Key Metrics
9.24
Heat Index-
Impact LevelLow
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Scope LevelNational
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Last Update2025-08-03
Key Impacts
Positive Impacts (3)
Negative Impacts (11)
Event Overview
The case highlights systemic failures in child protection and misuse of emergency alert systems, revealing how parental violence can intersect with procedural gaps in cross-state law enforcement cooperation. The charges underscore tensions between public safety protocols and accountability for fabricated crises that divert resources while concealing fatal abuse.
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Mother Charged with Murder After False Amber Alert and Discovery of Child’s Remains in Delaware and Maryland
On June 11, 2025, Maryland State Police announced that Darrian Randle, age 31, was charged with first-degree and second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of a minor under thirteen, and filing a false police report in connection with the disappearance of her 3-year-old daughter, Nola Dinkins. The charges were announced at a news conference held Wednesday night following an investigation spanning Delaware and Maryland.
The case began on Tuesday night, June 10, 2025, when Randle reported to New Castle County Police in Delaware that Nola had been abducted at gunpoint by an unknown male on the 500 block of Gender Road in Newark, Delaware, at approximately 7:15 p.m. This report prompted the issuance of an Amber Alert for the missing child.
However, investigators determined that Randle’s account was fabricated. On Wednesday, June 11, the Amber Alert was canceled and the investigation shifted to a homicide probe. That afternoon, at around 1:45 p.m., investigators discovered human remains consistent with a child’s body in a vacant lot in North East, Maryland’s Cecil County. Positive identification of the remains was pending an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.
Elena Russo, spokesperson for Maryland State Police, stated, “Our homicide unit investigators had enough information gleaned through the investigation that connected these two individuals with the disappearance of this 3-year-old.”
Randle was arrested and arraigned in Delaware, held at the Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution on $1 million cash bail, and faced extradition to Maryland. Her boyfriend, Cedrick Britten, age 44, was charged as an accessory to first- and second-degree murder after the fact, as well as failure to report a child’s death and other offenses. Britten was taken into police custody in Maryland and awaits court appearance in Cecil County.
According to court records and statements provided at the news conference, further details about the circumstances leading to the murder charges have not been disclosed pending further investigation and medical examiner results.