November 15, 2025
UPDATE: Johnston County Man Charged With Four Counts Of Murder After Children’s Bodies Found In Car Trunk
JOHNSTON COUNTY – A Johnston County man has now been charged with four counts of murder after deputies discovered the remains of four children at his home late Monday night.
According to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, 911 dispatchers received a call around 10:09 p.m. Monday from a man later identified as Wellington Delano Dickens III, 38, who lives at 101 Springtooth Drive in Zebulon, off Earpsboro Road in northern Johnston County. During the call, Dickens reportedly told dispatchers that he had killed his children.
Deputies responded to the home and found Dickens at the scene. Authorities said he told them that his 3-year-old son was inside the house alive and that four other children were deceased inside the trunk of a vehicle in the garage. Deputies located the 3-year-old unharmed and discovered what appeared to be human remains in the vehicle’s trunk. Investigators said the remains appeared to have been there for an extended period of time.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the property and continued processing the scene with assistance from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
The victims have since been identified as his three children Leah Dickens, age 6; Zoe Dickens, age 9; Wellington Dickens, age 10; and his stepchild Sean Brasfield, age 18.
Dickens was initially charged with one count of murder in connection with the death of one of the children. The sheriff’s office confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Dickens has now been charged with three additional counts of murder, bringing the total to four. He remains held without bond in the Johnston County Jail.
Authorities said the investigation remains active, and additional details will be released as they become available.
—
This story has been updated
Discover more from JoCo Report
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
God bless their souls and my prayers of comfort and peace are with the family and I am praying the man’s soul.
Prayers for the innocent victims families, this has to be one of the hardest thing someone has to face in a family, May God give comfort to the ones that require it,
Wow!😳We’re living in some really dark times. Children should be off limits not matter what.
What is wrong with our system? our society! I don’t understand how there wasn’t one person, just one that wouldn’t notice these kids missing. Bodies were in the trunk long enough that someone should have missed them somewhere! We gotta start caring about people more. It’s a sad sad situation all the way around, their father killed them and society failed to notice. Prayers for anyone who may have lived these children and for their sweet innocent souls.
Sylvia I agree with you 150%. My heart aches for these children and family who was in absolute shock. Poor babies for what they have seen, heard, lived and suffered!! I just believe what we hear & see these days….. pure evil
Charged with one count of murder? I hope they are done with him. Where is the Mom or the Mom’s family. We have to do better. Prayers for these souls and the child that lived through this and survived.
my guess is until they’re able to prove multiple remains in the trunk 1 count gets him put in jail and kept there while the investigation is on going. My heart breaks for the kids, their mother passed last year. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors
We? Who is “we” ? I’m not responsible for this man’s actions. Quit trying to make society responsible for individuals actions. Typical lib.
Far from lib, thank you… But I hope someone would care enough to make sure anyone’s kids were okay after their Mom died, and yes, he deserves every punishment the law allows for each child’s death. Have a blessed day.
are you saying people didn’t care about these kids and that’s why they were murdered?
Thomas Payne, YOU are an a**, and yes WE as a society have to start being better humans. No one said you were directly responsible for their deaths. All she was saying is that we should care for our neighbors enough to notice when we haven’t seen 5 kids for a while and at least be concerned enough to question their whereabouts. It would have certainly been too late for those poor children by the time someone noticed they hadn’t seen them in a while, but maybe their little bodies wouldn’t have stayed in a trunk so long they decomposed. WE as a society failed every day when it comes to loving thy neighbor. Do better, be better! And just so ya know, before you put me in the Liberal category, I am not liberal, Im a proud Republican and a child of God who wants us all to be better humans.
So calling me an a** is your way of being a better human being? Nice.
Arent you a grown adult? Do better
Arent you a grown adult? Do better.
Dang Thomas, it’s more of a see something say something type of thing. I’m sure the neighbors thought to themselves “where are the kids? I haven’t seen them in a while” or maybe a teacher noticing a child hasn’t been in school for a while and calling or sending authorities to the home to do a well check, things of those nature. Not saying you are responsible for the man’s actions. Why look for a reason to be offended and have a smart comment? The situation is bigger than you.
Just the thought of something like this bothers most decent human beings, so imagine being the LEOs that were the first on scene and the ones who have to process and work the case. Just a reminder that theses officers are human too, and have families of their own when we’re blasted with the negative publicity in the media. Just a thought.
