12-07-2010, 10:38 PM
Al.com.
MOBILE, Alabama -- Local authorities will resume their searches Wednesday in Alabama and Mississippi for the remains of two children presumed dead for at least six months.
Mobile police said Jonathan Chase DeBlase, 3, may have been killed as early as March while his sister, 5-year-old Natalie Alexis DeBlase may have died in June.
Their father, 27-year-old John DeBlase, admitted this week to dumping their lifeless bodies, one in Vancleave, Miss., and in Mobile, according to authorities. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday on charges of two counts of aggravated child abuse and abuse of a corpse.
DeBlase, according to statements he made during his bond hearing, has no plans to hire an attorney.
Efforts to organize a large search team to recover the body of Jonathan or Natalie were underway today in Mississippi.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said about 40 officers plan to search a 5-square-mile area north of Vancleave and near Miss. 57.
“We’re going to have 10 teams,” Byrd said. “Each team will have a team leader, and they will be in charge of a specific area.”
Byrd said the search will include the department’s mounted patrol, which has 25 patrol horses and two cadaver dogs. Byrd said Mobile officers would join the search and also have cadaver dogs.
Investigators plan to search close to Miss. 57 on foot and then span out on horses, Byrd said.
From what we’ve been told, the body is not that far off of the highway,” Byrd said. “We’ll do a line search and just go from there.”
Byrd said cases of missing and presumed dead children can cause even the toughest officers to breakdown with emotion.
“We need closure for everyone,” Byrd said. “I pray we find this child. It’s heartbreaking. At this point, we really don’t know if he’s telling us the truth, but we’re going to treat it like it is true.”
Heather Leavell-Keaton.JPGView full sizeHeather Leavell-Keaton
DeBlase told Jackson County authorities that he was high on pills when he dumped the bodies, but Mobile police question that claim.
“I don’t doubt that this guy has used drugs,” said Mobile police Deputy Chief James Barber. “But, to my understanding, there is no indication from him that he was using drugs at the time when he dumped the bodies.”
Barber said Mobile police would resume their search in a 6-mile-stretch of Citronelle, between Prine Road and Beverly Jeffries Highway “as early as” Wednesday. He declined to discuss the details of those planned searches.
Barber said, “Given the amount of time that’s passed, and because of the heat throughout the summer, the decomposition would have went really quickly. We may find clothing, and then we could find bones in the area of that clothing. At this point, we are looking for remains.”
The bodies were left, possibly covered with debris, but never buried, Barber said.
Mobile police spokesman Officer Christopher Levy said that since the search began for the children, several people have come forward through the media and to the department to report instances of the children being abused.
“We’ve got reports from people describing burns and injuries that needed medical attention,” Levy said. “And the amazing thing is no one reported these things when they were happening.”
Based on interviews with John DeBlase and Heather Leavell-Keaton, Levy said investigators believe Jonathan was killed in March and dumped in Vancleave, while his sister was killed in June and left in Citronelle. “We can’t say right now definitely how they died,” Levy said.
MOBILE, Alabama -- Local authorities will resume their searches Wednesday in Alabama and Mississippi for the remains of two children presumed dead for at least six months.
Mobile police said Jonathan Chase DeBlase, 3, may have been killed as early as March while his sister, 5-year-old Natalie Alexis DeBlase may have died in June.
Their father, 27-year-old John DeBlase, admitted this week to dumping their lifeless bodies, one in Vancleave, Miss., and in Mobile, according to authorities. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday on charges of two counts of aggravated child abuse and abuse of a corpse.
DeBlase, according to statements he made during his bond hearing, has no plans to hire an attorney.
Efforts to organize a large search team to recover the body of Jonathan or Natalie were underway today in Mississippi.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said about 40 officers plan to search a 5-square-mile area north of Vancleave and near Miss. 57.
“We’re going to have 10 teams,” Byrd said. “Each team will have a team leader, and they will be in charge of a specific area.”
Byrd said the search will include the department’s mounted patrol, which has 25 patrol horses and two cadaver dogs. Byrd said Mobile officers would join the search and also have cadaver dogs.
Investigators plan to search close to Miss. 57 on foot and then span out on horses, Byrd said.
From what we’ve been told, the body is not that far off of the highway,” Byrd said. “We’ll do a line search and just go from there.”
Byrd said cases of missing and presumed dead children can cause even the toughest officers to breakdown with emotion.
“We need closure for everyone,” Byrd said. “I pray we find this child. It’s heartbreaking. At this point, we really don’t know if he’s telling us the truth, but we’re going to treat it like it is true.”
Heather Leavell-Keaton.JPGView full sizeHeather Leavell-Keaton
DeBlase told Jackson County authorities that he was high on pills when he dumped the bodies, but Mobile police question that claim.
“I don’t doubt that this guy has used drugs,” said Mobile police Deputy Chief James Barber. “But, to my understanding, there is no indication from him that he was using drugs at the time when he dumped the bodies.”
Barber said Mobile police would resume their search in a 6-mile-stretch of Citronelle, between Prine Road and Beverly Jeffries Highway “as early as” Wednesday. He declined to discuss the details of those planned searches.
Barber said, “Given the amount of time that’s passed, and because of the heat throughout the summer, the decomposition would have went really quickly. We may find clothing, and then we could find bones in the area of that clothing. At this point, we are looking for remains.”
The bodies were left, possibly covered with debris, but never buried, Barber said.
Mobile police spokesman Officer Christopher Levy said that since the search began for the children, several people have come forward through the media and to the department to report instances of the children being abused.
“We’ve got reports from people describing burns and injuries that needed medical attention,” Levy said. “And the amazing thing is no one reported these things when they were happening.”
Based on interviews with John DeBlase and Heather Leavell-Keaton, Levy said investigators believe Jonathan was killed in March and dumped in Vancleave, while his sister was killed in June and left in Citronelle. “We can’t say right now definitely how they died,” Levy said.