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Babysitter Kept Aliahna Lemmon's Head in His Freezer

Missing Indiana Girl Found Dead

By OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN Dec. 27, 2011

The babysitter charged with killing a 9-year-old girl who disappeared from an Indiana trailer park dismembered her body and kept her head, feet and hands in his freezer, according to a police affidavit.

Michael Plumadore, 39, shuffled into court today, manacled at this feet and hands. He was ordered held without bail, police said. He was escorted by two Allen County police officers. There were additional officers in the courtroom for extra security. He was jailed in the death of Aliahna Lemmon, 9, who disappeared from a Fort Wayne trailer park where she lived last week. A police affidavit submitted to the court today stated that Plumadore "freely admitted" that in the "early morning hours" last Thursday, he struck Aliahna in the head multiple times with a brick "while she was standing on the front steps of his residence." Police Affidavit Contains Michael Plumadore' Confession He put the girl's body in several trash bags and stuffed her in a freezer until nighttime came. He worked past midnight dismembering Aliahna's body with a hack saw, the affidavit, obtained by ABC News, states. He put the pieces in garbage gas and tossed them in a Dumpster of a nearby business, but kept her head, hands and feet in his freezer.

Allen County (IN) Sheriff's Department/AP Photo

Mike Plumadore is seen in this undated Allen... View Full Size

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Plumadore did not tell police why he killed the young girl. Plumadore, who had been babysitting Aliahna and her two sisters for a week because their mother was ill, initially told police that he has last seen Aliahna sleeping in his trailer on Friday but didn't alert police to her disappearance until Friday night because he believed she had gone home to her mother. Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries said the girl's body was found after 9 p.m. Monday night. According to the girl's relatives, Plumadore had been taking care of and living with Aliahna's grandfather, James E. Lemmon, until he died on Dec. 3, 2011, the AP reported. Plumadore was living in the grandfather's trailer at the time of Aliahna's death. "[Plumadore] was a trusted family friend," Aliahna's stepgrandfather, David Story, told the AP. James Lemmon was 66 when he died, and had an extensive criminal record, including convictions for child molestation in 2006 and was a registered sex offender.

Aliahna Lemmon

Plumadore was arrested after his third interview with police, Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel told ABCNews.com. Fries said Plumadore has a criminal record in North Carolina and Florida. Plumadore's next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 30. The tragic discovery came the same day that police announced that the FBI had joined the investigation and candlelight vigil was being held for Aliahna in Fort Wayne. A page had been set up on Facebook for the missing girl called "Find Aliahna Marie Maroney Lemmon Missing from Fort Wayne, Indiana." On Sunday, the group posted, "Merry Christmas Aliahna where ever you are! We won't give up on you!" "No kid should be missing Christmas!" the post read.

Missing Indiana Girl Found Dead Court document details Indiana girl's killing: http://abcnews.go.com/US/page/ afdavit--15240767 Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/babysitter-stored-head-hands-feet-year-girl-freezer/ story?id=15239279#.Tvod1pjN5lK

Police: Babysitter beat, dismembered Indiana girl

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) A babysitter and trusted neighbor has confessed that he bludgeoned a 9-year-old Indiana girl to death with a brick then dismembered her, hiding her head, hands and feet at a home where he was staying and dumping the rest of her remains nearby, police said Tuesday.

A trusted neighbor who watched Aliahna Lemmon confessed to killing her, police said Tuesday.

Allen County sheriff's investigators said in an affidavit that 39year-old Michael Plumadore admits he killed Aliahna Lemmon on Thursday. According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death on the front steps of the home in the early morning hours, he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in the freezer at the home in a rundown trailer park in Fort Wayne. He said he later chopped up her body with a hacksaw and stuffed her remains into freezer bags. Story: Missing Ind. girl found dead
Video - Missing Indiana Girl Found Dead

Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at the trailer and discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search the trailer on Monday and found the body parts. Authorities didn't say Tuesday why Plumadore killed the child, but Sheriff Ken Fries said investigators suspected Plumadore was involved since soon after she was reported missing Friday night.
Mike Plumadore, confessed to killing Aliahna Lemmon, police said Tuesday.

Allen County (Ind.) Sheriff's Department via AP

Investigators questioned him Friday and Saturday and he was arrested Monday after being interviewed by detectives for several hours more.

