Inset: Mark Wright (Effingham County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Elwyn Crocker Sr. with his wife and kids (Facebook).
A Georgia uncle has admitted to helping his sister’s husband — a Walmart Santa Claus worker — kill two of his children and to hiding their bodies, reports say.
Mark Wright, of Effingham County, entered a guilty plea in late August to second-degree murder, cruelty to children in the first and second degrees, two counts of concealing the death of another, and false imprisonment, according to local ABC affiliate WJCL.
Court records viewed by Law&Crime show Wright was indicted in 2018 alongside his sister, Candice Crocker, and her husband, Elwyn Crocker Sr. — as well as other family members — for the deaths of the couple’s two children, Mary Crocker, 14, and her brother Elwyn Crocker Jr., also 14, in 2018 and 2016, respectively. Kim Wright, who is Mark Wright and Candice Crocker’s mother, was also charged and pleaded guilty to murder in 2020, along with Kim’s boyfriend, Roy Prater, according to court documents.
Mark Wright allegedly admitted to helping Elwyn Crocker Sr. with killing the kids and burying their bodies in Crocker Sr.’s backyard.
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Text messages allegedly reveal how the disturbing double-murder case unfolded, with Crocker Sr. — who went through pretrial hearings last month and is facing the possibility of the death penalty — communicating with his relatives while getting rid of his children’s bodies, according to prosecutors.
In one text, Crocker Sr. allegedly told his mother-in-law, Kim Wright, “Almost done burying Mary’s.”
Her apparently enthusiastic response: “Cool! How deep?”
Another text message exchange prosecutors intend to present to jurors includes when Crocker and his wife spoke negatively about Mary, according to local ABC affiliate WJCL.
“I think she’s been hit in the head too many times,” Crocker Sr. allegedly said.
After causing the teen girl to starve to death in October 2018, Crocker Sr. texted Kim Wright about being “almost done” with burying Mary in the backyard — acting spooked at one point by passing cars, according to prosecutors. “There was a car driving by, driving by very slowly,” Crocker Sr. allegedly told Wright. “I think it was a cop.”
Prosecutors have said Elwyn Jr. and Mary disappeared years apart, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Elwyn Jr. disappeared in November 2016, while Mary was last seen in October 2018. Neither of the children was ever reported missing.
In December 2018, police searched a farm property in Effingham County after receiving a tip from a person who was concerned about Mary’s whereabouts. When they started asking Crocker Sr. questions, he allegedly gave them information that led them to his backyard, where the children’s bodies were found. The family had been reported to the Division of Family and Children Services before the discovery, according to reports. The unnamed biological mother of the children was said to be homeless in South Carolina.
Details about the medical state of the children when they were killed have been revealed in court, including how Mary’s “body mass index was 8.6, which is drastically underweight,” according to a forensic pathologist who took the stand in May.
“Her body length was under 2nd percentile,” said Dr. Edmond Donaghue, former medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “Her actual weight was below 1st percentile,” Donaghue said. “I’ve never seen such a low number.”
Donaghue testified that Mary appeared to have starved to death, while Elwyn Jr.’s cause of death could not be determined, as his remains were just bones. Both deaths were ruled homicides.
Wright will be sentenced in October and faces up to 80 years in prison.
