Mother’s boyfriend charged with murder after missing boy found dead

A man is now facing murder charges days after he was arrested and accused of concealing the death of 2-year-old Messiah Harris in the woods in Marietta, court records show.

The new indictment against Dairon Keith is sealed by the Cobb County clerk’s office at the district attorney’s request to protect the identity of the minor victim, according to a record restriction notice in the court docket.

The charges Keith faces in the indictment are malice murder, three counts of felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree. A Cobb County grand jury issued the true bill of indictment Thursday, records show.

Because the indictment itself is under seal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has not reviewed it. The AJC requested the document from the Cobb County DA’s office and asked the Marietta Police Department whether the charges are related to the boy’s death. The DA’s office did not respond to the AJC on Sunday, and a Marietta police spokesperson did not answer questions related to the charges Sunday.

Keith, the boyfriend of Messiah’s mother, called 911 to report Messiah was missing, police said earlier this month. He was arrested by Marietta police and charged with making a false report and concealing the death of another after police accused him of covering Messiah’s body with loose dirt and plants, the AJC previously reported.

Police said the body “had been in the woods for a considerable amount of time,” the AJC previously reported.

Extended family members of Messiah gave a statement to reporters last week at the Marietta Square but declined to speak about the circumstances around his death. The boy would have turned 3 years old on Aug. 22, so they are planning to hold his funeral that day, the family said.