5-year-old Amber Alert subject died from asphyxiation, coroner determines

See an earlier report on the death of Darnell Taylor in the player above.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A 5-year-old who was the subject of an Ohio Amber Alert in February until his body was found in a Columbus storm drain died from asphyxiation.

The Franklin County coroner released reports Tuesday related to the cause of death for Darnell Taylor. His legal guardian, Pammy Maye, is facing a murder charge and was recorded confessing on police body-worn cameras.

The coroner listed the cause as "asphyxia by smothering with cervical neck compression."

After she was arrested, Maye told police that after learning Taylor had been eating in bed, she placed him in a trash bag, tied it shut and waited until he stopped moving. She said she'd had multiple behavioral issues with Taylor.

“That’s not fair, what I did to my son,” Maye said in a bodycam recording.

Maye told police she was confessing to protect her husband, who she said was not home at the time.

Taylor's body was found in a drain in the 1000 block of Marsdale Avenue on the Southwest Side. The Amber Alert, triggered after Maye left home and the husband called Columbus police, lasted for days until she was found nearly 150 miles away in Brooklyn, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

Maye, who remains jailed, has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges. Her trial is scheduled for June 24 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.