Leila Cavett update: federal kidnapping charge dismissed; state child neglect charge added

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. (TCD) --

A self-described “witch” from Alabama who was reportedly the last person to see a woman who disappeared in Florida in 2020 had a federal charge against him dropped, but a state charge added last week in the case.

Miramar Police announced a child neglect charge against Shannon Ryan on Thursday, April 22.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports a federal charge of kidnapping was dismissed without explanation by a judge on Wednesday, April 21. In a court appearance the next day, Shannon Ryan was charged by the state of Florida with child neglect. The judge on Thursday set bond for the child neglect charge at $100,000.

Ryan, who was 38 when he was arrested last year on charges of lying to federal officials and kidnapping a child for ransom, remains held in the Broward County Jail.

Leila Cavett was last seen on July 25, 2020. She remains missing.

Cavett's 2-year-old son was found Sunday, July 26, wandering alone in the parking lot of an apartment complex. He was spotted around 8 a.m. by a woman who told police she had gone out for coffee and saw the child wearing a T-shirt and a diaper when she returned.

Police said Cavett, who was 21 when she disappeared, arrived in Florida on July 25, 2020 and spent time in the areas of Hollywood, Miramar, and Ft. Lauderdale before her disappearance. Her truck was found unattended on July 28 in Hollywood. Cavett remains missing.

Ryan told detectives that he has known Cavett since about January 2019 and that Cavett traveled to South Florida to sell him her pickup truck for $3,000.

Detectives said Ryan told them he met Cavett at a gas station in Hollywood, Fla., on July 25 and that they went to the beach with her son that afternoon in Ryan's gold Lexus.

Ryan claimed they parked their vehicles at the pumps after returning to the gas station and he last saw Cavett and her son leaving with several black males in a dark-colored sedan around 2:30 a.m. the morning of July 26.

Detectives discovered that Ryan had been using another person's debit card to make purchases at the gas station and at a Walmart. Among the items purchased were garbage bags, extra strength carpet odor eliminator and duct tape. Police said shovels with small droplets of a red substance on them were also recovered.

Ryan tried to sell the truck to another man for $1,000. A gas station employee told detectives that they recalled Ryan using the gas station dumpster and noticed children's toys and women's clothing inside it.

A federal search warrant was executed on Ryan's iPhone on Aug. 15 and detectives discovered he had made various suspicious Google searches, including “What day does commercial garbage pickup for Hollywood, Florida?” and “Does bleach and alcohol make chloroform?”

In a rambling 51-minute video posted on August 9 on Facebook to an account called Magnetic Kundalini, a man who appears to be Ryan says he was the last person to see Cavett.

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