NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Bronx father was charged with murder Thursday, a day after a body believed to be his 2-year-old son, Montrell Williams, was found in the East River.
Arius Williams, 20, was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of manslaughter in the case. Police had been searching for his son before a child's body was removed from the waters near the Whitestone Bridge in Queens on Wednesday afternoon.
The medical examiner was working to ID the remains and determine a cause of death.
The charges mark a devastating turn in the case of the missing boy, whose image the NYPD first released Monday.
The NYPD said the father had visitation rights and legally took the boy on May 10 but never brought him back to his 17-year-old mother, who reported him missing.
On Monday, the mom saw Arius Williams and asked about the child. He allegedly pulled a knife told her the boy was in the Bronx River, prompting her to call police, who launched the investigation.
The father was held in custody on a charge of custodial interference as the search for the boy continued this week.
Sources told 1010 WINS on Wednesday that the body of a 2-year-old Black male had been found around 12:45 p.m. by the NYPD’s harbor unit and that the remains were believed to be those of Montrell Williams.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the case "heart-wrenching" Wednesday, and she said the department was doing everything to get answers.
“Unfortunately, we have a video of a man throwing something over a bridge into the Bronx River," Tisch said. "So we have had our scuba and harbor teams out there."