Residents speak after indictment releases information about where Quinton Simon’s body was taken

Published: Dec. 15, 2022 at 3:24 PM EST|Updated: Dec. 15, 2022 at 6:20 PM EST
Email This Link
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Leilani Simon has been indicted on 19 charges stemming from the death of her son, Quinton Simon.

We’re learning more about what police believe happened to little Quinton through Leilani’s indictment, including where they think she dumped his body.

Weeks ago, when the Chatham County Police Department and the FBI started searching the Waste Management landfill, they said they had reason to believe Quinton Simon’s body was placed in a specific dumpster, though they didn’t say where.

Through Wednesday’s indictment, we’re learning that police believe that Leilani Simon took Quinton’s body to the Azalea Mobile Home Park where she put him in the trash, and he was taken to the landfill.

Leilani’s home is just two miles away from where this dumpster is. She was living on Buckhalter Rd and the dumpster is in a mobile home park that sits near the intersection of Buckhalter and Ogeechee roads.

One woman, who lives right next to the dumpsters, said she was having surgery the day police started searching the area, so she wasn’t home but when she got home the next day, police were back out knocking on doors.

“There were a lot of police rolling around, about ten cars, you could see them, just back and forth, then there was a group of them looking over there at the dumpster. Some FBI agents as well. When I came back home after my surgery, my landlord told me they were investigating the dumpster. He didn’t know why. They wouldn’t tell us anything,” she said.

She also said she did have a security camera mounted on her home that pointed straight at the dumpsters. Her landlord removed the camera and turned it over to police, and the landlord said he never saw any of the video.

The police were also asking if they had seen any strange cars driving around and interviewed people that live in the neighborhood multiple times. Though the people who live here say the police never told them what it was all about, they had their suspicions.

And hearing that something awful happened right by their homes is hard to live with.

“It freaks me out every time I come over. I have to because I have to take my garbage out, but yeah, if I think about it when I’m there, I get an eerie feeling and I have to get away from it. Just thinking about it makes me sick,” said Terry Boman, who lives in Azalea Mobile Home Plaza.

“It hurts because it’s just a kid. This cannot happen. It’s a kid,” said Jorge Callcan via translation.

In one of the indictments against Leilani for making false statements, it says she told investigators she was only throwing away normal household garbage in the dumpsters at Azalea Mobile Homes. The same phrasing appears on signs near the dumpsters - “household trash only.”

Now that Leilani has been indicted, Boman said he’s relieved to know the search efforts were successful.

“I hope they, I hope they find out really and truly what happened. Because if she did do that, she doesn’t deserve to be out with anybody else. She needs to be behind bars. That’s just- I’m sorry, you just don’t do that to a child. You don’t do that to anybody for that matter, but a child is worst of all,” Bowman said.