An Indiana couple has been arrested after cops made a gruesome discovery in their backyard fire pit.
Officers began investigating Steven Valle, 31, and Samantha Sebella, 25, on September 20, when Valle allegedly confessed to friends about killing two undocumented children and burning their bodies in their backyard fire pit in Wheatfield, Fox 32 reports.
The children did not have any documentation like a birth certificate or a Social Security Number, and therefore never existed in government records.
But when deputies with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Wheatfield house where Valle and Sebella used to live, they found ‘partial bone fragments’ that a specialist in Indianapolis was able to determine were human, according to Law & Crime.
The couple were then taken into custody on Thursday and were charged with murder, neglect of a dependent causing death, abuse of a corpse, obstruction of justice and failure to report a dead body.
Authorities say the couple initially denied any knowledge of children being burned in their backyard fire pit when deputies found them at a hotel in Newton County on September 20.
They admitted they had one child, whom they did not have a birth certificate for because the birth happened at home and the child was not documented, according to court documents obtained by Fox 59.
The couple also allegedly told deputies they never had a miscarriage or a stillbirth, and law enforcement conducted a records check with the Jasper County Health Department and determined that there wasn’t any documentation that indicated Sebella had ever given birth.
But police still took their cellphones, from which they were reportedly able to uncover numerous messages that indicated Valle killed and burned multiple children.
‘You killed my kids cause you are a f*****, you never loved me,’ one message read, according to court documents.
‘YOU KILLED OUR BABIES, I HAVE THERE (sic) DNA IN MY BODY FOREVER,’ another message between Sebella and Valle read.
A third undocumented child was then taken from their custody, law enforcement said.
Then, on September 30, the sheriff’s office, Indiana State Police and the Jasper County Coroner’s Office, along with two cadaver dogs, descended on the Wheatfield home where they used to live. Valle and Sabella had reportedly been evicted from the property earlier this year.
The dogs flagged a fire pit and a pile of ashes near the garage, prompting investigators to excavate part of the backyard with shovels, and uncovering the bone fragments, according to Fox 59.
By October 3, court documents show, Valle admitted that Sebella had given birth to a boy in 2018.
He told officers Sebella gave birth to the child while he was out, and claimed that when he returned home, he found Sebella passed out and the child was lying between her legs.
The child was not awake or breathing, Valle said, claiming he cleaned the newborn up, placed him in a blanket and put him in a box.
Valle allegedly went on to say he buried the child in his backyard after three days because he ‘knew the child wouldn’t be coming back to life.’
The suspect proceeded o tell officers that Sebella got pregnant a second time, and prematurely gave birth to a child in a bathtub while he was at work.
He said the child was dead and wrapped in a blanket when he got home, and buried the child in the backyard near the first, according to court documents.
Police also say Valle told them the children had been buried for about three to five years before he dug them up and burned them in the firepit.
He allegedly added he saved some of the ashes to make a necklace.
As the investigation continued, officers learned that Valle and Sebella had been physically violent with each other, and determined that Sebella did not take any actions to protect her two deceased children, her living child or herself from the violence.
Police also said she made no effort to notify authorities of the kids’ deaths, burials or burnings.
Valle and Sebella are now serving time at the Jasper County Detention Center, where they remain without bond.