Molester, dad abused boy while mom watched

SAVANNAH, Georgia (AP) -- A convicted child molester and his father took turns sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy while the molester's mother watched, then they choked the boy to death, according to an indictment issued Wednesday.
The indictment charges all three family members with murder and child molestation in the slaying of young Christopher Michael Barrios, whose body was found last Thursday inside a trash bag dumped by a roadside.
District Attorney Stephen D. Kelley said he will seek the death penalty against 32-year-old George David Edenfield, who has a prior child molestation conviction from 1997, and his parents, David and Peggy Edenfield.
"This is one of the most horrific crimes that I have seen in 21 years of prosecutions," Kelley said.
Christopher went missing for a week before police found his body about three miles from his trailer park home outside Brunswick, a Georgia port city 60 miles south of Savannah. The suspects lived in a mobile home across the street from the boy's grandmother.
The indictment contains grim details about the case that police and prosecutors had not previously revealed. It says Christopher died from asphyxiation March 8 -- the day he was reported missing -- after the suspects choked him while "ignoring his complaints that they were hurting him." The indictment does not say which of three caused the boy's death.

It also claims George Edenfield and his 58-year-old father sodomized the boy and forced him to perform oral sex while Peggy Edenfield watched and masturbated.
"They deserve the worst, for them to torture my son like that, every last one of them," said Mike Barrios, the slain boy's father.
A friend of the Edenfield family, Donald Dale, was indicted on charges of concealing a death and tampering with evidence. Kelley said Dale did not become involved until after Christopher had been killed.
Nathan Williams, the attorney for 57-year-old Peggy Edenfield, declined to comment Wednesday. Attorneys for George and David Edenfield did not immediately return phone calls.
Glynn County police arrested the Edenfields four days after the child vanished while playing alone outside. Police Chief Matt Doering said all three suspects confessed to playing roles in the boy's abduction.
Police have said Dale admitted to investigators he helped the Edenfields dispose of Christopher's body.
Other charges against the Edenfields include false imprisonment, cruelty to children and enticing a child for indecent purposes.
Police have described George David Edenfield as mentally slow, but not retarded and capable of understanding right from wrong.
Ironically, the Edenfields moved into the trailer park where Christopher lived last year because of a Georgia law intended to keep child molesters away from children. Sheriffs' deputies told George Edenfield in September that he had to leave his home near downtown Brunswick because it was too close to a playground. Georgia law prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools and other places that draw children.
His family went to live in the trailer park in October after George Edenfield was arrested for failing to move as ordered. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to probation March 5, three days before Christopher disappeared.
George Edenfield was required to register as a sex offender after he pleaded guilty in 1997 to molesting two boys, ages 7 and 9. Prosecutors said he rubbed his clothed body "in a sexual manner" against the boys, who also were fully dressed. He was sentenced then to 10 years on probation.
His father, David Edenfield, pleaded guilty to incest in 1994. He was accused of having sex with an adult relative who was not his son.


Copyright 2007 The --.

That's why I think death penalty should not be abolished in any country or any state.

And how would killing them help the boy?

It would prevent these three people (mom included) from doing this again,plus it would prevent them from reproducing.

Then, we could focus on helping the boy, who would be safe in the knowledge that he was protected from these idiots.

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And how would killing them help the boy?_______________

.....stupid question padre.

Why? Does killing people help others? Does this sort of revenge justice serve the public?

somewhat yes, we keep releasing sex offenders. As was shown in this article.

If you wont try and cure them, kill them.

If you wont treat a rabid animal to cure the rabies, then put it down.

It's called PREVENTION, not revenge. By executing these three people, you prevent them from doing this again. It's not revenge. Revenge is a term used by people who believe that nobody should be held accountable for their voluntary actions.

As a society, we have stopped worrying about preventing anything. All we do is try to be nice to people who don't deserve it.

The crime could also be prevented by putting these people in prison for a very long time, placing them on a sex-offender's list and making sure they never work or have access to children again.

the advantage with this is that it doesnt involve having to kill anyone. To me that sounds like an advantage worth paying for.

Save the money spent on keeping these misfits alive and give that money to people who need it to live within societies laws and keep the peace without hurting anyone else...

Throw money down the drain on a hopeless endeavor or help people who need it....

Doesn't seem like such a difficult choice to me...

firstly do you think if the prison system were to suddenly kill 50% of its inmates then the money would go to charity? somehow i doubt it.

but really the most important thing here is that these people, whatever they do, don't deserve murder. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the guy that flips the switch. would you do it? If you could you'd be a less thoughtful man than i imagined

There are many incurable behaviours. Pedophilia is just one. Also obnoxious and abhorrent is littering. Millions of Canadians do it and rape nature at every turn. And tailgating is another incurable disorder. The guy or girl that's groping your bumper has issues and they're not going to be resolved. It is an immutable law: once you've got the goof in you, you can't get it out.

I've been philosophically opposed to the death penalty for all my life.... yet when I read of crimes such as this, I am forced to wonder if I've got it all wrong.

I don't know if I could uphold my own stance on the death penalty were it my child. In fact, I don't know that I could be stopped from taking matters into my own hands. Could I flip the switch? I'm a bit shocked to hear my thoughts say "yes, dammit, if it was MY child that happened to, I think I would be driven to flip that switch". After that, not sure I'd be able to live with the horror of it all, including the drive within my own heart to flip that switch. I doubt it would bring me any relief or satisfaction. It wouldn't undo what my child had gone through. Yet, I know that drive would be akin to a need within me to eradicate in the worst possible way, the one who caused this to my child.

