A Fort Wayne man who failed in his attempt to rob a local credit union was sentenced Tuesday in Allen Superior Court to four years in prison.FORT WAYNE – Formally charged with murdering 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon, Michael Len Plumadore did not appear in court Friday.
But the family of the little girl did, showing up outside Allen Superior Court’s family relations division midmorning, meeting with an attorney and others in the hallways of the Courthouse.
The Indiana Department of Child Services confirmed Friday morning there is now an open assessment in connection with Aliahna’s death, and the remaining children in the home of Aliahna’s mother, Tarah Souders, have been taken into protective custody.
The Department of Child Services was not involved with the family at the time of Aliahna’s disappearance and death, said Ann Houseworth, Department of Child Services spokeswoman.
About 10 a.m. Friday, the formal charges against Plumadore became public. While the documents included two new charges against the 39-year-old baby sitter – abuse of a corpse and moving a body from the scene of a suspicious or violent death – no new details emerged in court documents.
On Friday, investigators with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department hauled away Plumadore’s mobile home, taking it into evidence.
It was at the step area outside the trailer that Plumadore bashed Aliahna in the head with a brick multiple times in the early morning of Dec. 22, according to statements Plumadore made to police in an interview Monday.
Then, according to court documents, he carried her into the home, put her body inside multiple trash bags and put her inside the freezer. Sometime in the late hours of Dec. 22 and early Dec. 23, he dismembered the girl’s 41-pound body, putting the pieces in freezer bags and disposing of them in a trash bin at a nearby convenience store.
He told police he kept her head, hands and feet inside the freezer, and detectives found them there late Monday.
Aliahna was first reported missing about 8:45 p.m. Dec. 23, with Plumadore claiming he last saw the little girl about 6 a.m. that day when he went to buy a cigar at a nearby convenience store.
While the cigar purchase was corroborated by a surveillance video at the store, police said they considered him a suspect early on because of inconsistencies in the stories he told police and others.
Aliahna and her two younger sisters, both 6, were staying with Plumadore, who had cared for their grandfather until his recent death, because her mother had the flu and her stepfather worked nights.
Plumadore said he smoked his cigar and went back to sleep about 6:30 a.m. He woke up about 10 a.m. when Aliahna’s mother called. After that call, he realized the door to the home was unlocked and that Aliahna was gone. He told police the girls told him that Aliahna left with her mother.
It wasn’t until 8:30 p.m. Dec. 23 that Aliahna’s disappearance was reported to law enforcement.
Based on Plumadore’s later statements to police, the girl had been dead nearly 48 hours before more than 100 police, firefighters and others combed over a 5-square-mile area around the Northway mobile home park on North Clinton Street.
Police arrested Plumadore on Monday on a preliminary charge of murder. That charge expired after 72 hours, giving prosecutors until Friday to file formal charges.
Plumadore will be in court next week for an initial hearing on the charges. Until then, he remains held without bail in the Allen County Jail.
No decision has been reached by prosecutors on whether to seek the death penalty in this case.
Michael McAlexander, Allen County chief deputy prosecutor, said the case remains under investigation. He said the filing of court documents Friday did not mean additional documents may not be filed in connection with the case.
