Ala. children tortured, warrants say

December 10, 2010|Associated Press

An Alabama man charged with murdering his two young children allowed their stepmother to torture them by binding the little girl and boy with duct tape, stuffing one in a suitcase, and forcing the other to stand in a corner all night, according to arrest warrants.

John DeBlase, 27, is charged with two counts of murder, child abuse, and corpse abuse. Scattered bones and a skull found in the woods of rural Mississippi on Wednesday are believed to be the remains of his 3-year-old son, Chase. Authorities are still searching for the remains of his 5-year-old daughter, Natalie.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said the bones were examined yesterday in Mississippi.

“It is consistent with the child, so we do believe that it is him,’’ Byrd said

Byrd said the bones will now be examined further for positive identification and cause of death.

DeBlase told police he dumped his daughter Natalie in the woods north of Mobile in March. He said he discarded the boy’s body, dressed only in a diaper and stuffed into a plastic garbage bag, in Mississippi in June, on or around Father’s Day. The children were killed separately, then immediately disposed of, police said.

The warrants were prepared before the murder charges were filed and detail the children’s mistreatment at the hands of their stepmother, Heather Leavell-Keaton.

Leavell-Keaton is being held in Kentucky on child abuse charges. She will be returned to Alabama on Sunday, where she could be charged in the children’s slayings, Levy said.