Benjamin Taylor, 32, has been arrested and is being held on a $2 million bail in Southern Regional Jail, West Virginia. The man has been charged with the rape and beating resulting in the death of nine-month-old Emmaleigh Barringer, daughter of his girlfriend, with whom he lived. The baby’s mother has three older children who were apparently unharmed by Taylor.
On the morning of October 3, Amanda Adkins awoke early, around 4 a.m., after going to bed about six hours earlier. After awakening, she discovered the baby was not in her crib. She began a frantic search which ended when she found Emmaleigh naked, bleeding, battered and unresponsive in the basement of her home near Ripley, WV. She immediately called 911, but when paramedics arrived, Emmaleigh was not breathing. Although they were able to regain Emmaleigh’s pulse, she was placed on a ventilator and was soon pronounced brain dead. She had head trauma and had lost massive blood from the brutal sexual assault, which responding police characterized as “the worst sexual assault they had ever seen“, according to Fox 43.
Meanwhile, as local residents and people across the country struggle to make sense of what happened, Benjamin Taylor’s Facebook page has been scrutinized. His bio says “dead inside”, but it is unclear when he wrote that bio. His Facebook page says he is a laborer. You can see his Facebook page here.
Hate posts fill his page from distressed and enraged individuals, some who knew him, and some who didn’t. Most wish death upon him in descriptive brutal manners. One Facebook post that was posted by Taylor not long before the brutal rape of Emmaleigh said “Real mean love other men’s children like their own.” Over three hundred people have commented, many of them calling for the public hanging of Benjamin Taylor. While the death penalty is outlawed in West Virginia, a petition to Congress that was created yesterday that calls for his public lynching has already received two thousand signatures. You can see that petition here.
“His horrible and evil actions proves evil has no boundaries and no shred of morality or humanity. That defenseless child had to live the last moments of her life conscious in excruciating pain wondering what she did wrong to deserve that or why it was happening to her screaming in pain underneath her killer with zero comfort or love. Your evil actions caused a small innocent baby to die a horrific death. She had her whole life ahead of her and has people who love her that now have to carry the pain and suffering you have caused. You have done something that cannot ever be justified or be undone. If you do live through your prison experience and are released no one here will ever forget or let you live without being reminded of what you have done to that baby.”
