EXCLUSIVE: 'She told police I took him overnight!' Quinton Simon's father reveals the Georgia toddler's prime suspect mother tried to pin the 18-month-old's disappearance on HIM – but says he hasn't seen his son in months

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The mother named as a suspect in the murder of her 18-month-old son Quinton Simon tried to pin his disappearance on his biological father, DailyMail.com has learned.

Leilani Simon told police that her ex-lover snatched the toddler from her Savannah home in the darkness of night, prompting police to track down and confront Quinton's long-absent father shortly after she reported him missing on October 5.

DailyMail.com located the tragic boy's biological father at his home 85 miles from Savannah and in an exclusive interview Henry Moss – who is known as Bubba – revealed how his ex tried to blame him for the boy's vanishing.

'Leilani's tried to blame it on me,' the  shaggy-haired 24-year-old told DailyMail.com in a soft southern drawl.

He said he was mowing his boss's lawn when police pulled up.

'They asked  did I have him and when was the last time I was in Savannah?' he recalled. 'They told me Leilani said I came and got him overnight.'

Bubba, who lives in Girard, Georgia, a rural town of 250 people, told police that he hadn't been anywhere near Savannah for a month, when he installed an air conditioner in nearby Tybee Island, where Leilani and her mother Billie Jo Howell were seen downing tequila shots in a bar a week after Quinton's disappearance.

Leilani Simon (pictured in a 2020 mugshot) told police that her ex-lover Henry Moss, who is called Bubba, snatched her son Quinton Simon from her Savannah home in the darkness of night. He is speaking out to DailyMail.com for the first time 

One-year-old Quinton Simon has been missing since October 5. 'He was happy, always smiling,' Bubba said of Quinton. 'He really didn't scream a lot. He was a good baby'

Bubba vowed he told police the truth – that he was home when Quinton disappeared, and that he left for work at 7.40 that morning. He said he presented alibis and that there was also CCTV footage from the next-door gas station that proved he didn't leave his home overnight.

At that time, it was just a missing person's case.

'I told police – she's gonna hurt that baby,' he recalled. 'I said I didn't know what was going on. Hell, I haven't heard from her in six to seven months.'

During the interview, Bubba proceeded to share his turbulent backstory with the woman suspected of killing their son.

Bubba said that Leilani kept her pregnancy with Quinton a secret from him. FBI agents assume the boy is dead and are searching a landfill for Quinton's body

Bubba, who has two daughters with another woman, said he met Leilani at a swimming hole in 2019. Leilani had her own child, Zayne. They started dating and she became pregnant with Quinton in 2020. She initially kept it a secret.

'She didn't tell me until months later that she was pregnant,' Bubba recalled. 'I didn't have no say in it, really.'

He said Leilani went to Alabama to give birth to Quinton in January 2021, so Bubba's name wasn't on the original birth certificate. She then returned home.

'He was happy, always smiling,' Bubba said of Quinton. 'He really didn't scream a lot. He was a good baby.'

He said the tipping point in their relationship came in February 2021, after he was served with an arrest warrant for breaking into a trailer home back in June 2020.

Leilani had already been arrested for the crime, committed in the mobile home park in nearby Waynesboro, where she was living with her mother, Billie Jo Howell. Leilani, however, blamed Bubba.

A police incident report obtained by DailyMail.com states that Leilani allegedly cut her way through a screen window and stole $50 from a coin jar. The 40-year-old victim who owned the trailer called the cops.

'When asked who he (the victim) thought was responsible, he pointed out a female, later identified as Leilani Maree Simon, who lives next door and was currently standing outside,' the investigator states in the report. 'I then spoke with Ms. Simon and while doing so, she admitted to entering the camper and taking all of the change from inside of the coin jar.

'Ms. Simon added that her child's father, Henry 'Bubba' Moss, came over at approximately 8am today and convinced her to help him enter the camper. Ms. Simon stated that since he couldn't fit through the window, she did instead,' the report adds.

Leilani was charged with first-degree burglary, a felony. It was pleaded down to criminal trespass, court records show, and she was given 12-months probation.

She is still on that probation and another probationary period for a 2021 theft in North Carolina.

Leilani, 22, is the main suspect in the disappearance of her 18-month-old son. She is pictured in a 2021 mugshot after an arrest for theft in North Carolina. Bubba described Leilani as a cheater and liar who spent her days snorting cocaine and smoking marijuana

DailyMail.com located the boy's biological father at his home 85 miles from Savannah, Georgia. Bubba Moss revealed to DailyMail.com how Leilani tried to pin his son's disappearance on him

A warrant was issued for Bubba's arrest in the Waynesboro case, but he said he didn't know it at the time.

Later that summer, a woman in another trailer there had her black and white Harley Davidson wallet stolen. The owner confronted Leilani, who blamed Bubba again.

'Mrs. Simon stated Mr. Henry Moss had stolen it,' the incident report states.

But the report points out that the victim didn't witness the theft, and no arrest was made.

The property owner told DailyMail.com that he evicted Leilani and Billie Jo, who was working as a union worker at a nearby nuclear plant, that summer.

