Site where girl died still haven for sex offenders
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — An Indiana trailer park where a 9-year-old girl was slain and dismembered is now home to more convicted sex offenders than it was when she died just a few days before Christmas last year, state records show.
The online state sex offender registry currently lists 17 sex offenders living on lots at the address of the trailer park where Aliahna Maroney-Lemmon was killed Dec. 22, 2011, compared with 15 who lived there at the time.
The development’s popularity among sex offenders is apparently due to its location far outside the 1,000 feet offenders are required by law to live from any school, day care or public park.
The park’s owners didn’t return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment Sunday.
Michael Plumadore was sentenced to life in prison in June after he pleaded guilty to murder, abuse of a corpse and removing a dead body from the scene. Prosecutors had considered the death penalty but agreed to life in prison without the possibility of parole in exchange for the guilty plea.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Plumadore told police that he repeatedly hit Aliahna in the head with a brick, then used a hacksaw to dismember her body, hid part of her remains in the trailer where he lived and dumped her other remains nearby.
Relatives said they had considered Plumadore, who was not a convicted sex offender, to be a trusted family friend.
At the time of Aliahna’s death, the Northway mobile home park became a focus of public criticism for being home to a seemingly large number of registered sex offenders, although none of them were accused in her killing.
The owners tried unsuccessfully to sell the park earlier this year and have since changed its name to Dupont Triangle, The Journal Gazette reported.
A woman whose granddaughter was friends with Aliahna helped organize a group called Wings of Innocence, which held a candlelight vigil in the girl’s honor Saturday night.
Karen Hughes told the newspaper that the group is seeking a law strengthening penalties for child abuse in Indiana.