# 313: Christopher Barrios Jr.

An episode of [Morbidology](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1463979546), 16 Jun 2025, 48 min.

Audio: https://prefix.up.audio/s/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/s.gum.fm/s-610c47a4222ada0024acb2d8/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/tracking.swap.fm/track/2IMk17EdnEqyRhJTIpIU/claritaspod.com/measure/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/66172920/morbidology_313_christopher_barrios_jr.mp3

On the 8th of March, 2007, in the quiet mobile home community of Horseshoe Lane, Brunswick, Georgia, six-year-old Christopher Michael Barrios Jr. vanished without a trace. As the search for Christopher unfolded, dark secrets in the neighbourhood began to surface - secrets that would reveal just how close the danger had been all along. SPONSORS - AquaTru: Join 98% of customers who say their drinking water is cleaner, safer, & healthier! Use code “MORBIDOLOGY” for 20% off at: https://aquatru.com SHOW NOTES - https://morbidology.com/morbidology-podcast/ PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/morbidology YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/morbidology Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/morbidology--3527306/support.

## Transcript

[0:34] Speaker 1: Whether it's the thickness of the woods or murky canals.
[0:37] Speaker 1: Volunteers searching for six year old Christopher Barrios say the
[0:40] Speaker 1: words give up is nowhere in their mindset.
[0:51] Speaker 2: Brunswick is a city situated along the southeast coast of
[0:54] Speaker 2: Georgia that estaped in rich history in southern charm. But
[0:58] Speaker 2: it's cobblestone street, small straped oaks, and sprawling marshlands. It's
[1:02] Speaker 2: a place where life moves a little slower. It's a
[1:06] Speaker 2: city that prides itself on its tight knit community, a
[1:09] Speaker 2: place where when something happens to one family, it feels
[1:12] Speaker 2: like it happens to you all. Just outside the city limits,
[1:15] Speaker 2: talcked off Canal Road, near the steady rush of Interstate
[1:18] Speaker 2: ninety five, sits the Canal Mobile Home Park. It's a
[1:23] Speaker 2: modest patchwork of single wides and trailers that circle around
[1:26] Speaker 2: a road called Horseshoe Lane. It's a quiet area, mostly
[1:29] Speaker 2: working class families and retirees, where kids ride their bikes
[1:33] Speaker 2: in the street and dogs bark from behind chain link fences.
[1:38] Speaker 2: Life in the park wasn't glamorous, but it was familiar.
[1:41] Speaker 2: Among the rows of weather worn homes, there was one
[1:44] Speaker 2: family that never quite blended in. People notice them not
[1:48] Speaker 2: because they were lloud or friendly, but because they watched.
[1:52] Speaker 2: The father would sit out on the steps and stare.
[1:56] Speaker 2: The son had a way of looking at the neighborhood
[1:57] Speaker 2: kids that made people feel uncomfortable. Some residents whispered about him.
[2:04] Speaker 2: They said that he had a record that he was
[2:06] Speaker 2: convicted sex offender. Others just kept their distance, but behind
[2:11] Speaker 2: closed doors. More than a few parents had warned their
[2:13] Speaker 2: children to stay away from that trailer. In a place
[2:17] Speaker 2: where everyone knows everyone, it was hard to ignore when
[2:20] Speaker 2: something or someone didn't feel quite right. And when a
[2:24] Speaker 2: young boy vanished on the eighth of March two thousand
[2:27] Speaker 2: and seven, those uneasy feelings quickly turned to fear. The
[2:31] Speaker 2: search began almost immediately, neighbors pouring into the streets, calling
[2:35] Speaker 2: his name, checking sheds and backyards. But beneath the frantic
[2:40] Speaker 2: urgency and even darker thought crept in. Maybe the danger
[2:43] Speaker 2: hadn't come from outside the neighborhood. Maybe the monster had
[2:47] Speaker 2: been living among them all along. Christopher Michael Barrios Junior
[3:05] Speaker 2: lived in one of those modest mobile homes in Canal
[3:08] Speaker 2: Mobile Home Park in Brunswick, Georgia, born on the second
[3:12] Speaker 2: of January two thousand and one, to Mike Barrios and
[3:14] Speaker 2: Latrina Keith. Christopher was six years old in the spring
[3:17] Speaker 2: of two thousand and seven. He was the kind of
[3:20] Speaker 2: kid that left an impression. With a toil tied around
[3:23] Speaker 2: his shoulders like a cape. Christopher believed that he was
[3:26] Speaker 2: a superhero. He was often spotted darting between the mobile homes,
[3:30] Speaker 2: leaping over puddles, and saving invisible citizens from imaginary villains.
[3:35] Speaker 2: His favorites were Ben Ten and Spider Man, and he'd
[3:38] Speaker 2: watched them religiously, often re enacting entire scenes in the
[3:41] Speaker 2: dirt outside his home, clutching action figures in each hand.
[3:46] Speaker 2: Christopher lived with his father, Mike, and a trailer just
[3:48] Speaker 2: steps away from his grandparents, Suy and Jose Rodriguez. That
[3:52] Speaker 2: a proximity wasn't just convenience, it was a lifeline. Every
[3:56] Speaker 2: day after school, Christopher would hop off the boss and
[3:58] Speaker 2: make a bee line for his grandmather trailer. That became
[4:02] Speaker 2: his daily ritual, a safe place, a warm plate of
[4:04] Speaker 2: food and the sound of Ben Heem playing on the
[4:07] Speaker 2: computer while the scent of dinner filled the air. So
[4:10] Speaker 2: he absolutely doated on her grandson. She recollected. Every day
[4:15] Speaker 2: gets off the boss from school, he comes and stays
[4:17] Speaker 2: with me. Christopher loved his grandmother's cooking. His father, Mike,
[4:22] Speaker 2: was a hard worker. When a shift ended in the evening,
[4:26] Speaker 2: Christopher would walk the short, familiar path back to their
[4:28] Speaker 2: trailer from his grandparents place. Mike called I. Always tried
[4:33] Speaker 2: to get him what he wanted. He was a good
[4:35] Speaker 2: kid and he deserved it. The family was small, but
[4:39] Speaker 2: they were tightly bound. His mother, Latrina, was in jail
[4:42] Speaker 2: and Savannah at the time, but Christopher never lacked for affection.
[4:47] Speaker 2: He was a quiet child, content to stay close to home.
[4:50] Speaker 2: He was afraid of the dark, and he was especially
[4:52] Speaker 2: wary of dogs, particularly large, unfamiliar ones, but he had
[4:57] Speaker 2: a soft spot for cats. The Stir's bedroom was a
[5:00] Speaker 2: testament to everything that he loved. A twin bed covered
[5:04] Speaker 2: in superhero sheets, his shelves lined with Spider Man figurines,
[5:08] Speaker 2: bent ten gear, and tiny cars. It was his own universe, safe, predictable,
[5:15] Speaker 2: full of adventures and heroes, the kind who always saved
[5:18] Speaker 2: the day. Neighbors in the trailer park now him well.
