June 16, 2025 • 47 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Whether it's the thickness of the woods or murky canals.
Volunteers searching for six year old Christopher Barrios say the
words give up is nowhere in their mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Brunswick is a city situated along the southeast coast of
Georgia that estaped in rich history in southern charm. But
it's cobblestone street, small straped oaks, and sprawling marshlands. It's
a place where life moves a little slower. It's a
city that prides itself on its tight knit community, a
place where when something happens to one family, it feels
(01:12):
like it happens to you all. Just outside the city limits,
talcked off Canal Road, near the steady rush of Interstate
ninety five, sits the Canal Mobile Home Park. It's a
modest patchwork of single wides and trailers that circle around
a road called Horseshoe Lane. It's a quiet area, mostly
working class families and retirees, where kids ride their bikes
(01:33):
in the street and dogs bark from behind chain link fences.
Life in the park wasn't glamorous, but it was familiar.
Among the rows of weather worn homes, there was one
family that never quite blended in. People notice them not
because they were lloud or friendly, but because they watched.
The father would sit out on the steps and stare.
(01:56):
The son had a way of looking at the neighborhood
kids that made people feel uncomfortable. Some residents whispered about him.
They said that he had a record that he was
convicted sex offender. Others just kept their distance, but behind
closed doors. More than a few parents had warned their
children to stay away from that trailer. In a place
(02:17):
where everyone knows everyone, it was hard to ignore when
something or someone didn't feel quite right. And when a
young boy vanished on the eighth of March two thousand
and seven, those uneasy feelings quickly turned to fear. The
search began almost immediately, neighbors pouring into the streets, calling
his name, checking sheds and backyards. But beneath the frantic
(02:40):
urgency and even darker thought crept in. Maybe the danger
hadn't come from outside the neighborhood. Maybe the monster had
been living among them all along. Christopher Michael Barrios Junior
(03:05):
lived in one of those modest mobile homes in Canal
Mobile Home Park in Brunswick, Georgia, born on the second
of January two thousand and one, to Mike Barrios and
Latrina Keith. Christopher was six years old in the spring
of two thousand and seven. He was the kind of
kid that left an impression. With a toil tied around
his shoulders like a cape. Christopher believed that he was
(03:26):
a superhero. He was often spotted darting between the mobile homes,
leaping over puddles, and saving invisible citizens from imaginary villains.
His favorites were Ben Ten and Spider Man, and he'd
watched them religiously, often re enacting entire scenes in the
dirt outside his home, clutching action figures in each hand.
Christopher lived with his father, Mike, and a trailer just
(03:48):
steps away from his grandparents, Suy and Jose Rodriguez. That
a proximity wasn't just convenience, it was a lifeline. Every
day after school, Christopher would hop off the boss and
make a bee line for his grandmather trailer. That became
his daily ritual, a safe place, a warm plate of
food and the sound of Ben Heem playing on the
computer while the scent of dinner filled the air. So
(04:10):
he absolutely doated on her grandson. She recollected. Every day
gets off the boss from school, he comes and stays
with me. Christopher loved his grandmother's cooking. His father, Mike,
was a hard worker. When a shift ended in the evening,
Christopher would walk the short, familiar path back to their
trailer from his grandparents place. Mike called I. Always tried
(04:33):
to get him what he wanted. He was a good
kid and he deserved it. The family was small, but
they were tightly bound. His mother, Latrina, was in jail
and Savannah at the time, but Christopher never lacked for affection.
He was a quiet child, content to stay close to home.
He was afraid of the dark, and he was especially
wary of dogs, particularly large, unfamiliar ones, but he had
(04:57):
a soft spot for cats. The Stir's bedroom was a
testament to everything that he loved. A twin bed covered
in superhero sheets, his shelves lined with Spider Man figurines,
bent ten gear, and tiny cars. It was his own universe, safe, predictable,
full of adventures and heroes, the kind who always saved
(05:18):
the day. Neighbors in the trailer park now him well.
He was the boy who raced down the gravel road
with a cape flapping behind him. The boy who knocked
politely on his grandma's door every day after school. The
boy who always waved when he saw you. March eighth,
(05:41):
two thousand and seven began like any other day in
the Canal Mobile Home Park, one of those early spring
evenings in Georgia where the light lingers a little. It
was a Thursday, quite an ordinary, filled with the usual routine.
Kids played on their dirt streets, chasing each other between trailers,
mother stood on porches with their arms folded. That afternoon,
(06:04):
six year old Christopher Barrios Junior did exactly what he
always did. He got off the school bus and walked
the well worn path to his grandparents' trailer. Inside his
grandmother Sue, was waiting, just like every other weekday. Christopher
kicked off his shoes, settled in front of the computer,
and clicked into his favorite Ben ten game. After a while,
(06:24):
Sue called him to the table. He ate quietly thanked
his grandmother, and then, just as he'd done countless times before,
he went back outside to play. It was just another
early evening on Horseshoe Lane. At approximately seven to fifteen pm,
Christopher's father, Mike was still at work when his phone
began to ring. On the other end of the line
(06:46):
was his girlfriend, Pamela. She was panicked as she told
him that Christopher hadn't come home. She'd searched the trailer,
the yard, check with the neighbors and Sue, but Christopher
was nowhere to be Found's heart sank. He dropped everything
and raced home. By the time he arrived, his family
was already in motion, so he had confirmed that Christopher
(07:08):
had left her trailer not too long after dinner. It
was supposed to be just a short walk home, less
than a minute. He'd done it countless times before, but
this time he never arrived. As darkness began to creep
over the sky, a quiet dread settled over the community.
Neighbors joined in the search, flashlights in hand. They found
(07:29):
out across the one point five mile radius of the
mobile home park, calling out his name. Some of the
children had seen him earlier that evening. If you said,
he'd been sitting at the swing set around five thirty pm,
just a stone's throw from his front door, but nobody
could say where he went after that. It was as
if he had vanished into thin air. There was a
(07:51):
canal that bordered the trailer park. It was dark, winding,
and overgrown. It wasn't a play as that Christopher ever
played near. In fact, he was afraid of it. Still
in desperation, the family went there. They pushed through the brush,
their flashlights sweeping across the water's edge, but there was
no sign of Christopher. Back at the trailer, the mood
(08:12):
was quickly shifting from worry to full blown fear. Christopher
never wandered far. He was quiet, shy, kind of boy
who liked his routines, who was cautious by nature. At last,
Mike picked up the phone and Dawn nine one one
to report his sun missing. As the sun rose over Brunswick,
(08:37):
Georgia on the morning of March ninth, the mood in
the canam Moobhile Home Park had shifted completely. What had
started as a community's quiet evening was now the scene
of urgency and desperation. Police officers, volunteers and family members
had searched through the night. There was no sign of
six year old Christopher Barrios Junior. By nou, everyone feared
(08:59):
the worst. The search kicked off at phil Throttle. It
was a coordinated multi agency effort. Officers combed through the
neighborhood on foot, while others drove altary and vehicles through
the thick brush and woods that bordered the park. A
helicopter circled overhead, its heat sensors scanning the earth below
for any sign of movement. The effort expanded rapidly up
(09:22):
Agan as a neighborhood search grew into a massive regional operation.
Within just twenty four hours, the FBI joined in, and
so did the Georgia Department of National Resources. Canals that
hugged the edges of the mobile home park were probed
and searched meticulously, but they found nothing. Sniffer dogs were
eventually brought in. They caught a scent that led them
(09:43):
from the swing set where neighbors had last seen Christopher,
to a wooden dock by the canal. Then the scent vanished.
By nightfall, frustration and fare had set In the next morning,
police made it official they were no longer trading this
as a simple missing child case. They said that Christopher
Barrios Junior had most likely been abducted. There were no witnesses.
(10:06):
Nobody had seen a car, no screams, no signs of
a struggle. It was as if Christopher had simply vanished
in broad daylight, a terrifying thought for every parent in
the area. Brunswick Police Chief Matt Doring addressed the growing
concern and said, a six year old boy doesn't just
disappear for this long on his own. The family too
(10:27):
struggled to grasp the nightmare. Christopher's uncle, Frank, who also
lived in the mobile home park, was in disbelief. He
said to reporters, I can't understand how this happened. There's
not too much that goes on around here. I mean,
this is a pretty safe place. Everybody pretty much minds
their own business. But the facts told a different story.
(10:52):
Police began interviewing residence door to door, and soon their
attention turned to two men who were already known to authorities.
There were two registered sex offenders that lived right there
on Horseshoe Lane. Detective stress that it was a rounting
part of a missing child investigation to interview nearby sex offenders,
(11:12):
but it was still an unsettling revelation for the residents.
