Father talks ‘total shock’ about learning his son was killed by stepfather in NC
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4 children killed in Johnston County
A man in Zebulon, NC, is charged with four counts of murder after he confessed to killing four of his children, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said Oct. 28, 2025. Here is ongoing coverage.
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The father of the teen found dead with three younger children in the trunk of a car in Zebulon learned of the killing from a reporter who sent him a message on Facebook Tuesday.
“I was in total shock,” said the father, who asked The News & Observer during an interview Friday not to publish his name.
The man’s son was found dead after Wellington Dickens III called 911 on Monday night and confessed to killing his three biological children, ages 5, 9 and 10, and his stepson, Sean Brasfield, 18, over a period of several months.
Officials found the bodies in Dickens’ car at his home in Zebulon, which is about 24 miles east of Raleigh in Wake and Johnston counties.
Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell said Leah Dickens, 6, was killed in May; Zoe Dickens, 9, in August; and Wellington Dickens, 10, in August or early September. Sean was killed in September, the sheriff said. A 3-year-old boy was found alive at the home
Dickens, 38, who now faces four murder charges, told the 911 operator that God influenced the killings. “It wasn’t up to me,” he said.
Born blind in one eye
Sean was born blind in one eye and with cerebral palsy, and saw occupational and other therapists who helped him learn how to walk and talk, his father said.
“He was a great kid,” he said.
Sean’s father and the boy’s mother, Stephanie, weren’t married long and divorced many years ago, he said.
Stephanie, who he was married to while she attended North Carolina Central University, was a good mother, the father said.
“She was a very good woman,” he said. After Sean’s mother started dating Dickens, the new family cut off Sean’s father and other family members, not letting the father see or speak with Sean, the father said. They stopped seeking services for Sean, said the father, whose health insurance had paid for Sean’s therapy.
Dickens and Stephanie married in August 2015, according to family members’ social media posts, The N&O has reported.
Stephanie died on April 21, 2024. Bizzell said she was about three months pregnant and died from complications of a miscarriage. She had been bleeding the night before, but didn’t seek medical care, the sheriff said.
‘He was a monster’
Sean’s father said Dickens contacted him in 2024 on Facebook to share that Stephanie had died. The father asked Dickens if he could see or talk to his son.
“Crickets,” the father said, describing the silence from Dickens.
Then, in August, Dickens reached out to Sean’s father asking for help with Sean. The father shared his health insurance information and asked Dickens to take Sean to be evaluated by a doctor. The father said he would then come to North Carolina to help navigate Sean’s next step.
And then the reporter sent the message on Facebook this week with the tragic news of the deaths.
The father said he contacted the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office and received an apology for not yet being notified. Now he’s just waiting to see what the investigation reveals.
He didn’t know Dickens, the father said, and he certainly never suspected something like this might happen.
“But, of course, he’s a monster,” he said.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published November 1, 2025 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Father talks ‘total shock’ about learning his son was killed by stepfather in NC."
