NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The father of a missing New Orleans boy led investigators to his son's body Saturday and admitted killing the boy to avoid paying child support, police said.

Danny Platt, 22, was questioned for hours after he claimed late Friday that 2-year-old Ja'Shawn Powell had been kidnapped, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported. At a news conference, police said Platt confessed Saturday afternoon he had killed his son.


The body was found near an overgrown playground behind a house.

Daniella Powell, Ja'Shawn's mother, told WWL-TV in an interview Saturday that Platt owed $4,000 in back child support and had been ordered in early December to pay the arrears. She said Powell took the boy for a visit Friday and then called her to say he had been kidnapped.

Platt first claimed that a white woman had grabbed Ja'Shawn from his arms, Powell said. She said he later claimed the boy was kidnapped at gunpoint by three black men armed with AK-47s.