As the search and interviews pressed on, posters with Christopher's
photograph began appearing all across town. Hundreds are printed, and
volunteers came out in force to stable them to lumpposts,
pin them to billet in boards, and tape them to
store front windows.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's Carolyn NAB's first day out to search with her
son John. I have eight grand babies, and if something
like this happened to me, I'd want people to help me.
As the daylight hours wind down, plans are already in
the works for morning bright and early back in gear.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
One of those volunteers was Eric Friedrich, a local man
who had never met Christopher but felt compelled to act.
He stated, I was working on my house this morning.
I heard about this on the radio, and I thought
I'd come over and join the group. Behind the swell
of support was a darker truth. Fear was tightening its grip.
(12:08):
The idea that a child predator could be lurking among
them was no longer abstract. It was personal. Parents began
keeping their children indoors. Yumy Embery, a local mother spoke
from Anny when she said, my kids are not going
out in the yard by themselves. I've been talking to
them more about strangers and not going out by themselves.
(12:29):
But amid the fear, the community stood united during a
candle like vigil. They gathered together one evening, each holding
a flickering candle against the cold. They prayed, they cried,
and they hoped. Sam Lyons, whose son was close friends
with Christopher, spoke through tears and said, we're all family.
He's a child of this community. By the fourth day
(12:59):
of the sun Arch, hope was beginning to unravel. On
the eleventh of March, detectives made an announcement. A twenty
six thousand dollar reward was now being offered for the
safe return of six year old Christopher. The search expanded
from woods to canals to four darker places, dumpsters, drainage ditches,
mobile parking lots, and deserted dirt roads off the fringes
(13:21):
of Glenn County. It was clear that detectives were no
longer just searching for Christopher. They were maybe searching for
his body, and as grim as that was, they were
also looking at the people who lived closest to him,
and that meant returning to the unsettling presence. Just across
the street, just a stone throw away from Christopher's front door,
(13:42):
lived a man that made the entire trailer park uneasy.
His name was George David Edenfield, and he was thirty
two years old. George lived with his parents, Peggy and David,
in a mobile home that sat directly across from where
Christopher lived with his father and his father's girlfriend. And
George was a registered sex offender. In June of nineteen
(14:04):
ninety seven, George had been convicted of two kinds of
child molestation after rubbing his clothed body against two young boys.
He served time, he was released, he registered, but nothing
about him really felt safe. Everyone in the Cannamo while
Home Park knew who he was. They warned their children
to avoid him. They spoke about him in hush tones.
(14:28):
George was strange, they said, and not in a way
that inspired sympathy. He stared at children boldly, openly, as
if he didn't care who saw him. Christopher's grandparents were
no exception. They knew George, and they kept a watchful eye.
And yet one day after school, Christopher came into his
grandparents home with an unexpected comment. George's nice grandma. It
(14:53):
was enough to chill Sue to the very bone. She
told her grandson firmly, stay away from George, Stay away
from that house. She didn't mince her words. They're bad people,
she told him, and she wasn't wrong because it wasn't
just George who posed a danger. His father, David Edenfield,
(15:14):
had his own disturbing past. Back in nineteen ninety four,
he pleaded guilty to incest after molesting his own daughter.
Despite all of this, they remained right there in the
heart of the community, and at the time of Christopher's disappearance,
George was technically on probation. Just three days before Christopher vanished,
(15:34):
George had been sentenced to ten years of probation for
violating George's sex Offender Registry restrictions. He had been caught
living with him when thousend feet of a playground in
downtown Brunswick, a clear violation of a state law that
passed just the year previous. That law was designed to
keep predators away from vulnerable areas schools, churches, daycares, skill
(15:56):
bus stops, the very place where children lived in Plague.
The judge had chosen probation, but George could have been
sent to prison if that had happened. If George Edenfield
had been behind bars, then maybe, just maybe, Christopher Barrios
Junior would still be alive. By this point in the investigation,
(16:24):
one name had risen above all the others, George Edenfield.
The attention of detectives had zeroed in on the man
across the street, and it wasn't without cause. During a
sweep of the trailer park, search teams discovered something small,
almost insignificant, on its own. In the Edenfield's front yard,
they came across a Star Wars lightsaber toy. It belonged
(16:45):
to Christopher. At first glance, it didn't raise any alarm.
Christopher often played across the street his grandmother, Sue, lived nearby.
But taken into context, it was the first sign of
something sinister. And then there was something else, something deeply unsettling.
While neighbors were out in droves, canvassing every inch of land,
(17:07):
calling out Christopher's name, handing out flyers, the Edenfields remained inside. George, David,
and Peggy. All three of them stayed behind closed doors,
but they were watching. Detectives noticed them peering out through
the curtains over and over again, and it wasn't long
before witnesses started to speak up. Terry Frank and neighbor
(17:30):
came forward with something disturbing. She told detectives that on
the very afternoon the Christopher disappeared, she had seen the
little boy outside the Aidenfield trailer. She didn't know that
George was a sex offender, but she knew instinctively that
something about him was off. She commented, he kept hitting
on my kids and others. George would stand and watch
(17:53):
the kids, and so would David. Detectives didn't waste any time.
They brought George Aidenfield in for questioning. George sat down
in the interview room and within minutes he began to talk.
He told them something they had feared from the very beginning.
Christopher was dead. He said he had watched from the
(18:13):
window as the skill Boss dropped Christopher off that afternoon.
He claimed that the devil had told him to kill
the little boy. George said he lured Christopher over to
the trailer under the pretense of playing video games, and
once inside he confessed tom a lasting and killing him.
But the story didn't stay consistent. One moment, George insisted
(18:36):
that Christopher was dead, the next he changed his tune
and said he was still alive. He refused to say
where the body was. He mumbled that he was scared
of going to prison. The detectives didn't need him to
say much more. They already knew the case was no
longer a search. It was a murder investigation, and the
(18:57):
deeper they dug into the Edenfield household, the darker the
story became. Just one day after a twenty six thousand
dollars reward was announced, detectives made their first arrest. It
(19:21):
wasn't for murder, not yet. George Edenfield was taken into
custody and charged with violating his probation, specifically for living
too close to children. They didn't yet have the evidence
to prove he had killed Christopher, but his disturbing confession
and the mounting suspicions gave detectives enough cause to act.
(19:41):
In cases like this, it's not uncommon for police to
arrest a suspect on any charge they can, just to
keep them in custody while they continue building the bigger case.
While George was behind bars, things were unfolding fast. That
same day, two employees from Atlanta Natural Gas arrived at
the Edenfield trailer to check for methane gas. It was
(20:02):
a routine check, but what they found was anything but routine.
Their detectors picked up high levels of methane, a gas
often produced by decomposing organic matter. Bodies included. Detectives now
believe what they had fared from the beginning, that Christopher
was dead and that this body had been hidden. Did
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O l O g Y. Later that same day, Peggy
Edenfield was arrested, and it was in the interrogation room,
(21:50):
under ours of pressure that Peggy broke. She began to talk.
At first, she said she had walked into George's bedroom
and found Christopher playing video games. She told investigators she
had warned her son to send him home, that he
was a registered sex offender after all, but then she relented.
Peggy told them George has the mind of a five
(22:13):
year old. She said she allowed Christopher to stay as
long as the door stayed open, but the next time
she looked into the room, she said she found George
molesting the little boy, and then she said she washed
as her son strangled Christopher to death. She described how
George washed Christopher's neck with soap and water, trying to
(22:33):
erase his fingerprints. But just like George, Peggy's story began
to change. She now claimed that it wasn't just George.
She said that David, her husband and George's father, had
helped to kill Christopher. Then another name surfaced, Donald Diale.
Donald was a family friend. Much like George. She was
(22:56):
mentally impaired, with the cognitive capacity of a child. He
had once lived at Hope House, a residential facility for
people with mental disorders. That was where he had first
met the Edenfields. According to Peggy, Donald had come over
to help hook up cable converter boxes, but when he arrived,
David had recruited him into the cover up. She said
(23:19):
that they stuffed Christopher's body into trash bags, loaded him
into a vehicle, and drove out near Brunswick Airport to
dump his remains. By now detectives weren't just dealing with
one suspect. George Edenfield was already in Costaday, but now
his parents, Peggy and David, were arrested on charges of
concealing a death, obstruction of an officer, and giving a
(23:40):
false statement. Donald Dale was also arrested on the same charges.
Four adults, all entangled in something that sounded like a
horror movie, and yet one question remained unanswered. Where was Christopher.
(24:08):
Brunswick Airport was only a mile from the trailer park
where Christopher had lived. It sat at the edge of
coastal Georgia, surrounded by a sprawl of woodland and marsh,
thick with trees and nearly impossible to search in full.
