The 2024 AMBER Alert expanded into a homicide investigation after police found the 5-year-old boy dead in a Columbus storm drain.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — More than two years after a statewide search for 5-year-old Darnell Taylor ended with police recovering his body from a Columbus storm drain, jurors are beginning to hear the criminal case against the woman who had been caring for him.
Pammy Maye is standing trial in Franklin County on charges of aggravated murder, three counts of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors allege that Maye killed Taylor in February 2024, left his body in a drain and fled Columbus before authorities found her near Cleveland. Maye has pleaded not guilty, and the charges have not been proven.
The case first drew statewide attention during the early hours of Feb. 14, 2024, when Maye’s husband called 911 and told authorities his wife had said she harmed Taylor. Columbus police responded and began searching for the child and Maye. An AMBER Alert was issued as investigators tried to determine where Taylor had been taken and whether he could still be found safely.
Authorities soon traced Maye’s vehicle north. Her Jeep Cherokee was found abandoned in Brooklyn, a Cleveland suburb, on the morning of Feb. 14. The discovery shifted part of the search roughly 150 miles from Columbus while officers continued looking for Maye and Taylor.
Brooklyn police arrested Maye the following night after receiving a report about a woman near a business. Investigators said that during questioning she gave them information about where Taylor could be found. Columbus officers searched the location she described and recovered the child’s body from a storm drain shortly after 1 a.m. on Feb. 16.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office later determined that Taylor died from asphyxia involving smothering and neck compression. Prosecutors subsequently pursued an aggravated murder case, and a grand jury indicted Maye on that charge along with allegations that she tampered with evidence and abused Taylor’s body after his death.
The trial is expected to examine the investigative steps that connected the initial 911 call, the AMBER Alert, the abandoned vehicle, Maye’s arrest and the recovery of Taylor’s body. Statements attributed to Maye also have been part of earlier court proceedings and police accounts. Jurors, however, must base their verdict on evidence admitted during the trial and the instructions provided by the court.
The path to trial was delayed by questions about Maye’s competency. A judge found her not competent to stand trial in 2025, and she underwent treatment. The court later determined in 2026 that her competency had been restored, clearing the way for the case to proceed. Her attorney, Sam Shamansky, has said he planned to raise an insanity defense, which addresses criminal responsibility at the time of the alleged offense rather than present-day competency.
Maye also rejected a plea agreement before the trial date was set. That decision left the state to present its allegations to a jury and gave the defense the opportunity to challenge the prosecution’s evidence and present its own case. Jurors were selected last week before proceedings began Monday.
The trial now shifts the focus from the search that began with the AMBER Alert to what prosecutors can establish in court about Taylor’s death and Maye’s alleged actions. Maye is presumed innocent unless she is found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and no verdict had been reached as the trial got underway Monday.
Author note: Last updated November 9, 2026.