Update:Father Confesses To Killing 3 Month Old & Dumping Body
Police said they believe Travis "T.J." Mullis is the father of a 3-month-old boy found dead near a utility pole on Seawall Boulevard near Ferry Road on Tuesday.
He was considered a person of interest in the boy's death.
Police held a news conference Friday night and said Mullis confessed to killing the baby after his arrest.
"Travis Mullis stated that he intentionally killed 3-month-old Alijah Mullis in Galveston on Jan. 29, 2008," said Lt. Jorge Trevino with the Galveston Police Department.
Bond was set at $1 million on the capital murder charge.
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Galveston police will travel to Philadelphia for Mullis' extradition hearing.
Mullis had family in Maryland and traveled to Philadelphia from there, stopping at churches along the way, officials said.
"He would stop at a church, tell them a sad story and he would get money from a church," an investigator said. "He walked into the station, said he wanted to talk about something and turned himself in."
Police did not elaborate on a possible motive.
"There are no other suspects," Trevino said.
Mullis was charged with a felony related to a girl in a separate case. He is accused of enticing a child, which is intentionally taking a child from a parent without the parent knowing, with the intent to commit a felony.
Investigators said a child who lived with Mullis in Alvin made that claim. The allegation surfaced while police were investigating the death of the 3-month-old.
Officials said Mullis might have tried to have a sexual encounter with an 8-year-old girl the same day the baby was found.
According to the Brazoria County District Attorney's Office, the 8-year-old who Mullis lived with claimed that while everyone in the house was asleep, Mullis took her to a school playground in an attempt to commit a sexual assault.
Investigators said he asked the girl to take off her pants and then tried to remove them himself.
"At that point, she was very firm and said, 'No. Take me back home,' or something along that line. And everything stopped," said Chief Mike Merkel with the Alvin Police Department.
The woman who could be the mother identified the deceased baby in a photo as her son, police said. Footprint records obtained from a hospital have not helped positively identify the boy, so officials are awaiting DNA results, investigators said.
Detectives said the possible mother's role has changed in their investigation. Police said she initially cooperated, but has since hired an attorney.
"She was still cooperating up until recently," Trevino said. "One of the investigators told me that she's not as cooperative."
Investigators said the woman and Mullis argued the night before the baby's body was found. Police said they did not know if the argument played a role in the baby's death.
Mullis left at about 5 a.m. Tuesday to get a car repaired, police said. A couple discovered the baby's body and a car seat about four hours later.
The baby is the second child to be found dead in the area in the past few months. A fisherman discovered the body of a young girl in a plastic box floating in Galveston Bay in October. Detectives named her "Baby Grace" until they learned her true identity, Riley Ann Sawyers.
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