Ranger to father: 'Did you just stab her?'

Cary Marshall
03:00, Sep 21, 2016
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.

The victim is 6-year-old Lila Pickering.

"It's going fine, nothing going on", Pickering said, according to the complaint.

The affidavit said the rangers drew their weapons and saw Lila lying on the ground with a knife protruding from her chest. One of them stunned by what he had just seen had asked "Did you just stab her"? Pickering had arrived for a supervised visit with Lila, then took her without the custodian's permission, the affidavit says.

On Sept. 9, the day Lila died, Pickering picked her up from a home where she had lived for a month, placed there by the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services, while the parents battled over custody.

New details about the murder of a 6-year-old girl have been released in the U.S. Attorney's Office criminal complaint.

"What they said to me just keeps playing in my head like a broken record".

He told the Buncombe County deputies he realized he would never be allowed near her again when he saw the rangers coming towards them, according to the document.

Less than an hour later, the rangers happened upon Pickering's Dodge Avenger during a routine patrol. The rangers heard a "thud-like" sound and a high-pitched scream from Lila, who then fell to the ground, the affidavit said.

Pickering built a small fire with underbrush that he cut, and the rangers approached him about 6.50pm to investigate the illegal campfire and other possible violations.

"Ten minutes before he got there, my daughter made me promise that they would never take her away from me again", Seth said, according to a recorded statement referenced in the Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit. He is charged with first-degree murder and could face the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.

The affidavit said when authorities searched Pickering's home they found two kitchen knife blocks on the counter. It said one knife set had various knives with silver/metallic-colored handles and a black, oval-shaped decorative peg near the handle.

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Lila was staying in a home in west Buncombe County amid a custody dispute between the Pickerings. When Pickering said yes, one asked why he had killed his daughter, according to the document. Pickering was reportedly carrying a large cooler and bags on his back. He went on to say, "She's happier now.it's what she wanted", the affidavit said.

When one of the Rangers got within 20-25 feet of the dad and daughter, Pickering said "Police!"

Elkins declined to discuss who reported Lila missing or how investigators learned the child was dead, deferring to a federal investigation. The girl had been living in a temporary foster home after being removed from her father's care over undisclosed concerns by officials.

"He tried killing himself, and was committed", Ashley said.

"I never had a concern with him being with her, because he was an incredible father to her", Ashley told PEOPLE earlier this week.

"She loved her daddy so much", Ashley Pickering told the paper. "She would jump in his lap and smile and laugh and be so happy when he was holding her". But despite the conflict, she said she never believed Lila was in danger.

More than $2,000 has been raised.

Later, at the Buncombe County jail, Pickering told Buncombe County Det.

The case has been transferred to federal court because the crime is alleged to have taken place on federal property. Pickering's next court date is October 3.

On Monday, Lila's friends brought flowers to the first-grader's school and placed them at her desk, according to media reports.

Lila was a student at Johnston Elementary in Buncombe County. Lila died at the scene, it said. I don't know how he got her near her.

Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.


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