Leilani Simon, a Georgia mother who claimed she was “hoping” police would find her 20-month-old son “happy and alive” when he went missing in October 2022, was arrested on Friday, October 25. convicted of murder.

Simon, 22, was found guilty on all 19 charges against her in connection with the death of her 20-month-old son, Quinton Simon, more than two years ago, local WJCL, WTOC and WRDW reported.

Quinton was first reported missing in early October 2022 when his mother called 911 to tell police that the boy had disappeared from his playpen at the family's Georgia home.

Days later, police publicly declared that Simon was the “prime suspect” in Quinton's disappearance, while maintaining their innocence for more than a month until investigators discovered the boy's body in a nearby landfill, according to local WJCL.

Simon was arrested on charges that she murdered her son.

According to WRDW, the mother was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, one count of premeditated murder, concealing a death, reporting a false crime and 14 counts of making false statements to investigators.

The mother maintained her innocence in an interview with local WTOC-TV shortly after her son's disappearance, telling the television station she hoped police would find her son “happy and alive.”

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“We want to have him in our arms again and hold us. That’s what we want,” she said. “We're just hoping he's at someone's house and they're feeding him and maybe they wanted a baby or couldn't have a baby. Maybe they thought they were his savior. That’s our best hope at this point.”

WTOC-TV reported that Quinton's grandmother, Billie Jo Howell, had custody of the child at the time of his disappearance, but that she was out of town the day he disappeared from his mother's home.

The case attracted widespread attention after several media outlets reported it, including the New York Postreported that Simon and her mother Howell were spotted drinking liquor at a bar on Tybee Island in October 2022 during the search for Quinton. Days later, WTOC-TV reported that four demonstrators were arrested outside Simon's home while protesting against the accused mother.

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