Missing Newborn And Toddler Found Stabbed To Death In Hoke County

Two-year-old Serenity Freeman and four-day-old Genesis Freeman, who were reported missing in Fayetteville on Friday, were found dead in Hoke County early on Saturday morning and their father has been charged, says Sheriff Hubert Peterkin.

The bodies of the children were located off Army Road, which is about 200 yards in the woods. Both children were stabbed to death inside the car Freeman was driving.

The father of both children, Tillman Freeman III, 30, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Police say that the children were taken by their father following a domestic incident with their mother.

When the mother went to the hospital for an unrelated matter, police believe that Freeman left with the children. The children were considered to be endangered at the time they were missing.

Freeman was initially arrested and charged with two counts of child abuse and two counts of child endangerment, police said. He refused to provide any information about the whereabouts of the children.

Police say that Freeman was driving a dark green 1993 Toyota Camry on Friday, but when they arrested him in Raeford, the car was initially nowhere to be found.