The police have confirmed that the remains they’ve found buried under a tree in Salt Lake City, Utah, belong to a five-year-old girl who was killed and disposed of by her 21-year-old uncle.
Alex Whipple was charged with murdering little Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Shelley before burying her under a tree in an attempt to prevent the authorities from finding her body after she was declared missing.
The police found the dirt-covered body of the girl only hours after Alex has been arrested and “caught licking blood off his hands” while in the interrogation room.
In order to get the prosecutors to take the death penalty off the table, Alex agreed to provide the police with the map detailing the location of the buried girl’s body.
Lizzy was the daughter of Alex’s sister Jessica Whipple and her estranged partner Wes Shelley. Both parents pleaded for the safe return of their daughter.
While Mr. Whipple initially refused to acknowledge playing any part in his niece’s disappearance, he did claim that alcohol sometimes makes him forget stuff and do “dark things.”
After the disturbing discovery, the young girl’s grandfather, Bill Whipple, spoke out and revealed he never thought Alex had violent tendencies.
“I would never, ever in a million years have thought he was capable of harming such a cute little girl,” Bill said. “I knew he was a thief but I never labeled him as a murderer.”
In Alex’s defense, Atty. Shannon Demler revealed his client was “not in a very good mental state.”
“He’s very broken down. He’s very remorseful,” he added in an interview with Fox 13 Now.
“I don’t know if there’s a reason why other than possibly mental illness.
“You know, it’s not like a five-year-old girl would do something that would justify someone doing this to her, but I think the answer is going to be in the mental illness of my client.”
In a family statement, the parents of the girl wrote:
“There are no words to express the sadness and the heartbreak we feel today. This did not end the way we wanted it to but in the sadness we are comforted by the effort people put in to find Lizzy.”
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