911 call from couple who discovered baby's body | Man who discovered baby's body speaks out | Click to watch raw aerials | Click to watch raw video of the scene

GALVESTON — Galveston police have identified a 21-year-old man as the biological father of missing baby boy that matches the description of an infant found dead near the Galveston Seawall Tuesday morning. Investigators said they consider Travis Mullis, 21, a person of interest in the case.

Police told 11 News that Mullis and the baby’s mother were up late Monday night. When the mother awoke Tuesday morning, her son and Mullis were gone.

Galveston PD

Galveston police say they consider Travis Mullis a "person of interest" as they investigate the death of a baby boy found dead on Galveston's East End Tuesday morning.

The Alvin mother starting calling local hospitals seeking her child and the boy's father. Those calls eventually led to the Galveston Police Department as reports of a boy's body being found near the island's Seawall surfaced.

The mother was taken to the police department and interviewed by investigators. Just after 8 p.m. police announced they were seeking Mullis.

The mother identified a photo of the dead child as her son, but police were waiting for a medical examiner's report to confirm the dead child's identity.

Police said Mullis was last seen driving a silver, four-door, 2002 Hyundai Accent with duct tape on the rear passenger side door handle and Texas license plate 067-RJP. Police stopped short of calling Mullis a suspect in the death of the child.

“He was last person seen with (the) baby. Anything else would just be guessing,” said Galveston police spokesman Lt. Jorge Trevino.

While Mullis has not been named a suspect, police have placed an investigative hold on him so they can detain him if and when he is found. Galveston detectives were at the mother’s trailer home in Alvin searching for clues in the case Tuesday night.

A couple who found the infant’s body on Galveston’s far East End say they were shaken and disturbed by the unsettling discovery and were attempting to push it from their minds.

They were looking for birds and coyotes while driving just north of the Seawall between the entrance to East Beach and Ferry Road.

“I saw some legs and feet, and said, ‘What is this? A doll?’” said the Jesse Zaro Jr., a Galveston County jail employee who was with his wife Esmeralda. “I didn’t say anything to my wife but, ‘Wait here.’ I opened the door and realized it was a baby. I just fell to pieces. We were looking to find something beautiful.”

The couple called 911, and police immediately cordoned off the scene and began photographing and shooting video of the area.

Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Scott Pena of the Galveston Police Department Crime Scene Unit inspects a child's car seat early Tuesday near the body of a child on Cherry Hill at the East End of the Seawall.

Trevino said authorities received the 911 call at 8:59 a.m. and officers arrived and found the infant. The body was found laying in the grass adjacent a paved embankment that is wide enough to drive on.

Police said the baby appeared to have suffered head trauma. He did not show any signs of child abuse, nor was he underweight said police.

He was only wearing a blue diaper, said Trevino. Officers also found a child-safety seat about 35 feet from the body.

Zaro said the infant was lying face down with its head to his side.

“The child was partially clothed,” Trevino said. “And it appeared to have been ejected from a seat, either thrown out or fell out. We don’t want to specify the injury, because if someone calls to confess, that’s important information.”

Zaro said he hopes police catch whoever killed the infant.

“There’s no excuse for this,” the man said. “It hurt my heart so bad when I saw the baby. We ran to school to give our baby a hug."

The couple has a school-aged daughter in Galveston.

“Why couldn’t they have just given the baby to someone,” Zaro said. “I wish they would have given it to me. Kids are a blessing from God. You’re supposed to teach them to be Christians and respect people.”

Cherry Hill is the local name given to a paved berm that runs from Ferry Road to the east end of Galveston. It's a popular hangout for teens and street racers on weekend nights and people who like to get a good view of ships passing through the Houston Ship Channel during the day.

Police have found other bodies in the isolated area by the Seawall, but none in recent memory on Cherry Hill, Trevino said.

This is the second child's body found in Galveston County in recent months. Last October, the body of Riley Ann Sawyers of Ohio, who became known across the nation as Baby Grace, was discovered in a plastic container on an island in West Galveston Bay.

Sawyers' mother and stepfather have been charged with her murder.

And last summer, a baby was severely burned when her father allegedly placed her into a microwave in a Galveston motel room. The child remains in protective custody, while the father, Joshua Mauldin of Arkansas, file notice that he plans to plead insanity as he faces charges for injury to a child.

The little girl's mother Eva, at one point claimed that her husband had been possessed by the devil when he placed the child in the motel refrigerator and then a microwave.

Parts of this story are available through KHOU, Ch. 11's partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.