CORY COLE - 5 months/ Accused: Father; Howard Samuel Cole - Pulaski VA

Infant found dead in Pulaski Co. identified as missing 5-month-old

Orlando Salinas, osalinas@wdbj7.com
POSTED: 06:03 PM EST Jan 29, 2014    
UPDATED: 05:37 PM EST Feb 03, 2014



PULASKI, Va. -  The infant who was found dead Thursday in Pulaski County has been identified as missing 5-month-old Cory Cole.

Cole’s body was found in the Draper area of Pulaski County.

The infant's father, 31-year-old Howard Samuel Cole of Pulaski, was arrested on a child-abuse charge Thursday.

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Jan. 31, 2014

Technicians are still at the scene where an infant was found dead Thursday in the Draper area of Pulaski County.

The infant matches the description of 5-month-old Cory Cole, who has been missing since Monday. Officials are still working to officially release the identity of the child.

The site where the body was found is off the road and in a wooded area. Chief G.W. Roche said you would need an ATV to get to the area where the infant was found.

Howard Cole, the father of Cory Cole, was arrested Thursday in Fairlawn on felony child abuse charges after a significant search.

The investigation is still open, but the chief is confident that the suspect is in custody. He said there is “no serial killer out on the loose.”

Howard Cole was charged with grand theft auto in Pulaski County court in September 2013. In June he was sentenced to 20 days in jail for a shoplifting charge. Cole was scheduled for a plea hearing in Wythe County Circuit Court for a charge of entering a building to commit assault and battery. He is due in court on March 19 on that charge.

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Police and Deputies say they've found the body of a small infant matching the description of boy who's been missing since Monday named Cory Cole.

Now the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, Pulaski Police and State Police are working to identify that child.

Pulaski County Sheriff Jim Davis says the descriptions of Cole and the body they recovered are identical.

5-month-old Cory Cole has been missing since Monday.

He was last seen with his father Howard Cole in Pulaski Monday night.

Cole was arrested earlier today in Fairlawn on felony child abuse charges after a significant search.

Police got a tip around 4 p.m. on Thursday to search a heavily wooded area along Draper Valley Road. and that's where they found the body of the young child.

"We're in the process with The Pulaski County Sheriff's Office of recovering an infant child body.  This is just the beginning of this investigation," said Chief G. W. Roche.

At this time police are not yet connecting the man they arrested to the baby's body found Thursday evening.

We'll have to wait on a positive identification on the body from the medical examiner in Roanoke.

Investigators say they'll be working through the night as they gather evidence.

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UPDATE:

Police have just confirmed to WDBJ7 that they have found a body of an infant that matched the description of the missing baby in Pulaski County.

WDBJ7 has a crew on the scene, and will have more updates as they become available.

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/local/fivemonthold-boy-missing-pulaski-police-searching-for-dad-accused-of-abusing-him/-/20128466/24185798/-/76j88i/-/index.html

Mother of dead Pulaski infant had accused her fiance of abuse
Samantha Warden signed an affidavit that said Howard Cole was abusing their son.

Posted on Feb 10, 2014
by Tonia Moxley

PULASKI — The mother of a Pulaski infant found dead on Jan. 30 had filed an affidavit a day earlier that accused her fiance of abusing the 5-month-old boy.

In an arrest warrant filed in Pulaski County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on Jan. 29, Samantha Anna-Jane Warden accused her fiance, Howard Samuel Cole, 31, of abusing the couple’s son, Cory Cole. The baby was found dead in a rural, wooded area off Old Route 100.

The details came from a handwritten affidavit signed by Warden on Jan. 29.

“My son was crying howard got aggravated with my son crying & he picked him up from his crib held him in the air & said shut the fock [sic] up & threw him down on the bed across the room 4ft,” according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, the alleged abuse occurred on or about Jan. 26.

The affidavit appears to conflict with statements Warden made Feb. 5 to The Roanoke Times. Warden said then that she was having a hard time comprehending the allegations against Cole because she said she had never seen him abuse her children. In addition to Cory, Warden and Cole have a 3-year-old daughter together, and Warden has a 6-year-old daughter with her ex-husband.

