Babysitter Michael Plumadore Charged with Aliahna Lemmon's Murder

Michael Plumadore, the babysitter and neighbor who confessed to killing 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon, has officially been charged with her murder, CBS reports. Plumadore, 39, was charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and removing a dead body from the scene after the brutal Dec. 22 murder of Aliahna Lemmon in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Plumadore, who was babysitting Aliahna and her sisters while their mother was sick, initially told police that the girl disappeared while he was sleeping, but later admitted to murdering Aliahna. According to police, Plumadore freely admitted to bludgeoning her with a brick, then stuffed it in a garbage bag in the freezer. He said he then used a hacksaw to dismember the girl. Police executed a search warrant of Plumadore's trailer and found Aliahna's head, feet and hands.

Hours before he confessed, Aliahna's grandmother told CNN that she did not suspect Plumadore.

I have no, no qualms about saying that Mike would never hurt any of those children, or any children, period, she said.

Plumadore is currently being held without bond and did not attend court as the charges were filed.

Danielle Edenfield, the Allen County prosecutor's office chief investigator, told CBS that the charges will be read to Plumadore in jail, and that the initial court hearing will be held next week.

According to the state's Web site, 15 registered sex offenders live in the trailer park that numbers about two dozen homes. Neighbor Elizabeth Watkins told MSNBC that residents kept to themselves in part because of the high number of sex criminals living nearby. Though Plumadore does not have a history of sexual crimes, he does have a criminal record, in Florida and North Carolina for trespassing and assault, and in Indiana for forgery.

Police began to suspect Plumadore after a two-day search for Aliahna yielded no results.

The story just didn't make sense to our investigators or to me when I first heard it, Sheriff Ken Fries told CBS.I thought: this is the guy we needed to focus on. If we are going to find her, he's going to be the one who has the answers for us.

Unfortunately they turned out to be correct.

It did come to a horrible conclusion, Fries told WANE-TV. [But] we have somebody in custody now who can pay the price for it.