The body of a 2-year-old Florida boy who had been the subject of a frantic search after his mother was slain was found Friday in a lake in the jaws of an alligator, police said.

St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway also said the boy’s father, 21-year-old Thomas Mosley, will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of the boy’s mother, 20-year-old Pashun Jeffery, and their young son Taylen Mosley.

Searchers, including dive teams and officers using drones, had been intensely looking for the boy since his mother’s body was discovered in their apartment earlier this week and he was nowhere to be found.

Officers searching for the toddler at a lake a few miles from the apartment complex noticed an alligator “with an object in its mouth” that they quickly realized was a child’s body, Holloway said. They fired shots at the reptile, which dropped the body.

Thomas Mosley is hospitalized with cuts on his hands and arms and has refused to talk to investigators, Holloway said. He does not yet have a lawyer to speak on his behalf.