[5:22] Speaker 2: He was the boy who raced down the gravel road
[5:24] Speaker 2: with a cape flapping behind him. The boy who knocked
[5:27] Speaker 2: politely on his grandma's door every day after school. The
[5:31] Speaker 2: boy who always waved when he saw you. March eighth,
[5:41] Speaker 2: two thousand and seven began like any other day in
[5:44] Speaker 2: the Canal Mobile Home Park, one of those early spring
[5:47] Speaker 2: evenings in Georgia where the light lingers a little. It
[5:51] Speaker 2: was a Thursday, quite an ordinary, filled with the usual routine.
[5:55] Speaker 2: Kids played on their dirt streets, chasing each other between trailers,
[6:00] Speaker 2: mother stood on porches with their arms folded. That afternoon,
[6:04] Speaker 2: six year old Christopher Barrios Junior did exactly what he
[6:06] Speaker 2: always did. He got off the school bus and walked
[6:09] Speaker 2: the well worn path to his grandparents' trailer. Inside his
[6:13] Speaker 2: grandmother Sue, was waiting, just like every other weekday. Christopher
[6:18] Speaker 2: kicked off his shoes, settled in front of the computer,
[6:20] Speaker 2: and clicked into his favorite Ben ten game. After a while,
[6:24] Speaker 2: Sue called him to the table. He ate quietly thanked
[6:28] Speaker 2: his grandmother, and then, just as he'd done countless times before,
[6:31] Speaker 2: he went back outside to play. It was just another
[6:35] Speaker 2: early evening on Horseshoe Lane. At approximately seven to fifteen pm,
[6:40] Speaker 2: Christopher's father, Mike was still at work when his phone
[6:43] Speaker 2: began to ring. On the other end of the line
[6:46] Speaker 2: was his girlfriend, Pamela. She was panicked as she told
[6:50] Speaker 2: him that Christopher hadn't come home. She'd searched the trailer,
[6:54] Speaker 2: the yard, check with the neighbors and Sue, but Christopher
[6:57] Speaker 2: was nowhere to be Found's heart sank. He dropped everything
[7:02] Speaker 2: and raced home. By the time he arrived, his family
[7:05] Speaker 2: was already in motion, so he had confirmed that Christopher
[7:08] Speaker 2: had left her trailer not too long after dinner. It
[7:12] Speaker 2: was supposed to be just a short walk home, less
[7:14] Speaker 2: than a minute. He'd done it countless times before, but
[7:18] Speaker 2: this time he never arrived. As darkness began to creep
[7:22] Speaker 2: over the sky, a quiet dread settled over the community.
[7:26] Speaker 2: Neighbors joined in the search, flashlights in hand. They found
[7:29] Speaker 2: out across the one point five mile radius of the
[7:32] Speaker 2: mobile home park, calling out his name. Some of the
[7:35] Speaker 2: children had seen him earlier that evening. If you said,
[7:39] Speaker 2: he'd been sitting at the swing set around five thirty pm,
[7:42] Speaker 2: just a stone's throw from his front door, but nobody
[7:45] Speaker 2: could say where he went after that. It was as
[7:48] Speaker 2: if he had vanished into thin air. There was a
[7:51] Speaker 2: canal that bordered the trailer park. It was dark, winding,
[7:55] Speaker 2: and overgrown. It wasn't a play as that Christopher ever
[7:58] Speaker 2: played near. In fact, he was afraid of it. Still
[8:01] Speaker 2: in desperation, the family went there. They pushed through the brush,
[8:05] Speaker 2: their flashlights sweeping across the water's edge, but there was
[8:09] Speaker 2: no sign of Christopher. Back at the trailer, the mood
[8:12] Speaker 2: was quickly shifting from worry to full blown fear. Christopher
[8:16] Speaker 2: never wandered far. He was quiet, shy, kind of boy
[8:21] Speaker 2: who liked his routines, who was cautious by nature. At last,
[8:25] Speaker 2: Mike picked up the phone and Dawn nine one one
[8:27] Speaker 2: to report his sun missing. As the sun rose over Brunswick,
[8:37] Speaker 2: Georgia on the morning of March ninth, the mood in
[8:40] Speaker 2: the canam Moobhile Home Park had shifted completely. What had
[8:43] Speaker 2: started as a community's quiet evening was now the scene
[8:46] Speaker 2: of urgency and desperation. Police officers, volunteers and family members
[8:51] Speaker 2: had searched through the night. There was no sign of
[8:54] Speaker 2: six year old Christopher Barrios Junior. By nou, everyone feared
[8:59] Speaker 2: the worst. The search kicked off at phil Throttle. It
[9:03] Speaker 2: was a coordinated multi agency effort. Officers combed through the
[9:06] Speaker 2: neighborhood on foot, while others drove altary and vehicles through
[9:09] Speaker 2: the thick brush and woods that bordered the park. A
[9:13] Speaker 2: helicopter circled overhead, its heat sensors scanning the earth below
[9:17] Speaker 2: for any sign of movement. The effort expanded rapidly up
[9:22] Speaker 2: Agan as a neighborhood search grew into a massive regional operation.
[9:26] Speaker 2: Within just twenty four hours, the FBI joined in, and
[9:29] Speaker 2: so did the Georgia Department of National Resources. Canals that
[9:33] Speaker 2: hugged the edges of the mobile home park were probed
[9:35] Speaker 2: and searched meticulously, but they found nothing. Sniffer dogs were
[9:40] Speaker 2: eventually brought in. They caught a scent that led them
[9:43] Speaker 2: from the swing set where neighbors had last seen Christopher,
[9:46] Speaker 2: to a wooden dock by the canal. Then the scent vanished.
[9:51] Speaker 2: By nightfall, frustration and fare had set In the next morning,
[9:54] Speaker 2: police made it official they were no longer trading this
[9:57] Speaker 2: as a simple missing child case. They said that Christopher
[10:01] Speaker 2: Barrios Junior had most likely been abducted. There were no witnesses.
[10:06] Speaker 2: Nobody had seen a car, no screams, no signs of
[10:09] Speaker 2: a struggle. It was as if Christopher had simply vanished
[10:12] Speaker 2: in broad daylight, a terrifying thought for every parent in
[10:16] Speaker 2: the area. Brunswick Police Chief Matt Doring addressed the growing
[10:21] Speaker 2: concern and said, a six year old boy doesn't just
[10:24] Speaker 2: disappear for this long on his own. The family too
[10:27] Speaker 2: struggled to grasp the nightmare. Christopher's uncle, Frank, who also
[10:32] Speaker 2: lived in the mobile home park, was in disbelief. He
[10:35] Speaker 2: said to reporters, I can't understand how this happened. There's
[10:40] Speaker 2: not too much that goes on around here. I mean,
[10:43] Speaker 2: this is a pretty safe place. Everybody pretty much minds
[10:46] Speaker 2: their own business. But the facts told a different story.
