Two Georgia Bureau of Investigation employees are off the job after one snapped a disturbing photo of the other posing with a murder victim’s remains.
Atlanta station WSB-TV reported that the former medical examiner employees, Landen Wilson (who was in the photo) and James N. Brown (who took the photo), were allowed to resign rather than be fired following an internal investigation into the incident. Officials said the worker in the photo was a homicide investigator while the worker who took it was a graphic arts specialist.
The family of Robert Page (right) is outraged the GBI employees were allowed to resign rather than lose their jobs. (Images courtesy of WSBTV)
In the photo, Wilson is seen smiling with the dismembered head of 76-year-old Robert Page, the grandfather found murdered in his neighbor’s Morrow home in November. The elderly man’s remains were discovered just hours after his family reported him missing on Nov. 8. Police were able to track down suspect Christian Ponce-Martinez after a neighbor’s home surveillance captured him on Page’s property earlier that day.
Ponce-Martinez, 25, has since been charged with malice murder in connection to the death.
Members of Page’s family told WSB-TV they’re outraged the employees were allowed to resign in lieu of termination.
“Visually trying to see my father’s head in a cooler is enough. But now you take it and you take pictures with it?” said Reba Sanchez, the victim’s daughter. “You taking pictures, making light of a situation like that? I mean, you’re just as evil to me as that murderer.”
Page’s remains were found scattered around his neighbor’s home, with some parts hidden under tarps in the backyard and more stuffed inside a cooler, according to police.
A motive for the grisly murder is still unknown, but investigators said at the time that it appeared Page and Ponce-Martinez might have had some sort of argument prior to the elderly man’s death.
Sanchez said the employees in the photo have no heart.
“That’s someone’s loved one,” she told the station. “You wouldn’t want anyone to do that to your family member. So why would you do it to mine?”
Page’s widow, Lula Page, also condemned the medical examiner employees.
“Awful that somebody would be that evil,” said Lula, who had been married to her husband for nearly 50 years.
GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said the agency has since updated its policy to prohibit personal photos from being taken inside the medical examiner’s office.
Watch more in the clip below.