2 missing Fayetteville children found stabbed to death in Hoke County
FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina -- Two Fayetteville children reported missing and endangered have been found stabbed to death in Hoke County.
The Hoke County Sheriff's Office is investigating at a crime scene near N.C. Highway 211 and Army Road in the Raeford area.
Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said Genesis and Serenity Freeman - who were just 2-years-old and 4-days-old - were stabbed multiple times. Their bodies were found in a car parked in a wooded area.
"It's kind of hard to find the words to describe what this feels like," said Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin. "I know people read it, I know people see the story and hear about it, but to be out here on the scene and actually see this stuff, to see these children lifeless and brutally stabbed...I don't care how many years you've been in it. How many times you've been in it or seen things, this was not a good experience. Everybody's taking this real hard. Our heart goes out to the family, to the mother."
On Friday, the Fayetteville Police Department said the children's father, Tillman Freeman, was in custody and had refused to say where the children were. He was charged then with two counts of child abuse and child neglect. He's now also charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Fayetteville police said the children were at the center of a domestic-related incident between Freeman, 30, and his wife, who was at the hospital at the time, and Freeman left with the children.
"From what our investigation's telling us they had a dispute, where (Freeman) allegedly made accusations about the babies not being his, a child not being his or maybe her involvement with someone, and when he took the kids we understand he left in a rage," Peterkin told ABC11.
The children's relative, whose name is being withheld, spoke with ABC11 early Saturday morning, calling Freeman an "abuser."
"I feel sad and hurt, but there's nothing I can do about it," the relative said.
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