{"id":13741,"date":"2019-01-31T10:32:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=13741"},"modified":"2019-01-31T10:34:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:34:56","slug":"walmart-santa-4-others-charged-with-murder-after-his-2-kids-were-found-buried-in-familys-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2019\/01\/31\/walmart-santa-4-others-charged-with-murder-after-his-2-kids-were-found-buried-in-familys-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart Santa, 4 Others Charged with Murder After His 2 Kids Were Found Buried in Family’s Yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0JEFF TRUESDELL\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

A Georgia dad who\u00a0worked a stint as a Walmart Santa<\/a>\u00a0now faces murder charges along with four other people in the death of his 14-year-old daughter after\u00a0her body was found in December buried in her father\u2019s backyard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mary Crocker was last seen in October; her 14-year-old brother,\u00a0Elwyn Crocker Jr., was last seen in November 2016, said the Effingham County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Neither had been reported missing when the remains of both were discovered in the yard outside the home of their father, Elwyn Crocker Sr., on December 20, 2018.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Walmart Santa Arrested After His 2 Kids Are Found Buried in Family\u2019s Yard: \u2018It\u2019s Horrible\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is Mary and Elwyn Crocker jr. Deputies say they are the two children found buried near their home. Their father, stepmother and step grandmother are now being detained and questioned in their deaths. It was a gruesome story that unfolded in Effingham County today@WTGSFOX28<\/p>\n

Authorities initially announced charges for concealing the death of another and first-degree cruelty to children against Crocker, 49; the teen\u2019s stepmom Candice Crocker, 33; their step-grandma Kim Wright, 50; and Wright\u2019s boyfriend, Roy Anthony Prater, 55.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Similar charges later were filed against Candice Crocker\u2019s brother, Mark Anthony Wright, 31.<\/p>\n

On Monday the charges against all five were upgraded to felony murder for the death of Mary Crocker, Gina Sullivan, the spokesman for the Effingham County Sheriff\u2019s Office, tells PEOPLE.<\/p>\n

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Candice Crocker, at left, and Kim Wright\u00a0Effingham County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Roy Prater, at left, and Mark Anthony Wright\u00a0Effingham County Sheriff’s Office (2)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Charges have not been brought in the death of Mary\u2019s brother because \u201cthe last time he was seen was in November 2016,\u201d Sullivan says. \u201cWe believe that his death was about two years ago, so finding evidence linked to his death was a little more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the medical examiner\u2019s report back yet saying the cause of death, but we\u2019re still able to charge felony murder because cruelty to children is a felony,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not revealed a motive, and say the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably one of the most horrific things that we\u2019ve had in this county since I\u2019ve been in this county [and] I\u2019ve been here 31 years,\u201d\u00a0Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie told TV station\u00a0WSAV<\/a>. \u201cThe magnitude of it is just overwhelming at some points where we\u2019ve actually had some of our folks here have counseling.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDuffie added: \u201cThe investigation is going to continue, it could last for months, even up to a year, depending on what the autopsy results show. That could give evidence that we need to look at something a little more than we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elwyn Sr. recently was employed as a Walmart Santa in Rincon, according to the\u00a0Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a><\/em>, but a store spokesman told PEOPLE after his arrest that Crocker no longer worked there.<\/p>\n

None of the suspects have entered a plea to the charges against them, and it was not apparent whether they\u2019d individually retained legal representation.<\/p>\n

Sullivan says the suspects remain jailed without bond in separate facilities in Effingham County and neighboring counties.<\/p>\n

Authorities made what the sheriff\u2019s office described as the \u201cgruesome\u201d discoveries after receiving a tip that Mary may be dead. Elwyn Sr. then \u201cgave information that led investigators to search the grounds of the home,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said in a prior news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeputies questioned all the adult family members in the house and were told Mary had gone to live with her mother,\u201d said the statement. The yard search occurred after \u201cinvestigators determined the family members were giving conflicting information.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Source\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/people.com\/crime\/walmart-santa-others-charged-with-murder-two-kids-found-buried-family-yard\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0JEFF TRUESDELL\u00a0 A Georgia dad who\u00a0worked a stint as a Walmart Santa\u00a0now faces murder charges along with four other people in the death of his 14-year-old daughter after\u00a0her body was found in December buried in […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":13742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[51,5945],"class_list":{"0":"post-13741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-murder","10":"tag-walmart-santa","11":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13746,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13741\/revisions\/13746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}