Mom passed last year after an illness.
Another article I read mentioned complications from pregnancy. They left the hospital with one of their babies, even though it was jaundiced and had not been released. Seems they were not big on medical treatment. Not saying mom deserved to die, but there are reasons we have doctors and hospitals.
Also, sounds like the kids weren’t enrolled in any nearby school districts, so I suspect they were homeschooled. After mom was no longer there, it was a lot for husband to cope with. Especially if he wasn’t getting any medical help for their grief and trauma. Still no excuse to kill your children. Watched Gretel & Hansel a few nights ago and this situation reminds me of the horror tale.
I’ll tell you what’s sad, the idiots that bring up politics in a story about the deaths of 4 children.
Shame on you.
From what I’ve read, she passed in 2024 from complications of childbirth. Not sure how true that is though.
The man admitted to it. He needs to be executed tomorrow. Unless you’re a liberal, then you want him to get therapy, grief counseling, free room and board until well and then turn him loose.
Fun fact: most religions are opposed to the death penalty. I know, republicans are not very Christian anymore, so that is fitting. Southern Baptist Convention are pro death penalty – again – fitting., also the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod were cited as being “in favor” of the death penalty. I have never heard of them and did not google to find out any information.
The religions opposed: American Baptist Churches, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Also the Unitarian Universalist Association is a major advocate to abolish the death penalty. The Catholic Church, of course.
Both the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements are publically opposed to the death penalty and the Orthodox Jewish Community has called for a moratorium on this.
This does not mean that every person attending these congregations feel the same way – every one is and individual and for now are able to have their own opinions and thoughts on the matter.
I am for the death penalty – in some cases
Many conservatives are, and have been, for decades against the death penalty. I’m not sure if your ignorance is showing or if you really need to be educated on the subject matter – either way – you really should step out of your echo chamber.
death penalty info o r g
By Lani Lamourex
Sources listed at bottom of article
Posted and updated July 28 2025
Literally, at the bottom of your post is the article you copied and pasted from. Besides…..who brought up religion?
You mentioned that liberals are against the death penalty and I wanted to point out to you that it has mainly been religious people that are against the death penalty. So are you saying that only liberals are religious and that Republicans are not? I am so tired of everything being blamed on liberals.
What does politics have to do with this man killing his children – absolutely nothing
What does politics have to do with the death penalty? In the past, it has historically been conservative religious groups that have been against it – that is all I was pointing out. Now people want to blame liberal politics when that is simply not true.
When I was a teenager and the death penalty was more active, It was always and I do mean always – religious factions that were protesting outside the prisons. It wasn’t a political thing… For them, it was a religious matter. – pro-life and all of that is not just about abortion, not for true believers – it was their stance on the right to take a life. Killing a murderer was the equivalent of two wrongs to make a right argument. Also there was the often quoted “let he who was without guilt cast the first stone.”
We are all guilty of something so yeah, I don’t think that’s a good quote to use in any type of criminal or civil trial. No one would ever serve a day in jail if we use that parameter.
Like I said earlier, I am for the death penalty in certain cases. Am I for the death penalty in every murder trial – absolutely not.
If you are not religious and have a stance on the death penalty (and abortion) – fine – but do not then bring religion into when giving your reasons why you have the stance you have. *You* didn’t ( I don’t think and I am not going back to look)- but others on here are throwing abortion into the mix so that’s why I mentioned it.
It wasn’t *all* copied and pasted – it was for information in case any one wanted to see where I got the information from. All of the religions against the death penalty – yes I got those from that article and they listed their sources – hence why I listed the article. I learned all of that in university. The rest of it was me typing my response to you. The article went into more depth, and even had more categories.
For some reason the US continues to lead the way in being divided over topics that are not even on the radar in other counties.
He Killed his children, I say set him on fire!!!!
It happens everyday to children who aren’t even born yet.
Doesn’t have anything to do with religion, has everything to do with pure evil. Why didn’t he kill his own sorry self. I would set him on fire.
Exactly
Your party is starving children, seniors and disabled veterans for Thanksgiving, take a seat and worry about the plank in your own eye. -proud liberal and huge fan of the death penalty.