Fries said his long police career told him that Plumadore's account of the girl's disappearance had too many inconsistencies. "Things that were said in 29 years of doing this that just didn't make sense," Fries said during a Tuesday news conference. "We needed to get him to talk." Fries said Plumadore was "factual" in talking with investigators, but he wouldn't describe Plumadore's demeanor. 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. Mike McAlexander, the Allen County chief deputy prosecutor, wouldn't say whether anyone else was suspected of being involved and said "nothing has been ruled out." Paulette Hair, 45, a former manager at the trailer park who lives at a nearby trailer park, said she never would have guessed Plumadore would kill a child. "But you don't know a person, truly," she said. "How could you live?" asked Hair. "How could you sit in that trailer, knowing what you did, knowing what's in your household when everybody is out there in the cold and the rain praying to God that she comes home safely and you're sitting there?" Aliahna was a student at Holland Elementary School, said Fort Wayne school district spokeswoman Krista Stockman. She did not know what grade the girl was in. "Obviously, this is a horrendous tragedy. For the school, this is devastating. Our teachers knew her, our principal knew her, she had friends at the school. This is going to be a loss for everyone at the school," Stockman said.

Schools are currently closed for holiday break. Stockman expected extra counselors will be made available when students return Jan. 5, and the school likely will plan some sort of memorial, she said. Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore for about one week because their mother, Tarah Souders, had been sick with the flu. Plumadore told The(Fort Wayne, Ind.)Journal Gazette on Sunday that Aliahna disappeared from the 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. Aliahna wasn't reported missing until Friday night. Plumadore said the younger girls told him their mother had picked her up and he didn't realize until hours later that this wasn't true. On Saturday, more than 100 emergency workers searched for Aliahna around the trailer park on the city's north side where Aliahna and Plumadore lived. FBI agents were there Monday. 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. Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, told The Associated Press that Plumadore had cared for Souders' ailing father until his death from emphysema early this month and was living in that man's mobile home. "He was a trusted family friend," Story said late Monday, saying he was surprised by the arrest. Richard Patee, 58, whose trailer is next to where Plumadore was living, said he didn't think it was odd that Aliahna's mother had him watching the girls for an extended period.

"They had known each other for somewhere of three to four years, I know that, and he took care of their grandfather," Patee said. "I didn't see any reason to question it at all. I talked with Mike on and off for the past two-and-a-half years and he never had a cross word."
source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-27/indiana-babysitter-girldeath/52241628/1 See: Verbatim: Coroners statement on girls death Statement issued Tuesday by Dr. E. Jon Brandenberger, Allen County coroner: On Monday, December 26, 2011, the Allen County Sheriffs Department and other law enforcement agencies developed signicant leads into the investigation of a missing 9year-old Fort Wayne girl, Aliahna Marie Maroney- Lemmon. With reason to believe that a deceased child was nearby, the Allen County Coroners ofce and other forensic investigators responded to two separate locations, one of which was the Northway mobile home park near North Clinton Street and Diebold Road, from where Alianha had disappeared, and another at a nearby convenience store/gas station. Human remains believed to be that of a female juvenile were found at both locations. Ofcials from the Allen County Coroners ofce and police crime scene technicians painstakingly documented the areas and recovered evidence. The remains were transported to the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center. The major part of an autopsy was conducted today at the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center, but the forensic examination will not be completed until sometime tomorrow. Positive conrmation of the identity of the remains will be accomplished through DNA analysis, but investigators are condent that the decedent is Aliahna. Investigators believe that the perpetrator of this horric crime systematically dismembered Aliahna after her death, and then placed her body parts into several plastic bags, some of which were recovered at his residence, while others were recovered from a dumpster at the convenience store. Results of the autopsy today are pending until the examination can be completed tomorrow. While the cause of death has not been ruled yet, the manner of death is homicide. Aliahna is the 24th homicide victim in Fort Wayne and Allen County (the second outside the city limits of Fort Wayne) in 2011. The investigation is continuing by the Allen County Prosecutors ofce, the Allen County Sheriffs Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Allen County Coroners ofce.

Slain Ind. girl's grandfather was sex offender

By TOM COYNE, Associated Press FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) To assist her dying father, Tarah Souders made a choice: She moved her three young girls to a run-down trailer park in rural Indiana to help take care of him as his lungs rotted from emphysema. She knew it could be dangerous. The park of about two dozen homes was teeming with convicted sex offenders, with one living at nearly every address. She worried about neighbors with sex offense records who had been helping her father get by, according to trailer park residents. And before she arrived, she even asked her father if her children could be at risk for abuse from two specific men including a suspect now accused in her daughter's death. "He said, 'No. They will not touch your children. They're doing everything they're supposed to do,'" said Greg Shumaker, one of 15 convicted sex offenders who live at the park and the other man that Souders had inquired about. Weeks later, police say, a horrific tragedy unfolded. Her 9-year-old daughter, Aliahna Lemmon, was brutally killed. Police say 39-year-old Michael Plumadore told investigators that he bludgeoned her to death with a brick, then dismembered her and hid her head, hands and feet at her grandfather's trailer before dumping the other remains elsewhere. Shumaker said Aliahna's family moved there to help take care of 66year-old James E. "Shorty" Lemmon, who also was a convicted sex offender and died Dec. 3. He said Lemmon was "getting old" and "had trouble breathing."

