Nylo Lattimore

A boy and his mother are murdered, but the young boy's body has never been found
Neighbors remembered three-year-old Nylo Lattimore as a happy and energetic little boy who was always smiling. The African American toddler lived with his 29-year-old mother, Nyteisha Lattimore, in an apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio's Walnut Hills neighborhood. He was a sweet, shy, and quiet child who loved Paw Patrol. His life, and that of his mother, ended tragically in December 2020.

The horrific chain of events began on December 5, 2020. In their apartment on Melrose Avenue, Nyteisha’s boyfriend, 20-year-old Desean Brown, stabbed her to death. Investigators later revealed the motive: Nyteisha had recently suffered a miscarriage of a baby believed to be Brown's, and he blamed her for it, vowing to "do something to her baby" in retaliation. For five days, Brown left Nyteisha's body inside the apartment. During this time, he used her phone to post on her Facebook account and searched online for cleaning products, body bags, and local bridges.

In the early morning hours of December 6, prosecutors say Brown pushed Nylo in his stroller to the Purple People Bridge, a pedestrian bridge spanning the Ohio River, and threw the three-year-old boy into the water while he was still alive. On December 11, surveillance video captured Brown carrying a large bag, which he had purchased on eBay, out of the apartment building. He called an Uber and told the driver the heavy bag contained his belongings because he and his girlfriend had a fight. The driver took him to the area near the bridge.

Around 3:30 a.m. on December 12, Nyteisha’s body was discovered near the Purple People Bridge on Pete Rose Way. She had been stabbed multiple times. The next day, Nylo’s empty stroller was found in the river nearby. With Nyteisha's body, police found a Paw Patrol blanket stained with her son's blood. An intensive search for Nylo was immediately launched by the Cincinnati Police Department, with dive teams, sonar boats, and K9 units scouring the Ohio River. Volunteers and nonprofit search groups combed more than 100 miles of the river and its banks, but Nylo’s body was never found.

Cincinnati Police quickly identified Desean Brown as the primary suspect. He was arrested and, during a lengthy interrogation, denied knowing what had happened, even claiming Nyteisha had called him that day, long after she was dead. Investigators confronted him with surveillance footage and his suspicious internet searches. Brown was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty.

The case proceeded through the Hamilton County court system for years, marked by emotional outbursts from Nylo’s biological father, Tonio Hughes, who physically attacked Brown in the courtroom on one occasion and was escorted out on another. Brown’s defense team argued that he was not eligible for the death penalty due to a serious mental illness, but a judge ruled that while Brown may have Bipolar Disorder, it did not significantly impact his judgment at the time of the killings. A trial was set for early 2025.

In September 2025, nearly five years after the murders, Desean Brown, then 25, accepted a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the death penalty specification. A judge sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich stated that the plea spared the family the trauma of a trial and years of appeals, adding, "What Brown did was ruthless, and this plea deal reflects that. This sentence delivers justice for both Nyteisha and Nylo." The case is now considered closed, though the search for Nylo Lattimore's body has ended, leaving his family without a place to lay him to rest.