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FORT WAYNE - Indiana
A babysitter and trusted neighbor has confessed that he bludgeoned a 9-year-old Indiana girl to death with a brick then dismembered her with a hacksaw, hiding her head, hands and feet at his home and dumping the rest of her remains nearby, police said Tuesday.
Allen County sheriff's investigators said in an affidavit that 39-year-old Michael Plumadore admits he killed Aliahna Lemmon on Dec. 22.
According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death, he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in the freezer at his trailer. He said he later chopped up her body and stuffed her remains into freezer bags.
Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at his trailer and that he had discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search his trailer on Monday and found the body parts.
A judge ordered Plumadore held without bail or bond at an initial hearing Tuesday, sheriff's department spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel said. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death.
Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore because their mother had been sick with the flu.
The girl's relatives told the newspaper that Plumadore had cared for Aliahna's ailing grandfather until his death early this month and was living in her grandfather's mobile home.
"He was a trusted family friend," Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, told The Associated Press late Monday, saying he was surprised by the arrest.
Plumadore told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that Aliahna disappeared from his home Friday morning while he was sleeping after having gone to a gas station about a mile away to buy a cigar. Authorities have said the store's surveillance video shows him there about that time.
More than 100 emergency workers searched for her Saturday around the rundown mobile home park where Aliahna and Plumadore lived and FBI agents were there Monday.
Sheriff Ken Fries said investigators questioned Plumadore on Friday and Saturday and that he was arrested Monday after being interviewed by detectives for several hours more.
"The story just didn't make sense to our investigators or to me when I first heard it," Fries said Monday night. "I thought this is the guy we needed to focus on. If we are going to find her, he's going to be the one who has the answers for us."
A state website shows that 15 registered sex offenders live in the park that numbers about two dozen homes. Plumadore is not on Indiana's registered sex offenders list. He has a criminal record in Florida and North Carolina that includes convictions for trespassing and assault.
Please keep her friends and family in your thoughts and prayers
A babysitter and trusted neighbor has confessed that he bludgeoned a 9-year-old Indiana girl to death with a brick then dismembered her with a hacksaw, hiding her head, hands and feet at his home and dumping the rest of her remains nearby, police said Tuesday.
Allen County sheriff's investigators said in an affidavit that 39-year-old Michael Plumadore admits he killed Aliahna Lemmon on Dec. 22.
According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death, he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in the freezer at his trailer. He said he later chopped up her body and stuffed her remains into freezer bags.
Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at his trailer and that he had discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search his trailer on Monday and found the body parts.
A judge ordered Plumadore held without bail or bond at an initial hearing Tuesday, sheriff's department spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel said. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death.
Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore because their mother had been sick with the flu.
The girl's relatives told the newspaper that Plumadore had cared for Aliahna's ailing grandfather until his death early this month and was living in her grandfather's mobile home.
"He was a trusted family friend," Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, told The Associated Press late Monday, saying he was surprised by the arrest.
Plumadore told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that Aliahna disappeared from his home Friday morning while he was sleeping after having gone to a gas station about a mile away to buy a cigar. Authorities have said the store's surveillance video shows him there about that time.
More than 100 emergency workers searched for her Saturday around the rundown mobile home park where Aliahna and Plumadore lived and FBI agents were there Monday.
Sheriff Ken Fries said investigators questioned Plumadore on Friday and Saturday and that he was arrested Monday after being interviewed by detectives for several hours more.
"The story just didn't make sense to our investigators or to me when I first heard it," Fries said Monday night. "I thought this is the guy we needed to focus on. If we are going to find her, he's going to be the one who has the answers for us."
A state website shows that 15 registered sex offenders live in the park that numbers about two dozen homes. Plumadore is not on Indiana's registered sex offenders list. He has a criminal record in Florida and North Carolina that includes convictions for trespassing and assault.
Please keep her friends and family in your thoughts and prayers
MorningSadness00
That's terrible... It made me sick to my stomach... R.I.P little girl. :(
tabby2010
It makes me sick to my stomach as well I think that he should get the death penalty. or be killed the same way that she was killed. I don't know how he can live with himself.
beatrice99
What a sad, tragic, horrendous thing to happen to a sweet, innocent child. Unfortunately, it won't bring her back but, I hope he gets just what he deserves.
tabby2010
I hope he get what he deserves to hurting a poor little child. What is wrong with people today.
deleted_user
What an awful story!! It gives me chills. I only live about two hours from there too...praying hard.
barbarame
A little angel is now at peace, safe forever from hurt and fear. Justice is not in our hands, but be sure it will be dealt out in full measure, pity those who have earned it !
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