An internal inquiry will examine the Juvenile Division’s response before a renewed report helped lead officers to remains in Illinois.
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department opened an internal affairs investigation into its handling of a 2024 missing-child report after officers found a small child’s remains Wednesday in a wooded Illinois township during a multistate search.
The review will examine the Juvenile Division’s response and investigative actions after the child’s mother reported that she could no longer find her son. Police said questions about the case and the mother’s documented concerns led Chief Robert Tracy’s department to order a comprehensive review. The remains had not been publicly identified by Friday, and investigators had not determined how the child died.
Police released a timeline Thursday as public questions grew about the period between the mother’s first report and the discovery near Belleville. The department said the parents shared custody and that the mother last saw the child with his father in May 2024. She filed a report with St. Louis police in July of that year. A probable cause statement filed later in St. Francois County listed April 2024 as the last time she saw the boy. Police did not explain the difference between the dates. The department said juvenile detectives interviewed numerous people, assessed statements from both parents and worked to resolve accounts it described as conflicting. The timeline did not specify how often detectives contacted the parents, what records they reviewed or whether officers conducted searches during the first months of the case.
The father, Ronnell Marquese Jones, 32, allegedly offered changing explanations about the child’s location. Court records said he claimed at different times that the boy was with the state and that he had taken the child to an Amish community in Mississippi. Investigators said he did not provide information that allowed police to locate the child there. The mother, Miranda Randazzo, said Jones would not let her see the boy. She posted about her missing son on social media and publicly pressed police to do more. The department’s new internal review is expected to examine how detectives assessed those warnings, documented contacts and decided which investigative steps to take. Police have not accused any officer of misconduct, and the decision to begin a review does not establish that department rules were violated.
St. Louis detectives submitted an application for parental kidnapping charges to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office in early 2025, according to the police timeline. Prosecutors requested additional investigative work before making a charging decision. Police did not say what evidence was considered incomplete or what additional work prosecutors sought. No St. Louis charges were announced from that submission. More than a year after the mother’s initial report, she contacted the Desloge Police Department in June 2026. Desloge is in St. Francois County, about 60 miles south of St. Louis. The renewed report brought another police agency into the case and led to coordination among local, state and federal investigators.
Authorities arrested Jones and Kirstie Dora, 35, in late June or early July on St. Francois County charges of parental kidnapping and harassment. Both were ordered held without bond. The charges came after a probable cause statement was filed June 29. Neither defendant had been charged with causing the child’s death as of Friday. The charging documents said the mother had not seen her son for more than a year and described Jones’ disputed statements about the child’s whereabouts. Police have not publicly detailed Dora’s alleged role beyond the kidnapping and harassment accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless found guilty in court.
After the arrests, investigators received information that a child might be buried in a rural wooded section of Stookey Township, near Belleville in St. Clair County. Officers executed a search warrant Wednesday and recovered the remains of a small child. The St. Clair County Coroner’s Office began forensic examinations, including work needed to establish identity and determine the cause and manner of death. St. Louis police transferred the death investigation to homicide detectives. The FBI, Illinois State Police, Desloge police and regional law enforcement partners assisted with the operation.
The department’s internal affairs inquiry will proceed separately from the homicide investigation. Homicide detectives will focus on what happened to the child, who had custody of him, where he traveled and how his remains reached Illinois. Internal affairs investigators will focus on the police response, including whether officers followed department procedures and acted on available information. Police have not announced a deadline for the review or said whether its full findings will be released publicly. The department also has not identified which supervisors or detectives made decisions in the case.
The review could involve reports, interview recordings, case notes, referral records and communications with prosecutors or other agencies. It may also examine when detectives identified a person of interest and what steps followed that designation. The department said investigators had worked to determine the child’s location, but its public timeline left several periods without detailed explanation. It did not say when officers first attempted to verify the claim about Mississippi, whether agencies there were contacted or when police concluded the account lacked support.
Jurisdiction added another layer to the investigation. The original missing-child report was made in St. Louis, the later report and kidnapping charges arose in St. Francois County, and the remains were found in St. Clair County, Illinois. Police have not established publicly where the child died. That finding could shape which state and county would prosecute any future death-related case. Federal authorities may continue assisting because the investigation involves multiple jurisdictions, though the FBI had not announced federal charges.
Neighbors in both Missouri and Illinois said the discovery raised painful questions. Brooke Bodendieck, a Stookey Township resident, said she was troubled by the time that passed before the remains were found and by the distance between the reported disappearance and the burial site. Sam Griffin said Jones lived near him in the Ville neighborhood of St. Louis and was often seen working on vehicles. Griffin said news of the wooded search was difficult to understand. Their comments reflected the concern that led police to release a public timeline one day after the recovery.
Authorities have not disclosed the child’s age, released a positive identification or said whether forensic evidence connects either person charged in Missouri to the Illinois site. They also have not said who provided the tip, when the child may have died or how long the remains had been in the woods. Those facts will be important to both the homicide inquiry and the review of the earlier police response.
The coroner’s findings and the internal affairs examination remain pending. Jones and Dora continued to be held without bond Friday while St. Louis homicide detectives worked with Illinois and federal agencies to establish the child’s identity, movements and cause of death.
Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.