East Point police discovered the body of a child on Aug. 23 at the East Point Transfer Station, a garbage facility, on South Martin Street. As reported, investigators said the body had been out in the elements for several days. On Thursday, the Fulton County medical examiner “identified the remains as that of two-year-old toddler J’Asiah Mitchell.”
The toddler’s father, Artavoius North, was suspected by police investigators immediately of falsely reporting that the toddler had been kidnapped. North was initially taken into custody on charges of lying to police. They said they had reason to believe the toddler had not been kidnapped. “At the time of his arrest, investigators told FOX 5’s Deidra Dukes he was considered a person of interest in the boy’s disappearance.”
North has now been charged by the East Point Police “with malice murder, concealing the death of another, and cruelty to children in the death of his in the boy’s death.” See photo of father Artavoius North. See related earlier reporting, Child’s body found in search for missing 2-year-old.
Background reporting discloses that officers and members of the community “had been searching for Mitchell since the night of Aug. 16.” At that time, North told police “the boy was kidnapped at the Aspen Woods Apartments on Flat Shoals Road.” North claimed a “group of armed robbers cut him off as he was leaving the apartment complex and took the child.”