[10:52] Speaker 2: Police began interviewing residence door to door, and soon their
[10:55] Speaker 2: attention turned to two men who were already known to authorities.
[11:00] Speaker 2: There were two registered sex offenders that lived right there
[11:03] Speaker 2: on Horseshoe Lane. Detective stress that it was a rounting
[11:07] Speaker 2: part of a missing child investigation to interview nearby sex offenders,
[11:12] Speaker 2: but it was still an unsettling revelation for the residents.
[11:17] Speaker 2: As the search and interviews pressed on, posters with Christopher's
[11:20] Speaker 2: photograph began appearing all across town. Hundreds are printed, and
[11:25] Speaker 2: volunteers came out in force to stable them to lumpposts,
[11:28] Speaker 2: pin them to billet in boards, and tape them to
[11:30] Speaker 2: store front windows.
[11:32] Speaker 1: It's Carolyn NAB's first day out to search with her
[11:34] Speaker 1: son John. I have eight grand babies, and if something
[11:38] Speaker 1: like this happened to me, I'd want people to help me.
[11:41] Speaker 1: As the daylight hours wind down, plans are already in
[11:44] Speaker 1: the works for morning bright and early back in gear.
[11:48] Speaker 2: One of those volunteers was Eric Friedrich, a local man
[11:51] Speaker 2: who had never met Christopher but felt compelled to act.
[11:55] Speaker 2: He stated, I was working on my house this morning.
[11:58] Speaker 2: I heard about this on the radio, and I thought
[12:00] Speaker 2: I'd come over and join the group. Behind the swell
[12:03] Speaker 2: of support was a darker truth. Fear was tightening its grip.
[12:08] Speaker 2: The idea that a child predator could be lurking among
[12:11] Speaker 2: them was no longer abstract. It was personal. Parents began
[12:15] Speaker 2: keeping their children indoors. Yumy Embery, a local mother spoke
[12:19] Speaker 2: from Anny when she said, my kids are not going
[12:22] Speaker 2: out in the yard by themselves. I've been talking to
[12:25] Speaker 2: them more about strangers and not going out by themselves.
[12:29] Speaker 2: But amid the fear, the community stood united during a
[12:31] Speaker 2: candle like vigil. They gathered together one evening, each holding
[12:35] Speaker 2: a flickering candle against the cold. They prayed, they cried,
[12:39] Speaker 2: and they hoped. Sam Lyons, whose son was close friends
[12:43] Speaker 2: with Christopher, spoke through tears and said, we're all family.
[12:47] Speaker 2: He's a child of this community. By the fourth day
[12:59] Speaker 2: of the sun Arch, hope was beginning to unravel. On
[13:02] Speaker 2: the eleventh of March, detectives made an announcement. A twenty
[13:06] Speaker 2: six thousand dollar reward was now being offered for the
[13:08] Speaker 2: safe return of six year old Christopher. The search expanded
[13:12] Speaker 2: from woods to canals to four darker places, dumpsters, drainage ditches,
[13:17] Speaker 2: mobile parking lots, and deserted dirt roads off the fringes
[13:21] Speaker 2: of Glenn County. It was clear that detectives were no
[13:25] Speaker 2: longer just searching for Christopher. They were maybe searching for
[13:28] Speaker 2: his body, and as grim as that was, they were
[13:31] Speaker 2: also looking at the people who lived closest to him,
[13:34] Speaker 2: and that meant returning to the unsettling presence. Just across
[13:37] Speaker 2: the street, just a stone throw away from Christopher's front door,
[13:42] Speaker 2: lived a man that made the entire trailer park uneasy.
[13:47] Speaker 2: His name was George David Edenfield, and he was thirty
[13:50] Speaker 2: two years old. George lived with his parents, Peggy and David,
[13:54] Speaker 2: in a mobile home that sat directly across from where
[13:56] Speaker 2: Christopher lived with his father and his father's girlfriend. And
[14:00] Speaker 2: George was a registered sex offender. In June of nineteen
[14:04] Speaker 2: ninety seven, George had been convicted of two kinds of
[14:06] Speaker 2: child molestation after rubbing his clothed body against two young boys.
[14:12] Speaker 2: He served time, he was released, he registered, but nothing
[14:16] Speaker 2: about him really felt safe. Everyone in the Cannamo while
[14:19] Speaker 2: Home Park knew who he was. They warned their children
[14:23] Speaker 2: to avoid him. They spoke about him in hush tones.
[14:28] Speaker 2: George was strange, they said, and not in a way
[14:31] Speaker 2: that inspired sympathy. He stared at children boldly, openly, as
[14:37] Speaker 2: if he didn't care who saw him. Christopher's grandparents were
[14:40] Speaker 2: no exception. They knew George, and they kept a watchful eye.
[14:45] Speaker 2: And yet one day after school, Christopher came into his
[14:47] Speaker 2: grandparents home with an unexpected comment. George's nice grandma. It
[14:53] Speaker 2: was enough to chill Sue to the very bone. She
[14:56] Speaker 2: told her grandson firmly, stay away from George, Stay away
[15:01] Speaker 2: from that house. She didn't mince her words. They're bad people,
[15:06] Speaker 2: she told him, and she wasn't wrong because it wasn't
[15:09] Speaker 2: just George who posed a danger. His father, David Edenfield,
[15:14] Speaker 2: had his own disturbing past. Back in nineteen ninety four,
[15:18] Speaker 2: he pleaded guilty to incest after molesting his own daughter.
[15:23] Speaker 2: Despite all of this, they remained right there in the
[15:25] Speaker 2: heart of the community, and at the time of Christopher's disappearance,
[15:29] Speaker 2: George was technically on probation. Just three days before Christopher vanished,
[15:34] Speaker 2: George had been sentenced to ten years of probation for
[15:37] Speaker 2: violating George's sex Offender Registry restrictions. He had been caught
[15:42] Speaker 2: living with him when thousend feet of a playground in
[15:44] Speaker 2: downtown Brunswick, a clear violation of a state law that
[15:47] Speaker 2: passed just the year previous. That law was designed to
[15:51] Speaker 2: keep predators away from vulnerable areas schools, churches, daycares, skill
[15:56] Speaker 2: bus stops, the very place where children lived in Plague.
[16:01] Speaker 2: The judge had chosen probation, but George could have been
[16:04] Speaker 2: sent to prison if that had happened. If George Edenfield
[16:08] Speaker 2: had been behind bars, then maybe, just maybe, Christopher Barrios
[16:13] Speaker 2: Junior would still be alive. By this point in the investigation,
[16:24] Speaker 2: one name had risen above all the others, George Edenfield.
