A Georgia man has admitted to helping bury the bodies of two children who were tortured and killed by family members in 2018.
Mark Wright, the children’s step-uncle, pleaded guilty on August 29 to charges connected to the deaths of 14-year-old Mary Crocker and her brother, 14-year-old Elwyn Crocker Jr.
Prosecutors said the children were abused, locked in dog crates, and starved before their deaths. Wright was one of five relatives indicted in the murders.
Highlights
- Mark Wright pled guilty to charges, including second-degree murder, related to the 2018 deaths of his step-niece and nephew.
- The children, Mary and Elwyn Crocker Jr., were abused, starved, locked in dog crates, and tortured before their deaths.
- Five family members were indicted; two pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences, while others, including the father, still face charges.
- Elwyn Crocker Sr., once a Walmart Santa, buried the children’s bodies in his backyard and texted his family during the burial.
Mark Wright pleaded guilty to helping bury the bodies of his step-niece and nephew in 2018
Image credits: Effingham County Sheriff's Office
Warning: Graphic Content
Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree cruelty to children, second-degree cruelty to children, two counts of concealing the death of another, and false imprisonment, District Attorney Robert Busbee announced in a statement on Friday, August 29.
He pleaded guilty under a plea agreement with prosecutors, which reduced his original charge of malice murder to second-degree murder and lowered one of the two counts of first-degree cruelty to children to a lesser count of second-degree, according to Busbee.
Wright now faces up to 80 years in prison instead of the death penalty, which was on the table before the agreement. He will be sentenced in October.
Image credits: Effingham County Sheriff's Office
The children’s father, Elwyn Crocker Sr., once worked as a Santa Claus at a Walmart in Guyton, Georgia. Prosecutors allege that he and other family members kept the children hidden away in their mobile home and subjected them to abuse.
Elwyn Crocker Jr., 14, was murdered in 2016, while his younger sister, Mary Crocker, also 14 at the time, was murdered in 2018.
Investigators later learned that Mary Crocker had been zip-tied, beaten, starved, and kept naked in a dog crate as punishment for failing to do chores, an Effingham County Sheriff’s Investigator testified in 2019. She was sometimes shocked with a stun gun.
Mary was last seen alive a few weeks before her body was discovered.
Elwyn had already been dead for nearly two years by then. Neither child was ever reported missing. Their bodies were found in the back of their father’s mobile home in Guyton in December 2018.
Crocker Sr. buried Mary in the backyard while texting family members about the process.
Five family members were indicted for the murders
Image credits: Effingham County Sheriff's Office
Elwyn Crocker Sr. messaged Kim Wright, Mark Wright's mother, and the children’s step-grandmother: “Almost done burying Mary’s body.”
Kim Wright responded, “Cool! How deep?”
He allegedly messaged Kim Wright while burying the body: “There was a car driving by, driving by very slowly, I think it was a cop.”
The two then messaged each other, making plans to go to the movies after burying Mary’s body.
A grand jury indicted five family members in 2019. Along with Mark Wright, Kim Wright, and Crocker Sr., the group included Crocker’s wife and the children’s step-mother, Candace Crocker, and Kim Wright’s boyfriend, Roy Prater.
Candice Crocker and Prater both pleaded guilty to murder in 2020 and are serving life sentences without parole.
Kim Wright and Crocker Sr. still face charges of malice murder, child cruelty, and concealing a death. Both have pleaded not guilty. Crocker Sr. could face the death penalty if convicted.
The discovery of their graves in their own backyard was described by deputies as one of the worst cases of child abuse they had ever seen.
“I’ve been doing this 41 years, and a while ago, I almost broke down in tears,” Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie said at a news conference in 2018.
“It’s that bad. I cannot understand how you do children like this. It’s horrible.”
“This case has weighed heavily on Effingham County for many years. While there is still a long road ahead, today’s plea is an important step toward accountability and justice for Elwyn Crocker Jr. and Mary Crocker,” Busbee said in a statement.
“I am relieved that this matter is finally moving forward after being stalled for so long. Our office remains committed to seeing this case through to its conclusion.”