Hollywood pair claimed baby was fake, but she was real and they killed her: cops

Alayaih “Angelina” Amor Leon Feliz, who would now be 1 and a half years old, has been missing since early February 2025. Her disappearance sparked a rigorous search by authorities who claim her parents killed her, although Alayaih’s remains haven’t been found.

However, her parents have spent the better part of the last year claiming Alayaih was never born, and she was part of an elaborate scam. But pictures, texts and DNA evidence kept law enforcement from believing it.

Samantha Angelina Feliz, the 20-year-old mother, and Alejandro Leon Jr., the 21-year-old father, are facing charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, failing to report a death to medical examiner’s office, giving false information concerning a missing child and making false reports to law enforcement during an investigation.

On Wednesday, Feliz and Leon were arrested in Rockingham, North Carolina, and will be extradited to Broward. As of Friday, they had not yet arrived at the Broward County Main Jail.

The sordid, tragic tale began on July 22, 2025, when a fearful family member of Alayaih told the Hollywood Police Department he hadn’t seen the little girl since February of that year, just two months after her birth in December 2024, Detective Nancie Toler wrote in an arrest warrant.

The relative’s concerns grew when Feliz and Leon visited his home for two weeks earlier in July without Alayaih. During their time there, the couple never mentioned Alayaih.

The family member repeatedly asked where the baby was, prompting Feliz and Leon to say the child was a scam and “denied ever having a baby,” the warrant read.

Hollywood police officially opened a missing person’s case and began what would become a months-long search.

‘What baby, there is no baby’

Investigators learned from family members, and their own interviews with the parents, that Feliz and Leon spent months denying the very existence of Alayaih.

One of the earliest times the couple had told this story was March 2025, just three months after Alayaih’s birth, the warrant reads.

An unidentified person who had seen Alayaih in “good condition” in February told investigators that when he met with Feliz just a few weeks later in March she told him, “What baby, there is no baby.”

She went further and claimed the baby was a hoax because she “was scamming everyone for money,” Detective Toler, a 26-year veteran, wrote.

A family member in July texted Feliz asking where Alayaih was, and Feliz replied she never had a baby. During the investigation, Feliz contacted a detective and said the baby the police were searching for belonged to her sister — who told police that was a lie.

Feliz and Leon kept up the same story when they were interviewed by Hollywood detectives before criminal charges would eventually be filed against them.

“Leon and Feliz maintained that Feliz was never pregnant and had never given birth to a baby,” Detective Toler wrote. “They further claimed that the story was fabricated in hopes that their families would feel sorry for them and give them money.”

Feliz alluded to Alayaih belonging to a “crack addict” and that the couple were only watching the baby. Feliz also claimed she wore a pregnant-belly cast, and that officers would never find a record of any baby.

While authorities were confident Feliz was mostly lying, she was correct in saying a record of the birth would never come to light — a detail that detectives exhausted all avenues to solve.

The birth of Alayaih

As authorities searched for Alayaih, they also had the task of unraveling the parents’ claim that the little girl was possibly not their biological child and might have been in their custody for a short time.

However, detectives would slowly build overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the warrant reads.

Hollywood detectives learned Leon and Feliz had been visited by then-Miami-Dade Police Department officers on Dec. 5, 2024, in regard to a disturbance between Feliz and a roommate. The ensuing police report describes Feliz as pregnant with an “apparent extended belly.”

The incident would become one of Hollywood detectives’ first indications that Feliz and Leon were lying.

Authorities obtained text records between Feliz and a contact named “Titi,” aunt in Spanish. She told the woman on Dec. 5, 2024, that her water broke, was waiting for contractions and was shocked because she was only 37 weeks pregnant.

Feliz went on to say she was going to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Aventura. In the following days, Feliz would text “Titi” and her mother that the baby was fine and that she would be leaving the hospital soon.

“Hey titi, it’s me her name is Alayaih Amor Leon/Feliz,” Feliz wrote in a text.

Detectives obtained a warrant for records on births at Mount Sinai that week. While there were six live births, none were to Feliz and Leon. Police also checked with a birth center that the couple would have known of from a close family member, and there was also no record of a birth there.

The search for the birth was expanded statewide, and no birth certificates were found with the couple as biological parents. There was also no medical-insurance records under Feliz’s name, the warrant read.

Detectives came to the conclusion Alayaih was delivered “naturally during a home birth,” because no record from any hospital or birthing facility has yet to be found.

Why Feliz went to the extent of concealing the delivery, starting within the hours and days after Alayaih’s birth, and eventually outright claiming it never happened is unclear.

Blood-stained towel

In late February 2025, around the time family members said they last saw Alayaih, Leon and Feliz were evicted from their Hollywood home, becoming homeless, records show.

Detectives learned the couple illegally moved into a rental-storage unit at Safe Guard Storage in May, the warrant reads. They were evicted after being found out later that month.

However, the couple rented a different unit at the same storage facility under a family member’s name in July. Surveillance video, much of which was deleted because of the facility’s archive practices, showed Feliz and Leon coming and going but no sign of Alayaih.

The family member allowed Hollywood police to search the unit, police said. When they first went in they found: several mattresses and a box spring stacked in the middle of the floor; a plastic bottle filled with urine; and baby cloths and a diaper in blue bag.

Seeing enough, authorities moved to obtain a search warrant to collect evidence inside. Ultimately, detectives found baby clothing, a positive Clearblue Easy pregnancy test, a black semi-auto handgun, a blood-stained towel, multiple devices and three notebooks that described a gender reveal and a baby shower for Alayaih.

Cadaver dogs searched the storage facility, including the garbage areas, and did not find a body.

DNA testing from blood on the towels and some of the baby clothing revealed it belonged to a biological child of Leon and Feliz, detectives said.

On the collected devices, authorities found a photo of a pregnant Feliz. They also had photos of the baby with Feliz and Leon from Dec. 19, 2024 to Jan. 5., 2025. A video in which the couple could be heard calling the baby “Tootie” and “Angela” was also dated Dec. 29, 2024 — there were no more videos of Alayaih since then.

Detectives said the photos show the baby in “what appears to be good health” on Dec. 21, 2024, but her health began to decline in other pictures in the first week of January.

The final photo on January 5, Alayaih’s “health is clearly declining over a period of time as evidenced by the apparent change in her facial features and skin tone.”

“In this final photo, the victim is showing no signs of life,” Detective Toler wrote.

Detectives are requesting anyone who might have seen something to call the Hollywood Police Department at 954-764-4357 or 954-967-4567. Tipsters can also e-mail or text to [email protected]. Information can also be given to Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or www.browardcrimestoppers.org.