Pammy Maye admits in video to killing 5-year-old boy from Ohio Amber Alert

The following story and the above video contain graphic information related to the murder of Darnell Taylor. Viewer discretion is advised.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The woman accused of killing a Columbus boy repeatedly confessed to law enforcement that she suffocated him before dumping his body in a sewage drain, according to body camera footage from officers who interviewed her.

In a hospital bed near Cleveland the night she was found, Pammy Maye described to law enforcement how she suffocated 5-year-old Darnell Taylor with a trash bag and then placed his body in a sewage drain near her parents’ house. Maye was Taylor’s legal guardian, and she told detectives that she killed him because he ate snacks in bed.

Taylor’s disappearance in February triggered a statewide Amber Alert, and Maye was soon after named as the suspected abductor. She was found in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn two days after Taylor’s disappearance, and Taylor’s body was found in southwest Columbus hours later.

“There’s no chance your son is alive?” an officer asked Maye in the bodycam footage.

“No, he’s not,” Maye replied. “And I did it.”

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Later, after Maye described the area where she left Taylor, a Columbus police detective read Maye her Miranda rights. She waived her rights orally and in writing, the footage shows. Then Maye described, in detail, how and why she killed Taylor.

Maye repeatedly referred to the killing as premeditated, explaining to law enforcement how on Feb. 13, hours after she learned Taylor had eaten in bed, she went to his bedroom with a trash bag. She placed him in the bag, tied it, and waited 10 minutes, she said.

Maye said she knew Taylor was dead because his body wasn’t moving. She then placed his body, still in the bag, in a closet. When her husband came home, Maye said he thought Taylor was asleep. At about 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, she took Taylor’s body to the 1000 block of Marsdale Avenue.

Maye told law enforcement that she was the disciplinarian of the family, saying she was “harsh” to Taylor, citing his behavioral issues. She explained that she wanted to confess to her husband before the police were involved.

“That’s not fair, what I did to my son,” Maye said.

Maye has been charged with aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse, and three counts of tampering with evidence. Her attorney previously said he plans to argue Maye was not guilty by reason of insanity due to her mental state at the time of the killing. He told NBC4 on Friday that the bodycam video only tells one part of the story crucial to the case.

“The post-arrest statements are critical to the investigation, but they are not dispositive of her mental state at the time of her son’s death,” Shamansky said.

Maye’s next court appearance is April 25.

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