then if I see you backhand your toddler so hard that they flew backwards and fell on the ground of Course, the baby started crying and everything like that. First of all, I honestly, I don’t know if I’m going to fight that adult. I have no idea. I can’t answer that question. I hopefully will be able to keep my wits about me. But that is another indication to call the police and cps. There is no reason in the history of reasons to backhand a, uh, toddler so hard that they go flying onto the floor. No reason ever in the Everest of Evers. So I can’t even say that’s an accident. I can’t even say, oh, well, uh, maybe he. There is no maybe it’s just me, but there’s no reason. So with her witnessing that, CPS should have been called. The police should have been called. Not that. I’m just a babysitter, and I’m not calling anybody, and I’m just going to go home and tell people, oh, I saw the craziest thing today. No, absolutely not.

Talia claims Leilani left Quentin at her house for weeks without supervision

Talia also claimed that Leilani left Quentin at her house for weeks without checking on him. Meaning she left him with the babysitter. Leilani told her that she did not love Quinton. She then told the court that she thought Leilani was a, quote, crappy mother. Again, all reasons to call CPS or the police. You left a baby at the house for weeks without checking on him. That’s called child abandonment. I’m calling the police or cps. Then, after witnessing everything you did, Leilani tells you that she doesn’t even love this son, which is incredibly apparent. And then you thought she was a crappy mother. But let’s get this baby some help. Leilani’s former neighbor, Melanie Bowling, testified that Leilani resented Quentin, verbally abused him, and told her more than once that she wished she had aborted him. Okay, so that’s a, uh, second person that’s testifying, witnessing whatever she’s doing with this baby. I don’t know how many people need to see this before CPS or the police are called, but I guess it took murder for this to happen. Surveillance video shows a car matching Leilani’s at the scene. One of the initial and ever changing stories that Leilani told police was that she’d gone to the mobile home park to pick up origel from a friend. However, that friend later testified that, no, she didn’t. That friend took from the handbook of Kai Because I’m gonna let you know, don’t try and put me in. Don’t try and mix me in aspect, especially your child is murdered and you’re the suspect, and you try and rope me in. Oh, no. I was over at Kai’s house. No, you weren’t. No, you weren’t. Don’t try and put me in this. I am not your friend. Then I am not helping you. Defense attorney Martin Hilliard argued that the state lacked direct evidence tying Leilani to Quinton’s death, emphasizing that the cause of death remained unknown. Attorney Hilliard claimed the prosecution relied on speculation and character attacks rather than concrete evidence. Jenny Parkers said, quote, leilani Simon is not a mother. She is a monster. We cannot give Quentin back the life he deserved, but we can give him justice. Leilani’s defense responded with, quote, this case can’t be described based on emotions. It must be described based on facts and evidence presented in this courtroom. It can’t be determined by their rumors, their gossip, and their conclusions. In the end, that is what you will determine, is that this is the foundation of the state’s claims. The core conclusion is that Leilani Marie Simon murdered her child. The evidence will simply not support that bold conclusion.