Shumaker said he introduced Plumadore to Lemmon shortly after Plumadore moved into the trailer park, and Plumadore moved in with Lemmon a few days later. Shumaker said he knew Lemmon because they were both sex offenders and were in jail together. Sheriff's department spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel confirmed that Lemmon was a sex offender. Indiana Department of Correction records show he was convicted of child molesting in March 2006. Paulette Hair, 45, a former manager at the trailer park who lives at a nearby trailer park, said she also knew Lemmon was a sex offender. "He stayed out of everybody's way," she said. "Shorty couldn't take care of himself very well." Shumaker said Plumadore briefly moved away, but returned when Souders asked him to care for her father. A man who answered the door at Souders' home Tuesday afternoon referred all questions to the Allen County sheriff's department. The home was one of only a few at the trailer park located off an expressway and across from an open field that displayed outward signs of children: A small bicycle, play car and cars seat sat on the wooden porch connected to a long wooden ramp. Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore for about one week because their mother had been sick with the flu. Richard Patee, 58, whose trailer is next to where Plumadore was living, said he didn't think it was odd that Aliahna's mother had him watching the girls for an extended period. "They had known each other for somewhere of three to four years, I know that, and he took care of their grandfather," Patee said. "I didn't see any reason to question it at all." Shumaker said it wasn't unusual for Plumadore to watch Souders' children "because the kids liked him." Souders and Aliahna were listed among nearly 600 friends on a Facebook page listed under

Plumadore's name that said he was "Self Employed and Loving It!", and enjoyed fantasy novels. According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death on the front steps of the home in the early morning hours, he stuffed her body into trash bags and hid her in the freezer. He said he later cut up her body with a hacksaw and stuffed her remains into freezer bags. Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at the trailer and discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search the trailer on Monday and found the body parts. Authorities didn't say Tuesday why Plumadore killed the child, but Sheriff Ken Fries said investigators suspected Plumadore was involved since soon after she was reported missing Friday night because of inconsistencies in his story that the girl had vanished while he went to a store that morning. "Things that were said in 29 years of doing this that just didn't make sense," Fries said during a Tuesday news conference. "We needed to get him to talk." A judge ordered Plumadore held without bail or bond at an initial hearing Tuesday, Tinkel said. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death. Mike McAlexander, the Allen County chief deputy prosecutor, wouldn't say whether anyone else was suspected of being involved and said "nothing has been ruled out." "How could you live?" asked Hair. "How could you sit in that trailer, knowing what you did, knowing what's in your household when everybody is out there in the cold and the rain praying to God that she comes home safely and you're sitting there"

A state website shows that 15 registered sex offenders live in the park that numbers about two dozen homes. Self-identified sex offenders living at the trailer park said Tuesday that they were given maps by the Indiana Department of Corrections and a local mission showing them where it was OK to live. The aerial maps show areas legally away from schools and daycare centers and help guide offenders when they are released from prison to new 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, and an Indiana conviction for forgery. Associated Press Writers Tom Davies and Charles Wilson contributed to this story from Indianapolis. Source: http://www.google.com/ hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyClX90hTB9uafgwr1aGRf31qHGA? docId=25493145c7404278b357f0defb9074d5 1 2 3 4 US babysitter bludgeons, chops up girl Ninemsn - 5 hours ago Missing girl dead; baby sitter jailed Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - 6 hours ago Babysitter bludgeons young girl, dismembers body Herald Sun - 3 hours ago More coverage (1)

Search for Missing Girl Candlelight Vigil for Aliahna Lemmon

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Neighbors say family regarded suspect as father figure Verbatim: Coroners statement on girls death Missing girl dead; baby sitter jailed

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Cathie Rowand / The Journal Gazette A makeshift shrine with stuffed Teddy bears pays mute tribute at the Northway mobile home park on Tuesday.

Last updated: December 27, 2011 6:11 p.m.

Missing girl was struck in head, dismembered

Rebecca S. Green | The Journal Gazette

Plumadore

Cathie Rowand / The Journal Gazette Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries, left, Allen County Coroner Jon Brandenberger, center, and Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Michael McAlexander hold a press briefing on Tuesday morning.

