Travis Mullis, the 21-year-old wanted in the investigation of the death of a baby boy found near the Galveston Seawall, turned himself in to authorities in Philadelphia Friday. Galveston police said Mullis confessed to killing his 3-month-old son, Alijah.

According to police, Mullis told Philadelphia investigators that he stomped the baby’s head “until he felt the skull collapsing,” and then tossed his body in an area called Cherry Hill along the Galveston Seawall.

Mullis was charged with capital murder and was being held on $1 million bond. Galveston police will travel to Philadelphia this weekend to begin the extradition process to bring Mullis back to Texas.

Sgt. Annie Almendarez said Mullis apparently made it to Philadelphia by way of Maryland, where he had family and a mentor.

Almendarez said Mullis was able to travel across the country by stopping at churches “and telling them a sad story” to get money.

With Mullis’ confession, police are now almost 100 percent sure that the boy found near the Seawall on Tuesday morning was Alijah Mullis. But because the case is a capital murder investigation, the Galveston County Medical Examiner must confirm the baby’s identity scientifically.

Earlier in the week, the medical examiner had determined the baby died as a result of blunt-force trauma to the head before his little body was thrown along the side of the road.

Mullis also faces criminal charges in Brazoria County for enticing a child and forcing the 9-year-old to take her clothes off.

By some accounts, Travis Mullis lived in parallel worlds. Both were revealed on his homepage on a social networking site.

On the one hand, there is the devoted father who posted 23 pictures of his infant son, Alijah.

Then there is DJ ROC, the self-proclaimed rapper who friends say blurred the lines between right and wrong.

“He was kind of a punk kid,” said one friend, who asked not to be identified. “He did some schystering, some finagling, and some bad candid deals.”

We are told Mullis also had a troubled work history. Investigators say he was fired from a Houston Walgreens because he had problems controlling his temper.

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.

He fared no better at a picture frame shop, where both Travis and his friend worked two years ago.

“He had kind of a nasty mouth with customers and my boss fired him for that,” his pal said.

The store’s manager would not speak on camera. But she confirmed Travis’ employment lasted just three short months, and that he always seemed to be preoccupied by personal issues and drama.

Back in Alvin, where Mullis and the baby’s mother Caren Kohberger lived, candles, flowers and a teddy bear were arranged in a makeshift memorial for the baby.

“He was a pretty happy baby, (an) always loved baby,” said Jane, the woman who – along with her husband—took Mullis, Kohberger and Alijah in when the young family had nowhere to go.

“It took about two weeks to decide if we wanted them there to stay or not, but we did it for the baby,” said Jane.

Jane knew Travis first and soon came to know Caren. She said she saw her trying to be a good mother.

“Just your typical frustrations like with her being a first time mother. Frustrated and didn’t know what to do,” said Jane. “She was all come to me and ask.”

Caren Kohberger is not speaking publicly, but she is talking about her baby on the Web.

She blogged in detail about her pregnancy, including how her family in New York were not supportive at first.

And just this week, Caren put a wanted poster of sorts pleading for someone to turn Mullis in on another Web site.

Birdwatchers discovered body

A couple who found the infant’s body on Galveston’s far East End said 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.

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“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.

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

Case sparks memories of Baby Grace, Microwave Baby

The baby boy’s murder has shocked the entire community, including Bob Adams. Adams wrote a poem for the child called “Little Boy Blue.”

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.

KHOU-TV

Riley Ann Sawyers

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, filed 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.

The Galveston County Daily News assisted 11 News and KHOU.com in reporting this story.