GADSDEN, Alabama — A mother's report that her five-year-old son was asleep in the back of a car when it was stolen was a hoax, and she and her boyfriend will be charged with murder, authorities said yesterday.Geontae Glass's body was found yesterday with the car in a residential garage, a day after the car was reported stolen.

Police were holding Shalinda Glass, 25, and Kevin Andre Towles, who is believed to own the house where the body was found, Sheriff James Hayes said.

Glass had reported Monday morning that her car was stolen from the parking lot of a convenience store in Albertville in neighbouring Marshall County, about 80 miles northeast of Birmingham. Witnesses reported seeing a man get out of a pickup truck and get into the vehicle, then driving away while someone else drove off in the pickup truck.

It was not immediately clear if the boy was dead at the time. Authorities said a cause of death was still being determined yesterday.

Towles was believed to be the "main player" in the boy's death, Hayes said in an interview. Authorities were not sure what happened, he said, but Towles has a criminal record and appeared to be "an abusive boyfriend of the mother."

Towles has several homes, Hayes said, and investigators searching one of his homes found evidence that led them to the house where the boy's body was found. Police also found more than $30,000 in cash and weapons including an AK-47 automatic rifle.

"We believe this is what he thought was his safe house, where nobody knew where he was," Hayes said.

Hayes said the pickup truck also had been found and the driver was taken into custody for questioning.

"We do expect others to be arrested," he said.

Police issued a public alert after the abduction report, and Hayes said that might have stopped efforts to dispose of the car and the boy's body.