‘I had did that to them’: Mother says she was on drugs when she killed her 4-year-old, abandoned her 1-year-old

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC/Gray News) - A mother accused of killing one child and abandoning another along the interstate made a shocking confession to KPLC as she returned in Louisiana.

Aaliyah Jack, 25, of Lake Charles, arrived from Mississippi and was booked into Calcasieu Correctional Center on Saturday afternoon.

Cameras caught up with her as she walked into the jail.

REPORTER: Aaliyah, what happened to your children that day?

JACK: Um, I had did that to them.

REPORTER: Why did you leave your baby on the interstate?

JACK: I’m not sure. I was under the influence of drugs.

REPORTER: Did you kill your son?

JACK: Yeah.

As the outer bands of Tropical Storm Beryl rained down on Southwest Louisiana on July 8, a passerby discovered the body of a young child in the water behind the Louisiana Welcome Center in Vinton.

He would be identified as Legend Dary Jack, the 4-year-old son of Aaliyah Jack.

Legend’s paternal grandmother, Dion Polk, described the situation as a “nightmare.”

Polk said Legend had been living with her since May. The last time she saw him alive was when she dropped him off with his maternal grandmother to go to a funeral on July 6.

When Polk went to pick up Legend, she found out Jack had run off with the two boys. That’s when she began searching for Legend, his 1-year-old brother Kingtrail and their mother.

Polk said as soon as she heard that a child’s body had been found in Vinton, she had a bad feeling and called 911, telling dispatchers she believed it may have been Legend.

Law enforcement said they tracked Jack to Mississippi, where she was arrested on a count of failure to report a missing child.

Jack was found without her younger son, and the search for Kingtrail began across state lines. A truck driver spotted him on the morning of July 9, crawling toward I-10 East, a few miles from where Legend’s body had been found.

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Stitch Guillory called Kingtrail a “miracle baby.” Guillory said the baby had insect bites but was otherwise OK after surviving two days in a ditch on the side of the interstate.

Kingtrail spent a night in the hospital and was placed in state care.

Jack is facing charges of second-degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile as well as two counts of failure to report a missing child. She is held on a $9.1 million bond.