Michael Plumadore, the suspected killer of 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon from Fort Wayne, Indiana, posted her picture on Facebook one month before he allegedly bashed her in the head with a brick, hacked her to pieces with a handsaw and kept her head in his freezer.
Suspect Michael Plumadore posted a photo of Aliahna Lemmon standing alongside her sisters – once he was able to take because he had gained the trust of the family after befriending her grandfather James Lemmon.
James Lemmon and Michael Plumadore knew each because they were both sex offenders and were in jail together.
On his Facebook page, Michael Plumadore has several chilling pictures of the disabled girl who captured national attention when she went missing from a trailer park in Fort Wayne Thursday night.
The girl and her two sisters were staying with Michael Plumadore, 39, at his trailer while her mother recovered from the flu.
Richard Patee, 58, whose trailer is next to where Michael Plumadore was living, said he didn’t think it was odd that Aliahna Lemmon’s mother, Tarah Souders, had him watching the girls for an extended period.
“They had known each other for somewhere of three to four years, I know that, and he took care of their grandfather,” Richard Patee said.
“I didn’t see any reason to question it at all.”
Tarah Souders and Aliahna Lemmon were listed among nearly 600 friends on a Facebook page listed under Michael Plumadore’s name that said he was “Self Employed and Loving It!”, and enjoyed fantasy novels.
The day after Christmas, Michael Plumadore calmly admitted to detectives that he had committed an unimaginably horrific crime: brutally killing young Aliahna Lemmon and then dismembering her body so he could dispose of it.
Michael Plumadore led detectives to a dumpster at a nearby business where they found pieces of her torso, arms and legs that had been cut up with a hack saw and stuffed into garbage bags.
In his freezer, an even more grizzly find – little Aliahna Lemmon’s head, hands and feet.
Michael Plumadore’s Facebook photos reveal that he spent time with the girls at a riverside park in Fort Wayne and was at their home, as well.
One especially horrifying picture was of the three girls leaning against a railing labeled simply “Three Princesses”, which was uploaded in late November.
All of the pictures were in an online album called “The kids”.
Sheriff Ken Fries said detectives have a good idea why he killed Aliahna, but the lawman would not discuss Michael Plumadore’s motive.
Michael Plumadore cracked during his third interview with police. Detectives had spoken with him twice before and he had given no indication that he was responsible for Aliahna Lemmon’s disappearance, sheriff Ken Fries said.
The bogus story he first gave to detectives was that he had seen the girl sleeping in his chair at 6:00 a.m. Thursday when he got up to buy a cigar at a nearby convenience store.
He was awakened realized she was gone when Aliahna Lemmon’s mother called him at 10:00 a.m., he claimed. He told police he thought that she had left with her mother so she wasn’t reported missing until almost 9:00 p.m. Thursday.
Sheriff Ken Fries said he and his detectives didn’t believe his story but they had nothing but his word to go on.
Until Monday, the day after Christmas, detectives “finally hit the right chords” and Michael Plumadore came clean.
He said used a brick to beat Aliahna Lemmon in the back of the head multiple times as she stood on the steps outside his trailer. He then wrapped her body in several garbage bags and put it her in his freezer, according to court documents.
Despite the confession, the little girl’s grandmother, Amber Story, stood by Michael Plumadore.
“I don’t care what anybody says. Mike did nothing to her. He loves those girls,” Amber Story told the News-Sentinel.
On Monday, FBI agents descended on the rundown mobile home park in Fort Wayne where Aliahna Lemmon lived.
The park is a known haven for registered sex offenders, though Michael Plumadore isn’t on Indiana’s registered sex offenders list. He has a criminal record in Florida and North Carolina that includes convictions for trespassing and assault.
More than 100 emergency workers searched Saturday for Aliahna Lemmon around the mobile home park, where she was last seen.
Sheriff’s deputies, police officers and firefighters fanned out in the area around the trailer park where she disappeared, searching on ATVs and on foot. An airplane circled the area.
But Sheriff Ken Fries called off the hunt for Sunday, Christmas Day, and ordered only limited searches of area ponds on Monday.
He didn’t see any good in using the manpower to lead further widespread hunts for the girl, who was feared dead as federal authorities took over.
Aliahna Lemmon’s mother, Tarah Souders, 28, told The Journal Gazette earlier on Monday that her daughter had vision and hearing problems and suffered from attention deficit disorder and emotional problems. She also has a history of sleepwalking, family members said.
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