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Thread: Caleb Whisnand Sr. Charged in 2021 AL Murder of Caleb Whisnand Jr.

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    Caleb Whisnand Sr. Charged in 2021 AL Murder of Caleb Whisnand Jr.



    Father to face capital murder charges in infant’s death

    AP

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man will face capital murder charges in the death of his 5-week-old son, whose body was found shortly after the father made a public plea for the baby’s safe return, authorities said Thursday.

    Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said the body of infant Caleb Whisnand Jr. was found Wednesday night in a rural area of neighboring Lowndes County. The baby’s father, 32-year-old Caleb Whisnand Sr., was then arrested on manslaughter charges.

    After an autopsy was conducted, investigators said they determined the charges should be upgraded to capital murder.

    “This is a baby. You are talking about a 5-week-old baby,” Cunningham said.

    Authorities did not disclose the cause of the infant’s death or how long he had been dead. A warrant indicated the infant “was buried in a remote area” and investigators believe the infant was killed in Montgomery County. The court record estimated the time of death between 3:45 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday, which would be several hours before a 911 call was made from a gas station reporting the baby missing. However, Cunningham stressed Thursday that they were still trying to put together the timeline.

    The arrest of the father came after a bizarre news conference in which the father made a plea for the baby’s return. He said he didn’t remember much, and asked the public for information, including where he had been before the disappearance.

    “I don’t remember a lot. But I did remember I was breaking up with the cops. If anybody’s got anything, any place I could have gone,” he said.

    Whisnand Sr. hugged the baby’s mother, Angela Gardner, during the press conference arranged by the sheriff’s office and prompted her to show a cellphone photo of the missing baby.

    The sheriff said after the news conference that investigators “were able to obtain some pretty good information that led us to the body.”

    Authorities were alerted to the missing child after they received a 911 call Monday night from a convenience store. However, there were other indicators that the child may have been missing longer. An alert from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said the baby was last seen Saturday night.

    Gardner told reporters at the Wednesday press conference that the baby had been with Whisnand and he told her that he realized the infant was missing when he went to go pay at a gas station.

    “Please, find him, please,” Gardner told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

    An Amber Alert was not issued for the missing child Monday night. Instead, Cunningham said they posted a “look out” for the child to let the public know. Cunningham said some initial information did not line up at the time, but it was difficult to do an Amber Alert based on speculation.

    Law enforcement officials said they will vigorously prosecute the case.

    “We will make sure that justice will prevail for this baby. You have my word on that,” District Attorney Daryl Bailey said.

    https://apnews.com/article/alabama-m...dea2cef8af6cdc

  2. #2
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    Caleb Whisnand led police to murdered 5-week-old son, told baby’s mother, ‘I’m sorry,’ detective says

    By Carol Robinson
    AL.com

    The Montgomery County man accused of killing his infant son led investigators to the shallow grave where authorities say he buried the 5-week-old after killing him by blunt force trauma.

    Caleb Michael Whisnand Sr., 32, drove sheriff’s investigators to a rural area of Enfinger Road in Lowndes County, where they found the toddler, C.J., dead, a detective testified today.

    According to that testimony, the baby’s mother, Angela Gardener, was also at the site with police. Whisnand ran to her, hugged her and said, “I’m sorry.”

    “He said it was an accident, he had hit his head,” Montgomery County Sheriff’s Investigator John Shepherd testified at a preliminary hearing held before District Judge Tiffany McCord.

    A short time later, Shepherd said, Whisnand “looked at me and asked me to shoot him.”

    At that point, the investigator said, he handcuffed Whisnand for safety precautions.

    Whisnand is charged with capital murder in the slaying of C.J.

    The investigation began on the night of Monday May 10 when the father called 911 from the Circle K on Wetumka Highway in Montgomery County to report C.J. missing. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, in the early-morning hours of May 11, issued a missing child alert in C.J.’s disappearance.

    The case is being prosecuted by Montgomery County deputy district attorneys Scott Green and Ben McGough. Whisnand is represented by attorneys Mickey McDermott and Karen H. Jackson.

    During the hour-long hearing, the investigator chronicled the events leading up to C.J. being reported abducted at 10:49 p.m. on May 10.

    Lawmen responded that night to the Circle K. Shepherd was among the many lawmen who responded to the scene, and noticed there was a infant seat base but no infant seat in the father’s white Ford Escort.

    “We viewed video footage at Circle K,” Shepherd testified. “We did not see anybody take the child from that location.”

