Murder of Christopher Barrios Jr.

Christopher Michael Barrios Jr., a six-year-old boy, was killed on March 8, 2007, in Brunswick, Georgia. According to prosecutors, he was lured to the Edenfield family's mobile home near where he lived with his extended family, sexually assaulted, and strangled. David Edenfield was later convicted of the murder; his son George Edenfield was charged but ruled incompetent to stand trial.

The indictment alleged the boy was sexually abused before being killed, and that David Edenfield later confessed and that a family member helped dispose of the body. On March 15, 2007, a state ranger found the boy's partially concealed body wrapped in numerous black plastic garbage bags in a wooded area a few miles from his family's home.

George, David, and Peggy Edenfield were all accused in connection with the abduction and murder. A fourth person, Donald Dale, was originally charged with tampering with evidence and concealing a body; he later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of lying to police, and Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett transferred him to a mental-health facility and banished him from Glynn County. Peggy Edenfield testified against her husband David and agreed to testify against her son George; in exchange, she avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to sixty years in prison.

David Homer Edenfield's murder trial began on September 29, 2009, and concluded on October 5, 2009. The prosecution relied heavily on his videotaped confession and his wife's testimony. Medical examiner Dr. Jamie Downs testified about the extent of trauma found on Christopher's body and the manner of death, which corroborated Edenfield's taped confession. After roughly two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts, and on October 6, 2009, David Edenfield was sentenced to death. As of June 2023, he remained on death row awaiting execution.

On August 3, 2010, George Edenfield was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial and was committed to a state mental hospital for evaluation, with mental health experts to determine the likelihood of his becoming competent in the future.

Both David and George Edenfield had prior histories of sexual offenses. David Edenfield was charged in 1994 with incest involving his daughter and pleaded guilty, receiving ten years probation. George Edenfield was convicted of two counts of child molestation in May 1997 and given probation; in September 2006, he was indicted for violating that probation by living too close to a park, and on March 5, 2007, days before Christopher's abduction, he was again sentenced to ten years probation. A 2006 Georgia law barring sex offenders from living near parks and other child-focused locations reportedly contributed to the Edenfields relocating to the trailer park where Christopher lived.

In October 2008, a photograph of Christopher Barrios appeared without authorization in an episode of the Soapnet series General Hospital: Night Shift; the show's producers said they were unsure how they obtained the photo and apologized, and the Barrios family filed a civil suit against Soapnet for invasion of privacy.