Warrenton, Ga. – A massive search for two missing toddlers ended Monday afternoon when their bodies were found a few feet from each other in an algae-covered sanitation pond, Warrenton police said.
Three-year-old Jonah Payne and his 2-year-old sister, Nicole, who went missing Saturday, were discovered near the shoreline of the pond, a few hundred yards from their rural Georgia home. Warrenton is about 100 miles east of downtown Atlanta.
“It’s turned from a missing- persons case to a death investigation,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead.
Searchers did not find the children during an initial search Saturday of the 1 1/2-acre pond, which is covered by a layer of green algae. A searcher on Monday spotted a lump by the shoreline, which turned out to be Nicole’s body. Her brother was nearby, police said.
The children’s mother, Lottie Kain, 33, told authorities they had apparently wandered away about 6 p.m. Saturday while she was in the bathroom. The children had strayed from their home earlier that day as well but were brought home shortly afterward by a neighbor, said Warrenton Police Chief Jim McClain.
The investigation into the deaths continues and no charges have been filed, police said. On Sunday, authorities temporarily halted the search while state investigators questioned Kain at her home.
Authorities said more than one person had been given a polygraph test.
The children’s father, Dennis Payne, told a reporter Monday evening that the family had had dealings with the state Division of Family and Children Services in Glascock County, “but it was moved over here.” He declined to elaborate. DFCS offices were closed Monday for Confederate Memorial Day.
Kathy Coleman, the owner of Coleman’s Mobile Home Park in Gibson, the Glascock County seat, said she filed a complaint to DFCS about a year and a half ago after noticing that the parents had left Jonah alone in their trailer.
