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North Carolina A man accused of killing his four children appears to have spread the murders over several months after human remains were found inside the trunk of a vehicle at his home, a sheriff said Wednesday.
Wellington Delano Dickens III, 38, was charged Tuesday with four counts of murder. The sheriff’s office said investigators believe Dickens killed her three biological children, ages 6, 9 and 10, as well as her 18-year-old stepchild.
Dickens contacted Johnston County 911 late Monday night and said she had killed her children. She told deputies who arrived at the home on the outskirts of Zebulon, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Raleigh, that her four children were dead and placed inside a vehicle parked in her garage, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said.
The arrest warrant filed against Dickens lists the date of the murders as May 1. But Sheriff Steve Bizzell said at a news conference nearby smithfield Based on interviews Wednesday, investigators believe the deaths were spread out over time.
Bizzell said Dickens killed her 6-year-old in May, her 9-year-old in August, her 10-year-old in late August or early September, and her 18-year-old in September. He said the state medical examiner’s office is trying to determine how he died.
Bizzell said he did not yet know why Dickens murdered the children, “but as sheriff, as a father and as a grandfather, I can stand here and say there is no reason for a father to murder his children.”
Dickens is being held without bond pending a hearing Wednesday afternoon on three counts. He appeared in court for the first time on Tuesday in his first murder case. Records show he will be assigned an attorney, but no name was immediately listed.
Johnston County District Attorney Jason Waller said the investigation is active and ongoing.
Deputies responding to Dickens’ 911 call found her 3-year-old son alive inside the home, just as Dickens had told them, authorities said. The sheriff’s office said the 3-year-old boy was not harmed.
Bizzell said deputies found human remains in the trunk and that it appeared they had died some time ago.
Dickens’ great uncle told a television station on Tuesday that Dickens was an Iraq War veteran.
Some neighbors said Tuesday they don’t remember seeing the family, especially after the death of Dickens’ wife, Stephanie Rae Jones Dickens, in April 2024. Authorities determined that she died from complications of a miscarriage, and doctors ruled her death natural, Bizzell said.
Asked how the children’s deaths were concealed for so long, Sheriff Captain Don Pate said that family members were “very secluded” and Dickens’ extended family was not welcome to visit them.
“The neighbors said they never saw him come out, and he was homeschooled, so he was confined to the house,” Pate said.
Bizzell said deputies went to the same Zebulon home with emergency personnel when Stephanie Dickens died last year. The sheriff said it was then determined that she had experienced excessive bleeding the previous night, but she refused to seek medical treatment.