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Lead Detective Takes Stand At Creato Trial

CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) -- Jurors at the trial of a Haddon Township man accused in the murder of his toddler son viewed his first videotaped interview with police.

David Creato, 23, sat for a half-hour in an interview room pleading with police for any information on the whereabouts of 3-year-old Brendan. He was unaware at the time that the child's body had already been found along the banks of the Cooper River a half-mile away from his apartment.

When informed that the child was deceased, David screams for a few minutes before regaining his composure and telling Camden County homicide detective Michael Rhodes about the events of the night before and his brief, frantic search for the boy when he awoke to find the child was not on the living room couch where he was left to sleep.

The elder Creato discussed his then girlfriend had fought with him during the weekend, insisting she wanted no part of the boy. But Creato insisted that Brendan would be a part of his life.

Towards the end of the interview, Creato suggested that his son could have left the second-floor apartment on his own because he was "adventurous" but that leaving would be "out of character" for the boy.

Rhodes testified in court about a check of Creato's iPhone, which contained a photograph taken some 36 hours before Brendan turned up dead. That photo, Rhodes said, showed the site in Cooper River Park where Brendan's body was found. The phone records also suggested Creato was involved in late-night texting with his girlfriend after he told police he had gone to bed the last night of the child's life.

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