Cash Gernon

On the 15th of May 2021, a Saturday, Antwainese Square was up early and out power walking in the Mountain Creek area of Dallas, Texas, United States. Antwainese saw what she thought was the body of a dog in the street on Saddleridge Drive at 6.40am that morning.

Antwainese thought it was a dog as there are a lot of stray dogs in the area and she called her mother as she approached the body. But as she got closer, Antwainese discovered that it wasn't a dog. It was the body of a young child.

Antwainese called 911 and the dispatcher asked her to check for signs of life but she believed that the child, a boy, was already dead as she noticed ants on the bottom of his bare feet. His face and upper torso were covered in blood. He had no shirt on, just a pair of shorts. 

When police arrived at the scene, it was confirmed that the boy was dead. There were no reports of a missing child in the area so they did not know who the child was. They knocked on doors in the area asking residents if they had children and if one of their children was missing.

As they searched throughout the morning, a call was made to 911 just before 11am. A woman, Monica Sherrod, reported four year old Cash Gernon missing.

Cash Gernon

Monica told police that she only noticed he was missing when she went to his bedroom to wake him up. He slept in the same bedroom as his twin brother Carter Gernon. Monica told police that the boys' bedroom is located at the back of the house, near the rear entrance, and away from where other members of the family sleep. According to Monica, Cash would normally wake her up every morning but he didn't that morning. When she went to look for him, he wasn't there and she thought he may have walked outside by himself. But when she looked at the surveillance footage from the baby monitoring system, she saw something far more sinister had happened.

Monica lived in Florina Parkway, just eight blocks from where Cash's body was found. Further investigation revealed that Monica was not the twin's mother. She was their father's girlfriend but he left in March and she had not seen him since. 

When police looked at the surveillance footage, they saw a man entering the bedroom at 5am. He looked at the two boys as they slept. He then removed the blanket and lifted a sleeping Cash from his bed. Cash's body was found less than two hours later. 

The Daily Mail reported a man was seen in a second video clip from the surveillance footage returning to the boys' room later that same morning. At 7am, a man, who looked like the man seen on the footage at 5am, entered the bedroom again. He was seen standing over Carter but he didn't take him and left.

The man seen on the footage was wearing a hoodie and had a backpack. Monica knew the man and identified him as eighteen year old Darriynn Brown.

Darriynn Brown

The Dallas County Medical Examiner ruled Cash's death as a homicide. He died from multiple stab wounds. Police said he was stabbed with an edged weapon.

According to reports, Darriynn was in the area where Cash lived in the weeks leading up to Cash's abduction. He lives a few streets from where Cash's body was found. 

Darriynn was arrested and charged with kidnapping and felony burglary. He is being held in the Dallas County Jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail. Additional charges against him are pending the result of forensic analysis. 

His mother said that he was with her all weekend and believed that he was being set up. She said that there was more to the story and he was incapable of hurting a child. 

The motive for the abduction is unknown. Darriynn is a former classmate of Monica's son Kamron Mori.

Carter Gernon (on the left) and Cash Gernon

Dallas police said that Cash's biological mother, Melinda Seagroves, did not know the twins were in the care of Monica and she had been searching for her sons. She has been reunited with Carter.