MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mon County officials say Nicholas Padron, 28, of Grafton, confessed to the murder of Michael Blackburn, 50, his girlfriend’s father.
“So, not knowing if this was a true story or not, I grabbed a deputy and went up to do a welfare check,” Taylor County Sheriff Terry Austin said.
Austin and the deputy went through the house and did not find evidence of a crime, and Blackburn’s daughter told police her father was gone and had not returned.
After Austin posed a series of questions to Padron through Mon County detectives they were able to determine there was a body.
“We were able to find the body and the head,”Sheriff Austin said,”We did an autopsy today and we’re fairly sure the victim was dead before the head was severed.”
Sheriff Austin said the couple and two children had moved in with Blackburn about three weeks ago, but would not elaborate on a possible motive. Austin says Blackburn’s daughter is not a suspect and CPS has been called to help with the children.
“This is in steps,”Sheriff Austin said,”We have vehicles to search, even though we’ve done a preliminary search of the house, we have a search warrant to finish things up in the house which will be executed in the next day or two.”
Austin says even with a confession, the investigation remains active in order to preserve any and all evidence.
“it’s not just cut and dried, we have to go trial on this,”Sheriff Austin said,”I did charge him with first degree murder and we will be going for first degree murder without mercy and a lot has to come in play to get a conviction like that.”