Disclaimer: The article has mentions of killing.
An investigation of a gruesome crime has now revealed that a North Carolina dad killed four kids and buried another one when he died. The father initially admitted to killing four children and was charged with four counts of murder in October.
Now he has confessed to burying the fifth child, who was just one month old, in the woods behind his house. The 38-year-old, identified as Wellington Delano Dickens III, killed his four kids on May 1. According to the documents, the accused father told authorities that the fifth child, one-month-old Riley, died after they moved to Zebulon.
The baby was in poor health and passed away. Dickens wrapped him and buried the body behind the house. He never reported the baby’s death. Authorities could not locate the body in the woods despite a thorough search.
🚨#BREAKING: A horrifying story out of North Carolina, Wellington Dickens, who has been arrested 7 previous times, including for child abuse…
…has just been arrested for murdering his 4 children, ages 6, 9, 10, and 18
Their bodies were discovered in his truck this morning. pic.twitter.com/VdHauuQPAo
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) October 28, 2025
However, they are hopeful to find the remains with a more intensive search in better weather. According to Jeff Caldwell, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy, the search is still in progress, and they have not put any additional charges on Dickens, as mentioned on NBC News.
The accused father had called 911 to report the crimes and inform the authorities about his three-year-old being alive. Meanwhile, he also confessed to leaving the bodies of deceased kids in the trunk of his car in the garage. The authorities found the remains and revealed they had been there for a long time.
The father told 911 that things “spiraled” in the house after his wife died, with police believing his four children were killed within a few months of each other — before he revealed an alleged fifth baby that had died at just one month old.
Read more: https://t.co/k9EtOxroTv pic.twitter.com/hwhQwTLdtB
— TooFab (@TooFab) November 19, 2025
The ages of the children were 6, 9, 10, and 18. The 18-year-old child was a stepchild, and others were his biological children. Earlier, he was just charged with one murder, and later on, the charges were updated. Currently, Dickens is in jail without bail and appeared in court on Oct. 28 over the murder charges. Dickens was a single father ever since his wife died in April 2024. They used to live in the Zubolon home after her death. Dickens’ uncle said he seemed fine to him, but he hadn’t seen him for almost a year.
Neighbors said they barely saw the family and would see the kids walking to and from the school sometimes. A neighbor also reached out to Dickens, “I’ve noticed the kids haven’t been out playing for quite some time, but I hadn’t put two and two together. And I woke up to this this morning. It’s pretty awful,” since he was a single dad.