[16:27] Speaker 2: The attention of detectives had zeroed in on the man
[16:30] Speaker 2: across the street, and it wasn't without cause. During a
[16:33] Speaker 2: sweep of the trailer park, search teams discovered something small,
[16:37] Speaker 2: almost insignificant, on its own. In the Edenfield's front yard,
[16:42] Speaker 2: they came across a Star Wars lightsaber toy. It belonged
[16:45] Speaker 2: to Christopher. At first glance, it didn't raise any alarm.
[16:49] Speaker 2: Christopher often played across the street his grandmother, Sue, lived nearby.
[16:55] Speaker 2: But taken into context, it was the first sign of
[16:58] Speaker 2: something sinister. And then there was something else, something deeply unsettling.
[17:04] Speaker 2: While neighbors were out in droves, canvassing every inch of land,
[17:07] Speaker 2: calling out Christopher's name, handing out flyers, the Edenfields remained inside. George, David,
[17:14] Speaker 2: and Peggy. All three of them stayed behind closed doors,
[17:19] Speaker 2: but they were watching. Detectives noticed them peering out through
[17:22] Speaker 2: the curtains over and over again, and it wasn't long
[17:26] Speaker 2: before witnesses started to speak up. Terry Frank and neighbor
[17:30] Speaker 2: came forward with something disturbing. She told detectives that on
[17:34] Speaker 2: the very afternoon the Christopher disappeared, she had seen the
[17:38] Speaker 2: little boy outside the Aidenfield trailer. She didn't know that
[17:42] Speaker 2: George was a sex offender, but she knew instinctively that
[17:46] Speaker 2: something about him was off. She commented, he kept hitting
[17:50] Speaker 2: on my kids and others. George would stand and watch
[17:53] Speaker 2: the kids, and so would David. Detectives didn't waste any time.
[17:58] Speaker 2: They brought George Aidenfield in for questioning. George sat down
[18:02] Speaker 2: in the interview room and within minutes he began to talk.
[18:06] Speaker 2: He told them something they had feared from the very beginning.
[18:10] Speaker 2: Christopher was dead. He said he had watched from the
[18:13] Speaker 2: window as the skill Boss dropped Christopher off that afternoon.
[18:18] Speaker 2: He claimed that the devil had told him to kill
[18:19] Speaker 2: the little boy. George said he lured Christopher over to
[18:23] Speaker 2: the trailer under the pretense of playing video games, and
[18:27] Speaker 2: once inside he confessed tom a lasting and killing him.
[18:31] Speaker 2: But the story didn't stay consistent. One moment, George insisted
[18:36] Speaker 2: that Christopher was dead, the next he changed his tune
[18:40] Speaker 2: and said he was still alive. He refused to say
[18:43] Speaker 2: where the body was. He mumbled that he was scared
[18:46] Speaker 2: of going to prison. The detectives didn't need him to
[18:50] Speaker 2: say much more. They already knew the case was no
[18:53] Speaker 2: longer a search. It was a murder investigation, and the
[18:57] Speaker 2: deeper they dug into the Edenfield household, the darker the
[19:01] Speaker 2: story became. Just one day after a twenty six thousand
[19:17] Speaker 2: dollars reward was announced, detectives made their first arrest. It
[19:21] Speaker 2: wasn't for murder, not yet. George Edenfield was taken into
[19:25] Speaker 2: custody and charged with violating his probation, specifically for living
[19:29] Speaker 2: too close to children. They didn't yet have the evidence
[19:33] Speaker 2: to prove he had killed Christopher, but his disturbing confession
[19:37] Speaker 2: and the mounting suspicions gave detectives enough cause to act.
[19:41] Speaker 2: In cases like this, it's not uncommon for police to
[19:44] Speaker 2: arrest a suspect on any charge they can, just to
[19:47] Speaker 2: keep them in custody while they continue building the bigger case.
[19:51] Speaker 2: While George was behind bars, things were unfolding fast. That
[19:55] Speaker 2: same day, two employees from Atlanta Natural Gas arrived at
[19:59] Speaker 2: the Edenfield trailer to check for methane gas. It was
[20:02] Speaker 2: a routine check, but what they found was anything but routine.
[20:06] Speaker 2: Their detectors picked up high levels of methane, a gas
[20:09] Speaker 2: often produced by decomposing organic matter. Bodies included. Detectives now
[20:15] Speaker 2: believe what they had fared from the beginning, that Christopher
[20:18] Speaker 2: was dead and that this body had been hidden. Did
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[21:40] Speaker 2: O l O g Y. Later that same day, Peggy
[21:47] Speaker 2: Edenfield was arrested, and it was in the interrogation room,
[21:50] Speaker 2: under ours of pressure that Peggy broke. She began to talk.
[21:56] Speaker 2: At first, she said she had walked into George's bedroom
[21:59] Speaker 2: and found Christopher playing video games. She told investigators she
[22:03] Speaker 2: had warned her son to send him home, that he
[22:06] Speaker 2: was a registered sex offender after all, but then she relented.
[22:10] Speaker 2: Peggy told them George has the mind of a five
[22:13] Speaker 2: year old. She said she allowed Christopher to stay as
[22:16] Speaker 2: long as the door stayed open, but the next time
[22:19] Speaker 2: she looked into the room, she said she found George
[22:22] Speaker 2: molesting the little boy, and then she said she washed
[22:26] Speaker 2: as her son strangled Christopher to death. She described how
[22:30] Speaker 2: George washed Christopher's neck with soap and water, trying to
[22:33] Speaker 2: erase his fingerprints. But just like George, Peggy's story began
[22:38] Speaker 2: to change. She now claimed that it wasn't just George.
[22:43] Speaker 2: She said that David, her husband and George's father, had
[22:47] Speaker 2: helped to kill Christopher. Then another name surfaced, Donald Diale.
[22:53] Speaker 2: Donald was a family friend. Much like George. She was
[22:56] Speaker 2: mentally impaired, with the cognitive capacity of a child. He
[23:00] Speaker 2: had once lived at Hope House, a residential facility for
[23:03] Speaker 2: people with mental disorders. That was where he had first
[23:07] Speaker 2: met the Edenfields. According to Peggy, Donald had come over
[23:11] Speaker 2: to help hook up cable converter boxes, but when he arrived,
[23:16] Speaker 2: David had recruited him into the cover up. She said
[23:19] Speaker 2: that they stuffed Christopher's body into trash bags, loaded him
[23:22] Speaker 2: into a vehicle, and drove out near Brunswick Airport to
[23:25] Speaker 2: dump his remains. By now detectives weren't just dealing with
[23:29] Speaker 2: one suspect. George Edenfield was already in Costaday, but now
[23:34] Speaker 2: his parents, Peggy and David, were arrested on charges of
[23:37] Speaker 2: concealing a death, obstruction of an officer, and giving a
[23:40] Speaker 2: false statement. Donald Dale was also arrested on the same charges.
