Las Vegas police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with the disappearance of a 2-year-old boy last week, the police department said.
Terrell Rhodes, 27, was booked for the murder of Amari Nicholson, who has not been seen since May 5, said Lt. Richard Meyers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD).
“This case started out as a missing person investigation, and unfortunately, I’m here to tell you today that it is now a homicide,” Meyers said Tuesday evening.
“During the course of the investigation, it became clear that the circumstances were suspicious,” Meyers told reporters. “As the investigation progressed, it became very clear to us that Terrell Rhodes was our primary suspect.”
Police did not say what relationship Rhodes had to Nicholson or if the child’s body had been recovered.
CNN has not determined if Rhodes has an attorney.
Rhodes will face additional charges, Meyers said.
The Clark County Detention Center inmate record shows that Rhodes has an initial appearance scheduled for 9 a.m. local time Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder.
The LVMPD last week sought help in locating Amari, saying on Twitter that he could be in severe emotional distress and in need of medical assistance.
His family had also sought the public’s help in finding the child.
“It feels like we’ve exhausted what we could do here, for now,” Yolanda Everett, Amari’s aunt on the boy’s father side, told reporters earlier on Tuesday. “And that’s why we want to reach out to people everywhere. We do want everyone in the country to know, because it’s been six days, and he could be anywhere.”
The mother had sole custody of Amari, Everett said.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report
NTD staff contributed to this report
