New Preliminary Hearing Date Set For Mother Of Kahleb Collins

FAYETTE, AL — A preliminary hearing has been set for next week in the case of the mother of 1-year-old Kahleb Collins, who has been missing since September and is believed to be dead.

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As Patch previously reported, authorities first learned of Kahleb's disappearance after a Dec. 8 single-vehicle crash that claimed the lives of his father, Steven Bradley Collins, and two-year-old sister, Ryleigh Collins.

Kahleb's mother, 22-year-old Wendy Pamela Jean Bailey, was seriously injured in the crash but was charged in late December with aggravated child abuse, first-degree domestic violence, abuse of a corpse and criminally negligent homicide.

After her preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for Jan. 15, the court date was continued and will now be held on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 9 a.m. at the Fayette County Courthouse.

She is being represented by Tuscaloosa defense attorney Stuart Albea.

Bailey remains in custody in the Fayette County Jail with her bond set at $1.9 million, which comes after 24th Judicial Circuit District Attorney Andy Hamlin told local media the state intended to request that Bailey be denied bond, pursuant to Aniah's Law.

Kahleb's remains have not been recovered as of the publication of this story, with law enforcement still searching for the missing 15-month-old's body.

Hamlin said in December that the criminally negligent homicide charge is related to the death of Ryleigh, who was unrestrained in the pickup truck Steven Collins was driving at the time of the fatal crash, which occurred on Fayette County Road 73 near the Glen Allan community.

The day following the crash, law enforcement was also notified that the couple involved had another child who was unaccounted for.

Bailey is the second person jailed in the case after her father, 55-year-old John Elton Bailey, was charged in December with failure to report a missing child. The date for his preliminary hearing in Fayette County is also set for Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Court documents alleged that on or about July 18, 2024, John Elton Bailey acted with "blatant disregard" to the abuse of Kahleb by his father.

Wendy Pamela Jean Bailey acknowledged to investigators that she also knew and failed to intervene on more than two occasions as Kahleb was physically abused by "torturous means."

The criminal complaint against Bailey claims that Kahleb was bound with rope and physically assaulted, in addition to being bound by a rope from a loft with blood and bruising visible in photographic evidence obtained by investigators.

Court records show that Bailey told police that after her son died, his body was placed into a bag and stored in an outside storage building for a brief period before the child's body was disposed of at an unknown location.

Those with information that could assist in the investigation are asked to contact the Fayette County Sheriff's Office at (205) 932-3205, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation at (334) 676-7894 or the District Attorney's Office at (205) 367-9915.

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