Leilani then moved in with Bubba in the nearby city of Hiltonia.

But their relationship proved a disaster. Bubba described her as a cheater and liar, a homemaker who spent her days snorting cocaine and smoking marijuana.

'She did cocaine every day, all day, as much as she could,' he said.

Leilani also exhibited a violent temper and would lash out at him when she was craving more drugs, according to Bubba.

'When she didn't get no money from me to get f**king drugs, she'd go crazy,' he said. 'She hit me a few times in the face.'

He said Leilani would also sleep with other men to get cash for drugs.

Everything fell apart after he received the arrest warrant in mid-February 2021. He had his best friend Morgan record her admitting she framed him.

'I'm saying, why did you do that, though?' Bubba could be heard telling Leilani on the recording, obtained by DailyMail.com. 'That is f**ked up. I can't believe it still. Huh? What, you gonna tell them the f**king truth now or what?'

'Yes, Bubba, I'm going to tell them the truth,' she replies. 'I've already called up there. They have so many different f**king recorded messages when you call them… I'm going to tell the truth, that you didn't do anything.'

'I know, but damn, you shouldn't be lying and everything else, that we be together and everything else,' he snaps back.

'Damn, man, you f**king my life up with this,' he continues. 'I got locked up. I mean it's f**king stupid.'

'Why I'm so mad - there should have never been no motherf**king charges!' he argues.

The five-minute recording also shed light on other aspects of their relationship. At the time, Quinton was about seven weeks old, and Bubba was still questioning whether he was the actual father.

'I'll keep the baby and take care of him and all, so if he's mine, we're going to get a DNA test,' he said. 'If he's mine, I would want to put his mother**king name right on his birth certificate and change his last name. He can live with me. I'll do that, put him in motherf**king day care, whatever I've got to do. I'll take care of him, I promise you that.'

 'The only reason I'm not in Quinton's life is because she left,' Bubba told DailyMail.com. 'She was not welcome here anymore with all her lying and stealing'

Leilani and her mother, Billie Jo Howell, were at StingRay's, a beach bar in the vacation town of Tybee Island, drowning their sorrows while authorities were searching for Quinton 

He then accuses her of sleeping with other men, to suggest that maybe he's not the father.

'I ain't f**ked nobody but Bubba Moss in 2021,' she insists, though she'd become pregnant with Quinton the prior year. 'I ain't never f**ked Tim either. That boy's a child.'

After the argument, Bubba and Leilani split up. She left town later that year.

'The only reason I'm not in Quinton's life is because she left,' he told DailyMail.com. 'She was not welcome here anymore with all her lying and stealing.'

Quinton's grandmother, Billie Jo, had legal custody of him at the time of his disappearance

Bubba has experienced his own trouble with the law, admitting he'd previously been arrested for fighting, criminal trespass, and possession of marijuana.

At the time of the disappearance, Leilani was living in Savannah with Quinton and Zayne, her boyfriend Danny Youngkin, Billie Jo and her husband Thomas Howell.

Billie Jo obtained legal custody of Quinton and his now three-year-old brother Zayne. But she was reportedly out of town October 5.

Police say Quinton was last seen by his mother's boyfriend, Youngkin, around 6am. It wasn't until after 9am that his mother reported him missing.

Bubba said cops from the local sheriff's office confronted him later that morning. The next day, he drove to Savannah and spoke with the FBI.

'They wanted to talk to me,' he said. 'They were asking me a lot more questions about her.'

He said investigators also had him take a DNA test to prove his paternity, and it came back a match.

The next night, he stopped by Billie Jo's house to speak with Leilani and her mother, who were gathered in the backyard. To him, it seemed more like a party than a time of grief.

'Every one of them was high as a kite and drunk as hell,' he told DailyMail.com. 'Leilani was on something. She wasn't crying when I walked up. She was laughing and having a good time with everybody. It looked like a party.'

'I didn't tell her what the FBI told me,' he said. 'All I said was – how did Quinton go missing, how did a 20-month-old go walk out?'

'She didn't have anything to say to me,' he added. 'All she said was she was sorry and that she didn't know what happened to him. That's all she does is lies.'

He said that a few minutes after he spoke with her, she cried.

Authorities would later drain the backyard pool, which was full when Bubba stopped by.

The Chatham County Police Department shared photos of the team sorting through tons of garbage as they search for little Quinton 

While Leilani and her mother were drinking, agents were searching this landfill for any signs of little Quinton's remains

A week after the disappearance, police announced that they believe Quinton is dead and named his mother as the prime suspect.

The FBI has been searching a nearby landfill where they believe Quinton's body was dumped. 

As the search got underway early last week, Leilana and her mother left town for an overnight stay in Tybee Island, where they were seen laughing and smiling while downing Patron shots with several friends at StingRay's, a popular bar across the street from their motel.

Bubba said he's shocked Leilani hasn't yet been arrested.

'I can't believe she ain't locked up now,' Bubba said. 'She's a terrible person and she's going to jail, or hell. She's evil. She shouldn't be here out in society.'

'If she didn't want him, she could have told me,' he added. 'I would have come and got him.'