Cash Gernon: Slain Texas boy, 4, was living with father's girlfriend while dad's been missing for months
DALLAS, TEXAS: Cash Gernon, a 4-year-old boy, was found dead in a Dallas neighborhood in a pool of blood eight blocks from his home. He was reportedly taken from his crib as he slept early Saturday morning, May 15. Cash reportedly had multiple wounds from an edged weapon and was found without a shirt or shoes.
Police arrested Darriynn Brown, 18, and charged him with kidnapping and theft in the case. Brown is being held in Dallas County jail on a $750,000 bond, according to online jail records.
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"Dallas investigators anticipate additional charges, pending results from a forensic analysis," police said. "Even us as police officers, we are shocked," said executive assistant chief Albert Martinez, who added that the boy "was murdered through a violent act," likely with an edged weapon. "We're very angry about what has happened to the small child," he said.
Where did Cash Gernon live?
As per reports, an early-morning jogger found Cash’s body in the middle of Saddleridge Drive at about 7 am on Saturday. Cash and his twin brother were reportedly living at a home on Florina Parkway in Dallas’s Mountain Creek area.
As per a report, they were living with a woman called Monica Sherrod, who was originally reported to be the boys’ mother. But as per a new report, Sherrod is the boys’ father’s girlfriend. The boys’ father, who was not named, has not been in the home since March, police said, and they don’t know where he is.
Sherrod reportedly called police just before 11 am on May 15 to report Cash missing and showed police home security footage showing a man lift a sleeping child out of his crib. Sherrod also reportedly identified the man as Brown, who lived a few blocks away.
As per the same report, Cash’s twin brother, who was not named, was taken from Sherrod’s home by state authorities. Dallas police said the boy was now with his biological mother, Melinda Seagroves, and grandmother, Connie Ward, who had been searching for the boys for some time. Seagroves had believed they were with their father and had no idea he had left them with Sherrod.
Kameron Moori, 18, who lives at the home where Cash lived, told the Morning News he was Cash’s brother and knew Brown in high school and middle school. Moori said he went to Duncanville High School with the suspect, but that they are not friends. “We got cameras all over the place in my house,” said Moori. “It shows him coming in, took him while he was asleep. While he was asleep. Carried him out of my house while he was asleep.”
Moori also insisted the attack was random. “Yes, random. Out of nowhere,” he said. “No reason for none of this. It’s not from revenge, not from hate, not from none of that.” He further said that drugs were not involved either.