A man has been convicted nearly five years after he murdered a young mother in 2021 and tossed her baby into a pond.
Ahmeel Fowler has been convicted of the murder of Ja’nya Murphy and the kidnapping of her child, Jaclyn “Angel” Dobbs, which took place in November 2021, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
Murphy was just 21 years old when she was found strangled to death in her apartment on Inland Drive in Wheeling, Illinois.
Officers with the Wheeling Police Department received a missing person report for Murphy after she didn’t show up to work and hadn’t contacted her family since the previous day.
Authorities then went to her home to conduct a well-being check, and they found that her door was unlocked at the time of their arrival. Police also said they were greeted with a strong smell of bleach in the air. Additionally, it was quickly noticed that her 1-year-old daughter was not at the home.
Police said that Fowler left Murphy’s apartment at 2:40 a.m. About one hour later, surveillance footage captured his vehicle at a Hammond, Indiana, retention pond at 3:43 a.m. The baby’s body was later discovered at the pond days after her mother was found dead.
Fowler apparently went to his parents’ home following the incident, according to authorities. He then left for Springfield, Missouri, and was arrested for his involvement in the deaths soon after.
Nearly five years after Murphy and Dobbs were killed, a jury convicted Fowler after spending less than two hours deliberating. He was found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated kidnapping, according to the outlet.
Fowler will likely be sentenced during his next court hearing, which is scheduled to take place on April 20.
At the time of Fowler’s arrest, the Wheeling Chief of Police Department issued a statement about the tragedy and said they expected to press more charges against Fowler.
“Wheeling Chief of Police Jamie Dunne wishes to extend his deepest condolences to the family of Ja’nya and Angel, who lost two very special loved ones and in spite of their grief provided much assistance to the investigation,” Wheeling police said in a news release in November 2021, per CBS News.
Not many details have been shared about Murphy and Fowler’s relationship, though police said he had a “previous relationship with Ms. Murphy.” However, they also indicated that he was not the father of her child.
Police also shared that Fowler, Murphy and the baby were all last seen together at a suburban shopping mall just one day before the mother’s body was found.
On the day the baby was found, Indiana State Police Sgt. Glen Fifield said fire crews were called to a retention pond by construction workers who were working nearby.
“They saw what they believed to be a body floating in the water and they did the appropriate thing and called 911 immediately and 911 dispatch the fire department, which is standard protocol for something like that,” Fifield said at the time, adding that “they went immediately into the water and recovered the body.”
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