The dense undergrowth in isolation made it the kind of
place where people went to dumb things they didn't want found.
(24:28):
On the morning of the fifteenth of March, four days
after George Peggy and David Edenfield had been arrested, the
search led police into those woods. There was a heavy
law enforcement presence spread across the area coming the underbrush,
and then something caught their attention. Corporal Jesse Cook and
Sergeant John Harwell noticed car tracks veering off the road
(24:51):
and cutting a shallow curve towards the tree line. They
stopped their car, stepped out, and just beyond the foliage,
around fifteen feet off the road, they saw something. It
was a black trash bag, half concealed in the brush.
As they approached, an overwhelming stent met them. It was
the unmistakable smell of decomposition. Inside the bag was the
(25:15):
newde and badly decomposed body of Christopher Michael Barrios Junior. Mike,
his father, was informed of the discovery. He said he
wanted to see his son for one final time. Police
Chief Matt Doring later reflected that was the hardest part.
When it's your only son that's been killed and you
(25:35):
want to go and look for the last time. That's tough.
The Edenfields had given so many different version of events,
it was hard to know what to believe. But the
truth when it finally emerged, was far worse than anybody
(25:56):
could have ever imagined. The breakthrough creator. The day after
Christopher's body was found, David Edenfield had cracked. He told
investigators that he had walked into George's bedroom and found
his wife and son there with Christopher. He said George
removed Christopher's clothing and then molested him. He said that
(26:18):
he was innocent, telling the detectives, no, sir, I'm not
a killer. It's a horrible, horrible thing to do. I
don't know why George did it. That was all he
was willing to say at first. When detectives placed photographs
of Christopher's decomposed body in front of him. David started
to talk. He said that it wasn't just George, it
(26:41):
wasn't just him, it was the entire family. David admitted
that he and George had taken turns molesting Christopher while Peggy,
his wife, watched and masturbated. The horrific abuse lasted for
two hours, and all throughout it all, christ he begged.
(27:02):
David said he told them that he was going to
tell his parents, but they didn't stop. David said that
George then announced that they would need to kill Christopher.
He wrapped his hands around the little boy's throat and
began to choke him. Christopher didn't scream, He just cried.
He said no and stop, over and over again. George
(27:24):
didn't stop, and neither did David. David told detectives that
he placed his own hands on top of his sons
and helped him finish the job. Detective Raymond Sarrow asked him,
you saw your opportunity when George was choking him, to
see what it felt like. David replied, yes, sir, and
then he said something that left detective stunt. Christopher was dead.
(27:49):
I guess it excited all of us. After the murder,
David said that Peggy and Donald Dale put Christopher's body
in a black trash bag and stashed in the back
room of the trailer. He claimed that Dale had been
there the entire time. He was supposedly there to fix
a TV. Later, the group put the bag in the
trunk of a car and drove it out to a
(28:10):
field to dispose of but they didn't like that spot,
so they turned back. David said that he went back
inside while the rest went back out and left Christopher's
body where it was eventually found. At one point, detectives
left David alone in the interrogation room with the photographs
of Christopher in front of him. David picked them up,
(28:32):
muttered to himself, and then tossed them aside. When Detective
Sorrow returned and asked what he thought, David responded, it's
my fault. I should have been a grown man and
stopped it, but I didn't. I should be punished, I
guess go to prison and get killed. Forth. When asked
whether he felt anything when he looked at the images,
(28:53):
he said, it's a horrible, horrible sight. It never should
have happened, and autop's he would confirm the horrors that
David had described. Christopher had been as fixated, and he
had extensive injuries to his throat, genitals, and legs. There
was even a human bite mark on his back. The
(29:13):
level of decomposition made it difficult to recover DNA, but
investigators found zliva on Christopher's back and saman traces on
the plastic bags he had been stuffed into. As details
of the case came out, Prosecutor Kelly said, this is
one of the most horrific crimes that I have seen
in twenty one years. On the twenty first of March,
(29:34):
the community of Brunswick came together once more. This time
it wasn't to search or hope. It was to say goodbye.
Christopher's funeral was held at Ado Miller and Son's funeral Home.
People arrived in silence. Some carried flowers, others brought toys
in spider Man figurines. Spider Man had been Christopher's favorite.
(29:56):
Near the front entrance to the Macintosh room, a wicker
basket filled with basketball sat alongside a bowl of colorful markers.
Children lined up one by one and quietly signed their names.
They left drawings and little messages of love inside the
walls were lined with wreaths delicate flowers arranged in circles.
(30:18):
At the center of it all was Christopher smallwooden casket
adorned with the Spider Man wreath. Beside it stood his father, Mike.
He stood tall, unmoving his eyes to fixed on his son.
A tiny bicycle sat to the side. He looked at
the mourners and said, quietly, that's my little boy's bike.
(30:39):
He loved Spider Man. Mike's mother, Sue, stood silently beside him.
His grandfather Lewis, sat nearby. A walking stick was across
his lap, and his eyes were on the floor. As
people offered their condolences, he didn't look up, He just cried.
Around eight hundred people came to Christopher's funeral that day, teachers, friends,
(31:01):
strangers who had never met him but felt as though
they knew him. A Fire Department honor guard stood vigil
over the casket, a tribute to little boy whose short
life had touched so many. Before the service began, Christopher's mother,
the Traina, stepped forward. She placed her hand gently on
the casket, bowed her head, and prayed. The service was
(31:24):
led by Reverend Chris Foster, who addressed the room and said,
if we make decisions out of anger and hurt, were
not honoring Christopher. He was a peaceful child, a wonderful,
beautiful young man. But even as the community mourned, justice
was already moving forward. Just hours before the funeral of
(31:44):
grand jury returned indictments against George, David, and Peggy Edenfield.
Each was charged with murder, child molestation, enticing a child
for indecent purposes, and false imprisonment. Prosecutors announced that they
would seek the death penel against all three. Only Donald
Dale was spared the capital charge. He wasn't accused of
(32:06):
harming Christopher directly, but he had allegedly helped dispose of
his body after the murder. He now faced charges of
concealing a death and tampering with evidence grames that carried
a potential sentence of one to ten years in prison.
The Edenfields would all be tried separately, a process that
promised to be as grilling and painful as the investigation itself.
(32:39):
In the weeks that followed the arrest, the Edenfields did
everything they could to keep the grizzly truth of what
happened to Christopher from the public. Peggy's defense attorney, Richard
Allen fouled the motion, asking that all pre trial hearings, records,
and other court documents be closed to both the media
and the public. He also requested that anybody involved in
the case be bored from speaking about it. But for
(33:01):
those who had already lived through the unimaginable, it felt
like a cruel request. Christopher's grandmother, Sue said, I think
Peggy will still get a fair trial. Christopher didn't get
traded fairly, but I think she will. The cases moved
painfully slow through the justice system, delayed by legal wrangling
and mental evaluations. Then in December, Donald Dale asked the
(33:26):
judge to consider a play agreement. He claimed he had
a diminished mental capacity and offered to plead guilty to
a single felony count of giving false statements. In exchange,
he would serve a five year sentence suspended if he
entered a facility for people with developmental disabilities. He also
agreed to be banned from Glenn County. His attorney, John Weltzer,
(33:50):
argued that Dale had been manipulated by the Edenfields. He
said he lied and made all those inconsistent statements to
the police because he was scared he's mentally retarded, and
because he was scared, he told them what they wanted
to hear. Phone records backed part of Dale's claim that
he wasn't involved. He had received a call from the
(34:12):
Edenfields aroundy at thirty p m the night that Christopher vanished.
They told him that they had a new video game system.
Dale arrived at their trailer shortly after nine p m,
just before police showed up to begin their search. While
the judge weighed Dale's play, there was a major shift
in Peggy's case. It was announced that she would no
(34:33):
longer face the death penalty. Instead, Peggy had agreed to
testify against both her husband and her son in exchange
for a possible sentence of life in prison with parole.
Just days later, Dale's play agreement was accepted. Judge Stephen
Scarlett ordered a mental health evaluation and sentenced Dale to
three more months in jail, followed by three and a
(34:55):
half years of probation in a state home for the
mentally disabled. Meanwhile, the Edenfield's cases continued their slow crawl
towards trial. As the one year anniversary of Christopher's death approached,
his mother filed a longful death lawsuit The lawsuit named
Sharon O'Quinn, the owner of the trailer park where Christopher
(35:17):
had lived with his father. According to Lutrina, O'Quinn knowingly
rented homes to convicted child molesters, making the community dangerous
for children like Christopher. She also filed a lawsuit against
a caseworker from the Georgia Department of Children and Family Services.