Aliahna FORT WAYNE -- Thirty-nine-year-old Michael Len Plumadore appeared in court Tuesday morning on a preliminary charge of murder, accused of killing 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon early Thursday. According to court documents filed in the case, Plumadore clubbed the little girl in the head with a brick while she stood outside this trailer in early morning hours Thursday. Later that day, he cut her frozen body into pieces with a hacksaw, disposing of them in the dumpster of a nearby business. He told Allen County detectives they could find her head, hand and feet in his freezer, where they were found Monday. Source: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/ 20111227/LOCAL07/111229621

Aliahna's horrific end: girl, 9, bludgeoned to death by babysitter

December 28, 2011 - 11:01AM
Police: babysitter beat, dismembered girl

A babysitter and trusted neighbour in the US has confessed that he bludgeoned 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon to death with a brick then dismembered her. Autoplay OnOff Video feedback Video settings

A babysitter and trusted neighbour has confessed that he bludgeoned a nine-year-old girl to death with a brick then dismembered her, hiding her head, hands and feet at a home where he was staying and dumping the rest of her remains nearby, US police say. Allen County sheriff's investigators in Indiana said in an affidavit that Michael Plumadore, 39, admitted to killing Aliahna Lemmon last week. According to the affidavit, Plumadore told police that after beating Aliahna to death on the front steps of the home in the early hours of the morning, he stuffed her body into rubbish bags and hid her in the freezer at the home in a rundown trailer park in Fort Wayne. He said he later chopped up her body with a hacksaw and stuffed her remains into freezer bags.

Killed ... Aliahna Lemmon. Photo: AP

Police said Plumadore told them he had hidden Aliahna's head, feet and hands at the trailer and discarded her other remains at a nearby business. Police obtained a warrant to search the trailer on Monday and found the body parts. Authorities did not say why Plumadore killed the child, but Sheriff Ken Fries said investigators suspected Plumadore was involved since soon after she was reported missing on Friday night. Investigators questioned him on Friday and Saturday and he was arrested on Monday after being interviewed by detectives for several hours more.

Accused ... Michael Plumadore.

Fries said his long police career told him that Plumadore's account of the girl's disappearance had too many inconsistencies.

"Things that were said in 29 years of doing this that just didn't make sense," Fries said during a Tuesday news conference. "We needed to get him to talk." Fries said Plumadore was "factual" in talking with investigators, but he wouldn't describe Plumadore's demeanour.

Grief ... Tarah Souders, right, and her mother Amber Story. Photo: AP

A judge ordered Plumadore to be held without bail or bond at an initial hearing on Tuesday, sheriff's department spokesman Corporal Jeremy Tinkel said. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death. Mike McAlexander, the Allen County chief deputy prosecutor, wouldn't say whether anyone else was suspected of being involved and said "nothing has been ruled out".

Paulette Hair, 45, a former manager at the trailer park who lives at a nearby trailer park, said she never would have guessed Plumadore would kill a child.

Elyssabeth Fuller, 12, was one of over 40 people who returned after a candlelight vigil to form a search party forAliahna Lemmon. Photo: AP

"But you don't know a person, truly," she said. "How could you live?" asked Hair. "How could you sit in that trailer, knowing what you did, knowing what's in your household when everybody is out there in the cold and the rain praying to God that she comes home safely and you're sitting there?" Aliahna was a student at Holland Elementary School, Fort Wayne school district spokeswoman Krista Stockman said. She did not know what grade the girl was in.

"Obviously, this is a horrendous tragedy. For the school, this is devastating. Our teachers knew her, our principal knew her, she had friends at the school. This is going to be a loss for everyone at the school," Stockman said. Schools are currently closed for holiday break. Stockman expected extra counsellors will be made available when students return on January 5, and the school will likely plan some sort of memorial, she said. Aliahna and her two younger sisters were staying with Plumadore for about one week because their mother, Tarah Souders, had been sick with the flu. Plumadore told The Journal Gazette on Sunday that Aliahna disappeared from the home on Friday morning while he was sleeping after having gone to a service station about 1.6 kilometres away to buy a cigar. Authorities have said the store's surveillance video shows him there about that time. Aliahna wasn't reported missing until Friday night. Plumadore said the younger girls told him their mother had picked her up and he didn't realise until hours later that this wasn't true. On Saturday, more than 100 emergency workers searched for Aliahna around the trailer park on the city's north side where Aliahna and Plumadore lived. FBI agents were there on Monday. 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. Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, said that Plumadore had cared for Souders's ailing father until his death from emphysema early this month and was living in that man's mobile home.

"He was a trusted family friend," Story said late on Monday, saying he was surprised by the arrest. Richard Patee, 58, whose trailer is next to where Plumadore was living, said he didn't think it was odd that Aliahna's mother had him watching the girls for an extended period. "They had known each other for somewhere of three to four years, I know that, and he took care of their grandfather," Patee said. "I didn't see any reason to question it at all. I talked with Mike on and off for the past two-and-a-half years and he never had a cross word."
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/aliahnas-horrific-endgirl-9-bludgeoned-to-death-bybabysitter-20111228-1pc5t.html#ixzz1hnIDzsW1