Police: Father beat son to death with shovel, buried him in backyard

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DeKalb County Police have released disturbing details about a 25-year-old father accused of murdering his 5-year-old son.

WARNING: Some may find the details of this case disturbing

Montrais Boyd was arrested at a home on Rocky Pine Drive Wednesday evening. According to police, he's accused of beating his child to death with a shovel, slitting the boy’s throat with a knife, and then burying him in the backyard.

DeKalb Police told FOX 5 News, Boyd's 5-year-old son lived with his grandmother and her children at the DeKalb County house. The boy's mom and dad lived in California and just arrived in Georgia on Wednesday. Investigators said the boy's mom and grandmother had gone out to run errands and left Boyd home with the children.

"The mother and grandmother were not in the house when it happened. They came home and learned the child had been murdered," said Shiera Campbell with the DeKalb County Police Department.

The mother, Rajnier Boyd, attempted to save the child and flagged down a police officer for help.

"She was able to remove the child from the ground with her bare hands and she put the child in the vehicle attempting to take him to the hospital believing that she could save her child," Ms. Campbell told FOX 5 News.

But it was too late. Police said Boyd had already partially decapitated the boy.

This isn’t the first time police have arrested Boyd. FOX 5 News has learned Boyd's wife called 911 in Arizona last June when she said he drove off with their son in the car.

Arizona State Patrol said Boyd was naked, when he hit a patrol car with his fists, jumped into a vehicle and rammed another patrol car, then took off, all while the same son sat in the front seat. He later crashed the car down an embankment. Boyd was booked into the Coconino County Jail for aggravated assault with a dangerous instrument, felony endangerment, child abuse, and criminal damage charges.

Back in DeKalb County, none of the other children at the home were harmed.

Police did not say whether the father made any statements about what happened in the home, but a police report revealed more.

“My husband is crazy, he sacrificed him because he thought the world was coming to an end,” the police report read.

A section of Rocky Pine Drive was shut down Wednesday evening for several hours while investigators collected evidence in and outside the home. Neighbors arrived home from work to find more than a dozen DeKalb County Police cars.

"It's scary to come home to police lights and not know what's going on, even more devastating to know a child was involved," said one neighbor.

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