Christopher Michael Barrios body found

March 15, 2007

Georgia - The body of Christopher Michael Barrios, who vanished a week ago, was found dead Thursday, police said.

Department of Natural Resources employees found the body of Christopher Barrios about 4 p.m., Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said.

The body was covered but not buried, Doering said. The case is being treated as a homicide, he said.

Police on Wednesday named a convicted sex offender, his parents and a family friend as suspects in the boy's disappearance.

George Edenfield, his parents David and Peggy Edenfield, and family friend Donald Dale are being held in connection with the case.

The four gave information indicating that Christopher's body could be found in a field in the area, but a police search turned up nothing on Tuesday night, Doering said.

The four face possible charges of lying to investigators, obstruction of justice and concealing the death of another -- a charge that Doering said does not require a body to prove, only that someone hindered the discovery of a death.

Doering said Thursday the charges were likely to be upgraded.

George Edenfield, 31, was taken into custody Friday for a probation violation, according to Glynn County Police Capt. Jim Nazzrie. A resident of the same mobile home park as the boy, Edenfield consented to a police search of his home, but no clues were found there, Nazzrie said.

Christopher was last seen about 6:15 p.m. March 8, according to Nazzrie.

At the mobile home, police spoke with Edenfield's mother, who told them to search woods they previously had combed, Nazzrie said. A second search of the woods turned up nothing, he said.

Police then arrested Edenfield's mother, Peggy, on suspicion of interfering with a criminal investigation, Nazzrie said.

"His mother did a lot of talking, like, 'You need to look here' and 'You should look over there,' " Nazzrie said. Police followed the leads but found nothing, he said.

Edenfield was convicted of two counts of child molestation in 1997, according to Georgia's sex offender registry.