Man Dressed As Santa Claus Arrested After Murder Of His Children

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A father in Georgia was arrested after police found the bodies of his two 14-year-old sons buried in the yard of his home. One of his children had disappeared two years ago, PEOPLE confirms.

Elwyn Crocker Jr. was last seen in November 2016 and the last time her sister Mary Crocker was seen was this past October, Effingham County Medical Examiner David Exley tells PEOPLE. Last Thursday, the authorities found the remains of the brothers buried in their father's patio.

Neither of them had been reported missing. "I've been doing this for 41 years and I almost started crying," Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie told the Atlant newspaper to the Journal-Constitution. “I can't imagine how you can do that to children. It is awful".

The cause of death for the teens has not yet been determined, but authorities believe Elwyn Jr. has been dead for two years. The 49-year-old father gave information to police that investigators searched the yard of his home. The teens' stepmother, Candice Crocker, 33, and her mother, Kim Wright, 50, are charged as accomplices to the crimes. Both were also arrested and the case is still ongoing.

The father worked disguised as Santa Claus at a Walmart in Rincon, the Journal-Constitution reports, but it is unknown how long he spent there. A Walmart spokesperson told PEOPLE that he no longer worked there and declined to comment further.

Authorities continue to investigate the crimes. A neighbor, Raymond Strickland, told the WTOC that he did not understand how the defendants were able to continue living in the house knowing that two minors had been buried in the yard. "They went on with their lives as if nothing had happened," Strickland said of the father and the other adults who lived in the home. "The entire community is desolate. We are all affected by this.”