Hermanntrude, you're about to become a father. I promise you, it will change the way you feel and think about all kinds of things. I was and in many cases, still am quite attached to alot of idealistic notions about the way things should be. Lately, I'm being confronted over and over with the fact that the way things should be and the way things really are, are two entirely different things.

I'm also beginning to recognize that if I could or would not uphold my ideals in the face of experience, perhaps they're only meant to be ideals, not realistic solutions.

Herm

I believe that when a child is abused that the future of mankind itself will pay the price for that abuse.

I've not read anything that would suggest that this caliber of aberrant behavior is "curable"....

What's the number of people sacrificed to a life-time of emotional and psychological distress as product of this kind of behavior that would satisfy you that we simply let these people live while those we're prepared to let suffer....

Do people wear their seat belts because it makes sense or because there's a penalty that is enforced to ensure that better judgment prevails?

I'd settle for chemical castration and other alternatives to execution....ONCE.

It wouldnt help the boy. It would cause more stress and the child would regret it all their lives

this is why it's not your decision when it's your child. The death penalty is wrong morally, but it's understandable that parents of an abused child are likely to want the death of the perpetrator

You're correct that I am not yet a father and may change my feelings when i have a child of my own. I feel though that even if I do feel that someone should die for harming my child, it still shouldn't be allowed to happen.

I'd go far as to say this is probably scientifically proven fact. I'd also agree that in many situations it's not a "curable" behaviour.

By killing the perpetrator, their suffering won't be stopped, or even lessened. Many people who were the victim of a crime punished by death actually start to feel guilt after the death of the perpetrator. Killing is never a good answer.

Herm

I respectfully disagree. Kill the Taliban because their 'solution' to life is oppression ...execute the abusers and the murderers....they've chosen to live outside the boundaries of civil society....

It seems odd that we can kill Iraqis and Afghanis but when it comes to criminals we have second thoughts...

I am against the killing. I know wars have to happen but the whole idea makes me sick. Killing is bad. Always. At least with a criminal we have the choice. By the way i'm not entirely against the chemical castration idea in some really awful situations. Just no killing

Herm

The circle of life includes death. In a 'natural' schema...those organisms unfit to survive would become extinct....

Killing under the aegis of poor or no necessity is I would agree ...wrong from an ethical and moral standpoint...that said, we teach people how to treat us and the way we deal with people prepared to live outside the bounds of society...teach tolerance to an intolerable situation.

What's so bad about throwing them in prison in the general population for the rest of their lives? I think that's a much better punishment.

I admire your conviction about your convictions Hermanntrude. I too once felt the same way. Perhaps I will again some day. Not today though.

Hi Tracy..

How is depleting the resources of the whole in supporting the existence of someone who's elected to behave outside the bounds of civil society any benefit to the whole?

I live on far less per year than Canadians spend on maintaining prisons per capita...I've never comitted an anti-social act against anyone....why do I deserve to live a second class life while rapists and murderers recieve six times the benefits I do?

In a "natural schema" i'd be dead. I guess so would some of your relatives. Nature isn't fair. Humans can at least try to be

I agree with you that prisons are uneccesarily luxurious. empty them out, get rid of the frills,but you've got to expect it's going to be expensive, since the security has to be tight. It's not good that so much money should be spent on them, but at the same time I imagine it costs rather a lot to get someone sentenced to death and executed too. And I think that not killing these people is worth a very high price indeed

Herm

Why are you so afraid of death? I've been to the brink several times...no fear there for me. Life isn't 'fair' Herm...never has been. Is it 'fair' that millions die in hurricanes..tsunamis...earthquakes...

Death is a part of life.

It's more expensive to kill someone than to jail them for life, so the resources argument doesn't fly.

If you really wanted to live in prison, you know how to get there. Something tells me things are better on the outside no matter how bad they may be. You don't deserve to live a lesser life than they do. Something tells me that no matter how little financial resources you have, you live a much better life than they do.

The reason we shouldn't kill them is because unecessary killing is wrong. We're better than murderers and rapists because we don't kill people, we don't rape people. That's pretty simple to me. ]

Pedophiles do not get life sentences in Canada.

So change the law.

too many bleeding hearts for that to ever happen.

Tracey, Hermann et al, I know you're right. In my heart, I do know better. Killing is wrong, any way you look at it. I know that.

The utter injustice that one human being can wreak such havoc and pain upon another and there's NOTHING that can be done to completely heal or undo that is what's got me in a twist over this all. As much as I say I'd be driven to retribution, I know that those thoughts, and worse, acting on those thoughts would in the end, be the end of my sanity. Yet, doing nothing - apart from seeing the perp serve life in prison - would seem so trivial a response to such a loss.

Screwed either way.

No, capital punishment is likely not the answer. If it actually DID end the horror right then and there, I think I might just become a supporter of it. The reality is though, that there IS no answer to the fact that a crime like this doesn't end with the criminal act. The damage is perpetuated throughout the entire family's life until they are no more. It is this pain I beleive that drives the urge to retribution... a seeking to somehow alleviate or ease the horror of what has happened.

I wonder if any families who have seen the death penalty imposed on perps who killed their loved ones felt any better afterwards? I imagine it would seem a hollow victory when it was all said and done.