[23:46] Speaker 2: Four adults, all entangled in something that sounded like a
[23:49] Speaker 2: horror movie, and yet one question remained unanswered. Where was Christopher.
[24:08] Speaker 2: Brunswick Airport was only a mile from the trailer park
[24:11] Speaker 2: where Christopher had lived. It sat at the edge of
[24:14] Speaker 2: coastal Georgia, surrounded by a sprawl of woodland and marsh,
[24:18] Speaker 2: thick with trees and nearly impossible to search in full.
[24:22] Speaker 2: The dense undergrowth in isolation made it the kind of
[24:24] Speaker 2: place where people went to dumb things they didn't want found.
[24:28] Speaker 2: On the morning of the fifteenth of March, four days
[24:31] Speaker 2: after George Peggy and David Edenfield had been arrested, the
[24:35] Speaker 2: search led police into those woods. There was a heavy
[24:39] Speaker 2: law enforcement presence spread across the area coming the underbrush,
[24:44] Speaker 2: and then something caught their attention. Corporal Jesse Cook and
[24:47] Speaker 2: Sergeant John Harwell noticed car tracks veering off the road
[24:51] Speaker 2: and cutting a shallow curve towards the tree line. They
[24:55] Speaker 2: stopped their car, stepped out, and just beyond the foliage,
[24:58] Speaker 2: around fifteen feet off the road, they saw something. It
[25:02] Speaker 2: was a black trash bag, half concealed in the brush.
[25:06] Speaker 2: As they approached, an overwhelming stent met them. It was
[25:10] Speaker 2: the unmistakable smell of decomposition. Inside the bag was the
[25:15] Speaker 2: newde and badly decomposed body of Christopher Michael Barrios Junior. Mike,
[25:20] Speaker 2: his father, was informed of the discovery. He said he
[25:24] Speaker 2: wanted to see his son for one final time. Police
[25:28] Speaker 2: Chief Matt Doring later reflected that was the hardest part.
[25:33] Speaker 2: When it's your only son that's been killed and you
[25:35] Speaker 2: want to go and look for the last time. That's tough.
[25:47] Speaker 2: The Edenfields had given so many different version of events,
[25:50] Speaker 2: it was hard to know what to believe. But the
[25:53] Speaker 2: truth when it finally emerged, was far worse than anybody
[25:56] Speaker 2: could have ever imagined. The breakthrough creator. The day after
[26:00] Speaker 2: Christopher's body was found, David Edenfield had cracked. He told
[26:06] Speaker 2: investigators that he had walked into George's bedroom and found
[26:10] Speaker 2: his wife and son there with Christopher. He said George
[26:14] Speaker 2: removed Christopher's clothing and then molested him. He said that
[26:18] Speaker 2: he was innocent, telling the detectives, no, sir, I'm not
[26:22] Speaker 2: a killer. It's a horrible, horrible thing to do. I
[26:25] Speaker 2: don't know why George did it. That was all he
[26:28] Speaker 2: was willing to say at first. When detectives placed photographs
[26:33] Speaker 2: of Christopher's decomposed body in front of him. David started
[26:37] Speaker 2: to talk. He said that it wasn't just George, it
[26:41] Speaker 2: wasn't just him, it was the entire family. David admitted
[26:46] Speaker 2: that he and George had taken turns molesting Christopher while Peggy,
[26:51] Speaker 2: his wife, watched and masturbated. The horrific abuse lasted for
[26:56] Speaker 2: two hours, and all throughout it all, christ he begged.
[27:02] Speaker 2: David said he told them that he was going to
[27:03] Speaker 2: tell his parents, but they didn't stop. David said that
[27:08] Speaker 2: George then announced that they would need to kill Christopher.
[27:12] Speaker 2: He wrapped his hands around the little boy's throat and
[27:15] Speaker 2: began to choke him. Christopher didn't scream, He just cried.
[27:20] Speaker 2: He said no and stop, over and over again. George
[27:24] Speaker 2: didn't stop, and neither did David. David told detectives that
[27:28] Speaker 2: he placed his own hands on top of his sons
[27:30] Speaker 2: and helped him finish the job. Detective Raymond Sarrow asked him,
[27:35] Speaker 2: you saw your opportunity when George was choking him, to
[27:39] Speaker 2: see what it felt like. David replied, yes, sir, and
[27:44] Speaker 2: then he said something that left detective stunt. Christopher was dead.
[27:49] Speaker 2: I guess it excited all of us. After the murder,
[27:52] Speaker 2: David said that Peggy and Donald Dale put Christopher's body
[27:55] Speaker 2: in a black trash bag and stashed in the back
[27:58] Speaker 2: room of the trailer. He claimed that Dale had been
[28:01] Speaker 2: there the entire time. He was supposedly there to fix
[28:05] Speaker 2: a TV. Later, the group put the bag in the
[28:08] Speaker 2: trunk of a car and drove it out to a
[28:10] Speaker 2: field to dispose of but they didn't like that spot,
[28:13] Speaker 2: so they turned back. David said that he went back
[28:17] Speaker 2: inside while the rest went back out and left Christopher's
[28:20] Speaker 2: body where it was eventually found. At one point, detectives
[28:24] Speaker 2: left David alone in the interrogation room with the photographs
[28:28] Speaker 2: of Christopher in front of him. David picked them up,
[28:32] Speaker 2: muttered to himself, and then tossed them aside. When Detective
[28:36] Speaker 2: Sorrow returned and asked what he thought, David responded, it's
[28:40] Speaker 2: my fault. I should have been a grown man and
[28:42] Speaker 2: stopped it, but I didn't. I should be punished, I
[28:46] Speaker 2: guess go to prison and get killed. Forth. When asked
[28:50] Speaker 2: whether he felt anything when he looked at the images,
[28:53] Speaker 2: he said, it's a horrible, horrible sight. It never should
[28:57] Speaker 2: have happened, and autop's he would confirm the horrors that
[29:01] Speaker 2: David had described. Christopher had been as fixated, and he
[29:05] Speaker 2: had extensive injuries to his throat, genitals, and legs. There
[29:10] Speaker 2: was even a human bite mark on his back. The
[29:13] Speaker 2: level of decomposition made it difficult to recover DNA, but
[29:16] Speaker 2: investigators found zliva on Christopher's back and saman traces on
[29:20] Speaker 2: the plastic bags he had been stuffed into. As details
[29:24] Speaker 2: of the case came out, Prosecutor Kelly said, this is
[29:28] Speaker 2: one of the most horrific crimes that I have seen
[29:30] Speaker 2: in twenty one years. On the twenty first of March,
[29:34] Speaker 2: the community of Brunswick came together once more. This time
[29:38] Speaker 2: it wasn't to search or hope. It was to say goodbye.
[29:42] Speaker 2: Christopher's funeral was held at Ado Miller and Son's funeral Home.