Democrats won’t reopen the government “as is” while differences can be hashed out. They are holding y’all hostage and blaming it on the republicans so you will be mad at them for not giving you your handouts. Please wake up and discover theses people who promise all this free stuff in return for your vote, have never done anything good for you. When the economy is good, it benefits everyone even the people who are living off the system. Do not be fold. You could be getting your handouts just like normal if the Dems would vote to reopen the government as is and work out their differences on funding LGBQTIA studies in Uganda and the other billions of dollars they want to spend on nonsense.
This has jack all to do with LGBTQ+ people in Uganda and ALL to do with trying to retain affordable-ish healthcare for WORKING PEOPLE WHO PAY FOR THEIR OWN INSURANCE, like your hairdresser, mechanic, florist, dog groomer, and massage therapist. A mom who has her own mail salon could see her premiums go up by as much as TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH. We don’t want people thrown off health care while Taco Culo Gordo is spending billions on vanity projects and terrorizing the populace.
Yes Jenni! Would Jesus advocate taking food and healthcare away from the most marganilized, treat strangers with evil and demonstrate cruelty everyday while building a ballroom? How can Christians condone this behavior?
Spare me your hypocrisy. Your “party” kills babies…….kind of like this guy.
How does these children losing their life murdered by their own father have anything to do with politics this post is not the place for it instead you should be sending some prayers to the family if you don’t have the decency to do that then please ****
If you look his wife died unexpectedly in April 2024. Makes you wonder.
Where did you see this??
Hudson Funeral Home, Zebulon, website. Stephanie Dickens.
She passed during child birth:(
This is a very sad situation where was the family did anyone not care about these children after the mothers passing as I read on another article to check up on them or even the father to see if he needed some help how did nobody not missed these children …
Prayers to the family’s but there so much to ask like did the kids mom report them missing like who else lived in the home someone had be there helping him care for the 3 year old child and apparently 5 months they been missing just sad situation
How could this happen and go unnoticed by their families and schools and anyone living in that neighborhood? May God bless the innocent children.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✝️💟😇
Omgosh 😱my mind is going in so many directions
1. The school notifies parents of children absences-no response
2. Then school notifies social worker for home visit – no response
3. Then the law should have been notified of children missing
???? Is this wrong, right or maybe not verbatim but what ever!!! It could have saved a life or lives???
I’m so done with this system- it’s nonsense – My heart hurts for these children!!!! Save our children 🙏🙏🙏
What do you mean ‘done with this system’?
This SYSTEM didn’t kill these children.
So what someone else said that knows the family they lived a holistic lifestyle. So no Dr, kids were homeschooled. Mom apparently died while giving birth at home. These kids were living under the radar. I am curious to know where the relatives were. Like nothing prompted them to check in on the kids? In mom’s obituary it named several family members including parents and siblings. The neighbors were bringing snacks to the family at one point. How did they not notice the kids were not long around?
Why are y’all saying bless them and God this. ?? If there was a gawd SUPER SKY MAN!!! why didn’t he stop this from HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE!????
Prayers lifted for you. The nature of man is not controlled by God. Man has a will that makes poor decisions. God will be this man’s judge one day. Everyone is a sinner, a fact. Cain killed Abel. Moses killed an Egyptian. David killed Goliath. Man killed Christ. It’s very sad that this happened and a blind eye was turned. Those children are safe and in the arms of Jesus.
We live in an evil world because of the human choices and free will that God gave us. Thank God he called the police to report himself before another child was hurt. And thank God for peace that surpasses all understanding, to be provided to those that call on his name forevermore. This is not our home.
Exactly.
Where is the mother and the step mother?
What else has he done?
Mom passed away last year.
Mother passed last year.
The children’s mother passed away in 2024. From what I can tell it was unexpectedly. About 1 year before she died, the accused’s father passed away as the result of a vehicle accident.
Tragic. First the mom passed, then the dad kills all but one of the children. Pray for their souls. RIP.
Too many people want to LOOK OUT THE WINDOW and not report things or not check into things. They want to TALK ABOUT WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING / NOT DOING. I’m sorry but people in that neighborhood had to know something was not right……and could NO ONE SMELL?? If something seems odd, it usually is odd. Those poor kids – it’s heartbreaking and I cannot even imagine the day to day life they lived. Leave the kids alone!!!!
This is very sad.