In a disturbing double murder case out of Georgia, a Walmart Santa Claus worker is accused of killing two of his children with the help of his family. Text texts show how the man allegedly hung out with his friends and family while getting rid of the bodies of his children.
He is said to have told his wife’s mom in one text message, “Almost done burying Mary’s.”
Her reaction, which seemed enthusiastic: “Cool!” “How deep?”
People say that Elwyn Crocker Sr. killed his two children, Mary Crocker, 14, and Elwyn Crocker Jr., also 14, in 2018 and 2016. They are said to have done it with Candice Crocker, who is his wife and stepmother to the children, Kim Wright, who is Mary’s mother, and Roy Anthony Prater, who is Kim’s boyfriend. The group was charged with felony murder for killing the kids and authorities say they buried their bodies in Crocker Sr.’s backyard. Chandice Crocker and Prater both admitted to killing someone in 2020.
Motions hearings are said to have started this week. According to local ABC station WJCL, Crocker Sr. was the first person to show up in court on Monday. Text messages that he sent to his family were shown by the prosecutors. One of them was about how Crocker and his wife talked badly about Mary.
Crocker Sr. said, “I think she’s been hit in the head too many times.”
After prosecutors say he starved the girl to death in October 2018, the Georgia dad texted his wife’s mom that he was “almost done” burying Mary in the garden, acting scared at one point when cars drove by.
Wright was told by Crocker Sr. that there was a car going by very slowly. “I believe it was a police officer.”
Reports from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution say that Elwyn Jr. and Mary went missing years apart.
Elwyn Jr. hasn’t been seen since November 2016, and Mary was last seen in October 2018. It was never said that either child was lost.
Following a tip from someone worried about Mary’s whereabouts, police said they searched a farm in Effingham County. When they asked Crocker Sr. questions, he allegedly gave them clues that took them to his backyard, where the bodies of the children were found.
Reports say that the family had been reported to the Division of Family and Children Services before they were found. The kids’ unknown biological mother was said to be living on the streets in South Carolina.
Local CBS station WTOC reports that this week’s motion hearings, which will continue on Wednesday, have been mostly about what kinds of evidence and testimony can be used in court and whether the third Crocker child can testify.
Family lawyers have been trying to stop the use of crime scene pictures, saying that they are too graphic and would make the jury lose their focus.
At the hearing on Tuesday, Jerilyn Bell, an attorney for Crocker Sr., said, “The amount of trauma a jury goes through from seeing these photos is extensive.”
Bell said, “We’ll have to handle that.” “We need to go to court over this motion so we know what to do and how to do it.”
Prosecutor Matthew Breedon said that the defense could object to the pictures being shown at the trial, but not now.
“This case was charged in 2019.” It’s been six years since the last motion meeting, Breedon said. “I believe this week is the right time to move this case forward; we need to do something.”
Tuesday, information about the kids’ health at the time they were killed was given. For example, a forensic pathologist who spoke at the trial said that Mary’s “body mass index was 8.6, which is drastically underweight.”
Dr. Edmond Donaghue, who used to work as a medical investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said, “Her body length was below the second percentile.” Donaghue said, “Her real weight was below the 1st percentile.” “That’s the lowest number I’ve ever seen.”
Donaghue said that Mary looked like she had died of hunger, but Elwyn Jr.’s cause of death could not be figured out because all that was left of him were bones. Each death was ruled a murder.
