Chapel Hill Child Found Safe In Durham After Amber Alert; Parents Are Missing

DURHAM, N.C. — Destinee Ariel Cothran and Justin Lee Brown are accused of abducting their days-old baby after the Department of Social Services (DSS) threatened to intervene. That prompted an Amber Alert – son Jaxton was found safe on Monday night (Feb. 26) – and an ongoing search for the couple.

Jaxton’s birth certificate shows he was born on Feb. 18 at Duke Regional Hospital. Cothran is listed as the child’s mother on his birth certificate, but the line for father is blank. By Feb. 23, someone called 911 concerned about his welfare and reported that Cothran and Brown had warrants out for their arrest.

“Mom has an active warrant, and dad has an active warrant … and we need custody of the child,” the caller said. The caller, believed to be a DSS employee, said the couple were on their way to Chapel Hill Pediatrics on Sage Road.

“They’re not stopping, they’re continuing to drive,” the caller said.”We were … needing to do a removal of the child. The parents have since gotten in their car, and they’re driving away. They report they are going to the child’s pediatric appointment at Chapel Hill Pediatrics,” the caller continued.

Child protective services had issued a court order for custody of Jaxton on Friday when they asked authorities to help find him. Before that, he was last seen on Friday — when he was just five days old — at the Red Roof Inn at 5623 Fordham Blvd./Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd., police said.

On Monday night, Chapel Hill police initiated an Amber Alert for the child. They said in a press release they believed Jaxton was in danger but did not say why.

Within minutes of the Amber Alert, the white Mercury Mystique that Cothran and Brown were believed to be driving was found at a Durham Big Lots at 3420 Southwest Durham Blvd. near the intersection of Interstate 40 and US 15-501. Inside were food, clothing, a base for a car seat, and baby blankets.

Not long after, Jaxton was found nearby in his car seat. Cothran and Brown walked away from the shopping center and into the nearby woods. Both Cothran and Brown have past charges and convictions for drugs. Cothran also had a civil summons served on Feb. 14 of this year. The summons from the Orange County Department of Social Services states she was not properly caring for her three other children, ages 6, 5, and 3. The summons reads, “The defendant has failed or refused to adequately contribute to the support or maintenance of the minor children.”

Brown has been convicted of multiple DWI charges, and a previous girlfriend charged him with assault in 2015. That woman told investigators that her son was present at the time of the assault. A domestic violence protection order was filed against Brown. The order said Brown had a history of domestic violence, child abuse, and neglect.

As police searched for them Tuesday, WRAL reporter Chelsea Donovan found Brown’s wallet near those woods and turned it over to police. The abandoned car remained in the parking lot until Tuesday afternoon.

A Durham woman said she made multiple calls to 911 and nonemergency numbers on Monday after finding the car involved in Monday’s Amber Alert.

Lorna Ziegler said she called 911 three times and Durham police’s nonemergency number three times after spotting a white Mercury Mystique in the Big Lots parking.

“I just kind of had a weird gut feeling,” Ziegler said of seeing the car.

Ziegler explained what she did when she realized the car matched the description in the Amber Alert issued.

“The 911 Emergency Call Center does have a record of three calls from that phone number, each ringing more than 33 seconds,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to WRAL News. “Our records show that the center was experiencing a call surge, with 91 calls, during that time frame.

“The call center was normally staffed during that shift. Even though we were staffed appropriately, we sometimes experience ebbs and flows in calls, like all call centers, meaning that some calls may take longer to answer during a busy time.”

The article first appeared on WRAL.

Image credits:

Jaxton Brown: N.C. Center for Missing Persons

Destinee Ariel Cothran and Justin Lee Brown: Chapel Hill Police Department