Police await autopsy results after toddler's death

Mariah Johnson found dead

FLORIDA CITY, Fla. – Investigators are awaiting autopsy results for a toddler found dead near her home in Florida City.

Officers responding to reports of a missing girl said Mariah Johnson was found in a ditch near the 900 block of West Palm Drive on Saturday afternoon. Dirt and water covered her body.

The boyfriend of Johnson's mother was watching her at the time, according to family and friends. He told police he was walking with the toddler when she disappeared.

"That place where he found that baby, we searched that whole area for two and a half hours," said a neighbor.

"He say he was walking from the store and he looked back and she was gone," said Ernestine Dixon, the mother of Johnson's boyfriend.

The toddler was taken to Homestead Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. No charges have been filed.

The Department of Children and Families said it has a history with the toddler's mother, but didn't comment further.