PHOTO: Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, Elwyn Crocker, Sr.
EFFINGHAM, CO, Ga. – The identities of two children found deceased and buried in their family’s backyard last week have been positively identified by Georgia Coroner David Exley.
They are 14-year-old Mary Jo Crocker and her older brother, Elwyn Crocker Jr., who would have been 16 if alive today.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that on Monday, coroner David Exley is not attempting to understand how the teen siblings died – especially Elwyn, who had been deceased a few years before authorities found him.
Both were found in the backyard of their and stepmother’s home in Effingham County, Georgia. Exley said it could take weeks, possibly months, before the cause of death is known.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Mary had not been seen since October, prompting authorities to perform a welfare check at her Guyton home, off of Rosebud Place in the Azalea Point subdivision last Wednesday night. The girl’s family told authorities that Mary went to South Carolina to live with her biological mother, but tips provided to investigators led them to believe the little girl was deceased.
At this point, the teens’ father – who worked as a Santa Claus at a local Walmart and turned 50 years old on Christmas Day – has been arrested and charged in the deaths of two of his children.
Elwyn Crocker Sr., his 33-year-old wife (and stepmother to the children) Candice Crocker, Candice’s 50-year-old mother Kim Wright, and Kim’s boyfriend 55-year-old Anthony Prater have all been arrested in connection to the disappearance of the two 14-year-old teens. Elwyn Crocker Jr. and Mary Crocker disappeared years apart, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Elwyn Crocker, Sr. celebrated his 50th birthday in jail on Christmas Day.
A relative, who has not revealed her identify, speculates that the reason why they were killed was because the father couldn’t take care of them financially. The surviving child found in the home had special needs, which the relative assumes was kept alive because there was a Social Security check received to care for the child.
The biological mother has not been located.