Asked Monday by phone to explain the discrepancy in her statements, Warden, 29, said she was told that the only way she could get police to search for her son was to file a complaint against Cole. Warden has said previously that police declined to search for the child unless she produced proof of custody. That proof had gone missing with Cory and his father, Warden has said.

In a brief phone interview Monday, Warden vehemently denied ever witnessing Cole abuse Cory.

“He was never mean or harmed any child, period,” Warden said. “He was never mean to Cory.”

She characterized the filing of the child abuse allegations as doing “what I had to do for my son.”

The phone interview ended abruptly Monday and Warden did not immediately return a voice message seeking further comment.

Warden alleged in the court affidavit and in heretofore unpublished comments to The Roanoke Times that Cole had also abused her.

“I was afraid to call the cops because he has beaten me cantless [sic] times I also informed the police last night of this. My son is only 5 months old,” the affidavit stated.

No one has yet been charged in Cory’s death, and the cause has not been released by authorities. Pulaski Police Chief Gary Roche has said that when the medical examiner’s autopsy report is completed, it could prompt additional charges against Cole.

Howard Cole has been held in the New River Valley Regional Jail since he was arrested Jan. 30 on a felony charge of child abuse. A hearing on that charge is set for March 19, according to the arrest warrant filed in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

The arrest warrant for Cole was issued after police received information that Cory had been abused by his father, authorities have said. When the 31-year-old was apprehended, the infant was not with him, prompting a daylong search for Cory. The search ended with the discovery of Cory’s body.

Warden told The Roanoke Times that she, Cole and Cory were temporarily living in her brother’s house on Crestline Drive in Pulaski while the family saved money and worked toward buying a home. In the afternoon on Jan. 27, Warden said she left the residence to spend the night at a friend’s house in Pulaski County and visit with her uncle.

She said Cory was sleeping in his crib when she left.

“I kissed him on the forehead and told him I loved him and that I would see him in the morning,” Warden said. “I went to walk out the door, and Cole said, ‘You’re not even going to give me a kiss goodbye or say nothing to me?’ So I went over and gave him a hug, and he kissed me on the cheek and on the forehead. And that’s the last time I spoke to Cole … that was the last time I saw Cory.”

Warden said Cole seemed fine and said he was going to lie down for a nap.

On Jan. 28, Warden said her sister-in-law called her to let her know that she had seen Cole driving on Crestline Drive about 3 p.m. that day without a car seat in the vehicle. Cory’s diaper bag, formula and both car seats were still at the residence, but Cory was not, Warden said her brother told her.

“I went straight to the police department and told them something wasn’t right,” Warden said. “Normally when Cole would leave, he would write a note and lay it on the bed for me if I wasn’t at home.

“I told the police I felt something wasn’t right because, I mean, you do not leave a house with a baby without a car seat and definitely not without their food, their formula and their cereal and diapers.”

Roche, the police chief, has said that Cory was last seen with his father in Pulaski about 7 p.m. on Jan. 27.

Before he was taken into custody, Cole had last been seen about 5 a.m. on Jan. 29 — without his son — at the McDonald’s in Dublin in the 4600 block of Cleburne Boulevard, according to Pulaski police.

No other details were available Monday. On Jan. 31, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marc Long granted Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Fleenor’s request that all other search warrants, subpoenas, records and filings related to the case pending against Howard Cole be sealed.

Both Warden and Cole have extensive court records dating several years.

According to court records, Cole was found guilty in 2005 in Davidson, N.C., of driving while intoxicated. He was arraigned in 2005 in Guilford, N.C., on a drug charge, but according to records, the charge was later dismissed. He has been charged with several other crimes in North Carolina and Virginia, including a pending grand theft auto charge out of Pulaski County.

Warden — also known as Samantha Anna-Jane Taylor — pleaded no contest in 2013 to possession of cocaine and possession of oxycodone, according to online Pulaski County Circuit Court records. The cocaine charge was taken under advisement and, according to the records, Warden was placed on one year of supervised probation. The oxycodone charge was not prosecuted, the records state.

In statements to The Roanoke Times last week, Warden said substance abuse had been a part of her relationship with Cole.

Warden was also convicted in 2013 of filing a false report to police in 2012, according to online court records. She received a 30-day suspended sentence in that case. No other details on that incident were immediately available.