[29:47] Speaker 2: People arrived in silence. Some carried flowers, others brought toys
[29:51] Speaker 2: in spider Man figurines. Spider Man had been Christopher's favorite.
[29:56] Speaker 2: Near the front entrance to the Macintosh room, a wicker
[29:59] Speaker 2: basket filled with basketball sat alongside a bowl of colorful markers.
[30:04] Speaker 2: Children lined up one by one and quietly signed their names.
[30:09] Speaker 2: They left drawings and little messages of love inside the
[30:13] Speaker 2: walls were lined with wreaths delicate flowers arranged in circles.
[30:18] Speaker 2: At the center of it all was Christopher smallwooden casket
[30:21] Speaker 2: adorned with the Spider Man wreath. Beside it stood his father, Mike.
[30:27] Speaker 2: He stood tall, unmoving his eyes to fixed on his son.
[30:31] Speaker 2: A tiny bicycle sat to the side. He looked at
[30:35] Speaker 2: the mourners and said, quietly, that's my little boy's bike.
[30:39] Speaker 2: He loved Spider Man. Mike's mother, Sue, stood silently beside him.
[30:44] Speaker 2: His grandfather Lewis, sat nearby. A walking stick was across
[30:49] Speaker 2: his lap, and his eyes were on the floor. As
[30:51] Speaker 2: people offered their condolences, he didn't look up, He just cried.
[30:56] Speaker 2: Around eight hundred people came to Christopher's funeral that day, teachers, friends,
[31:01] Speaker 2: strangers who had never met him but felt as though
[31:04] Speaker 2: they knew him. A Fire Department honor guard stood vigil
[31:07] Speaker 2: over the casket, a tribute to little boy whose short
[31:11] Speaker 2: life had touched so many. Before the service began, Christopher's mother,
[31:16] Speaker 2: the Traina, stepped forward. She placed her hand gently on
[31:20] Speaker 2: the casket, bowed her head, and prayed. The service was
[31:24] Speaker 2: led by Reverend Chris Foster, who addressed the room and said,
[31:29] Speaker 2: if we make decisions out of anger and hurt, were
[31:31] Speaker 2: not honoring Christopher. He was a peaceful child, a wonderful,
[31:35] Speaker 2: beautiful young man. But even as the community mourned, justice
[31:40] Speaker 2: was already moving forward. Just hours before the funeral of
[31:44] Speaker 2: grand jury returned indictments against George, David, and Peggy Edenfield.
[31:50] Speaker 2: Each was charged with murder, child molestation, enticing a child
[31:54] Speaker 2: for indecent purposes, and false imprisonment. Prosecutors announced that they
[31:59] Speaker 2: would seek the death penel against all three. Only Donald
[32:03] Speaker 2: Dale was spared the capital charge. He wasn't accused of
[32:06] Speaker 2: harming Christopher directly, but he had allegedly helped dispose of
[32:10] Speaker 2: his body after the murder. He now faced charges of
[32:14] Speaker 2: concealing a death and tampering with evidence grames that carried
[32:17] Speaker 2: a potential sentence of one to ten years in prison.
[32:22] Speaker 2: The Edenfields would all be tried separately, a process that
[32:25] Speaker 2: promised to be as grilling and painful as the investigation itself.
[32:39] Speaker 2: In the weeks that followed the arrest, the Edenfields did
[32:41] Speaker 2: everything they could to keep the grizzly truth of what
[32:43] Speaker 2: happened to Christopher from the public. Peggy's defense attorney, Richard
[32:48] Speaker 2: Allen fouled the motion, asking that all pre trial hearings, records,
[32:51] Speaker 2: and other court documents be closed to both the media
[32:54] Speaker 2: and the public. He also requested that anybody involved in
[32:57] Speaker 2: the case be bored from speaking about it. But for
[33:01] Speaker 2: those who had already lived through the unimaginable, it felt
[33:04] Speaker 2: like a cruel request. Christopher's grandmother, Sue said, I think
[33:09] Speaker 2: Peggy will still get a fair trial. Christopher didn't get
[33:13] Speaker 2: traded fairly, but I think she will. The cases moved
[33:16] Speaker 2: painfully slow through the justice system, delayed by legal wrangling
[33:20] Speaker 2: and mental evaluations. Then in December, Donald Dale asked the
[33:26] Speaker 2: judge to consider a play agreement. He claimed he had
[33:30] Speaker 2: a diminished mental capacity and offered to plead guilty to
[33:33] Speaker 2: a single felony count of giving false statements. In exchange,
[33:38] Speaker 2: he would serve a five year sentence suspended if he
[33:41] Speaker 2: entered a facility for people with developmental disabilities. He also
[33:46] Speaker 2: agreed to be banned from Glenn County. His attorney, John Weltzer,
[33:50] Speaker 2: argued that Dale had been manipulated by the Edenfields. He
[33:54] Speaker 2: said he lied and made all those inconsistent statements to
[33:58] Speaker 2: the police because he was scared he's mentally retarded, and
[34:01] Speaker 2: because he was scared, he told them what they wanted
[34:04] Speaker 2: to hear. Phone records backed part of Dale's claim that
[34:08] Speaker 2: he wasn't involved. He had received a call from the
[34:12] Speaker 2: Edenfields aroundy at thirty p m the night that Christopher vanished.
[34:16] Speaker 2: They told him that they had a new video game system.
[34:19] Speaker 2: Dale arrived at their trailer shortly after nine p m,
[34:22] Speaker 2: just before police showed up to begin their search. While
[34:26] Speaker 2: the judge weighed Dale's play, there was a major shift
[34:29] Speaker 2: in Peggy's case. It was announced that she would no
[34:33] Speaker 2: longer face the death penalty. Instead, Peggy had agreed to
[34:37] Speaker 2: testify against both her husband and her son in exchange
[34:40] Speaker 2: for a possible sentence of life in prison with parole.
[34:44] Speaker 2: Just days later, Dale's play agreement was accepted. Judge Stephen
[34:48] Speaker 2: Scarlett ordered a mental health evaluation and sentenced Dale to
[34:53] Speaker 2: three more months in jail, followed by three and a
[34:55] Speaker 2: half years of probation in a state home for the
[34:58] Speaker 2: mentally disabled. Meanwhile, the Edenfield's cases continued their slow crawl
[35:04] Speaker 2: towards trial. As the one year anniversary of Christopher's death approached,
[35:09] Speaker 2: his mother filed a longful death lawsuit The lawsuit named
[35:14] Speaker 2: Sharon O'Quinn, the owner of the trailer park where Christopher
[35:17] Speaker 2: had lived with his father. According to Lutrina, O'Quinn knowingly
[35:22] Speaker 2: rented homes to convicted child molesters, making the community dangerous
[35:26] Speaker 2: for children like Christopher. She also filed a lawsuit against
[35:30] Speaker 2: a caseworker from the Georgia Department of Children and Family Services.
