A young South Florida mother charged in the death of her child who was last seen just after she was born in 2024 has been extradited to Broward, records showed.
Samantha Angelina Feliz, 20, was booked into Broward’s Main Jail on Sunday on charges including aggravated manslaughter of a child, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, failure to report a death to the medical examiner and reporting false information concerning a missing child, records showed.
The child’s father, 21-year-old Alejandro Leon Jr., was extradited to Broward last week to face similar charges.
The couple, from Hollywood, were taken into custody by deputies and U.S. Marshals in Richmond County, North Carolina, last month, a year and a half after investigators began working the case of their missing baby, Angelina.
The child was possibly only just days old when relatives last saw her in December 2024, authorities said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert for the baby in July 2025 after a concerned family member reported that they hadn’t seen their niece for some time.
According to an arrest warrant, it’s unclear exactly when and where Angelina was born, even after investigators looked into the live birth records at hospitals and a midwife birth center in Miami.
Family members reported seeing the baby with the couple during her first month of life, but after that, the baby was never seen again, authorities said.
Feliz and Leon denied to family members, and later to investigators, that Feliz was ever pregnant, the warrant said. The couple also claimed they made up the pregnancy “in the hopes that their families would feel sorry for them and give them money,” the warrant said.
A witness also reported that Feliz stated to them, “What baby? There is no baby,” in March of 2025.
Through a search warrant, investigators found text messages from Dec. 5 to Dec. 7 in 2024 between the couple they say establish that Feliz was pregnant and gave birth to a baby.
“The baby is fine and healthy and so am I,” a text read.
Investigators also found photos of the couple holding, feeding and sleeping with the baby, as well as a photo from November 2024 of Leon kissing and holding Feliz’s apparent pregnant belly.
Investigators also linked DNA from a baby red onesie to the couple, the warrant said.
There was no information on the child’s manner of death.
Leon and Feliz had fled to Richmond County, where they were living on a relative’s property, authorities said.
Leon was ordered held without bond last week. Feliz was expected to appear in bond court on Monday.
