PLACERVILLE, CA - Early last Saturday morning, Charles Anthony Bailey, 50, got mad. So he used an ax to attack his 34-year-old girlfriend Merrily Melson, and took off with their son, 2-year-old Andrew Bailey. He didn’t manage to kill Melson, and she was able to tell investigators what had happened, resulting in an Amber Alert being issued. A few hours later, Bailey was found at a gas station but little Andrew was nowhere to be found.
At about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, Andrew Bailey’s tiny body was located in a trash can behind a Kmart store in Martell, California. And while details are still sketchy and the autopsy reports were not released, Bailey was accused in court Tuesday of using a screwdriver to kill his toddler son.
Merrily Melson’s mother, Elinor Melson, says that she’s “aged a hundred years in the past two days”. She says that Bailey’s descent into violence seemed sudden and totally unexpected. “That’s the really scary part. I vote for brain bacteria, or Alzheimer’s, or a terrible tumor because the idea that any one of you could wake up tomorrow morning and become an ax murderer is just too frightening to contemplate.” Or, I guess, a screwdriver murderer.
Bailey has no criminal record or history of violence, and social services agencies have had no prior contact with the family at all, so Merrily’s mom might have a point. Bailey worked for Endwave Corporation, an electronics firm. Merrily Melson appears to own a small tie-dye company called Wholesome Goodies. She suffered “significant” head and face injuries and cuts to her upper body, but was able to run to a neighbor’s house from the fifth-wheel trailer on some land where she and Bailey and Andrew were living. Melson has been treated and released from the hospital.
Bailey was arraigned Tuesday on a charges of murder with a special allegation of use of a deadly weapon, attempted murder and spousal abuse, all with special cirucmstances. He’s in jail and not going anywhere soon. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 28.
Tags: Filicide, Murder, screwdriver