[35:35] Speaker 2: She alleged that the worker had acted in a grossly
[35:37] Speaker 2: negligent matter when approving Christopher's placement with his father, Mike,
[35:42] Speaker 2: and then, in an unimaginable twist, the Barrios family was
[35:46] Speaker 2: forced to endure another blue In October two thousand and eight,
[35:50] Speaker 2: a photograph of Christopher was used as a background prop
[35:54] Speaker 2: in an episode of General Hospital Night Shift. The image,
[35:58] Speaker 2: which had been used without permission, appeared briefly on a
[36:01] Speaker 2: computer screen during a scene, sparking outrage. ABC, the network
[36:06] Speaker 2: behind the show, issued a formal apology and launched an
[36:09] Speaker 2: investigation into how the photo had ended up on the set,
[36:14] Speaker 2: but it wasn't enough. The Barrios family ultimately sued ABC
[36:18] Speaker 2: for up to seventy five thousand dollars for the unauthorized
[36:21] Speaker 2: use of their son's image. David was the first of
[36:32] Speaker 2: the Edenfields to stand trial. By the thirtieth of September
[36:36] Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, a jury had been selected and ceded.
[36:40] Speaker 2: They had been brought in from jeff They of vis County.
[36:43] Speaker 2: Opening statements were then ready to begin. Prosecutor John Johnson
[36:48] Speaker 2: stood before the jury and revealed the horrific details of
[36:51] Speaker 2: Christopher's murder. He referred to what had happened as the
[36:55] Speaker 2: most horrible two hours of his life. He said that
[36:58] Speaker 2: he had pleaded with the Edens as they stripped him
[37:01] Speaker 2: naked and sexually assaulted him and then killed him. He
[37:05] Speaker 2: said to the jury, Christopher Barrios didn't want to be there.
[37:09] Speaker 2: He told them to let him go. He said, I
[37:12] Speaker 2: want to leave, let me go. Don't do this. I'm
[37:15] Speaker 2: going to tell my parents. He was stripped of his
[37:18] Speaker 2: clothes sin sexually molested by George Edenfield. Then David Edenfield
[37:22] Speaker 2: became part of it and began molesting Christopher too. The
[37:26] Speaker 2: prosecutor then described the murder, telling the jury George Aidenfield
[37:30] Speaker 2: initially put his hands around Christopher's neck and began to
[37:33] Speaker 2: choke him, and at that point in time, David Edenfield,
[37:37] Speaker 2: who was participating in all of this, put his hands instinctively,
[37:41] Speaker 2: as you will hear him say, on top of George
[37:44] Speaker 2: Denfield's hands and helped him take the life of Christopher Barrios.
[37:50] Speaker 2: David's defense attorney, James Yancey told the jury that David's son, George,
[37:54] Speaker 2: was a convicted child molester who had confessed to killing Christopher.
[38:00] Speaker 2: Aim that David's confession was influenced by the police officers
[38:03] Speaker 2: who questioned him. However, he stopped short of claiming the
[38:06] Speaker 2: confession was coerced. The prosecution then began their case by
[38:11] Speaker 2: calling Christopher's family to testify. They spoke about the day
[38:15] Speaker 2: of the disappearance and searching for him before calling police.
[38:19] Speaker 2: The prosecution then presented David's videotaped confession. After it was played,
[38:25] Speaker 2: Detective Raymond Sorrow testified about David's confession. Christopher was dead
[38:30] Speaker 2: and disposed of by the time police arrived at the
[38:33] Speaker 2: trailer park to search for him. He said he also
[38:36] Speaker 2: spoke about George's confession, telling the jury, I asked if
[38:40] Speaker 2: the devil told him to do anything to hurt the
[38:42] Speaker 2: little boy. He told me, yes, that the devil told
[38:45] Speaker 2: him to kill. Testimony was then presented about Donald Dale.
[38:50] Speaker 2: While David had claimed that he was present for the murder,
[38:53] Speaker 2: his landlord, Tim Friend, said otherwise. He said that he
[38:57] Speaker 2: was with Dale from nine a m. That morning until
[39:00] Speaker 2: about at forty five p m. By this point, Christopher
[39:04] Speaker 2: was already dead and disposed of. The pathologist who performed
[39:08] Speaker 2: Christopher's autopsy, doctor Jamie Downes, testified next. He said that
[39:13] Speaker 2: his supply of oxygen had been choked off when his
[39:16] Speaker 2: windpipe voice blocks and carried it artery had been crushed.
[39:21] Speaker 2: He testified the most likely means this was done by
[39:25] Speaker 2: was a forearm sleeper chokehold around the neck, or by
[39:28] Speaker 2: placing the palms of the hands on opposite sides of
[39:31] Speaker 2: the neck and compressing inward. He spoke about the injuries
[39:35] Speaker 2: that were consistent with sexual abuse, telling the jury they
[39:38] Speaker 2: had been sustained while Christopher was still alive. The prosecution
[39:43] Speaker 2: then produced their final witness, Peggy Edenfield. Peggy said that
[39:48] Speaker 2: on the day Christopher was killed, she had found him
[39:50] Speaker 2: in her son's bedroom playing video games. She claimed she
[39:54] Speaker 2: had grabbed Christopher by the hand, led him to the door,
[39:58] Speaker 2: and then walked him home. However, Peggy then recanted that statement.
[40:03] Speaker 2: Peggy then said she didn't try to get Christopher out
[40:06] Speaker 2: of the home, even though she knew her son was
[40:08] Speaker 2: a sex offender who wasn't allowed to be near children.
[40:13] Speaker 2: Peggy then tried to distance herself from the sexual assault
[40:16] Speaker 2: and murder. She said that when she left the bathroom,
[40:19] Speaker 2: she found her husband and son sodomizing Christopher. Peggy repeatedly
[40:25] Speaker 2: sighed and hesitated as she testified. She told the jury,
[40:30] Speaker 2: my son had his hands around the boy's neck, and
[40:33] Speaker 2: my husband had his hands on top of George's I
[40:36] Speaker 2: tried to get my husband's hands off my son's and
[40:39] Speaker 2: my son's off the boy's neck, but I couldn't. She
[40:43] Speaker 2: admitted that there was a phone near by, but she
[40:45] Speaker 2: didn't call nine one one or thing to run outside
[40:48] Speaker 2: for help. She explained, I didn't do nothing. I didn't
[40:53] Speaker 2: know my neighbor's that good, Peggy said. The David carried
[40:56] Speaker 2: Christopher's body from their trailer to the trunk of the car.
[41:01] Speaker 2: The videotaped interrogation of Peggy was then played for the jury.
[41:06] Speaker 2: It corroborated much of what David had said during his interrogation.