She alleged that the worker had acted in a grossly
(35:37):
negligent matter when approving Christopher's placement with his father, Mike,
and then, in an unimaginable twist, the Barrios family was
forced to endure another blue In October two thousand and eight,
a photograph of Christopher was used as a background prop
in an episode of General Hospital Night Shift. The image,
(35:58):
which had been used without permission, appeared briefly on a
computer screen during a scene, sparking outrage. ABC, the network
behind the show, issued a formal apology and launched an
investigation into how the photo had ended up on the set,
but it wasn't enough. The Barrios family ultimately sued ABC
for up to seventy five thousand dollars for the unauthorized
(36:21):
use of their son's image. David was the first of
the Edenfields to stand trial. By the thirtieth of September
two thousand and nine, a jury had been selected and ceded.
They had been brought in from jeff They of vis County.
(36:43):
Opening statements were then ready to begin. Prosecutor John Johnson
stood before the jury and revealed the horrific details of
Christopher's murder. He referred to what had happened as the
most horrible two hours of his life. He said that
he had pleaded with the Edens as they stripped him
naked and sexually assaulted him and then killed him. He
(37:05):
said to the jury, Christopher Barrios didn't want to be there.
He told them to let him go. He said, I
want to leave, let me go. Don't do this. I'm
going to tell my parents. He was stripped of his
clothes sin sexually molested by George Edenfield. Then David Edenfield
became part of it and began molesting Christopher too. The
(37:26):
prosecutor then described the murder, telling the jury George Aidenfield
initially put his hands around Christopher's neck and began to
choke him, and at that point in time, David Edenfield,
who was participating in all of this, put his hands instinctively,
as you will hear him say, on top of George
Denfield's hands and helped him take the life of Christopher Barrios.
(37:50):
David's defense attorney, James Yancey told the jury that David's son, George,
was a convicted child molester who had confessed to killing Christopher.
Aim that David's confession was influenced by the police officers
who questioned him. However, he stopped short of claiming the
confession was coerced. The prosecution then began their case by
(38:11):
calling Christopher's family to testify. They spoke about the day
of the disappearance and searching for him before calling police.
The prosecution then presented David's videotaped confession. After it was played,
Detective Raymond Sorrow testified about David's confession. Christopher was dead
and disposed of by the time police arrived at the
(38:33):
trailer park to search for him. He said he also
spoke about George's confession, telling the jury, I asked if
the devil told him to do anything to hurt the
little boy. He told me, yes, that the devil told
him to kill. Testimony was then presented about Donald Dale.
While David had claimed that he was present for the murder,
(38:53):
his landlord, Tim Friend, said otherwise. He said that he
was with Dale from nine a m. That morning until
about at forty five p m. By this point, Christopher
was already dead and disposed of. The pathologist who performed
Christopher's autopsy, doctor Jamie Downes, testified next. He said that
(39:13):
his supply of oxygen had been choked off when his
windpipe voice blocks and carried it artery had been crushed.
He testified the most likely means this was done by
was a forearm sleeper chokehold around the neck, or by
placing the palms of the hands on opposite sides of
the neck and compressing inward. He spoke about the injuries
(39:35):
that were consistent with sexual abuse, telling the jury they
had been sustained while Christopher was still alive. The prosecution
then produced their final witness, Peggy Edenfield. Peggy said that
on the day Christopher was killed, she had found him
in her son's bedroom playing video games. She claimed she
had grabbed Christopher by the hand, led him to the door,
(39:58):
and then walked him home. However, Peggy then recanted that statement.
Peggy then said she didn't try to get Christopher out
of the home, even though she knew her son was
a sex offender who wasn't allowed to be near children.
Peggy then tried to distance herself from the sexual assault
and murder. She said that when she left the bathroom,
(40:19):
she found her husband and son sodomizing Christopher. Peggy repeatedly
sighed and hesitated as she testified. She told the jury,
my son had his hands around the boy's neck, and
my husband had his hands on top of George's I
tried to get my husband's hands off my son's and
my son's off the boy's neck, but I couldn't. She
(40:43):
admitted that there was a phone near by, but she
didn't call nine one one or thing to run outside
for help. She explained, I didn't do nothing. I didn't
know my neighbor's that good, Peggy said. The David carried
Christopher's body from their trailer to the trunk of the car.
The videotaped interrogation of Peggy was then played for the jury.
(41:06):
It corroborated much of what David had said during his interrogation.
She described both her husband and George sexually assaulting Christopher
and then strangling him together. She even admitted to masturbating
while they sexually assaulted and killed him. After that, both
the prosecution and defense rested. The defense didn't call a
(41:28):
single witness. The closing arguments were then presented. Prosecutor Stephen
Kelly reminded the jury of David's confession. He also highlighted
Peggy's confession and testimony, as well as the autopsy evidence.
He said that all of these things substantiated the confession,
telling the jury, I tell you the evidence in this case,
(41:50):
as confusing as it may be, all boils down to this.
David Edenfield has convicted himself with his own words. Defense
attorney James Yancey said during his closing arguments that David
was a common everyday man who had been beaten down
by his vindictive wife and a burden of a son.
He stated, there's no DNA evidence of anybody other than Christopher.
(42:14):
The jury were then sent off to deliberate. It took
them just two hours to reach a verdict. They found
David aiden feeled guilty. Less than an hour later, the
same jury were back for the sentencing phase. The prosecution
called psychologist Philip Barron, who testified that David was mentally
able to tell the difference between right and wrong. Then
(42:36):
there were victim impact statements. Mike became emotional as he
recalled how Christopher smiled would cheer him up on his
bad days. Through tears, he said, I often look at
his pictures and it hurts so bad that I won't
see this child grow up to be a man. Christopher's grandmother, Sue, stated,
my only joy is my kids, and a chunk of
(42:56):
it's gone. I had to quit my job. It's hard
to do anything with all of this. The jury deliberated
for just two hours again before deciding that David Edenfield
to serve to die. The judge then sentenced him to death.
He additionally sentenced him to life on two counts of
aggravated child molestation and twenty years each on charges of
(43:18):
child molestation and cruelty to children. Outside of court, Mike
said that he wanted to be present for the execution.
He stated, if I'm not dead by then, I'll be there,
and so will my mom. After David was sent to
(43:40):
death row, the lawyers for his son, George, argued that
he was not mentally competent to defend himself in court.
In August, Judge Scarlett ruled that George was mentally incompetent
and ordered him committed to a state mental hospital. His
defense attorney, Gerald Word, said, he knows he's going to
a hospital. We explained that to him, but I'm not
sure he really understands what that means. I'm not sure
(44:04):
this won't be a lifetime process for him. Christopher's grandmother, Sue,
had some comments after the court hearing. She stated, he
ain't crazy. He's smart as a damn whip. He's got
them all filled. He's putting on a good shoe. Mike
wasn't in court for the hearing. Sue said that he
often went to his son's grave and just sat there
(44:25):
alone and cried. In September of twenty eleven, Peggy was
sentenced to sixty years in prison after she pleaded guilty
to five of the eight charges against her. She had
pleaded guilty but mentally disabled, to false imprisonment, child molestation
for masturbating while Christopher was sectually assaulted and killed, second
degree cruelty to children, concealing the death of another, and
(44:48):
tampering with evidence. Afterwards, Mike commented that he didn't want
to plead deal. He said he was happy that Peggy
would never get out of prison, but that the play
offered no closure. Stayed Christopher wouldn't have wanted me bargaining
like that. It's good to say she'll die in prison,
but she deserves worse. Nothing will bring Christopher back. Today,
(45:12):
all of the eden Fields remain locked up. David and
Peggy are in prison, while George is committed to a
state mental health facility. In twenty eleven, he was examined
by Karen Bailey Smith, head of forensic Services for the
State Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. She found
that he didn't understand the death penalty. When she asked
(45:35):
him what he thought it meant, he responded, I can
get an injection and go to sleep. She asked for
how long, he replied, like for the rest of my life.
He believed the judge's role in a trial was simply
to say all rise and be seated. He didn't understand
(45:55):
a play telling the doctor. If I played guilty, I
go to you or to the hospital. If I plead
not guilty, I go home. It's unlikely that George Edenfield
will ever stand trial. Well, Bestie's that is it for
(46:37):
this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
for listening, and i'd like to say a massive thank
you to my newest supporters up on Patroon, d C Bray,
ash Vea, and Wendy. Your support up on patroon seriously
goes such a long way, and I genuinely am eternally grateful.
If you'd like to join, I upload adfrey in early
(46:58):
release episodes behind the scene, and I also send out
a thank you card along with some cool merch. There's
also a bunch of bonus Morbidology Plus episodes that aren't
on the regular podcast platforms. If you'd like to support
the show in another way, please consider leaving a rating
and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you
(47:20):
may be listening. Remember to check aside at morbidology dot
com for more information about this episode and to read
some true crime articles. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
stay safe, and have an amazing week.
