Bond hearing set for Leilani Simon, mother accused of murdering her 20-month-old son

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A bond hearing for Leilani Simon who is accused of murdering her 20-month-old son is set for Wednesday at 11 a.m.

One day before the Thanksgiving holiday which Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said she doesn’t deserve to celebrate.

Leilani reported Quinton missing from their home on Buckhalter Road back on Oct. 5. His disappearance has had people in the community and around the country emotional and wanting justice for the toddler.

Tuesday, justice felt a step a closer some when Leilani was arrested facing charges of concealing a death, false statements, false report of a crime, and murder.

Chatham County Police, deputies, Department of Natural Resources and FBI agents searched a landfill off of Little Neck Road for a month. Friday, they found what they believe to be Quinton’s remains according to Chief Hadley.

“From A to Z, we were 100 percent committed to bringing justice for Quinton. And to appreciate the amount of human effort, the amount of human emotion that goes in to a case like this and to appreciate, hopefully, that this comes to a conclusion in terms of a conviction and things of that nature, you have a lot of emotions about that,” Chief Jeff Hadley said.

Law enforcement say they are waiting on DNA results to confirm the remains are Quinton’s.

We’ve heard several times about how extensive and exhausting this search was for law enforcement.

James Stroh who says he served in the Army National Guard and helped with a very similar search in a Chicago landfill. He says that search was for a 5-month-old that lasted for nearly two months.

He says he will never forget how grueling the process was. He says although he wanted find the baby, he will never forget how terrified he was to be the one to discover the child’s body or remains.

“Just knowing you’re searching for an infant that somebody just discarded and discarded like trash, literally, sadly. For those that found him, I feel for them. I feel for all of them but for the individuals that did find him personally, that’s going to be a tough one to get over. I can’t even imagine. In the search that we were in, we didn’t find him,” James Stroh said.

He also says he was very surprised law enforcement found remains of any kind because he says it’s very rare. He’s relieved Quinton will be able to have a proper final resting place.

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