INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — The KSHB 41 I-Team's Sarah Plake obtained a police report that reveals the older brother of a little boy who died after falling from an eighth floor apartment was found wandering a week prior.
The police report lists Destiny Randle and Moses Bass as the child's parents, who are the same parents of the three-year-old who died.
On July 22, an Independence police officer, listed as C Meyers, responded to the Conoco gas station at 24 Highway and Jennings Road around 7:20 a.m. regarding a lost child.
Meyers said he was sent out on the same call about an hour prior, when the boy was seen walking northbound on Jennings Road.
The gas station employee said the little boy walked in saying he was hungry.
According to the police report, the gas station employee let the boy sit in the back room and gave him some food.
The boy was 5 years-old and had a Nintendo Switch with him.
Meyers asked the boy where he lived and the boy pointed toward the Independence Towers apartments.
He then drove the boy to the apartments but then the boy said he lived further down the road.
After stopping at a few houses with no luck, Meyers said he determined the boy either didn't know where he lived or didn't want to say.
Meyers took the boy back to police headquarters, where his supervisor made a Facebook post asking for the community's help to find the boy's parents.
Meyers said he looked at the Nintendo Switch WiFi profile and found an account that said "Moses."
He determined that the account had previously connected to a WiFi name labeled "BassFamily."
With that information, Meyers found a Moses Bass who lives at the Independence Towers on the eighth floor.
Meyers and the boy went to the apartment.
While in the elevator, the boy told Meyers he didn't live there, the report said.
Meyers knocked on the apartment door and Randle, the mother, answered.
According to the police report, Meyers asked Randle, "Is this your kid?" Randle originally responded, "no," saying her kids are inside.
The report says Randle looked outside in disbelief and called Bass, the child's father.
Randle then said she knew why the door was unlocked when she woke up that morning.
Meyers said he asked Bass why his son would be so nervous to come back home.
Bass said it's probably because the boy got in trouble for peeing in the toy box the day before.
Meyers indicated in the report that he offered Randle and Bass services, which they denied.
The boy went back to his family.
The officer contacted the Missouri Department of Social Services.
Independence Police Department spokesperson Officer Kelley Rupert would not comment but said situations where police respond to a lost child "require the children's services hotline to be notified about the incident as mandated reporters. If no parent or guardian can be located, then we have to request that children's services respond for the child, until they can be located / notified."
KSHB 41 I-Team's Sarah Plake spoke to the gas station employee, who did not want to be named because he doesn't want his business to be impacted.
The employee said the little boy told him he didn't want to go, and that he wanted to stay with him.
A week later, the boy's 3-year-old brother fell out of the window in the kids' room and died.
Randle and Bass were arrested in connection to his death for endangering the welfare of a child.
The boy fell out of the window around 10 a.m. Randle said the last time she checked on the kids was at 11 p.m. the night before.
Randle said the kids were supposed to be asleep until she and Bass woke up every morning.
Randle and Bass told police the window wouldn't properly lock and had a rip in the screen. They said they'd been trying to get maintenance to fix it since they moved in last June.
However, Randle said she knew at least one of her kids could open the window, despite putting a pole in the track and attempting to lock it.
Randle said they would leave the kids unattended for long periods of time while knowing the window was an issue.
She said she was "concerned from day one" that one of her kids would fall out the window.
Police found a child safety doorknob cover on the inside of the kids' room.
The apartment had "trash piled up everywhere, specifically in the kitchen," court documents said.
Police also said the older brother — who is the boy who was found wandering — had marks on his body.
The boy said his mom and dad would hurt him with "Mr. Blacky."
Bass mentioned "Mr. Blacky" is a belt he uses to "whoop the kids."
Police also said the kids' beds were covered with "old dirt" and had no sheet. The room had dirty diapers all over the floor and smelled of urine.
The grandmother of the boy started a GoFundMe page, writing:
"My grandson Titus tragically passed away this past week after falling out of a window from his 8th floor apartment. I am working to make funeral arrangements for my beloved grandson. Anything helps during this incredibly difficult time."
Independence police have not confirmed the boy's name.
KSHB 41 News put in records requests with the Missouri Department of Social Services for both incidents but have not received records back yet.
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