No Sign of Foul Play In Death of Georgia Toddlers

Autopsies conducted Tuesday on the bodies of two toddlers found in a pond on Monday have indicated no signs of foul play. The autopsies are continuing and the results are only preliminary, but according to the Warren County coroner, Paul Lowe, "there are no visible signs of trauma" on the bodies of Jonah Payne, age 3, and his sister, Nicole Payne, age 2. Speaking to the media, Lowe said that he had viewed the bodies after searchers pulled them from the pond. "I stress to you, there is no indication there is any foul play involved," he said. Researchers are still conducting tests at the State Crime Lab in Augusta, so an official cause of death has not been released by authorities yet.

Lottie Kain, the children’s mother, had reported Jonah and Nicole missing Saturday night from their house in Warrenton, about 40 miles west of Augusta. Warrenton Police Chief Jim McClain told reporters that Nicole had somehow figured out how to unlock the front door of the house. The children had snuck out of the house earlier on Saturday, and had been returned to their mother by a neighbor who found them. Later in the day, their mother went to the bathroom and returned to find that the youngsters had vanished again. "She said she came to the door and the front door was open," said McClain. "The gate was open. She came outside and the children were gone."

A path leads directly from the Kains’ home to the algae-choked sanitation pond where the bodies were found. A fence surrounds the water, but police are investigating to see if there was a way the children could have gotten through the fence. John Bankhead, spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told reporters, "We have surveyed the entire area to see if there might be any evidence to indicate that they maybe slipped in or accidentally [fell] in." Although searchers and a canine unit began to scour the area immediately when the children were reported missing, the bodies were not found until Monday afternoon when a searcher happened to notice a lump protruding from beneath the layer of scum on top of the pond. The lump turned out to be the body of little Nicole, and her brother Jonah’s remains were found a few feet away. Dennis Payne, the children’s father, identified the bodies from a photograph provided by the coroner’s office.

In conducting their investigation into the deaths, Warren County police followed routine investigation procedures by administering polygraph tests to both parents. They also interviewed the single registered sex offender located in the small town of Warrenton as well as 13 others living in Warren County. Authorities say they are satisfied that none of the sex offenders they interviewed had any involvement in the disappearance and death of the children. Monday afternoon, the children’s father thanked investigators and searchers for their efforts. "They did a wonderful job," he said. "You can't see any better people."