    That video showed Whisnand had arrived at the store at 10:28 p.m., roughly 20 minutes before he reported the abduction.

    The father told investigators he left his home with the baby the previous Saturday night and went to work on a friend’s car, and later another friend’s car on Sunday.

    At one point, he said he had left the baby with a friend. He also said the wife of another friend had watched the baby while he worked on their vehicle.

    There was no specific timeline of Whisnand’s actions and whereabouts on Sunday.

    By tracking his cell phone, authorities were able to pinpoint locations for him multiple times on Monday in the hours leading up to him reporting the boy’s disappearance.

    The last time investigators saw C.J. alive on video was at 12:43 p.m. Monday at a Montgomery County Walmart.

    Whisnand visited multiple locations on Monday, all in the Montgomery County area, but the one unusual location was Lowndes County.

    He didn’t initially tell investigators he had been to Lowndes County, but when confronted with his cell phone data, Whisnand said he had made a “drug run.”

    They also had video of Whisnand withdrawing money from a bank to pay back money he owed to his brother.

    In that video, he was wearing a green shirt and blue jeans. In a video later that day, after he returned from Lowndes County, investigators saw Whisnand putting gas in his vehicle at a Shell Station.

    That video showed Whisnand throwing a Mickey Mouse pacifier and a child’s sock into the garbage can, as well as a green shirt the father had been seen wearing in the earlier video. At that point, Shepherd said, the father was wearing a red shirt.

    “I felt something was amiss,’' Shepherd said.

    All of the items were recovered from the trash can. The infant seat and C.J.’s diaper bag have never been found.

    Investigators said Whisnand’s memory seemed “spotty,” and his behavior “semi-cognizant” and erratic. He was showing signs of sleep deprivation.

    “He kept telling me he was tired,” Shepherd said.

    Investigators took Whisnand to another room at headquarters to let him nap. He slept about six hours, Shepherd said, and seemed more coherent when he awoke.

    Two days after the boy’s disappearance, on Wednesday, May 12, Whisnand and Angela Gardner took part in a press conference.

    The boy’s father told reporters, “I don't remember a lot, but I did remember I was breaking up, ya know, with the cops. If anybody’s got anything, any places that I could have gone, you know who you are.”

    It was after the press conference that investigators recovered C.J.’s remains and his father was charged in the death. Shepherd said investigators requested the parents hold the press conference to help them locate C.J.

    It was after the press conference, while again being interviewed by investigators, that Whisnand agreed to take them to C.J.’s body.

    “He led the investigators straight to a shallow grave,” Shepherd said.

    At one point, the investigator said, Whisnand told them C.J. had been unresponsive when he left his brother’s house and he tried to do CPR. When he couldn’t revive him, he took his son’s body to Lowndes County.

    When C.J.’s body was found, Shepherd said, there were no obvious signs of foul play. Once the dirt was washed away at the medical examiner’s office, he said, there were some visible injuries.

    Forensic pathologist Dr. David Rydzewski of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences testified that C.J. had a complex skull fracture to the right side of his head that was 1 ¾ to 2-inches long. He said the child also had bleeding over the entire surface of his skull, as well as subdural hemorrhaging.

    There was damage to his optic nerves and a broken right tibia.

    He said the only way C.J.’s death could be an accident is if the child had been in a severe car accident and he was unrestrained or he “fell from a fifth floor.” He said the death could not have occurred from an “every day accident.”

    “This is an acute injury and the child died within minutes (of the injury),” Rydzewski testified.

    The judge ruled there was enough probable cause to send the case to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

    She also issued a gag order in the case, which was requested by Whisnand’s attorneys and opposed by prosecutors.

    Gardner was not in the courtroom, but Whisnand’s parents were in attendance. They communicated with their son through hand gestures.

    Margaret Hope, C.J.’s grandmother and Gardner’s mother, has told AL.com the boy’s father took C.J. while Gardner was asleep on the night of May 8.

    “She didn’t get to have her son on Mother’s Day or Monday,” Hope said.

    “Angela is a great mother, and she is overprotective of her kids. She was so happy when she gave birth. I was there when she gave birth to the baby. I can’t believe the SOB killed her baby.”

    Hope said the father “knew he done killed that baby and he had to come up with some excuse.”

    Caleb Whisnand is being held without bail.

    https://www.al.com/news/2021/06/cale...k-old-son.html
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