Police Spent Months Chasing Clues in a Toddler's Disappearance — Until They Uncovered a Hoax Hiding a Depraved Crime By Christina Coulter

Florida police spent months in 2015 searching for 21-month-old Lonzie Barton, only to later learn his disappearance was a hoax. His mother, 35-year-old Lonna Lauramore Barton, who pleaded guilty to child neglect and lying to police in January 2016, is now out on parole as of Nov. 26, Florida VINE records show.

Barton’s boyfriend, William “Ruben” Ebron, called police around 2 a.m. on July 24, 2015, to report that his car had been stolen from outside an apartment building with the toddler inside.

PEOPLE previously reported that officers found the abandoned vehicle within about 20 minutes but no sign of Lonzie, prompting a massive search as investigators chased tips, sightings and leads tied to the alleged abduction.

Just over 24 hours after Lonzie was reported missing, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Chief Tom Hackney said police believed Ebron had been lying about the car theft, according to the St. Augustine Record.

Months later, Ebron changed his story, telling detectives that Lonzie drowned in a bathtub while he and Barton were having sex, according to the Florida Times-Union and News4JAX. (Residential security video also later surfaced showing Ebron staging the car theft, police said, per the Florida Times-Union.)

As part of a plea agreement, Ebron led authorities to Lonzie’s remains beneath a pile of discarded tires in a wooded area off Interstate 295 in January 2016 — 172 days after he was first reported missing, according to the outlets.

Because the remains were too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death, per CBS News, investigators relied on the statement Ebron later gave to authorities. He told detectives that the toddler drowned after being left alone in a bathtub while he and Barton were having sex in another room, PEOPLE previously reported.

An autopsy later found Lonzie had multiple rib and skull fractures prior to his death, according to the Florida Times-Union and News4JAX.

Ebron pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child, child neglect, lying to police and tampering with evidence. He received a 20-year sentence and additional time in drug charges, and is currently projected to be released on September 28, 2037, per VINE records.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.         

Barton pleaded guilty in Duval County to child neglect and lying to police, and in separate cases, was sentenced in Baker County on drug charges. News4JAX reported that she received a 5-year sentence on the Duval County charges followed by a seven-year sentence for the drug case to be served consecutively. Since her release earlier this month, she is currently under supervision, per VINE records.

Wanda Ebron, Ebron’s mother, told the outlet that her son made a horrible mistake attempting to cover up the toddler’s death but never intended to harm him.

“I just know that the picture I have in my mind is Lonzie walking into my garage with his little blonde hair, blue eyes, cowboy boots on,” she told the outlet. “I thought he was the cutest thing ever.”

“If [Ebron] was the one who panicked and had to take the child and drop the child off, his sentence might have been a little bit longer, but it should not have been 10 years longer [than Barton’s],” she said this week of the discrepancy between her son’s prison sentence and Barton’s.

Lonzie’s father, Chris Barton, was arrested on drug charges after the boy’s burial and later released in 2018. Custody of Lonzie’s older sister was held by the girl’s grandmother at the last publicly known status, according to the outlets.