By Marilyn J. Bardsley

(Continued)

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As one would expect, the parents in the trailer park warned their children to stay away from the Edenfields and they started to pay close attention to disturbing aspects of their behavior. Of particular concern was George's habit of walking up to the mailboxes at the end of the street when the children were coming off the school bus stop where the mailboxes were situated.

View of trailer park and sing set

When children were around, according to the neighbors, you could count on George sitting on his front porch staring at the children. George had a remote-controlled red toy car and tried to lure the children to play with him and it.

Edenfields' trailer

"Come see my car. Come play with my car," a neighbor told me George would say to the kids. This same neighbor overheard Peggy, George's mother, try to coax some of the children to come up on the porch and play with her son's car. Hard to believe? Not from the woman who, according to the indictment, masturbated while Christopher was being brutalized.

Peggy Edenfield (mugshot)

George's behavior was disturbing to the parents and they said that they frequently complained to the trailer park manager, but they told me that he urged them to ignore George because he was retarded and was taking medication. It appeared to the residents that the manager felt sorry for George and believed he was harmless.

Then an event occurred in late January-early February of this year that really upset the parents. Two young teenage boys had just been dropped off at the school bus stop and encountered George, who was waiting for them. George asked them to come with him to play with the toy car. It wasn't the first time that George had solicited them. He had done so before, urging them to go with him into the woods or play ball with him.

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