A Philadelphia woman is asking for help locating her 2-year-old son who has been missing since Sunday.
The child's mother, Beverly Thorpe, told police her ex-boyfriend, 27-year-old Tyrone E. Rowland, picked Dashawn Thorpe up from Precious Moments Daycare located at Germantown and Lehigh avenues in North Philadelphia last Wednesday.
She said Rowland agreed to return the toddler to her home on the 2400 block of N. 11th Street on Sunday, but failed to do so.
Thorpe says she called and texted the suspect, who is not the toddler's biological father, and he did not immediately respond.
Rowland contacted her Monday, saying he would return her son the next day, Thorpe said. When Rowland and the child did not show up Tuesday, she called authorities.
The suspect has contacted the mother sporadically via Facebook with messages that have Allentown as the location stamp, she said.
The most recent message indicates Rowland plans to return Dashawn to his mother Friday, but Thorpe says, she does not believe him and is concerned because her ex-boyfriend will not put her son on the phone.
Authorities say Rowland may have taken the boy to Pittsburgh.
Thorpe says the suspect, who she broke up with four months ago, considered himself the boy's father figure, which is why she trusted him to care for the child while she studied for mid-term exams.
Stay with NBC10.Com for more on this developing story.