Miles McMahon ran up and squeezed between his parents, dancing as Disney tunes filled the kitchen of their Southern Maryland home. He puffed up his cheeks with air, bursting with laughter as his parents popped them that Sunday morning in October 2024.

They tickled and hugged and kissed Miles. They spun him around the room. A breeze blew through an open window, cooling the space in the autumn heat. As the morning wound down and the plan turned to showers and a walk,the family went upstairs to get ready.

They didn’t expect the doorbell.

Or how it would be the sound that bisected their lives. Before. And after.

Dominique McMahon, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, rushed to get dressed. The ringing was relentless.

“Where’s Miles?” she remembers asking aloud.

The question had grown to

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