A Florida man has been arrested in the case of a missing Georgia woman whose 2-year-old son was found wandering around an apartment complex.
Shannon Demar Ryan, 38, was arrested on Saturday, Aug. 15, in connection with the disappearance of Leila Cavett, 21.
Cavett was reported missing after her son, Kamdyn, was found wandering alone in a Miramar, Fla. apartment complex on July 26.
The boy wore only a t-shirt and a soiled diaper. He is currently in the custody of Florida’s child protective services.
Ryan, a self-described “witch doctor,” was the last person to see Cavett alive.
According to a criminal complaint, Ryan claimed he knew Cavett for over a year and he persuaded her to drive to Central Florida from Georgia to sell him her truck for $3000.
Police located Cavett’s abandoned truck in Hollywood, Fla. and set up surveillance on the vehicle.
Police spotted Ryan near the truck and surrounded him. He claimed he did not know where the young mother was. He said he took Cavett and her son to Fort Lauderdale beach, then they returned to Hollywood, where he dropped them off at a RaceTrak gas station around 2:30 a.m. on July 26.
After dropping Cavett and her son off at the RaceTrak gas station, Ryan said she and her son left in a dark sedan “with several unknown black males.” He said that was the last time he saw her alive.
The criminal complaint accuses Ryan of lying to investigators about his interactions with Cavett.
“The video surveillance did not show Ryan’s car at the pumps where he described it, nor did it show [Cavett] leaving in a dark sedan,” FBI agent Samuel Band said Monday.
Video surveillance did show a gold Lexus similar to Ryan’s in front of the Miramar apartment complex minutes before Kamdyn was found, Band said.
FBI agents are still searching for Cavett who is presumed dead.
Ryan used Cavett’s debit card to make purchases at Walmart and RaceTrak gas station., according to the complaint.
The complaint revealed he bought bleach, duct tape, a box of extra large 39-gallon trash bags and two boxes of extra strength carpet deodorizer.
A search of Ryan’s Lexus turned up a half empty bottle of all purpose cleaner with bleach, several black trash bags and a white powdery substance under the front passenger seat.
In Cavett’s truck, investigators found shovels with what appeared to be blood droplets on them.
Band said Ryan’s phone records showed Google searches on July 26 for “What day does commercial garbage pickup for Hollywood, Florida” and “Does bleach and alcohol make chloroform.”
“According to the National Institute of Health, chloroform is commonly used to incapacitate a victim by rendering them unconscious,” the complaint says.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel spoke with Ryan’s mother who said there was no way her son was involved in a kidnapping.
“Shannon is not no evil, violent person,” she said from her home in Alabama on Monday. “Shannon loves every living thing around him. My son ain’t kidnap no child. That’s a bunch of bull. He’s not that type person. He would not harm anyone.”
She said Ryan traveled back and forth from South Florida to Alabama to do psychic readings.
“He’d stay with a friend or at a motel or wherever he could stay,” she said.
“My son would not hurt a flea or a fly,” she said. “There’s no way I believe he would do anything to anybody. He’s not that kind of person.”
Ryan made hundreds of posts on Facebook after he was initially questioned by law enforcement more than a week ago. Some of the posts taunted the police to come and arrest him.
Ryan, who describes himself as a witch doctor, spiritual adviser, teacher and CEO on his Facebook page, posted a video on Aug. 9, stating he was the last person to see Cavett but he denied being involved in her disappearance.
“Why is it you have a missing woman, and the last person that’s seen her, which is me, who talked to the police, you ain’t heard nothing about me,” Ryan says in the video.
Ryan said investigators called him to do a follow-up interview earlier this month, but he declined to meet with them unless they had an arrest warrant in hand.
He is being held without bond in the Broward County Jail.
