SAVANNAH, Ga. — The grandmother of a missing Georgia toddler whose remains were found in a landfill is behind bars. The charges are not connected to his murder and disappearance.
Jail records show that Billie Jo Betterton, who is also goes by the last name Howell, was booked into the Chatham County Detention Center on Monday. WJCL-TV in Savannah reported she was placed in an suicide-prevention smock.
Howell faces contempt of court charge on a juvenile court hold. Juvenile court records are sealed, so it is unclear what led to the charge.
WJCL-TV reported that Howell had custody of Quinton Simon at the time of his disappearance. Records obtained by the tv station also showed that she tried to evict Quinton’s mother, Leilani Simon, from her home weeks before his disappearance.
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Simon reported that her son was missing from their home on Oct. 5. On Oct. 12, the Chatham County Police Department announced that they believed Quinton was dead and his mother was the prime suspect.
Police charged Leilani Simon on Nov. 21 with murder. The next day, partial remains were found a Chatham County landfill and DNA testing confirmed they belonged to Quinton.
WTOC-TV spoke with a family friend said Howell turned her daughter in to the FBI. The family friend said Howell called the FBI, who asked her to pick her daughter up from a treatment center and bring her to the Savannah office.
“Her mother had to make one of the hardest decisions of her life,” she told WTOC-TV. “They asked her to buy some time. So, she went and picked up Leilani’s belongings from another center, and then she took Leilani to have her last free meal.”
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