Dallas Becomes Ground Zero for The Cash Gernon Media Circus

DALLAS, TX — If Dallas wasn't still reeling from the bizarre string of events surrounding the May 15 death of 4-year old Cash Gernon, the media circus is pulling into town and adding more heat than light to an already incomprehensible killing.

The Gernon boy was found around 7 a.m., dead and bloody, in the middle of a street in South Dallas by Antwainese Square, a neighbor who happened upon the lifeless child on her morning walk.

Surveillance video at the home where the boy was living shows that he was snatched around 5 a.m., and that by the time Square discovered his body, the same perpetrator is seen on video returning for Cash's twin brother. He was apparently startled away and left without the twin.

Sign up to support local journalism and you may receive coupons valued at up to $100 or more every month for use at local Dallas, TX businesses.

The adult tasked as the boys' caretaker, Monica Sherrod, is not their mother. She didn't report Cash missing until almost 11 a.m. But after reviewing a surveillance video, she did identify the kidnapper as 18-year-old Darriynn Brown.

Mind you, no one has yet been charged with murder in the tyke's death. That could happen at any moment, since forensic experts have now spent nearly two weeks with the child's body. (Brown's mother maintains Darriynn is being framed, despite what the camera appears to show.)

Enter sensationevangelist Nancy Grace to reverse the light-to-heat ratio. She's been covering Gernon's death on Fox Nation's "Crime Stories," and told a host at the network that "a lot of finger-pointing and blaming is going on right now because the father, Trevor Gernon, skipped town."

According to some sources, she adds, "he did not want to go into court-ordered rehab." But after obtaining and examining his arrest record, the TV pundit points out that "he had several simple possessions of a controlled substance. Not dealing, not selling; he was a user — at some point."

Well, that's certainly giving him the benefit of the doubt. Grace gives no evidence for believing the father might be clean and sober now, but instead ticks off an assortment of high-profile cases where children were abducted while their dads were at home.

"I think," says Grace, "people are pointing the finger at the father because he's an easy scapegoat. He's got a rap sheet." Thanks, Nancy. She provides a similarly grace-ious appraisal of Sherrod, who waited an inexplicable amount of time before reporting the boy missing.

When the Fox host asks about Sherrod saying that she misses her "son" and her possible involvement in setting up a GoFundMe account to accept donations, Grace jumps to her defense as well. "She had taken them in and given them a home," she opines.

Sherrod certainly did take them in. But what kind of a home was it? It's common knowledge that if a four-year old isn't tugging on your sleeve or bedcovers by 8:30 a.m., something is terribly wrong.

No, Grace has a scapegoat of her own to attack. "Mom is showing up a day late and a dollar short," she opines about the twins' biological mother, Melinda Seagroves. "It's hard to believe she couldn't find her children. She says she was (here's where Grace puts up "air quotes") 'looking for them.' We don't know the truth of it."

Well, not knowing "the truth of it" didn't stop Grace for showing sympathy to the two adults who did know the twins whereabouts, Trevor Gernon and Monica Sherrod. She also misunderstands what Sherrod's neighbor discovered on his own cameras ten weeks before Cash was abducted. The image appears to be Brown peering into his backyard, not hers.

Sherrod's neighbor, Jose Alvarado, believes his surveillance camera also caught Darriynn Brown appearing to investigate his backyard. The video was recorded some 10 weeks before Cash was killed.

"It's really scary," Alvarado told The Daily Beast. "I have two kids, one girl and one boy, and they play basketball in the backyard."

Grace concludes the interview by saying that once charges are brought and barring an insanity plea, "this will be a capital murder trial."

While that's plenty to keep Dallasites scratching their heads about what could possibly be going on, there's more:

Trevor Gernon's sister, Ashlee Marcoux, posted a video Sunday night that features photos of the twins and is narrated by their father, who attests to his own remorse, but doesn't say where he is. Nor does he identify Sherrod as either his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend in the recording.

Marcoux has since added that her brother is still somewhere in Texas, and that the twins' mother (who's been reunited with her remaining son) does not want Trevor at their boy's funeral.

So now there's a skirmish brewing about how Cash will be put to rest. Requests for comment from Seagroves or her mother, Connie Ward, did not elicit a response.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Marcoux explained that her side of the family has been "trying to figure out how to handle this and see if he can just have some sort of agreement in place to attend the funeral . . . or at least be able to see Cash before he goes and turns himself in.”

Let's recap. Most importantly, there's still no motive or murder charge. There's no clarity about what the twins' father told their biological mother about where the boys were, no certainty as to whether their mom searched for them and how actively. How people inside Sherrod's house knew Brown, what her relationship was or is with Trevor Gernon and who was paying for the children's upkeep, and again: what was happening in that house between 4:45 a.m. and 11 a.m.

There are family members giving interviews, but they're not the ones with firsthand knowledge. And Antwainese Square, the neighbor who discovered Cash's body is still shaking her head in disbelief: "I can't unsee what I saw, she told a Fox reporter. "I'm angry. I'm scared. It's really a rude awakening for the entire community."

Meanwhile, Dallas police have issued a warning to the public that fake GoFundMe accounts have been established pretending to benefit the family of the dead little boy. "Please," said a statement, "verify the source before donating."

Looking for more Dallas news? Subscribe.