DAVID MILLS/THE LEDGER
Miranda Jones holds a photograph recently in Bartow that has been altered to show what her missing daughter, Ta'niyah Leonard, might look like today.
Published Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Police Still Seek Clues to Missing Girl
Parents differ on who was last to see Ta'niyah Leonard.
By Suzie Schottelkotte
The Ledger
BARTOW -- Miranda Jones and Michael Lewis agree with police on two points.
First, Jones and Lewis say they want to find their missing daughter.
Second, they accuse each other of not telling the truth about the disappearance of their child, Ta'niyah Leonard.
"Neither one of them is telling everything they know about Ta'niyah's disappearance," said Bartow police Detective David Reynolds. "We've haven't been able to corroborate either of their stories."
Ta'niyah was 11 months old in October 2002 when she disappeared from the Azalea Gardens apartments in Bartow. Jones, then 17, had left her daughter with Lewis, her boyfriend at the time and possibly Ta'niyah's father, while she went to visit friends. She returned the next morning, and that's where the stories diverge.
"My baby wasn't there," Jones said, "and Michael wouldn't tell me where she was."
Lewis, then 19, told authorities he gave the little girl back to Miranda that Sunday morning, and that's the last time he saw Ta'niyah.
Police officers dug through open fields and searched the homes of relatives in Bartow and around the state. They found nothing.
Though Ta'niyah's body hasn't been found, detectives are investigating her disappearance as they would a murder case.
Detectives took the case to the countywide Cold Case Assessment Team, a group of investigators, prosecutors, crime scene analysts and other experts that reviews unsolved cases to uncover new leads. The team suggested some interviewing techniques that might be used, but found few other stones that had been unturned.
Tommy Ray, a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who organized the Cold Case Assessment Team, said the group came up with a few broad recommendations that detectives might consider.
"We also suggested that they go back to ground zero and start over, and that's what they're doing," Ray said. "Sometimes, a key piece of evidence may turn up early in the investigation, but it didn't seem to matter at the time. Later, though, it might turn out to be crucial."
Reynolds said detectives are poring through the case again, looking for hidden details.
They also commissioned an artist's rendering of what Ta'niyah might look like today, hoping someone might see the flier and recognize the child who would have turned 4 on Nov. 16.
"It's been more than three years since she disappeared," Reynolds said, "but in people's minds, she's still a baby. We needed to let them know that she's older now."
When Jones saw the rendering, she said she was stunned.
"It's hard to believe she's that old now," she said. "I know in my heart that she's alive. I believe she's safe with Michael's family. I've gone down the road of trying to get answers from him, but he's not telling me anything."
He hasn't told investigators much either, according to Reynolds.
"We talked briefly on the phone the day Ta'niyah disappeared," the detective said, "then he came to the station a few days later with his lawyer, and the lawyer did all the talking. All we know is he said he gave the baby back to Miranda that Sunday morning, and he doesn't know what happened after that."
Reynolds said Lewis didn't change his story when he was offered immunity from prosecution for any involvement he may have had.
Lewis could not be located for comment in this report, although messages were left with family and friends. Lakeland lawyer Rafael Echemendia, who represented Lewis when Ta'niyah disappeared, said his client maintains that he doesn't know where the child is.
Though three years have gone by, Jones said she remembers with clarity the day her daughter disappeared.
She said she'd gone back to see Lewis at the Azalea Gardens apartment that morning, but Ta'niyah wasn't there.
"I didn't see her or her stuff," she recalled. "Michael said she was at his friend's house over on Tee Circle."
Jones said she checked out the friend's house but came away empty. So she returned to confront Lewis.
Reynolds said Jones gave police a detailed account of her actions that day -- the people she'd talked to, the places she went -but her story didn't add up when detectives checked with those people.
"Miranda has been very cooperative when it comes to making herself available to us and calling us to see if there's anything new on the case," Reynolds said, "but parts of her story just don't come together with what other witnesses are telling us. That's a problem."
Jones also showed deception in two polygraph examinations, which creates another problem for detectives.
"We just feel that she's holding something back," Reynolds said. "She says she wants to find her daughter, but she's holding back."
Police did find evidence that she and Lewis physically fought when Jones returned to the apartment that Sunday morning, and they know Jones lost a tooth during the scuffle. But they're not sure who was attacking whom at the time.
"She had been in a fight and she had been battered," Reynolds said. "She had obvious injuries. She said Michael was coming at her, and he said he was defending himself because she was coming at him with a knife."
That struggle mirrored the couple's stormy, three-year relationship, fraught with arguments and frequent breakups.
Shortly after Jones learned she was pregnant with Ta'niyah, they broke up and Lewis moved to Gainesville to live with family, Jones said. He was gone when Ta'niyah was born in November 2002, and Jones was involved in another relationship that had started about the time Ta'niyah was conceived.
"That's why Ta'niyah's name is Leonard," she said. "We didn't really know who the father was."
Reynolds said detectives searched the homes of Lewis's relatives in Gainesville, but did not find Ta'nyiah or any indication that she had been there.
Lewis returned when Ta'niyah was 6 months old, Jones said. They were preparing for paternity testing when Ta'niyah disappeared.
"I think he took her because he didn't want to lose her," she said.
Jones, now 20, said she'll do whatever it takes to find her daughter.
"Wherever she is, I feel that she's alive and well," she said. "Every dream I've had is Michael bringing her back to me, or a stranger bringing her back to me. I really wish that somebody who is friends with (Michael's) people would tell us where she is. It's been too long.
"I don't think Michael would hurt her because I don't think he could live with that," she said.
Packages wrapped in bright Christmas paper remain stacked on a bench in Donna Manning's living room in Bartow, awaiting her granddaughter's return. They stand as a symbol of the family's faith that Ta'niyah will someday tear into them.
"We can't let ourselves believe that anything has happened to her," said Manning, the maternal grandmother.
Ripples from Ta'niyah's disappearance continue to haunt Jones more than three years after the little girl went missing. In October 2003, a year after she last saw Ta'niyah, Jones gave birth to another daughter, Ta'najah. She says Lewis is the baby's father.
"I went back to him because I thought he might tell me where Ta'niyah is," Jones said. "We weren't together very long, just long enough."
She saw her second daughter briefly before state welfare agents took the baby into foster care, alleging that Jones was an unfit parent. Jones said she had to terminate her parental rights and the child was adopted into another family.
Now she faces the same ordeal again, only this time her 16month-old son, Ta'narius Jones, is staying with Manning until a final hearing next month. Jones is permitted supervised visitation. Lewis is not the father.
"It's like losing Ta'niyah and Ta'najah all over again," Jones said. "It's so hard to know I have these babies out there, and I don't know where they are. The hardest part is the not knowing."
Anyone with information about Ta'nyiah Leonard should call Detective Dave Reynolds at 534-5034.
Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzbiz@yahoo.com or 863-533-9070.
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