Twin brothers in Georgia charged with murdering a man found encased in concrete
(CBS/AP) WINDER, Ga.- Twin brothers Christopher and William Cormier were charged with murder Wednesday in the murder of a man whose body was found in a plastic container, encased in concrete and buried in the backyard of a northeast Georgia home.
The body was found on Monday afternoon after Winder police said they received information from the Pensacola Police Department with regards to a missing person.
An autopsy on the body began after investigators used a sledgehammer to remove the hardened concrete from the human remains. Authorities still haven't definitively identified the body, but police suspect that the remains belonged to Sean Dugas, a 30-year-old journalist who was reported missing from Pensacola, Fla.
Medical examiners declared the death a homicide based on the number and location of the man's injuries, Winder police officer Chris Cooper said. The autopsy revealed that the man died of blunt force trauma to the head about a month ago.
Georgia authorities arrested the 31-year-old twins at a home being rented by their father. Cooper said the twins were charged with murder Wednesday afternoon.
Police said Dugas was last heard from on Aug. 27, when he made plans to have lunch with a friend the next day. He wasn't home when the friend when to pick him up for the meal. After trying unsuccessfully for days to reach Dugas, the friend went back to his house on Sept. 7 to find it empty. Neighbors told her a U-Haul truck had been there Sept. 3 and they saw at least one man removing things.
That man told the neighbors that Dugas had been beaten and was going to live with him, police said. The female friend continued to try to reach Dugas before calling police on Sept. 13.
Pensacola police identified a home in Winder and contacted the corresponding police department there. After visiting the home and talking to the twins' father, Winder police got a search warrant to investigate an area in the yard that appeared to have been recently disturbed. On Monday, they found a human body encased in concrete.
Investigators determined that Dugas knew the Cormiers, likely through a comic book shop in Florida because they were all involved in a trading card game, but police hadn't determined the extent of that friendship or how long it had been going on, Cooper said.