John Jefferson
Inset: Gloria Wright (Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The area of Hamlet Walk in Rockdale County, Georgia, where Gloria Wright’s son was found at a home not breathing (Google Maps).
A pregnant woman from Georgia murdered her 1-year-old son and then went on the run, sparking a multiday search that ended with U.S. Marshals capturing her in New York, according to police officials. Authorities had been racing to find the 23-year-old mother in fear that she’d harm her unborn child and herself.
“We have a small child that has lost its life in the hands of its mother and we would like to get this mother in custody because she is currently carrying another child right now,” Rockdale County Sheriff’s investigator Grote Levett told local ABC affiliate WSB before Gloria Wright’s arrest this weekend.
The sheriff’s office announced in a press release Saturday that Wright had been taken into custody in Rochester, New York, by the U.S. Marshals. She was wanted on charges of first-degree murder and cruelty to children after her 1-year-old son died at her hands on Jan. 8, police allege.
“We would like to get her in custody for her safety and for the safety of that child,” Levett said Saturday.
Wright allegedly fled to New York after killing her son with blunt force trauma to the head, according to police officials. “A telephone call with the medical examiner who assisted in the autopsy did conclude that the acute skull fractures were not the result of an accidental fall or drop,” Wright’s arrest warrant alleged, per WSB.
Details have not been released about what led to the child’s death or what Wright was doing in the Empire State. She allegedly spoke to an investigator on Jan. 8 about her child’s death, according to WSB, but wasn’t arrested that day.
“On January 8, 2025, the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office responded to a person not breathing call,” officials said in a Jan. 15 press release. “Upon arrival, officers discovered the individual was a 1-year-old child. Despite Emergency Medical Services (EMS) attempts to resuscitate the child, the child was later pronounced deceased at the hospital.”
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Cops described Wright as having a tattoo on the side of her face and being a former resident of Newton County and Henry County, Georgia, in addition to Rockdale. A reward was $5,000 offered for her capture and the public was asked to do whatever they could to help locate Wright.
“The fugitive Gloria Wright has been located and taken into custody,” Rockdale police officials said Saturday. “The arrest was made possible with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals. We sincerely appreciate the public’s ongoing support and assistance throughout this investigation.”
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