Aliahna Lemmon’s babysitter kept Indiana girl’s head, hands in freezer over Christmas

A babysitter has confessed that he bludgeoned 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to death with a brick and then dismembered her with a hacksaw, hiding her head, hands and feet in his freezer over the Christmas weekend.

Michael Plumadore, 39, reportedly a trusted neighbor of the Lemmon family at the Northway Mobile Park, was watching Aliahna and her two sisters when she went missing last week, according to Reuters. Their mother, named Tarah Souders, reportedly had the flu.

He was arrested Monday after police obtained a warrant to search his trailer and found the body parts, Agence France-Presse reported. 

He confessing to killing Aliahna, cutting her up with a hacksaw and disposing most of her body in a nearby dumpster, which he directed police to in their search.

An affidavit quoting investigators in the US state of Indiana does not provide details about why Plumadore killed the girl.

On Sunday, in an interview with Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Plumadore said Lemmon disappeared while he was sleeping after having gone to a gas station to buy a cigar.

Aliahna was reported missing Friday and on Saturday, more than 100 emergency workers searched for Aliahna around the trailer park on the city's north side.

The Associated Press quoted Sheriff Ken Fries as saying that investigators had suspected Plumadore's involvement soon after she was reported missing Friday night.

Fries said his long police career told him that Plumadore's account of the girl's disappearance had too many inconsistencies.

The Gazette on Tuesday quoted residents of the Northway trailer park describing Plumadore as someone who "was always happy dealing with" Lemmon and her family.

It quotes Jerri Smead as saying Plumadore frequently walked Aliahna to a nearby bus stop and ran errands for her ailing grandfather, James, until he died earlier this month.

In fact:

In July or August, Plumadore quit his job in North Carolina to return to Fort Wayne at the request of the Lemmon family, Snead said. Other residents confirmed the Lemmons at the time viewed Plumadore as a father figure who could help out as James Lemmon's health worsened.

Paulette Hair, 45, a former manager at the trailer park, meantime, told the AP that she never would have guessed Plumadore would kill a child.

"But you don't know a person, truly," she reportedly said. "How could you live? How could you sit in that trailer, knowing what you did, knowing what's in your household when everybody is out there in the cold and the rain praying to God that she comes home safely and you're sitting there?"

Aliahna's step-grandfather, David Story, told the AP that he, too, was surprised by the arrest. "He was a trusted family friend," he said of Plumadore.

A judge ordered Plumadore held without bail or bond at an initial hearing on Tuesday, Allen County sheriff's spokesman Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel said. He has yet to be formally charged in Aliahna's death.