Surveillance showed lies; collaborative police work played role in cracking Emilliano Terry case

CLEVELAND - Within minutes of Camillia Terry calling 911 Sunday evening, to report her 3-year-old son Emilliano was missing, Cleveland police officers responded. Not long after, dozens of FBI agents, mounted police and K-9 units were at the scene trying to solve the case.

The Combined Abduction Response Team (CART), was called upon for help. Law enforcement agents knocked on doors, talked to people and fanned out around Kossuth Park where little Emilliano reportedly disappeared from.

"The officers walked the entire route, noted every house or building with a camera on it," said Cleveland Police Cmdr. Deon McCaulley.

Police said officers were trying to verify what Terry told them, follow leads, and search for the little boy. On Monday morning, officers went back to those buildings and businesses with cameras and looked at surveillance video. Police said what they found on those tapes provided a clearer picture into Emilliano's disappearance.

"One of the videos pulled showed (Camilia) walking with a stroller and one child," said McCaulley.

Terry initially said she was with all three of her kids. 

As police noticed Terry's story beginning to show inconsistencies, a break in the case came late Monday afternoon.

"Some of the agents and investigators were in the area of where the mother and children lived and saw a Waste Management truck pull in and thought, so typically in cases like this, that evidence could be in that trash," said FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson.

The FBI's Evidence Response Team responded to the Waste Management transfer station in Oakwood Village and began going through the garbage. What agents found turned the missing persons case into a homicide investigation. 

"One of the things you never get over is what I had to look at when I responded to the waste treatment place," said McCaulley.

That's where authorities found the body of a young boy wrapped in garbage bags. The medical examiner is awaiting DNA testing to positively identify the body. Cleveland police have tentatively said the body is Emilliano.

Officials said experience, cooperation between agencies and good old fashioned police work led to the closing of this case, authorities said, but this was not the ending that anyone was hoping for.