Whether it's the thickness of the woods or murky canals.
Volunteers searching for six year old Christopher Barrios say the
words give up is nowhere in their mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Brunswick is a city situated along the southeast coast of
Georgia that estaped in rich history in southern charm. But
it's cobblestone street, small straped oaks, and sprawling marshlands. It's
a place where life moves a little slower. It's a
city that prides itself on its tight knit community, a
place where when something happens to one family, it feels
(01:12):
like it happens to you all. Just outside the city limits,
talcked off Canal Road, near the steady rush of Interstate
ninety five, sits the Canal Mobile Home Park. It's a
modest patchwork of single wides and trailers that circle around
a road called Horseshoe Lane. It's a quiet area, mostly
working class families and retirees, where kids ride their bikes
(01:33):
in the street and dogs bark from behind chain link fences.
Life in the park wasn't glamorous, but it was familiar.
Among the rows of weather worn homes, there was one
family that never quite blended in. People notice them not
because they were lloud or friendly, but because they watched.
The father would sit out on the steps and stare.
(01:56):
The son had a way of looking at the neighborhood
kids that made people feel uncomfortable. Some residents whispered about him.
They said that he had a record that he was
convicted sex offender. Others just kept their distance, but behind
closed doors. More than a few parents had warned their
children to stay away from that trailer. In a place
(02:17):
where everyone knows everyone, it was hard to ignore when
something or someone didn't feel quite right. And when a
young boy vanished on the eighth of March two thousand
and seven, those uneasy feelings quickly turned to fear. The
search began almost immediately, neighbors pouring into the streets, calling
his name, checking sheds and backyards. But beneath the frantic
(02:40):
urgency and even darker thought crept in. Maybe the danger
hadn't come from outside the neighborhood. Maybe the monster had
been living among them all along. Christopher Michael Barrios Junior
(03:05):
lived in one of those modest mobile homes in Canal
Mobile Home Park in Brunswick, Georgia, born on the second
of January two thousand and one, to Mike Barrios and
Latrina Keith. Christopher was six years old in the spring
of two thousand and seven. He was the kind of
kid that left an impression. With a toil tied around
his shoulders like a cape. Christopher believed that he was
(03:26):
a superhero. He was often spotted darting between the mobile homes,
leaping over puddles, and saving invisible citizens from imaginary villains.
His favorites were Ben Ten and Spider Man, and he'd
watched them religiously, often re enacting entire scenes in the
dirt outside his home, clutching action figures in each hand.
Christopher lived with his father, Mike, and a trailer just
(03:48):
steps away from his grandparents, Suy and Jose Rodriguez. That
a proximity wasn't just convenience, it was a lifeline. Every
day after school, Christopher would hop off the boss and
make a bee line for his grandmather trailer. That became
his daily ritual, a safe place, a warm plate of
food and the sound of Ben Heem playing on the
computer while the scent of dinner filled the air. So
(04:10):
he absolutely doated on her grandson. She recollected. Every day
gets off the boss from school, he comes and stays
with me. Christopher loved his grandmother's cooking. His father, Mike,
was a hard worker. When a shift ended in the evening,
Christopher would walk the short, familiar path back to their
trailer from his grandparents place. Mike called I. Always tried
(04:33):
to get him what he wanted. He was a good
kid and he deserved it. The family was small, but
they were tightly bound. His mother, Latrina, was in jail
and Savannah at the time, but Christopher never lacked for affection.
He was a quiet child, content to stay close to home.
He was afraid of the dark, and he was especially
wary of dogs, particularly large, unfamiliar ones, but he had
(04:57):
a soft spot for cats. The Stir's bedroom was a
testament to everything that he loved. A twin bed covered
in superhero sheets, his shelves lined with Spider Man figurines,
bent ten gear, and tiny cars. It was his own universe, safe, predictable,
full of adventures and heroes, the kind who always saved
(05:18):
the day. Neighbors in the trailer park now him well.
He was the boy who raced down the gravel road
with a cape flapping behind him. The boy who knocked
politely on his grandma's door every day after school. The
boy who always waved when he saw you. March eighth,
(05:41):
two thousand and seven began like any other day in
the Canal Mobile Home Park, one of those early spring
evenings in Georgia where the light lingers a little. It
was a Thursday, quite an ordinary, filled with the usual routine.
Kids played on their dirt streets, chasing each other between trailers,
mother stood on porches with their arms folded. That afternoon,
(06:04):
six year old Christopher Barrios Junior did exactly what he
always did. He got off the school bus and walked
the well worn path to his grandparents' trailer. Inside his
grandmother Sue, was waiting, just like every other weekday. Christopher
kicked off his shoes, settled in front of the computer,
and clicked into his favorite Ben ten game. After a while,
(06:24):
Sue called him to the table. He ate quietly thanked
his grandmother, and then, just as he'd done countless times before,
he went back outside to play. It was just another
early evening on Horseshoe Lane. At approximately seven to fifteen pm,
Christopher's father, Mike was still at work when his phone
began to ring. On the other end of the line
(06:46):
was his girlfriend, Pamela. She was panicked as she told
him that Christopher hadn't come home. She'd searched the trailer,
the yard, check with the neighbors and Sue, but Christopher
was nowhere to be Found's heart sank. He dropped everything
and raced home. By the time he arrived, his family
was already in motion, so he had confirmed that Christopher
(07:08):
had left her trailer not too long after dinner. It
was supposed to be just a short walk home, less
than a minute. He'd done it countless times before, but
this time he never arrived. As darkness began to creep
over the sky, a quiet dread settled over the community.
Neighbors joined in the search, flashlights in hand. They found
(07:29):
out across the one point five mile radius of the
mobile home park, calling out his name. Some of the
children had seen him earlier that evening. If you said,
he'd been sitting at the swing set around five thirty pm,
just a stone's throw from his front door, but nobody
could say where he went after that. It was as
if he had vanished into thin air. There was a
(07:51):
canal that bordered the trailer park. It was dark, winding,
and overgrown. It wasn't a play as that Christopher ever
played near. In fact, he was afraid of it. Still
in desperation, the family went there. They pushed through the brush,
their flashlights sweeping across the water's edge, but there was
no sign of Christopher. Back at the trailer, the mood
(08:12):
was quickly shifting from worry to full blown fear. Christopher
never wandered far. He was quiet, shy, kind of boy
who liked his routines, who was cautious by nature. At last,
Mike picked up the phone and Dawn nine one one
to report his sun missing. As the sun rose over Brunswick,
(08:37):
Georgia on the morning of March ninth, the mood in
the canam Moobhile Home Park had shifted completely. What had
started as a community's quiet evening was now the scene
of urgency and desperation. Police officers, volunteers and family members
had searched through the night. There was no sign of
six year old Christopher Barrios Junior. By nou, everyone feared
(08:59):
the worst. The search kicked off at phil Throttle. It
was a coordinated multi agency effort. Officers combed through the
neighborhood on foot, while others drove altary and vehicles through
the thick brush and woods that bordered the park. A
helicopter circled overhead, its heat sensors scanning the earth below
for any sign of movement. The effort expanded rapidly up
(09:22):
Agan as a neighborhood search grew into a massive regional operation.
Within just twenty four hours, the FBI joined in, and
so did the Georgia Department of National Resources. Canals that
hugged the edges of the mobile home park were probed
and searched meticulously, but they found nothing. Sniffer dogs were
eventually brought in. They caught a scent that led them
(09:43):
from the swing set where neighbors had last seen Christopher,
to a wooden dock by the canal. Then the scent vanished.
By nightfall, frustration and fare had set In the next morning,
police made it official they were no longer trading this
as a simple missing child case. They said that Christopher
Barrios Junior had most likely been abducted. There were no witnesses.
(10:06):
Nobody had seen a car, no screams, no signs of
a struggle. It was as if Christopher had simply vanished
in broad daylight, a terrifying thought for every parent in
the area. Brunswick Police Chief Matt Doring addressed the growing
concern and said, a six year old boy doesn't just
disappear for this long on his own. The family too
(10:27):
struggled to grasp the nightmare. Christopher's uncle, Frank, who also
lived in the mobile home park, was in disbelief. He
said to reporters, I can't understand how this happened. There's
not too much that goes on around here. I mean,
this is a pretty safe place. Everybody pretty much minds
their own business. But the facts told a different story.
(10:52):
Police began interviewing residence door to door, and soon their
attention turned to two men who were already known to authorities.
There were two registered sex offenders that lived right there
on Horseshoe Lane. Detective stress that it was a rounting
part of a missing child investigation to interview nearby sex offenders,
(11:12):
but it was still an unsettling revelation for the residents.
