A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Friday to fatally stabbing his 6-year-old daughter rather than give up custody of the girl when national park rangers approached the pair in 2016.
Seth Willis Pickering, 38, of Leicester, North Carolina, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for killing his daughter in September 2016, federal prosecutors said.
Two national park rangers said he stabbed Lila Pickering, 6, in the heart and lung as they were walking toward him to talk along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.
Seth Willis Pickering, 38 (in 2016 with lawyer LeeAnn Melton), pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Friday for killing his daughter, Lila Pickering, rather than give up custody of her when approached by authorities
Two national park rangers said Seth stabbed his daughter Lila, 6, in the heart and lung as they were walking toward him to talk along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina in 2016
‘Now they will never be able to take her away from me,’ Seth later told a ranger, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI investigator.
It added that he also said something to the effect of ‘she’s happier now. … It’s what she wanted.’
Lila had been in protective custody for a month when her father, who was allowed to see his daughter in supervised visits, took her from the home over the objections of her temporary caretaker.
The first-grader had previously lived with Seth.
It’s unclear why social workers removed Lila from her father’s care and placed her in the home of a classmate.
Lila’s mother, Ashley Pickering, who is Seth’s estranged wife, lived in Florida at the time.
Seth and his estranged wife, Ashley Pickering, were involved in a custody battle over Lila, after Ashley moved to Florida. Seth had won a restraining order against Ashley in 2015
At the time of her death, Lila had been in protective custody for a month. Seth was allowed supervised visits and had taken her away over the objections of her temporary caretaker
Seth’s plea agreement states that he will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, sparing ‘the family the trauma of a lengthy trial and decades of appeals,’ U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray said in a statement.
Pickering, clad in a baggy brown jumpsuit and chains, declined to make a statement Friday before U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. accepted the plea agreement, the Citizen-Times of Asheville reported.
Defense attorneys S. Frederick Winiker and Mary Ellen Coleman declined to comment after the plea deal was accepted.
After allegedly killing his daughter, Seth told an FBI agent, ‘Now they will never be able to take her away from me’
Winiker said Seth has been treated for mental illness in the past and is taking a prescription drug used to treat symptoms including depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, the Citizen-Times reported.
Seth also had been treated for alcohol abuse a month before he killed his daughter, Winiker said.
His estranged wife, Ashley Pickering, told the Citizen-Times in 2016 that she had since been fighting for custody of Lila after moving to Florida, adding that Seth Pickering was a doting father and Lila idolized him.
Seth won a restraining order against Ashley Pickering in 2015 after alleging that she threatened him and the child.
Rangers approached Seth and his daughter near nightfall on the day of the slaying after noticing a car parked along the scenic parkway that’s part of the National Park System.
The rangers noticed a man and young girl walking down an embankment in an area with no trails, picnic areas or designated campsites less than an hour after Seth took his daughter from her custodian’s home without permission, the FBI agent’s affidavit said.
Seth had built a small fire with underbrush that he cut before the rangers approached to investigate the illegal campfire and other possible violations.
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