Five years have passed since two Effingham County teens, Mary and Elwyn Crocker Jr., were found dead at their mother’s home.
Now, a lawsuit has been filed against the Effingham County School District, saying an employee "failed to submit the report of abuse suffered by Elwyn Crocker."
Elwyn and his sister Mary were tortured and found buried in their family's backyard in December 2018. Candice Crocker, the children's stepmother, pled guilty to murder in 2020 and was sentenced to life without parole. Roy Prater, the boyfriend of the sibling's step-grandmother, pled guilty the same year.
The plaintiff, Amanda M. Oliveira, who is listed on the lawsuit as the administrator of the estate of Mary Frances Crocker, filed the lawsuit.
Named defendants in the lawsuit are the Effingham County School District, Superintendent Yancy Ford; former ECSD Superintendent Randy Shearouse; the Effingham County Board of Education; Lamar Allen, chairman of the Effingham County BOE; school counselor Jane Doe; Principal of Effingham County School “Y” John Doe; and CM Regent Insurance Company.
The lawsuit states that “ECSD and its employees, including Jane Doe, John Doe, and Superintendents Ford and/or Shearouse, had a requirement to, not only make sure [the Department of Children and Family Service] DFCS was informed of the beating of Jr, but also report it by completion of a form known as 'Report to Investigating Authorities'."
It goes on to say that if “any of the Defendants associated with the School District - ECSD, BOE, Chairman Allen, Superintendent Ford and/or Shearouse, Counselor Jane Doe, or Principal John Doe, had sent the required report on the beating of Elwyn Crocker, Jr. to the Investigating Authorities, this would have prevented the wrongful death of Mary Crocker in the later part of 2018.”
The lawsuit alleges that in March 2017 DFCS learned about abuse suffered by Elwyn Crocker, Jr. "but refused to investigate it.”
This is a developing story.
Latrice Williams is a general assignment reporter covering Bryan and Effingham County. She can be reached at lwilliams6@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Administrator for Mary Crocker’s estate files lawsuit against Effingham school district
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