The mother of two Florida boys found dead inside their home says she can’t wake up from the nightmare, but she’s adamant they have the right person behind bars.
“I’ve been living in the absolute complete denial,” mother Sarah Baker told Action News Jax. “I wake up and reality sets in.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Robert Baker, 12, and Tayten Baker, 14, were both found murdered inside a common area of the family’s Melrose home, off of Shiloh Road, in August. Investigators found a hammer and a knife inside the residence.
The children’s mother, who said she was asleep with a younger child when the incident happened, woke up to find her boys unresponsive. She called 911 immediately but it was too late. The attack was so brutal and gruesome that both boys were pronounced dead at the scene.
The children’s father, a truck driver, was not at home at the time. Both parents are fully cooperating with investigators.
Within 48 hours of the murders, authorities arrested 30-year-old Mark Wilson, Jr., a man well-known to the family, who, according to Baker, had never been violent with them before. Wilson and his girlfriend, Cindy, who was also the boys’ aunt, had been staying in a storage shed on Baker’s property at the time of the incident.
During a recorded conversation between Wilson and an unnamed witness, Wilson allegedly said he killed the boys because their family had been “putting stress on him” and threatening to report his own family to the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Wilson allegedly added that the plan was to kill the entire family, including the 4-year-old who was asleep with his mother when his brothers were murdered. Wilson said that Cindy was supposed to kill the family with him, according to an arrest warrant.
Wilson reportedly said he was upset because Cindy said she would kill Baker and the 4-year-old while he killed the two older boys. Cindy did not follow through with her plans, Wilson reportedly alleged.
The boys’ grandfather, Andy Benson, said he doesn’t believe Wilson’s story and doesn’t think Cindy was involved at all.
“If she had any involvement at all I would be the first one to turn her in,” Benson said. “Cindy 100 percent has nothing to do with it.”
Baker agreed.
“I believe my sister. Yes. 100 percent. Not a shadow of a doubt that she had no involvement whatsoever.”
Meanwhile, Baker wrote on a GoFundMe page that she has helped her sister out before when she needed a place to stay, adding that there had allegedly been drug issues with Cindy and Wilson in the past.
“I was letting my sister, her boyfriend, and their baby stay with me AGAIN. I have been letting them live with me on and off for 2 years, trying to help them,” Baker said. “They are both your typical drug addicts – they do good for awhile, get a job, stay sober, and then mess up and burn whatever bridge they just built.”
“I let them move into one of my storage areas- with the promise of helping out, getting job, getting back on track. Four days later I woke up to the most horrific terrifying nightmare any mother could imagine. I was sleeping with my 4 year old in the back of the house and when we came out to the living room that morning I discovered what I’ve only been able to describe as a massacre. My beautiful babies who are only 14 and almost 13 were brutally murdered by an evil twisted monster in their sleep.”
Wilson has an extensive criminal history, including property crimes and drugs, but no known charges for violent crimes until now. He’s been charged with two counts of murder and remains behind bars without bail.
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[Feature Photo: Robert and Tayten Baker/Handout