As the search and interviews pressed on, posters with Christopher's
photograph began appearing all across town. Hundreds are printed, and
volunteers came out in force to stable them to lumpposts,
pin them to billet in boards, and tape them to
store front windows.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It's Carolyn NAB's first day out to search with her
son John. I have eight grand babies, and if something
like this happened to me, I'd want people to help me.
As the daylight hours wind down, plans are already in
the works for morning bright and early back in gear.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
One of those volunteers was Eric Friedrich, a local man
who had never met Christopher but felt compelled to act.
He stated, I was working on my house this morning.
I heard about this on the radio, and I thought
I'd come over and join the group. Behind the swell
of support was a darker truth. Fear was tightening its grip.
(12:08):
The idea that a child predator could be lurking among
them was no longer abstract. It was personal. Parents began
keeping their children indoors. Yumy Embery, a local mother spoke
from Anny when she said, my kids are not going
out in the yard by themselves. I've been talking to
them more about strangers and not going out by themselves.
(12:29):
But amid the fear, the community stood united during a
candle like vigil. They gathered together one evening, each holding
a flickering candle against the cold. They prayed, they cried,
and they hoped. Sam Lyons, whose son was close friends
with Christopher, spoke through tears and said, we're all family.
He's a child of this community. By the fourth day
(12:59):
of the sun Arch, hope was beginning to unravel. On
the eleventh of March, detectives made an announcement. A twenty
six thousand dollar reward was now being offered for the
safe return of six year old Christopher. The search expanded
from woods to canals to four darker places, dumpsters, drainage ditches,
mobile parking lots, and deserted dirt roads off the fringes
(13:21):
of Glenn County. It was clear that detectives were no
longer just searching for Christopher. They were maybe searching for
his body, and as grim as that was, they were
also looking at the people who lived closest to him,
and that meant returning to the unsettling presence. Just across
the street, just a stone throw away from Christopher's front door,
(13:42):
lived a man that made the entire trailer park uneasy.
His name was George David Edenfield, and he was thirty
two years old. George lived with his parents, Peggy and David,
in a mobile home that sat directly across from where
Christopher lived with his father and his father's girlfriend. And
George was a registered sex offender. In June of nineteen
(14:04):
ninety seven, George had been convicted of two kinds of
child molestation after rubbing his clothed body against two young boys.
He served time, he was released, he registered, but nothing
about him really felt safe. Everyone in the Cannamo while
Home Park knew who he was. They warned their children
to avoid him. They spoke about him in hush tones.
(14:28):
George was strange, they said, and not in a way
that inspired sympathy. He stared at children boldly, openly, as
if he didn't care who saw him. Christopher's grandparents were
no exception. They knew George, and they kept a watchful eye.
And yet one day after school, Christopher came into his
grandparents home with an unexpected comment. George's nice grandma. It
(14:53):
was enough to chill Sue to the very bone. She
told her grandson firmly, stay away from George, Stay away
from that house. She didn't mince her words. They're bad people,
she told him, and she wasn't wrong because it wasn't
just George who posed a danger. His father, David Edenfield,
(15:14):
had his own disturbing past. Back in nineteen ninety four,
he pleaded guilty to incest after molesting his own daughter.
Despite all of this, they remained right there in the
heart of the community, and at the time of Christopher's disappearance,
George was technically on probation. Just three days before Christopher vanished,
(15:34):
George had been sentenced to ten years of probation for
violating George's sex Offender Registry restrictions. He had been caught
living with him when thousend feet of a playground in
downtown Brunswick, a clear violation of a state law that
passed just the year previous. That law was designed to
keep predators away from vulnerable areas schools, churches, daycares, skill
(15:56):
bus stops, the very place where children lived in Plague.
The judge had chosen probation, but George could have been
sent to prison if that had happened. If George Edenfield
had been behind bars, then maybe, just maybe, Christopher Barrios
Junior would still be alive. By this point in the investigation,
(16:24):
one name had risen above all the others, George Edenfield.
The attention of detectives had zeroed in on the man
across the street, and it wasn't without cause. During a
sweep of the trailer park, search teams discovered something small,
almost insignificant, on its own. In the Edenfield's front yard,
they came across a Star Wars lightsaber toy. It belonged
(16:45):
to Christopher. At first glance, it didn't raise any alarm.
Christopher often played across the street his grandmother, Sue, lived nearby.
But taken into context, it was the first sign of
something sinister. And then there was something else, something deeply unsettling.
While neighbors were out in droves, canvassing every inch of land,
(17:07):
calling out Christopher's name, handing out flyers, the Edenfields remained inside. George, David,
and Peggy. All three of them stayed behind closed doors,
but they were watching. Detectives noticed them peering out through
the curtains over and over again, and it wasn't long
before witnesses started to speak up. Terry Frank and neighbor
(17:30):
came forward with something disturbing. She told detectives that on
the very afternoon the Christopher disappeared, she had seen the
little boy outside the Aidenfield trailer. She didn't know that
George was a sex offender, but she knew instinctively that
something about him was off. She commented, he kept hitting
on my kids and others. George would stand and watch
(17:53):
the kids, and so would David. Detectives didn't waste any time.
They brought George Aidenfield in for questioning. George sat down
in the interview room and within minutes he began to talk.
He told them something they had feared from the very beginning.
Christopher was dead. He said he had watched from the
(18:13):
window as the skill Boss dropped Christopher off that afternoon.
He claimed that the devil had told him to kill
the little boy. George said he lured Christopher over to
the trailer under the pretense of playing video games, and
once inside he confessed tom a lasting and killing him.
But the story didn't stay consistent. One moment, George insisted
(18:36):
that Christopher was dead, the next he changed his tune
and said he was still alive. He refused to say
where the body was. He mumbled that he was scared
of going to prison. The detectives didn't need him to
say much more. They already knew the case was no
longer a search. It was a murder investigation, and the
(18:57):
deeper they dug into the Edenfield household, the darker the
story became. Just one day after a twenty six thousand
dollars reward was announced, detectives made their first arrest. It
(19:21):
wasn't for murder, not yet. George Edenfield was taken into
custody and charged with violating his probation, specifically for living
too close to children. They didn't yet have the evidence
to prove he had killed Christopher, but his disturbing confession
and the mounting suspicions gave detectives enough cause to act.
(19:41):
In cases like this, it's not uncommon for police to
arrest a suspect on any charge they can, just to
keep them in custody while they continue building the bigger case.
While George was behind bars, things were unfolding fast. That
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(20:02):
a routine check, but what they found was anything but routine.
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often produced by decomposing organic matter. Bodies included. Detectives now
believe what they had fared from the beginning, that Christopher
was dead and that this body had been hidden. Did
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O l O g Y. Later that same day, Peggy
Edenfield was arrested, and it was in the interrogation room,
(21:50):
under ours of pressure that Peggy broke. She began to talk.
At first, she said she had walked into George's bedroom
and found Christopher playing video games. She told investigators she
had warned her son to send him home, that he
was a registered sex offender after all, but then she relented.
Peggy told them George has the mind of a five
(22:13):
year old. She said she allowed Christopher to stay as
long as the door stayed open, but the next time
she looked into the room, she said she found George
molesting the little boy, and then she said she washed
as her son strangled Christopher to death. She described how
George washed Christopher's neck with soap and water, trying to
(22:33):
erase his fingerprints. But just like George, Peggy's story began
to change. She now claimed that it wasn't just George.
She said that David, her husband and George's father, had
helped to kill Christopher. Then another name surfaced, Donald Diale.
Donald was a family friend. Much like George. She was
(22:56):
mentally impaired, with the cognitive capacity of a child. He
had once lived at Hope House, a residential facility for
people with mental disorders. That was where he had first
met the Edenfields. According to Peggy, Donald had come over
to help hook up cable converter boxes, but when he arrived,
David had recruited him into the cover up. She said
(23:19):
that they stuffed Christopher's body into trash bags, loaded him
into a vehicle, and drove out near Brunswick Airport to
dump his remains. By now detectives weren't just dealing with
one suspect. George Edenfield was already in Costaday, but now
his parents, Peggy and David, were arrested on charges of
concealing a death, obstruction of an officer, and giving a
(23:40):
false statement. Donald Dale was also arrested on the same charges.
Four adults, all entangled in something that sounded like a
horror movie, and yet one question remained unanswered. Where was Christopher.
(24:08):
Brunswick Airport was only a mile from the trailer park
where Christopher had lived. It sat at the edge of
coastal Georgia, surrounded by a sprawl of woodland and marsh,
thick with trees and nearly impossible to search in full.
The dense undergrowth in isolation made it the kind of
place where people went to dumb things they didn't want found.
