Mom charged with murdering 3-year-old daughter, lying about her abduction

Editor's Note: NBC10 obtained court documents on Darrian Randle and her boyfriend Cedrick Britten. New details here.

A Maryland woman is accused of murdering her 3-year-old daughter and then falsely claiming the girl was abducted at gunpoint in Delaware, officials revealed.

Darrian Randle, 31, of North East, Maryland, is charged with first-degree and second-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death of a minor, false reporting and other related offenses in connection to the death of her daughter, Nola Dinkins.

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Randle initially told police she was driving along the 500 block of Gender Road in Newark, Delaware, around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.

Randle told officers she had pulled over to the side of the road because her daughter was upset and she was trying to comfort her. Randle claimed a man then approached her and held her at gunpoint before abducting her daughter.

Randle described the person as a white man who was about 40-years-old and bald with peach fuzz on his head, who was wearing a black hoodie, gray basketball shorts and had a handgun, according to investigators.

Randle also claimed the man was in a vehicle driven by a blonde, white woman, officials said.

When the Amber Alert was issued Tuesday night, officials released a description of the man as well as a vehicle they believed he was driving, a dark-colored SUV, likely a Ford or Chevy, with rust or dirt on the exterior.

Wednesday morning, however, Andrea Botterbusch of the New Castle County Police Department, said that the Amber Alert was cancelled after investigators determined that Randle's initial statement to police was a lie.

"Detectives determined that the initial account of the incident given by the mother was false," she said.

New Castle County Police requested Maryland State Police respond to Randle's last known address in North East, Maryland, where they found her boyfriend, 44-year-old Cedrick Britten, officials said.

Maryland State Police continued searching for Nola Dinkins after determining she was in the area of Perryville Community Park, in Perryville, Maryland. During the search, they found a body in a vacant lot in North East, Maryland, officials said. They have not yet determined if the body is that of Dinkins.

"At 1:45 today, Maryland State Police Homicide Unit located what appears to be human remains consistent with that of a child," Maryland State Police spokesperson Elena Russo said. "At this point, positive identification of those remains has not been made. We are waiting on autopsy results from the office of the chief medical examiner."

Randle, meanwhile, was initially charged with false reporting. She was arraigned and committed to the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution after failing to pay $1 million cash bail.

She was later charged with murdering her daughter and is currently in custody at the New Castle County Division of Police. She is awaiting extradition back to Maryland.

Britten was also arrested in connection to Nola's death. He's charged with accessory to first-degree and second-degree murder after the fact, failure to report child death and other related offenses.

Britten is in police custody in Maryland and awaiting transport to the Cecil County District Court.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.