Couple charged with homicide by child abuse
MONCKS CORNER – Roger Anthony Williams and Grace Nichole Trotman wrapped a boy's lifeless tiny body in trash bags and stuffed him into a large trash can which they filled with 400 pounds of concrete, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said Thursday.
The pair then left the trash can behind an abandoned mobile home in Orangeburg County where it sat for days, if not longer, before authorities found it Wednesday while searching for 2-year-old Rodricus Williams, a small boy with twisty hair and an infectious smile who was first reported missing Tuesday from The Battery.
Deputies today are swearing out warrants charging Williams and Trotman, his live-in girlfriend, with homicide by child abuse, DeWitt said.
Detectives and pathologists removed the badly decomposed body from the slab of concrete Thursday morning.
Dewitt stopped short of identifying the boy in the trash can as Rodricus until DNA could be extracted and compared with that of Rodricus' heart-broken mother. He said it could be a week or longer until the body is identified.
Statements from the suspects, particularly Trotman, who DeWitt described as “very cooperative,” led authorities to the Orangeburg County trailer Wednesday. DeWitt said they have yet to determine how the child died but statements from Trotman indicated Rodricus had been beaten in the past.
“There was some discussion during the interview about beatings but there have been several different versions we've been told,” he said. “It's a matter of trying to dissect what's truthful and what's not but we think we have probable cause to go ahead and serve those warrants and go on.”
DeWitt said Trotman continues to cooperate with investigators. The boy's father asked for an attorney after answering a few questions with what appeared to be false answers, DeWitt said.
Trotman had a bond hearing this afternoon. An arrest affidavit states that she admitted to an FBI agent that she had made up the story about the missing child to cover up an incident in which the child suffered "great bodily harm." Her bail was set at $250,000.
Investigators ran Rodricus' name through the Medical University Hospital database and determined that he had been treated there before on numerous occasions. DeWitt said they're working on a search warrant that will allow them access to his complete medical history.
While they continue to investigate how the boy died, DeWitt said they believe the couple buried the body in concrete and then, on the day they were supposed to give the child back to his mother, concocted a story about how he fell through the railing at The Battery.
Authorities searched the harbor for nearly 12 hours until an investigation established that Rodricus was never there that day.
Charleston Police handed the investigation over to the Berkeley County Sheriff's office after evidence pointed to the boy dying at a house just outside of Summerville, DeWitt said.
DeWitt said the couple's other two small children are living with family members.
