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#LonnaLauramoreBarton
The disappearance and death of Jacksonville toddler Lonzie Barton
The Times-Union
An electronic billboard flashes the Amber Alert for missing toddler Lonzie Barton along Beach Boulevard on July 25, 2019. [Bruce Lipsky, The Florida Times-Union]

Lonzie Barton, just 21 months old, was reported missing during a car theft on Jacksonville's Southside on July 24, 2015.

William Ruben Ebron Jr., the boyfriend of Lonzie's mother, Lonna Lauramore Barton, called police about 2:20 a.m. that day, saying his car, with Lonzie inside, had been stolen from his apartment building’s parking lot and he was unable to chase it down. But residential security video later surfaced showing him staging the car theft, police said.

But Ebron stuck to his story for months — until he changed it, telling investigators that Lonzie drowned in a bathtub while he and Lauramore Barton were having sex

For 172 days, police and community looked for Lonzie. Then, on Jan. 11, 2016 — the same day a jury was to be seated in the trial of Ebron — Jacksonville police announced they had made the grim discovery of remains of the missing toddler beneath tires off a road near Florida 9B and Philips Highway.

Ebron had led police to the spot where he dumped Lonzie.

Lonzie's mother, Lonna Lauramore Barton, a drug-addicted stripper, is in the Gadsden Correctional Facility near Tallahassee with a 12-year sentence: five for her role in her son's death and seven years on a drug charge from Baker County. Her boyfriend, William Ruben Ebron Jr., is in the Desoto Correctional Institute in Southwest Florida for Lonzie's death. He's scheduled to be there until 2040 after cutting a deal with prosecutors and leading them to Lonzie's body. Lonzie's father, Christopher Arin Barton, who was never charged in the boy's death, is in prison on drug charges.

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2019/07/24/disappearance-and-death-of-jacksonville-toddler-lonzie-barton/986780007/

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