When interviewed by detectives, documents indicate Pickering told them before rangers arrived, Lila made him promise “that they would never take her away from me again”.
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Pickering has since been charged with murder in state and federal courts, and is being held in the Buncombe County jail.
“Now they will never be able to take her away from me, ‘ he replied, according to the affidavit”.
FBI officials said they’re helping Buncombe County deputies and National Park Service officials with the investigation since the incident happened inside a national park.
About 90 minutes later, the curly-headed girl with the bright smile was dead.
Lila was a student at Johnston Elementary in Buncombe County.
But as the child’s custodian pleaded with him to stop, Pickering took the child out of the house and drove off, the affidavit said.
The girl, Lila Marie Pickering, was stabbed in the heart, Fox Carolina said.
The affidavit filed with the criminal complaint alleges late Friday afternoon Seth took Lila from the residence of the custodian where the victim had been placed temporarily by the Buncombe Co.
The Buncombe Co. Sheriff’s Office responded to a call by the victim’s custodian regarding a missing juvenile and were in the process of gathering information to initiate a report and issue an alert to law enforcement agencies, according to the complaint.
An hour later, two park rangers allegedly saw Seth’s vehicle parked on the side of the road near Blue Ridge Parkway.
The area is a well-traveled cut-through for locals, and lies east of Brevard Road, but has no designated parking or pull-offs as many other sections of the tree-lined road do.
Around 6:50 p.m. the Rangers started approaching Pickering, because it was an illegal campsite and fire.
One of the rangers revealed that he heard a deep thud and a piercing scream before seeing the 6-year-old girl crumble to the ground with a knife sticking out of her chest.
After approaching Pickering, “Without warning”, according to federal documents, rangers “observed Pickering turn away from the rangers and make a lunging movement toward Lila who was standing a few feet behind him”.
Pickering then raised his hands in the air, the affidavit said.
The rangers saw Lila lying with a knife protruding from her chest, and drew their guns. Marsh handcuffed the father. EMS personnel tried to resuscitate her but she died at the scene.
Later, Marsh asked Pickering why he killed Lila.
Pickering was arrested on the highway at about 7 p.m. Friday, according to the Citizen-Times of Asheville.
Hours before her daughter’s death, Ashley Pickering said a child protective services case worker from the county told her that her Lila “was happy and healthy and in a great home”, the Citizen-Times reported.
Lila was at the heart of bitter custody battle between Pickering and his estranged wife, Ashley.
“Me and him, we had our problems”, she said.
“If you’re convicted, you could get the death penalty or life in prison without parole”, District Court Judge Edwin Clontz told Pickering.
The ranger “heard an audible thud-like” noise and a brief high-pitched wince or groan sound coming from Lila, who then fell to the ground, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent wrote.
Pickering is also facing a state charge of first-degree murder. “As the deputy was there, we learned of the homicide”, he said. Pickering’s next court appearance is set for October 3.
The Associated Press left messages for the public defender who represented Pickering in a first court appearance. People familiar with his service said he is a veteran of the Army.
Investigators found two kitchen knife blocks in Pickering’s home in Leicester, N.C.; each block was missing one knife, according to the complaint. 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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It matched the set in the Leicester duplex exactly.
