A Tennessee man has been charged with murder after authorities say he fatally shot the mother of his two-day-old child and hurled the newborn into the Mississippi River.
Brandon Isabelle, 25, was arrested on Wednesday, February 2, 2022, on two counts of first-degree murder, murder in the perpetration of aggravated kidnapping and tampering or fabricating evidence, after police say he admitted to killing Danielle Hoyle, 27, and tossing their baby, Kennedy Hoyle, into the water.
Officials were still searching for the infant, but Memphis police said in a tweet that evidence suggests she is dead.
The incident began unfolding at around 11.15pm on Tuesday, when police officers located an abandoned vehicle in the area of Sedgwick Street and Levi Road in Whitehaven, and nearby found the body of Danielle Hoyle, who had been shot in the head, police said.
Officers were told by Hoyle’s family that her baby had been with the woman, but no child was found in the car, police said.
A search began, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert for Kennedy.
Hours later, Kennedy’s car seat was found abandoned in a Walmart parking lot, but there was no sign of the baby.
Police quickly identified Isabelle, Kennedy’s biological father, as a suspect and brought him in for questioning.
According to an affidavit of complaint, during questioning, Isabelle admitted to ‘luring’ the mother of his baby to Whitehaven and fatally shooting her.
He ‘also admitted to taking the two day old child out of Danielle’s vehicle, driving the child to Island Park and the Upper Mud Island Boat Ramp, where he tossed the child into the water,’ the document alleged.
At the time of her death, Kennedy weighed just 6lbs and was 17 inches long.
No motive has been provided.
The 25-year-old suspect told police he then threw the gun used to kill Hoyle into the Mississippi River and Wolf River Delta on Memphis.
Law enforcement officers were scouring the Mud Island area of Memphis, along the Mississippi River, on Wednesday afternoon in search of Kennedy’s body.
Kennedy’s devastated maternal grandmother, April Campbell, said she only got to hold her granddaughter once for 10 minutes, reported WLOX. She now wants her daughter and grandchild’s suspected killer brought to justice.
‘I want him to suffer like he made my baby suffer,’ Campbell told Action News 5. ‘I want him to hurt. I don’t want it to be easy for him. … why would you hurt a baby?’
Hoyle worked at FedEx. She is survived by a 10-year-old daughter.
Source: Daily Mail