Leilani’s family members spoke at her sentencing on October 25, 2024

On day 10 of the trial, on October 25, 2024, after six hours of deliberation, the jury found Leilani guilty on all 19 charges. Leilani’s family members, including her brother Paul and her mother, Billy Joe Howell, spoke at the sentencing. Paul pleaded for leniency, calling Leilani young. Really? You okay? And deserving of a second chance in life. You know, who else was young and deserving of a second chance at life? Quote, she needs to spend time in prison, but at the same time, she’s still extremely young. And regardless of how it looks at the end of the day, she’s still my sister. And I feel like even though she was convicted of what she was convicted of, she still deserves a chance, even if it’s later in her life, to have an opportunity to live her life still, end quote. I just. I just have a question, and I think if I was, um, the prosecution, I would totally ask that question. However, I understand that no lawyer, uh, would ask this question because you want to be respectful of the family. But the question that I would ask is, you know, who else was young and deserving another opportunity of life? That’d be my question. Paul said he never saw any evidence of Quentin being abused. Quote, she was always pretty fair to him. I never saw her hit him. She would yell at him. But, I mean, everyone gets frustrated. I mean, uh, I hear that, Paul, but also, there’s other people who live near her. You didn’t live near her. There are other people who live near her or babysat for her, who are saying completely different things than you are. Maybe around her family. She didn’t act this way because she knew her family would look at her and be like, what the hell is wrong with you? But you can’t hide that 24 7. And people who lived near her saw her do different things than you. Paul went on to ask the judge for some leniency on Leilani’s sentencing. Thomas Howell, Leilani’s stepfather, said, quote, I just would ask for one day she’d be able to walk amongst us. I mean, I won’t be here, I’m up in age. But that you’d at least be given one more chance in life instead of just putting her away and throwing away the key to yet again, Kai says, you know who else would love to have another chance to walk amongst us? Billy Joe expressed regret saying, I should have been a better mom and a better grandma. Well, Billy Joe, it’s totally not your fault. Children grow up into adults and then we either do what we’re supposed to do as adults or we become utter assholes. It’s not always the parents fault. If the child never learned right from wrong, there were never any consequences to their actions. Then yeah, I would say it’s somewhat of the parents fault, but that’s still only somewhat because you grow into an adult and as an adult, you know right from wrong. You know there are consequences to your action. You can form your own thoughts. So still, that’s only slightly on the parents. Billy Joe said her daughter, quote, deserved better. Ma’am, stop blaming yourself. It is not your fault. Quote, I love you and we’re going to get through it. Because I raised you to know that I love you unconditionally. And today I do not put conditions on that. Because I love you, Leilani. And as a mother, I would still love my child. Yes, I understand that. And even as a mother, I probably would blame myself too. Like, where did I go wrong? So I completely understand that.

Poll: Do you think Leilani Simon is innocent or guilty

On October 31, 2024, Judge Tammy Stokes sentenced Leilani to life in PR plus an additional 10 years with the possibility of parole after 40 years. In her closing remark, judge Stokes said, quote, quentin Simon’s life and death impacted not only his family, but the community at large. After her sentencing, Leilani requested that Quentin’s remains be released to her brother. Quote, I want my baby home. And that is the case of Leilani Simon and the murder of Quentin Simon. My only thing is I see how her family is like, oh, give her a Second chance. Give her a second chance. But not even Leilani showed any remorse, any regret, really. No sadness that her child was gone. All the cops had to say was that it was fake emotions that were coming from her and her story kept changing, kept changing, kept changing. I only told you about a couple of things that she said, but there were so many changes to her story as to where she was, what could have happened. And anyways, I’m going to have the court case and you can see for yourself the court case in the Patreon where you can see her change in stories. I believe an interrogation video is included in that. You can join the Patreon to see that for the case extras, you can get that at the $3 a month tier. You’ll get pictures, court documents, the trial, the videos of the interrogation, basically whatever I could find that comes with the case. You get that starting at the three dollar a month tear. Patreon.com forward/loveandmurder so I am gonna put out a poll for this one and the poll is gonna be, do you think Leilani is innocent? Do you think is she was just misunderstood? Do you think she actually didn’t do this? And somebody as she, which I didn’t really go into detail in the episode as she claimed somebody came into her house and child. Do you think that’s what happened or do you believe basically all the evidence that’s shown because her car was at the landfill on the time the body was dumped. Um, every time she said she had an alibi, nobody corroborated for her. She had blood in her car, there was blood in the house. You know, there’s just so much evidence piled up against her for me not to believe that, you know, it was her who did this. But maybe I’m missing something though. The poll question is, do you think she’s innocent or do you think she’s guilty? You could either answer the poll. The poll will also be in the Patreon. If you. Even if you sign up for free, it’s there for free. Patreon.com forward/loveandmurder. You could answer the question in the after the pod Facebook group or if Spotify allows me to post this question, it’s. Spotify has been just giving me problems, so I haven’t been able to post it. Um, if Spotify allows me to post a question, it will be on the Spotify as well. If you would be a dare and do two things for me, the first thing is go to the Patreon and sign up even if it’s for free. Patreon.com forward/love and murder or you could check out any one of the tiers in Whichever one that you do want to sign up for, go ahead and become an exclusive lamb Patreon and a sponsor of love and murder. Patreon.com loveandmurder the second thing that I would ask you to do is just simply share this episode. Share it with your friends. Share it with your family. Share it with everyone you know and everyone you don’t. And, uh, that is all I have for you today. And I will see you in the next episode. Bye.