CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The parents of a Charlotte baby have gone missing and are wanted on criminal charges by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department.
Brandon Augustine, 24, and Mildred Chestnut, 23, have not been seen or heard from since March.
Days after the couple went missing, Dianne Augustine, the mother of Brandon, reported them as such.
"This is the longest I haven't heard from him in his entire life," Dianne Augustine previously told WCNC Charlotte reporter Shamarria Morrison days after she reported the couple missing and weeks ahead of Wednesday's announcement.
When WCNC Charlotte talked to Dianne Augustine on March 23 - three days after the couple was reported missing - she was pleading for answers for her missing son and his fiancée.
"I'm worried it's the last time," Dianne Augustine said through tears. "I'm being honest, like something is so viscerally wrong like something is so absolutely wrong."
Something was wrong, but it wasn’t something she could have ever imagined.
CMPD's Crimes Against Children Untit held a news briefing on April 12, about three weeks since the couple went missing.
"Detectives issued warrants or signed warrants on March 21 against Mildred Chestnut and Brandon Augustine, the mother and the father of the child for felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury," Maj. Luke Sell of CMPD's Special Investigation Bureau said.
Moments after CMPD shared new details, Dianne Augustine shared more with WCNC Charlotte. She said she found out about the accusations 30 minutes before the media conference by CMPD.
Dianne Augustine said she had no idea her son and his fiancee were being investigated for a crime this serious.
"[CMPD] kept me in the dark on everything because they were looking at family," Dianne Augustine said.
Police confirmed they didn’t share any details of their investigation with Dianne Augustine. Prior to the missing's person report being filed, CMPD was already investigating the parents.
"CMPD believes that it is likely that Chestnut and Augustine have fled the state and they know that they are wanted," Sell said.
The department's fugitive task force found the couple's car in Austell, Ga. on March 21. Austell is 262 miles southwest of Charlotte and about 17 miles outside of Atlanta.
"Their vehicle was obviously abandoned and intentionally hidden," Sells said.
In March, Dianne Augustine said she was under the assumption her son and his fiancée were in the hospital due to a car crash, which her grandson was also in.
"They went because of the accident, and they were there for days, a couple of days, and then they got the flu," she said.
CMPD said doctors alerted their officers to the hospital where the child was.
"The severity of the child's injuries were not consistent with a minor crash, as the parents insisted," Sell said.
Dianne Augustine is calling for the parents of her grandchild to come home.
"Do the right thing. Please? Like, just so everybody knows that you're okay. And that you can deal with what you're supposed to deal with the right way," she said.
CMPD confirmed there were no current charges or investigations into Dianne Augustine.
The four-month-old child is not in Dianne's custody. Police would only reveal the child was in a safe place.
Investigators believe someone may be helping the couple with money, shelter, and transportation. Anyone who has helped them could face criminal charges.
Anyone with information about the location of the parents is asked to leave a tip with Charlotte Crime Stoppers online or call 704-334-1600. All tips are anonymous.
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