In the late summer of 2023, concern began to ripple through a Birmingham, Alabama, family when 52-year-old Donald Cash, a local freight-hauling business owner, seemingly vanished. The last time he was seen alive was on September 26, tinkering with one of his trucks at his home in the Wylam neighborhood, a familiar and comforting sight to those who knew him. His sudden and uncharacteristic disappearance left his family feeling as though he had 'vanished from this earth.'
A week after he was last seen, his truck was located less than ten miles from his house, but of Donald Cash, there was still no sign.
The investigation into his disappearance soon focused on his 30-year-old son, Ladarius 'Tre' Cash. The younger Cash had an early encounter with law enforcement just three days after his father was reported missing, when he was arrested on September 29 for receiving stolen property involving two handguns. He was released on bond the same day. As the weeks turned into months with no word from Donald, investigators honed in on his son's residence. In November, they executed a search warrant at Ladarius's home, and in the backyard, a grim discovery was made.
A cadaver dog led investigators to a section of the yard that had been made to look like a garden, with a fresh pile of compost and topsoil. Beneath the disturbed earth, they found skeletal remains. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office was called to the scene and confirmed the remains were human. While awaiting official identification, Birmingham Police arrested Ladarius Cash on a charge of abuse of a corpse. He was held on a $250,000 bond, which he posted, and was released.
In late December 2023, the official confirmation came: the remains found in the backyard were those of Donald Cash. An autopsy revealed that he had died from a gunshot wound. With this confirmation, the investigation took a significant turn. On December 27, 2023, Ladarius Cash was arrested for the third time in connection with his father's disappearance and death. This time, the charge was murder. He was taken into custody and booked into the Jefferson County Jail, where he is being held without bond. The case against Ladarius Cash is pending in the court system, and a motive for the killing has not been publicly released by authorities.
