Grayson Walton was buried days after police found him dead, while the murder case against his 19-year-old babysitter continued advancing.
CLEATON, Ky. — Grayson Eli Walton was less than two weeks from his first birthday when he died, leaving relatives and neighbors to bury an 11-month-old described by his family as happy and outgoing while investigators built a murder case against the teenager who had been caring for him.
Grayson was born Sept. 26, 2025, in Owensboro and died Sept. 13, 2026, according to his obituary. His family said he loved water, children’s programming and playing with other children and described him as a baby who readily connected with people. Funeral services were held Sept. 17 at Tucker Funeral Home in Central City, followed by burial at Miller Cemetery. By then, the investigation into how Grayson died had produced a murder arrest, an allegation that evidence had been tampered with and a second arrest involving his step-grandfather.
The case began the previous weekend when Central City police responded around 5:10 p.m. Sept. 12 to a disturbance at a residence in the 800 block of Harrison Avenue. Grayson’s father told officers his son had been left with 19-year-old Elijah Drew Mayes while the father worked. Police said Mayes told investigators that a family friend had collected Grayson at about 10 p.m. the previous night. Officers located the person he identified. She told them she had not picked up the child, leaving police with conflicting accounts and an infant whose whereabouts were still unknown.
A relative then told investigators Grayson had last been seen with Mayes at a residence in the 300 block of Hillview Street in Cleaton. Police continued interviews and began obtaining search warrants. The first covered the Harrison Avenue residence and a vehicle there. Authorities said that search turned up suspected methamphetamine in a dresser drawer in a bedroom associated with Mayes. Police then sought authority to search the Hillview Street property and a vehicle there. It was at that second home that officers found Grayson dead.
Later reporting based on an arrest citation revealed additional allegations about the scene. Investigators said Grayson was found concealed inside a couch. The citation described bruising on the child and marks on his stomach that appeared to investigators to have been made by teeth. Those observations were included in the criminal investigation but do not substitute for a final medical finding. The publicly reviewed sources do not provide a definitive cause and manner of death, and authorities have not publicly explained every event that occurred between the last reported sighting of Grayson and the discovery of his body.
Police also allege that Mayes tried to make his account about the family friend appear genuine. According to court-document reporting, investigators believe he established a false phone number and sent messages to himself while posing as the person he said had taken Grayson. Mayes is charged with murder, first-degree criminal abuse, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and first-degree possession of a controlled substance involving methamphetamine. He has pleaded not guilty, and the allegations against him have not been proved at trial.
Four days after Grayson was found, authorities announced another arrest tied to the Hillview Street address. Jeff Barnett, identified by police as Grayson’s step-grandfather, was charged with tampering with physical evidence. His address was listed as the home where Grayson’s body was discovered. Authorities have not accused Barnett of killing the child in the records reviewed. Both Barnett and Mayes appeared in court Sept. 17, the same day Grayson’s funeral was held, creating a stark overlap between the family’s private loss and the beginning of a public criminal process.
The community response developed alongside those proceedings. Residents gathered in Cleaton for a candlelight vigil, standing together in silence and prayer before moving through the community with messages calling for justice for Grayson. Pastor Jennifer Banks told local news reporters that people throughout the small community were devastated and said residents tended to experience one family’s grief together. Organizer Georgina Sailing said the gathering was intended to keep the child from being forgotten. Several relatives attended but were not ready to discuss the case publicly.
That public grief did not settle the legal questions. Mayes’ case continued through a preliminary stage in which a judge was asked to determine whether there was enough evidence to allow the prosecution to move forward. By Oct. 1, local reporting said probable cause had been found and the matter would be bound over for grand-jury consideration. Circuit Court Clerk Camron Laycock said Oct. 16 was tentatively identified as a possible grand-jury date but emphasized that the final timing rested with the commonwealth’s attorney.
A probable-cause ruling does not determine whether Mayes committed the crimes alleged. It reflects a lower threshold used at an early stage of criminal proceedings. A grand jury, if presented with the case, would decide whether to return an indictment based on the evidence prosecutors submit. The material reviewed for this article does not establish that an indictment was returned on the tentative Oct. 16 date. Mayes therefore continues to be described as accused of the offenses, not convicted of them.
For Grayson’s family, the public record also preserves details unrelated to the way he died. His obituary named his parents as Michael Walton and Rikki Beth Carroll and listed a sister and other relatives who survived him. A memorial fund was created to assist the family with funeral expenses and a headstone. Those details provided a fuller picture of an infant who otherwise became publicly known because of police reports, court documents and criminal charges.
The investigation itself involved a large group of agencies. Central City police thanked the Muhlenberg County Sheriff’s Office, Greenville police, Kentucky State Police, the FBI, several fire departments, emergency-management officials and the county coroner’s office for assisting. The multi-agency response grew out of the initial missing-child report, the conflicting explanation about who had Grayson and the two searches that ultimately led officers from Harrison Avenue to Hillview Street.
Important questions remain unanswered in the public record. Authorities have not released a final medical explanation for the child’s death in the sources reviewed, nor have they publicly established a motive. The exact role prosecutors allege each person played will have to be set out through charging documents, grand-jury action and later court proceedings rather than assumed from the fact of an arrest. Barnett’s charge concerns alleged evidence tampering, while the murder and abuse accusations are directed at Mayes.
Grayson would have turned 1 on Sept. 26, less than two weeks after his death. His family instead held a funeral as Cleaton residents gathered to remember him and the first court proceedings began. The criminal case may continue through grand-jury review and later hearings, but those proceedings address only the legal allegations. For Grayson’s relatives, the loss that brought the community together occurred before the courts had begun deciding what responsibility, if any, the evidence can establish.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.