The deaths of two infant brothers years apart are now tied by witness accounts, say investigators, as child welfare records and separate prosecutions continue in two counties.

WRENS, Ga. — A 21-year-old Georgia woman is facing murder charges in the deaths of her two infant sons after investigators said the boys died years apart in separate counties and later evidence led authorities to treat both deaths as homicides.

The case matters now because it has grown from one recent child-death investigation into a two-county prosecution involving older records, witness statements and renewed scrutiny of the state’s earlier contact with the family. Dakota Taylor is charged in connection with the deaths of 8-month-old Caleb Taylor in Jefferson County in January 2025 and 7-month-old Micah Taylor in DeKalb County in September 2021. Court proceedings in both cases are now shaping what happens next.

The newer case came first. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office asked for help on Jan. 8, 2025, after an 8-month-old child was found unresponsive at a home on the 2100 block of Mt. Moriah Road in Matthews. Investigators say the baby, Caleb, was taken to a hospital and died there. In later reporting, relatives described Taylor arriving at a family member’s home around 8 p.m. with Caleb covered and unresponsive. A relative said the child’s lips and face appeared blue after a blanket was removed. Taylor was arrested on Nov. 20, 2025, and the GBI said she was charged with malice murder, felony murder and first-degree cruelty to children in Caleb’s death.

As investigators dug into Caleb’s case, they also looked back at the 2021 death of Micah, another son who died while in Taylor’s care. Reporting on the earlier case said Micah was living with Taylor at a group home in DeKalb County while the family was under Division of Family and Children Services supervision. On the night of Sept. 13, 2021, a group home employee found the 7-month-old unresponsive after Taylor said she had given him a bath because he became sick after a feeding. The employee called 911 and began CPR. Officers who responded later described Taylor’s demeanor as unusually flat while emergency workers treated the baby. Micah’s death was not initially treated the same way as Caleb’s, but the later investigation brought the older case back into focus.

Authorities say witness accounts helped connect the two deaths. Reporting on the case said investigators interviewed Micah’s father in October 2023, and he said Taylor told him she had blocked Micah’s breathing. Taylor’s half-sister also gave investigators an account that matched the broad allegation that Micah had been smothered. In the later case involving Caleb, an inmate told a GBI agent that Taylor admitted killing the child before taking him to a relative’s home. Authorities have also said the method alleged in both cases was the same: holding the boys’ nostrils closed so they could not breathe. Those statements are central to the prosecution, but many details, including what physical evidence will be presented in court and how defense lawyers will challenge the accounts, remain unknown.

The story also stretches beyond the deaths themselves. Follow-up reporting said Taylor had been under DFCS scrutiny before either boy died and that the agency had previously been involved over concerns about her daughters. Reports described Taylor as living in a group home with two daughters while pregnant with Micah and later losing custody of the girls, who were placed in foster care and eventually adopted. The same reporting said caseworkers and others involved in the family’s history had raised concerns about her fitness as a parent. Those records help explain why the case has drawn attention beyond the criminal charges: it raises questions about whether earlier interventions, warnings and supervision changed anything before Micah died in 2021 and before Caleb died more than three years later.

The legal picture is split between counties. The GBI has said Caleb’s case will be turned over to the Middle Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution. Reporting on Taylor’s court appearances said she was granted a $150,000 cash bond and a $300,000 property bond in the Jefferson County case, but no bond was granted in the case tied to Micah’s death. She has been charged with two counts each of malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children across the two prosecutions, according to reporting on the case. The next steps are expected to center on hearings, bond conditions, transfer issues and the release of more court records as prosecutors prepare to move both cases forward.

For people following the case in east Georgia and metro Atlanta, the most jarring part is how the scenes were described by those who were there. One relative recalled Caleb arriving covered and already in distress. A group home worker in Micah’s case tried to revive a child found slumped over and blue. Officers on body camera video discussed how little emotion Taylor appeared to show while medics worked. None of that settles guilt on its own, and jurors will decide what weight to give each witness, but those firsthand descriptions have become some of the most closely watched parts of the public record as the state tries to explain how two infant deaths ended in parallel murder cases.

As of Tuesday, Taylor remained at the center of separate murder prosecutions tied to the deaths of Micah and Caleb, with the next milestone expected to come through court action and additional filings as the two Georgia cases continue.

Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.