(24:28):
On the morning of the fifteenth of March, four days
after George Peggy and David Edenfield had been arrested, the
search led police into those woods. There was a heavy
law enforcement presence spread across the area coming the underbrush,
and then something caught their attention. Corporal Jesse Cook and
Sergeant John Harwell noticed car tracks veering off the road
(24:51):
and cutting a shallow curve towards the tree line. They
stopped their car, stepped out, and just beyond the foliage,
around fifteen feet off the road, they saw something. It
was a black trash bag, half concealed in the brush.
As they approached, an overwhelming stent met them. It was
the unmistakable smell of decomposition. Inside the bag was the
(25:15):
newde and badly decomposed body of Christopher Michael Barrios Junior. Mike,
his father, was informed of the discovery. He said he
wanted to see his son for one final time. Police
Chief Matt Doring later reflected that was the hardest part.
When it's your only son that's been killed and you
(25:35):
want to go and look for the last time. That's tough.
The Edenfields had given so many different version of events,
it was hard to know what to believe. But the
truth when it finally emerged, was far worse than anybody
(25:56):
could have ever imagined. The breakthrough creator. The day after
Christopher's body was found, David Edenfield had cracked. He told
investigators that he had walked into George's bedroom and found
his wife and son there with Christopher. He said George
removed Christopher's clothing and then molested him. He said that
(26:18):
he was innocent, telling the detectives, no, sir, I'm not
a killer. It's a horrible, horrible thing to do. I
don't know why George did it. That was all he
was willing to say at first. When detectives placed photographs
of Christopher's decomposed body in front of him. David started
to talk. He said that it wasn't just George, it
(26:41):
wasn't just him, it was the entire family. David admitted
that he and George had taken turns molesting Christopher while Peggy,
his wife, watched and masturbated. The horrific abuse lasted for
two hours, and all throughout it all, christ he begged.
(27:02):
David said he told them that he was going to
tell his parents, but they didn't stop. David said that
George then announced that they would need to kill Christopher.
He wrapped his hands around the little boy's throat and
began to choke him. Christopher didn't scream, He just cried.
He said no and stop, over and over again. George
(27:24):
didn't stop, and neither did David. David told detectives that
he placed his own hands on top of his sons
and helped him finish the job. Detective Raymond Sarrow asked him,
you saw your opportunity when George was choking him, to
see what it felt like. David replied, yes, sir, and
then he said something that left detective stunt. Christopher was dead.
(27:49):
I guess it excited all of us. After the murder,
David said that Peggy and Donald Dale put Christopher's body
in a black trash bag and stashed in the back
room of the trailer. He claimed that Dale had been
there the entire time. He was supposedly there to fix
a TV. Later, the group put the bag in the
trunk of a car and drove it out to a
(28:10):
field to dispose of but they didn't like that spot,
so they turned back. David said that he went back
inside while the rest went back out and left Christopher's
body where it was eventually found. At one point, detectives
left David alone in the interrogation room with the photographs
of Christopher in front of him. David picked them up,
(28:32):
muttered to himself, and then tossed them aside. When Detective
Sorrow returned and asked what he thought, David responded, it's
my fault. I should have been a grown man and
stopped it, but I didn't. I should be punished, I
guess go to prison and get killed. Forth. When asked
whether he felt anything when he looked at the images,
(28:53):
he said, it's a horrible, horrible sight. It never should
have happened, and autop's he would confirm the horrors that
David had described. Christopher had been as fixated, and he
had extensive injuries to his throat, genitals, and legs. There
was even a human bite mark on his back. The
(29:13):
level of decomposition made it difficult to recover DNA, but
investigators found zliva on Christopher's back and saman traces on
the plastic bags he had been stuffed into. As details
of the case came out, Prosecutor Kelly said, this is
one of the most horrific crimes that I have seen
in twenty one years. On the twenty first of March,
(29:34):
the community of Brunswick came together once more. This time
it wasn't to search or hope. It was to say goodbye.
Christopher's funeral was held at Ado Miller and Son's funeral Home.
People arrived in silence. Some carried flowers, others brought toys
in spider Man figurines. Spider Man had been Christopher's favorite.
(29:56):
Near the front entrance to the Macintosh room, a wicker
basket filled with basketball sat alongside a bowl of colorful markers.
Children lined up one by one and quietly signed their names.
They left drawings and little messages of love inside the
walls were lined with wreaths delicate flowers arranged in circles.
(30:18):
At the center of it all was Christopher smallwooden casket
adorned with the Spider Man wreath. Beside it stood his father, Mike.
He stood tall, unmoving his eyes to fixed on his son.
A tiny bicycle sat to the side. He looked at
the mourners and said, quietly, that's my little boy's bike.
(30:39):
He loved Spider Man. Mike's mother, Sue, stood silently beside him.
His grandfather Lewis, sat nearby. A walking stick was across
his lap, and his eyes were on the floor. As
people offered their condolences, he didn't look up, He just cried.
Around eight hundred people came to Christopher's funeral that day, teachers, friends,
(31:01):
strangers who had never met him but felt as though
they knew him. A Fire Department honor guard stood vigil
over the casket, a tribute to little boy whose short
life had touched so many. Before the service began, Christopher's mother,
the Traina, stepped forward. She placed her hand gently on
the casket, bowed her head, and prayed. The service was
(31:24):
led by Reverend Chris Foster, who addressed the room and said,
if we make decisions out of anger and hurt, were
not honoring Christopher. He was a peaceful child, a wonderful,
beautiful young man. But even as the community mourned, justice
was already moving forward. Just hours before the funeral of
(31:44):
grand jury returned indictments against George, David, and Peggy Edenfield.
Each was charged with murder, child molestation, enticing a child
for indecent purposes, and false imprisonment. Prosecutors announced that they
would seek the death penel against all three. Only Donald
Dale was spared the capital charge. He wasn't accused of
(32:06):
harming Christopher directly, but he had allegedly helped dispose of
his body after the murder. He now faced charges of
concealing a death and tampering with evidence grames that carried
a potential sentence of one to ten years in prison.
The Edenfields would all be tried separately, a process that
promised to be as grilling and painful as the investigation itself.
(32:39):
In the weeks that followed the arrest, the Edenfields did
everything they could to keep the grizzly truth of what
happened to Christopher from the public. Peggy's defense attorney, Richard
Allen fouled the motion, asking that all pre trial hearings, records,
and other court documents be closed to both the media
and the public. He also requested that anybody involved in
the case be bored from speaking about it. But for
(33:01):
those who had already lived through the unimaginable, it felt
like a cruel request. Christopher's grandmother, Sue said, I think
Peggy will still get a fair trial. Christopher didn't get
traded fairly, but I think she will. The cases moved
painfully slow through the justice system, delayed by legal wrangling
and mental evaluations. Then in December, Donald Dale asked the
(33:26):
judge to consider a play agreement. He claimed he had
a diminished mental capacity and offered to plead guilty to
a single felony count of giving false statements. In exchange,
he would serve a five year sentence suspended if he
entered a facility for people with developmental disabilities. He also
agreed to be banned from Glenn County. His attorney, John Weltzer,
(33:50):
argued that Dale had been manipulated by the Edenfields. He
said he lied and made all those inconsistent statements to
the police because he was scared he's mentally retarded, and
because he was scared, he told them what they wanted
to hear. Phone records backed part of Dale's claim that
he wasn't involved. He had received a call from the
(34:12):
Edenfields aroundy at thirty p m the night that Christopher vanished.
They told him that they had a new video game system.
Dale arrived at their trailer shortly after nine p m,
just before police showed up to begin their search. While
the judge weighed Dale's play, there was a major shift
in Peggy's case. It was announced that she would no
(34:33):
longer face the death penalty. Instead, Peggy had agreed to
testify against both her husband and her son in exchange
for a possible sentence of life in prison with parole.
Just days later, Dale's play agreement was accepted. Judge Stephen
Scarlett ordered a mental health evaluation and sentenced Dale to
three more months in jail, followed by three and a
(34:55):
half years of probation in a state home for the
mentally disabled. Meanwhile, the Edenfield's cases continued their slow crawl
towards trial. As the one year anniversary of Christopher's death approached,
his mother filed a longful death lawsuit The lawsuit named
Sharon O'Quinn, the owner of the trailer park where Christopher
(35:17):
had lived with his father. According to Lutrina, O'Quinn knowingly
rented homes to convicted child molesters, making the community dangerous
for children like Christopher. She also filed a lawsuit against
a caseworker from the Georgia Department of Children and Family Services.
