His mother, Teresa Ann Bailey Black, was arrested and charged with murder, child cruelty, aggravated assault, and concealing his death.

An autopsy of the victim considered the cause of death as undetermined due to the time span of which the remains were there.

He was wearing red jean pants, a pullover hoodie, and brown Timberland boots, which was initially believed to suggest that he did not come from a lower-class family.

[1][2] Due to guilt from the investigators for referring to the victim as a "Clifton John Doe", he was given the nickname "Dennis".

In October 1999, a woman called the coroner's office claiming her name was "Dawn Anderson" and that she knew the victim's identity.

In February 2019, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) created a forensic reconstruction image of what the victim may have looked like, which ended up being a striking resemblance.

She stated that when she saw it she "screamed" and immediately called the NCMEC and told them that the victim's name was William DaShawn Hamilton and that she had been friends with his mother, Teresa Ann Bailey Black in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Authorities took Ava's claims seriously, and went through further DNA testing and determined that the victim was in fact William DaShawn Hamilton.

[1][3] On July 13, 2022, it was announced that the victim had been identified as William DaShawn Hamilton, and that his mother, Teresa Ann Bailey Black, had been arrested in connection with his death.

The prosecution alleged that Black drugged William with acetominophen and diphenhydramine and then murdered him by striking him with an unknown object.

Ava stated that she was good friends with Black and never thought she would be capable of murder, but that she was "distant and impatient" with William, and that "she wasn’t a loving mom".

She was initially charged with murder, but was given a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to one year in prison.

The prosecution alleged that Black murdered William by drugging and then striking him in the head with an unknown object, as evidenced by fractures in his skull.

[7] William's father stated emotionally to the judge at sentencing, "I just feel so bad that I never got to spend time with him like all these people coming in and out of the courtroom.