[41:10] Speaker 2: She described both her husband and George sexually assaulting Christopher
[41:14] Speaker 2: and then strangling him together. She even admitted to masturbating
[41:19] Speaker 2: while they sexually assaulted and killed him. After that, both
[41:24] Speaker 2: the prosecution and defense rested. The defense didn't call a
[41:28] Speaker 2: single witness. The closing arguments were then presented. Prosecutor Stephen
[41:35] Speaker 2: Kelly reminded the jury of David's confession. He also highlighted
[41:39] Speaker 2: Peggy's confession and testimony, as well as the autopsy evidence.
[41:43] Speaker 2: He said that all of these things substantiated the confession,
[41:47] Speaker 2: telling the jury, I tell you the evidence in this case,
[41:50] Speaker 2: as confusing as it may be, all boils down to this.
[41:54] Speaker 2: David Edenfield has convicted himself with his own words. Defense
[41:59] Speaker 2: attorney James Yancey said during his closing arguments that David
[42:03] Speaker 2: was a common everyday man who had been beaten down
[42:06] Speaker 2: by his vindictive wife and a burden of a son.
[42:09] Speaker 2: He stated, there's no DNA evidence of anybody other than Christopher.
[42:14] Speaker 2: The jury were then sent off to deliberate. It took
[42:17] Speaker 2: them just two hours to reach a verdict. They found
[42:21] Speaker 2: David aiden feeled guilty. Less than an hour later, the
[42:24] Speaker 2: same jury were back for the sentencing phase. The prosecution
[42:28] Speaker 2: called psychologist Philip Barron, who testified that David was mentally
[42:32] Speaker 2: able to tell the difference between right and wrong. Then
[42:36] Speaker 2: there were victim impact statements. Mike became emotional as he
[42:40] Speaker 2: recalled how Christopher smiled would cheer him up on his
[42:42] Speaker 2: bad days. Through tears, he said, I often look at
[42:46] Speaker 2: his pictures and it hurts so bad that I won't
[42:49] Speaker 2: see this child grow up to be a man. Christopher's grandmother, Sue, stated,
[42:54] Speaker 2: my only joy is my kids, and a chunk of
[42:56] Speaker 2: it's gone. I had to quit my job. It's hard
[42:59] Speaker 2: to do anything with all of this. The jury deliberated
[43:03] Speaker 2: for just two hours again before deciding that David Edenfield
[43:07] Speaker 2: to serve to die. The judge then sentenced him to death.
[43:12] Speaker 2: He additionally sentenced him to life on two counts of
[43:14] Speaker 2: aggravated child molestation and twenty years each on charges of
[43:18] Speaker 2: child molestation and cruelty to children. Outside of court, Mike
[43:23] Speaker 2: said that he wanted to be present for the execution.
[43:26] Speaker 2: He stated, if I'm not dead by then, I'll be there,
[43:30] Speaker 2: and so will my mom. After David was sent to
[43:40] Speaker 2: death row, the lawyers for his son, George, argued that
[43:43] Speaker 2: he was not mentally competent to defend himself in court.
[43:47] Speaker 2: In August, Judge Scarlett ruled that George was mentally incompetent
[43:51] Speaker 2: and ordered him committed to a state mental hospital. His
[43:54] Speaker 2: defense attorney, Gerald Word, said, he knows he's going to
[43:58] Speaker 2: a hospital. We explained that to him, but I'm not
[44:00] Speaker 2: sure he really understands what that means. I'm not sure
[44:04] Speaker 2: this won't be a lifetime process for him. Christopher's grandmother, Sue,
[44:09] Speaker 2: had some comments after the court hearing. She stated, he
[44:13] Speaker 2: ain't crazy. He's smart as a damn whip. He's got
[44:16] Speaker 2: them all filled. He's putting on a good shoe. Mike
[44:20] Speaker 2: wasn't in court for the hearing. Sue said that he
[44:23] Speaker 2: often went to his son's grave and just sat there
[44:25] Speaker 2: alone and cried. In September of twenty eleven, Peggy was
[44:30] Speaker 2: sentenced to sixty years in prison after she pleaded guilty
[44:33] Speaker 2: to five of the eight charges against her. She had
[44:36] Speaker 2: pleaded guilty but mentally disabled, to false imprisonment, child molestation
[44:41] Speaker 2: for masturbating while Christopher was sectually assaulted and killed, second
[44:44] Speaker 2: degree cruelty to children, concealing the death of another, and
[44:48] Speaker 2: tampering with evidence. Afterwards, Mike commented that he didn't want
[44:52] Speaker 2: to plead deal. He said he was happy that Peggy
[44:54] Speaker 2: would never get out of prison, but that the play
[44:57] Speaker 2: offered no closure. Stayed Christopher wouldn't have wanted me bargaining
[45:03] Speaker 2: like that. It's good to say she'll die in prison,
[45:05] Speaker 2: but she deserves worse. Nothing will bring Christopher back. Today,
[45:12] Speaker 2: all of the eden Fields remain locked up. David and
[45:15] Speaker 2: Peggy are in prison, while George is committed to a
[45:17] Speaker 2: state mental health facility. In twenty eleven, he was examined
[45:23] Speaker 2: by Karen Bailey Smith, head of forensic Services for the
[45:26] Speaker 2: State Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. She found
[45:31] Speaker 2: that he didn't understand the death penalty. When she asked
[45:35] Speaker 2: him what he thought it meant, he responded, I can
[45:38] Speaker 2: get an injection and go to sleep. She asked for
[45:41] Speaker 2: how long, he replied, like for the rest of my life.
[45:48] Speaker 2: He believed the judge's role in a trial was simply
[45:51] Speaker 2: to say all rise and be seated. He didn't understand
[45:55] Speaker 2: a play telling the doctor. If I played guilty, I
[45:59] Speaker 2: go to you or to the hospital. If I plead
[46:02] Speaker 2: not guilty, I go home. It's unlikely that George Edenfield
[46:08] Speaker 2: will ever stand trial. Well, Bestie's that is it for
[46:37] Speaker 2: this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
[46:40] Speaker 2: for listening, and i'd like to say a massive thank
[46:43] Speaker 2: you to my newest supporters up on Patroon, d C Bray,
[46:46] Speaker 2: ash Vea, and Wendy. Your support up on patroon seriously
[46:51] Speaker 2: goes such a long way, and I genuinely am eternally grateful.
[46:55] Speaker 2: If you'd like to join, I upload adfrey in early
[46:58] Speaker 2: release episodes behind the scene, and I also send out
[47:02] Speaker 2: a thank you card along with some cool merch. There's
[47:06] Speaker 2: also a bunch of bonus Morbidology Plus episodes that aren't
[47:09] Speaker 2: on the regular podcast platforms. If you'd like to support
[47:15] Speaker 2: the show in another way, please consider leaving a rating
[47:17] Speaker 2: and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you
[47:20] Speaker 2: may be listening. Remember to check aside at morbidology dot
[47:23] Speaker 2: com for more information about this episode and to read
[47:26] Speaker 2: some true crime articles. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
[47:29] Speaker 2: stay safe, and have an amazing week.

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