FBI offers reward after toddler found alone, mother missing

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the location of 21-year-old Georgia mother Leila Cavett, whose young son was found wandering alone in a South Florida apartment complex last month.

“We are still relentlessly investigating the circumstances surrounding her disappearance,” FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro said in a news release on Thursday. “Any information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, may be important to finding Leila.”

The agency also released video that contains seven clips of Cavett.

Cavett, of Atlanta, was last seen on the night of July 25, just hours before her 2-year-old son, Kamdyn, was found wandering alone in a shirt and diaper at a Miramar apartment complex. The mother and son had arrived in South Florida the day before she went missing. Investigators have determined that she spent time in several Broward County communities, including Hollywood, Miramar and Fort Lauderdale. Her vehicle was found unattended July 28 in Hollywood.

Investigators on Saturday arrested Shannon Ryan, 38, and charged him with kidnapping with the intent of collecting a ransom, reward or other benefit.

In a criminal complaint filed in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, the FBI said video evidence does not support Ryan’s claims that he saw Leila Cavett and her son get into another person’s vehicle at a Hollywood RaceTrac gas station. Investigators also say he bought odor eliminator, duct tape and extra-large garbage bags around the time of her disappearance.

Court documents said Ryan told investigators he has known Cavett since around January 2019, and that she had come to Florida to sell him her pickup truck.

A lawyer for Ryan was not listed on jail records.

The video clips released by the FBI on Thursday shows Cavett’s Chevrolet pickup truck travelling from one side of the gas station to another on the afternoon of July 25. Another clip shows her getting out of a Lexus sedan at the gas station that afternoon, along with two shots of her inside the convenience story, first at 3:09 p.m. and again at 10:16 p.m.

Cavett’s family is in Alabama. Anyone with information about her disappearance should call 1-800-CALL-FBI or go to fbi.gov/tips.

Associated Press, The Associated Press