Police: Dad abducted 1-year-old son, stabbed him to death, hid body in basement (Baltimore, Maryland)

Dad HARI CHASE has been charged with 1st-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 1-year-old son. He had a history of child abuse.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-infant-killing-arrest-20110908,0,5522037.story

Baltimore City Police: Father stabbed 1-year-old, hid body in basement
By Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun

2:58 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2011

The father of an infant child found fatally stabbed in Southwest Baltimore Wednesday has been charged with first-degree murder, police said.

Hari Close, 25, was charged Thursday morning and is being held without bond.

Police said they had been called to the boy's home in the 2700 block of Riggs Ave. after the mother of Dalyrie McFadden called to report that her 1-year-old child had been abducted. Officers found a pool of blood in an upstairs bedroom, and followed a blood trail to the basement, charging documents show.

There, they found Dalyrie's body wrapped in a deflated air mattress, in a pool of blood, according to records. He had suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck area and was not breathing.

The boy's mother, Jessica McFadden, told detectives she had asked Close to come over to celebrate Dalyrie's first birthday – which he shares with his father, records show. Close never responded, and later McFadden locked the doors and went to bed.

But early Wednesday, she awoke to the sound of the boy crying, and saw Close carrying him out of the bedroom, according to court records. Close returned the child to the bedroom and got into bed with McFadden and spent the rest of the night with her, records show.

When McFadden took her 6-year-old son to school, Close also left the residence, traveling westbound on Riggs, she said. When she returned 10 minutes later, the boy was missing. She searched the home without success and called police.

Police officers discovered the boy's body behind the closed basement door.

According to his Facebook page, Close attended a boarding school in Mississippi and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. He billed himself as a male model.

"My ultimate goal is to make my mark within this modeling industry and become the worlds top super model," he wrote on the page.

Close's father owns the Hari Close Funeral Home on Belair Road and is president of the Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors. Relatives could not immediately be reached.

McFadden told police that Close had harmed Dalyrie in the past, once attempting to choke him and another time calling police because he had bitten the boy on the ear.Police called Close on his cellphone and asked him to come in for questioning. They say he consented to a taped interview and that he told police he found Dalyrie bleeding from the neck. He said he wrapped the child in the air mattress and placed him in the basement, but did not call 911.

Close told detectives he collected his bloody clothing and a fitted sheet from the bed, and placed it in a black plastic bag inside a box and discarded it in a vacant house, according to records. He later told police where to find the box.

When police found it, in the 2800 block of Prospect Ave., a black handled kitchen knife covered in blood was inside, according to police.

Court records show that in March, McFadden sued Close for paternity.