A quiet street on the outskirts of Zebulon, North Carolina became the scene of an unthinkable tragedy on Monday night when 38-year-old Wellington Delano Dickens III dialed 911 and confessed that he had killed his children. Authorities arrived to find a living 3-year-old boy inside the home—and, in the garage, four bodies believed to be his children tucked in the trunk of a vehicle.
According to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, Dickens placed the call around 10 p.m., telling dispatchers what he had done. Deputies responding found the child he mentioned alive and unharmed in the residence, just as he said. In the garage, investigators recovered human remains of four children, believed to have been in the vehicle trunk for months.
Court records and law-enforcement updates identify the victims as Dickens’ biological children — six-year-old Leah, nine-year-old Zoe, ten-year-old Wellington Jr. — along with his 18-year-old stepson, Sean Brasfield. All four reportedly died between May and September of this year. The younger three were homeschooled and extremely rarely seen by neighbors after the death of their mother.
Investigators say Dickens did not kill all four at once, but over the span of several months: first in May, then August, early September, and lastly the stepchild in September. On Tuesday Dickens was charged with four counts of murder and is being held without bond at the Johnston County Jail. His next court date is set for November 13.
Further complicating the story: Dickens served in Iraq and neighbors say he became increasingly withdrawn after his wife—Stephanie Rae Jones Dickens—died in April 2024 from complications tied to a miscarriage. According to filings, he and his late wife had five children in the home, and in 2016 both were previously investigated for neglect of a newborn after refusing medical care.
At a press conference, Sheriff Steve Bizzell described the case as the kind of horror no parent should ever inflict. He said investigators are still working to determine motive and cause of death, and that the deaths were hidden because the family was unusually secluded—with homeschooled children, few visitors and very little outside contact.
The community remains stunned. Neighbors say they hardly ever saw the children outside and the house quieted even further after the mother died. “I’ve noticed the kids haven’t been out playing for quite some time… and I woke up to this this morning. It’s pretty awful,” one neighbor told reporters.
As detectives await the medical examiner’s report to determine how and when each child died, the surviving three-year-old remains in state care. For now, the heartbreak hangs over Zebulon—a reminder of how tragedy can hide in plain sight until it’s too late for the innocent.