She alleged that the worker had acted in a grossly
(35:37):
negligent matter when approving Christopher's placement with his father, Mike,
and then, in an unimaginable twist, the Barrios family was
forced to endure another blue In October two thousand and eight,
a photograph of Christopher was used as a background prop
in an episode of General Hospital Night Shift. The image,
(35:58):
which had been used without permission, appeared briefly on a
computer screen during a scene, sparking outrage. ABC, the network
behind the show, issued a formal apology and launched an
investigation into how the photo had ended up on the set,
but it wasn't enough. The Barrios family ultimately sued ABC
for up to seventy five thousand dollars for the unauthorized
(36:21):
use of their son's image. David was the first of
the Edenfields to stand trial. By the thirtieth of September
two thousand and nine, a jury had been selected and ceded.
They had been brought in from jeff They of vis County.
(36:43):
Opening statements were then ready to begin. Prosecutor John Johnson
stood before the jury and revealed the horrific details of
Christopher's murder. He referred to what had happened as the
most horrible two hours of his life. He said that
he had pleaded with the Edens as they stripped him
naked and sexually assaulted him and then killed him. He
(37:05):
said to the jury, Christopher Barrios didn't want to be there.
He told them to let him go. He said, I
want to leave, let me go. Don't do this. I'm
going to tell my parents. He was stripped of his
clothes sin sexually molested by George Edenfield. Then David Edenfield
became part of it and began molesting Christopher too. The
(37:26):
prosecutor then described the murder, telling the jury George Aidenfield
initially put his hands around Christopher's neck and began to
choke him, and at that point in time, David Edenfield,
who was participating in all of this, put his hands instinctively,
as you will hear him say, on top of George
Denfield's hands and helped him take the life of Christopher Barrios.
(37:50):
David's defense attorney, James Yancey told the jury that David's son, George,
was a convicted child molester who had confessed to killing Christopher.
Aim that David's confession was influenced by the police officers
who questioned him. However, he stopped short of claiming the
confession was coerced. The prosecution then began their case by
(38:11):
calling Christopher's family to testify. They spoke about the day
of the disappearance and searching for him before calling police.
The prosecution then presented David's videotaped confession. After it was played,
Detective Raymond Sorrow testified about David's confession. Christopher was dead
and disposed of by the time police arrived at the
(38:33):
trailer park to search for him. He said he also
spoke about George's confession, telling the jury, I asked if
the devil told him to do anything to hurt the
little boy. He told me, yes, that the devil told
him to kill. Testimony was then presented about Donald Dale.
While David had claimed that he was present for the murder,
(38:53):
his landlord, Tim Friend, said otherwise. He said that he
was with Dale from nine a m. That morning until
about at forty five p m. By this point, Christopher
was already dead and disposed of. The pathologist who performed
Christopher's autopsy, doctor Jamie Downes, testified next. He said that
(39:13):
his supply of oxygen had been choked off when his
windpipe voice blocks and carried it artery had been crushed.
He testified the most likely means this was done by
was a forearm sleeper chokehold around the neck, or by
placing the palms of the hands on opposite sides of
the neck and compressing inward. He spoke about the injuries
(39:35):
that were consistent with sexual abuse, telling the jury they
had been sustained while Christopher was still alive. The prosecution
then produced their final witness, Peggy Edenfield. Peggy said that
on the day Christopher was killed, she had found him
in her son's bedroom playing video games. She claimed she
had grabbed Christopher by the hand, led him to the door,
(39:58):
and then walked him home. However, Peggy then recanted that statement.
Peggy then said she didn't try to get Christopher out
of the home, even though she knew her son was
a sex offender who wasn't allowed to be near children.
Peggy then tried to distance herself from the sexual assault
and murder. She said that when she left the bathroom,
(40:19):
she found her husband and son sodomizing Christopher. Peggy repeatedly
sighed and hesitated as she testified. She told the jury,
my son had his hands around the boy's neck, and
my husband had his hands on top of George's I
tried to get my husband's hands off my son's and
my son's off the boy's neck, but I couldn't. She
(40:43):
admitted that there was a phone near by, but she
didn't call nine one one or thing to run outside
for help. She explained, I didn't do nothing. I didn't
know my neighbor's that good, Peggy said. The David carried
Christopher's body from their trailer to the trunk of the car.
The videotaped interrogation of Peggy was then played for the jury.
(41:06):
It corroborated much of what David had said during his interrogation.
She described both her husband and George sexually assaulting Christopher
and then strangling him together. She even admitted to masturbating
while they sexually assaulted and killed him. After that, both
the prosecution and defense rested. The defense didn't call a
(41:28):
single witness. The closing arguments were then presented. Prosecutor Stephen
Kelly reminded the jury of David's confession. He also highlighted
Peggy's confession and testimony, as well as the autopsy evidence.
He said that all of these things substantiated the confession,
telling the jury, I tell you the evidence in this case,
(41:50):
as confusing as it may be, all boils down to this.
David Edenfield has convicted himself with his own words. Defense
attorney James Yancey said during his closing arguments that David
was a common everyday man who had been beaten down
by his vindictive wife and a burden of a son.
He stated, there's no DNA evidence of anybody other than Christopher.
(42:14):
The jury were then sent off to deliberate. It took
them just two hours to reach a verdict. They found
David aiden feeled guilty. Less than an hour later, the
same jury were back for the sentencing phase. The prosecution
called psychologist Philip Barron, who testified that David was mentally
able to tell the difference between right and wrong. Then
(42:36):
there were victim impact statements. Mike became emotional as he
recalled how Christopher smiled would cheer him up on his
bad days. Through tears, he said, I often look at
his pictures and it hurts so bad that I won't
see this child grow up to be a man. Christopher's grandmother, Sue, stated,
my only joy is my kids, and a chunk of
(42:56):
it's gone. I had to quit my job. It's hard
to do anything with all of this. The jury deliberated
for just two hours again before deciding that David Edenfield
to serve to die. The judge then sentenced him to death.
He additionally sentenced him to life on two counts of
aggravated child molestation and twenty years each on charges of
(43:18):
child molestation and cruelty to children. Outside of court, Mike
said that he wanted to be present for the execution.
He stated, if I'm not dead by then, I'll be there,
and so will my mom. After David was sent to
(43:40):
death row, the lawyers for his son, George, argued that
he was not mentally competent to defend himself in court.
In August, Judge Scarlett ruled that George was mentally incompetent
and ordered him committed to a state mental hospital. His
defense attorney, Gerald Word, said, he knows he's going to
a hospital. We explained that to him, but I'm not
sure he really understands what that means. I'm not sure
(44:04):
this won't be a lifetime process for him. Christopher's grandmother, Sue,
had some comments after the court hearing. She stated, he
ain't crazy. He's smart as a damn whip. He's got
them all filled. He's putting on a good shoe. Mike
wasn't in court for the hearing. Sue said that he
often went to his son's grave and just sat there
(44:25):
alone and cried. In September of twenty eleven, Peggy was
sentenced to sixty years in prison after she pleaded guilty
to five of the eight charges against her. She had
pleaded guilty but mentally disabled, to false imprisonment, child molestation
for masturbating while Christopher was sectually assaulted and killed, second
degree cruelty to children, concealing the death of another, and
(44:48):
tampering with evidence. Afterwards, Mike commented that he didn't want
to plead deal. He said he was happy that Peggy
would never get out of prison, but that the play
offered no closure. Stayed Christopher wouldn't have wanted me bargaining
like that. It's good to say she'll die in prison,
but she deserves worse. Nothing will bring Christopher back. Today,
(45:12):
all of the eden Fields remain locked up. David and
Peggy are in prison, while George is committed to a
state mental health facility. In twenty eleven, he was examined
by Karen Bailey Smith, head of forensic Services for the
State Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. She found
that he didn't understand the death penalty. When she asked
(45:35):
him what he thought it meant, he responded, I can
get an injection and go to sleep. She asked for
how long, he replied, like for the rest of my life.
He believed the judge's role in a trial was simply
to say all rise and be seated. He didn't understand
(45:55):
a play telling the doctor. If I played guilty, I
go to you or to the hospital. If I plead
not guilty, I go home. It's unlikely that George Edenfield
will ever stand trial. Well, Bestie's that is it for
(46:37):
this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
for listening, and i'd like to say a massive thank
you to my newest supporters up on Patroon, d C Bray,
ash Vea, and Wendy. Your support up on patroon seriously
goes such a long way, and I genuinely am eternally grateful.
If you'd like to join, I upload adfrey in early
(46:58):
release episodes behind the scene, and I also send out
a thank you card along with some cool merch. There's
also a bunch of bonus Morbidology Plus episodes that aren't
on the regular podcast platforms. If you'd like to support
the show in another way, please consider leaving a rating
and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you
(47:20):
may be listening. Remember to check aside at morbidology dot
com for more information about this episode and to read
some true crime articles. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
stay safe, and have an amazing week.
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