Police: Baby Missing After Deadly Crash Was Last Seen Months Ago

In a strange update that has brought more questions than answers, police now believe that a baby boy who is unaccounted for after a devastating crash earlier in December may have been missing for months.

As the Thread reported Monday, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and police in Fayette County have been desperately searching for 1-year-old Kahleb Rowan Collins since his father and 2-year-old sister were killed and his mother was critically injured in a single-vehicle accident on Sunday, December 8th.

State Troopers say neither adult wore a seatbelt and the toddler was unrestrained.

Soon after the wreck, though, ALEA was notified that the dead man, 40-year-old Steven Collins, and the 22-year-old woman, Wendy Bailey, had another child in common in addition to 2-year-old Ryleigh Collins, who died in the wreck.

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Since then, the search has been on for 1-year-old Kahleb Rowan Collins.

In a Tuesday update, ALEA issued an Emergency Missing Child Alert for the baby boy, which included a strange new detail - state police say the infant was last seen on September 4th, 2024, months before the deadly accident.

A spokesperson for the state police confirmed the date Tuesday and referred questions to investigators in Fayette County, who could not be reached before this article was published.

The Tuscaloosa Thread can confirm that on December 11th, 55-year-old John Elton Bailey was arrested in Fayette County and charged with failure to report a missing person.

He is Wendy Bailey's father and the grandfather of the missing 1-year-old. In a criminal complaint filed last week and obtained by the Thread, police say Bailey "failed to report a missing child [...] with willful and reckless disregard for the safety of the child and the child suffered serious bodily harm or death, to-wit: physical injuries to the child and the child was removed from the home and taken to an unknown location, and no report was made by any resident of the home."

There are no other details available Tuesday afternoon - stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread for additional details as they become available.

Anyone with any information about Kahleb should contact police immediately. Call 205-932-3205 and ask for Investigator Branndon Collins.