The hours before Leilani Simon’s murder arrest

A family friend describes the dramatic final hours before Georgian mother Leilani Simon was arrested for the murder of her young son – including her “last free meal” with her own mother.

Simon, 22, was arrested on Monday after police said she had found what are believed to be those of her son Quinton, 20 months, at a landfill site on Friday.

Speaking to WTOC by phone on Tuesday, Simon’s mother, Billie Howell, was too emotional to discuss the case and handed the phone over to a family friend. The friend, who has not been identified, told the outlet that Simon checked into rehab in the weeks leading up to her arrest.

When Howell heard Simon leaving the facility, she had to “make one of the hardest decisions of her life and call the FBI agents and tell them she was going to be unregistered … and that she was a risk of escape.”

At the request of the FBI, Howell picked Simon up from the treatment center himself.

“They asked her to buy some time. So she picked up Leilani’s belongings at another center and then took Leilani to her last free meal,” the friend explained.

The couple then went to the FBI office in Savannah, where Simon was arrested a few hours later.

Simon’s arrest marked the latest development in the wide-ranging investigation that began when she reported Quinton missing from the family home on October 5. Days later, police confirmed they believed the toddler was dead and that Simon – who has two other young children – was the prime suspect.

As of Tuesday, she was charged with murder, covering up the death of another, making a false criminal report and making false statements.

“We want justice to be done for this precious baby, no matter what it is, no matter who it is,” the family friend said. “At the end of the day, all the protesters and the family wanted the same thing.”

Diana McCarta, Quinton’s longtime babysitter, was emotional about Simon’s arrest. McCarta was supposed to be looking after the toddler on the day he went missing, but received a text message from Simon early that morning telling her not to come.

“One wonders what he endured from the moment he left my house to the morning I received the text message,” she told WTOC. “I can’t even imagine it and I don’t want to think about it because it’s driving me crazy.

“I just don’t know how a mother could hurt her child. I don’t know what could go through their minds to hurt their child. I am pleased that justice is being served because Quinton needs it.”