Also over the past two years, records show Warden has been convicted in Pulaski County General District Court of public swearing, public intoxication and obstruction of justice.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/pulaski_county/article_7df980fc-92c5-11e3-b9ec-0017a43b2370.html

Death penalty to be sought in Pulaski County infant death case

Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2014 9:15 am
By Jacob Demmitt | The Roanoke Times

PULASKI — A prosecutor said during a hearing Wednesday that his office plans to seek the death penalty against the father of Cory Cole, the 5-month-old boy found dead in a “shallow grave” in a wooded part of Pulaski County in January.

Howard Cole, 32, was indicted on charges of capital murder and illegal disposal of a body in April after he led police to the infant’s body in January. Court appearances for those counts are set to be scheduled on May 23.

Howard Cole also faced one count of felony child abuse, but county Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Justin Griffith told Judge Lee Chitwood on Wednesday the prosecution is dropping the charge so it can focus on the capital murder case.

Cory Cole’s mother, Samantha Warden, 29, separately appeared in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on Wednesday, facing one count of felony child neglect.

Griffith called two Pulaski County investigators to the stand to testify that Warden — also known as Samantha Anna-Jane Taylor — and Howard Cole shared joint custody of the child, but Warden was supposed to supervise visits between the boy and his father. The child was supposed to stay “within sight and hearing,” according to a custody agreement read aloud in court.

On Jan. 26, Warden told police she watched Howard Cole abuse Cory Cole when he “flung” the boy onto a bed.

The next day, the mother and father got into an argument and Warden left the child with Howard Cole, according to testimony.

“The same Howard Cole she [Warden] left her son with,” Griffith said in court.

Howard Cole would eventually lead police at night to a “shallow grave” in Draper containing the infant’s body, according to testimony.

When showed a picture Wednesday of Cory Cole in the grave, Warden began crying. She spent the rest of the hearing sniffling and wiping tears from her face.

The defense didn’t present any evidence Wednesday, and the judge found probable cause to certify the charge against Warden to a grand jury, which will decide if there’s enough evidence to proceed with the case the next time it convenes in July.

Cory Cole was first reported missing on Jan. 29 by his mother, who told police that her fiance, Howard Cole, had left with the baby. She signed an arrest warrant affidavit on that same day accusing Cole of abusing Cory.

When Cole was arrested on child abuse charges on Jan. 30, Cory Cole was not with him. He was questioned as to the infant’s whereabouts and well-being, and later led detectives to a rural area where he said he had taken and left the baby, according to a search warrant filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Whether or not the infant had been alive when he was abandoned in the woods was not clear in the warrant.

Cory Cole’s body was located Jan. 30 in a rural area of Draper off Old Route 100.

In April, Howard Cole was indicted on capital murder and illegal disposal of a body charges.

Warden was arrested Feb. 12 on a warrant for child neglect.

Warden has told The Roanoke Times that she, Howard Cole and Cory Cole were temporarily living in her brother’s house on Crestline Drive in Pulaski while the family saved money and worked toward buying a home. Warden has said that she left the residence in the afternoon of Jan. 27 to spend the night at a friend’s house in Pulaski County and visit with her uncle.

According to the warrant, Warden left that day to stay with a boyfriend.

She said she received a call on Jan. 28 from her sister-in-law advising that Howard Cole had left the house in a vehicle, but that Cory Cole did not appear to be with him, according to the warrant. The next day, Warden reported Cory Cole missing and filled out a criminal complaint so that an arrest warrant could be obtained against Howard Cole.

In the arrest warrant filed in Pulaski County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on Jan. 29, Warden detailed an incident when Cory was crying and Cole got irritated.

“He picked him up from his crib held him in the air & said shut the fock (sic) up & threw him down on the bed across the room 4ft,” according to the handwritten affidavit signed by Warden.

The affidavit appears to conflict with statements Warden made Feb. 5 to The Roanoke Times. Warden said then that she was having a hard time comprehending the allegations against Cole because she said she had never seen him abuse her children.

In addition to Cory, Warden and Cole have a 3-year-old daughter together, and Warden has a 6-year-old daughter with an ex-husband.

http://www.newsadvance.com/news/state/death-penalty-to-be-sought-in-pulaski-county-infant-death/article_e561cb25-38fe-5e2b-bcc1-7bbbc3474e49.html