Dustin James VanDyke, 28, and Gracie Kaylene Riddle, 18, reportedly “panicked” when they realized she was pregnant and the child was born alive, local NBC affiliate WRAL reported. VanDyke and Riddle are now charged with first-degree murder, jail records show. The child’s exact age and gender have not been released, but Erwin Police Chief Jonathan Johnson said detectives believe the baby was killed in November 2021. Authorities said they were still working to determine if the baby was alive or dead when buried. Police began investigating the two last Friday after a tipster who knew the couple told investigators that VanDyke and Riddle had not reported the death of their newborn last year. Officers obtained a warrant to search the property and were led to the decomposed body by a cadaver dog, Johnson said. VanDyke and Riddle were arrested the next day. “Where the child was buried, there was a lawnmower sitting there for a long time,” one of VanDyke and Riddle’s neighbors told ABC11. “And it was a nice lawnmower, but it never moved. We just knew something was wrong with it. And he was just sitting there. Now the lawnmower has been moved in the last month, so now this child is exposed.” Additional charges are possible, according to police. “I think that person came to a point where they came to their senses and they decided they needed to talk about it and tell somebody and that’s how we got the report in the first place,” Johnson told WRAL. VanDyke and Riddle appeared in court Monday, where a family member declined to answer a CBS17 reporter’s questions. They remain held without bond in the Harnett County Jail and are due back in court on Sept. 6. Speaking to the media, also Monday, Johnson said he was “not prepared” to confirm reports of a family relationship between VanDyke and Riddle. However, a relative later confirmed to WRAL that the two are actually cousins. The death did not appear to be accidental and the results of an autopsy are pending, according to Johnson, who described the scene as “pretty gruesome.” “That’s going to stay with us for a while,” he said, noting that “when it’s a child or an infant, it makes it a lot worse.” Little information about VanDyke or Riddle has been released. VanDyke’s social media footprint is filled with pictures of trucks, Confederate flags and dark aphorisms like “Never trust the living.” On Instagram, VanDyke describes himself as a “Redneck for life.” In a foreboding 2014 Facebook post reviewed by The Daily Beast, VanDyke shared an image of a red and white sign that read: “NO TRESPASSING. WE ARE TIRED OF HIDING THE BODIES.”
