Remains found in lake identified as missing Raleigh toddler

Police said Tuesday that the remains found in a lake in northern Wake County late last year belong to Tristan Blue, a Raleigh 2-year-old who went missing in December.

Family members reported Tristan, who was two months shy of his third birthday, missing from a southwest Raleigh apartment early on Christmas Eve.

A day later, investigators said they believed the boy was dead, and his parents, Steven Daniel Blue, 31, and Briana Loriel Dangerfield, 25, were arrested.

Blue remains jailed without bond on a murder charge. Dangerfield was initially charged with child abuse and later with accessory after the fact of murder, altering or destroying evidence and failing to notify law enforcement of the death of her son.

Warrants state Dangerfield, who appeared in court in December on the latter three charges, knew Blue killed the toddler, and she helped get rid of the body. Her bond was set at $1 million.