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State public safety board to meet Thursday at ECHS
kight 2
Longtime Effingham County resident and businessman Murray Kight, right, received a proclamation from the state honoring his years of service on the state public safety board. At left is public safety board vice-chairman Ellis Wood of Statesboro. - photo by Photo by Pat Donahue
Staff Report
Updated: Sep 10, 2015, 12:28 AM
Published: Sep 10, 2015, 12:31 AM

The state Board of Public Safety will gather Thursday morning at Effingham County High School for one of its regularly-scheduled meetings.

The Board of Public Safety is mandated to meet at least eight times a year and at least once a year changes the meeting to an information-sharing session at a high school with presentations that are relative to the students, according to vice-chairman Ellis Wood of Statesboro.

“We share information we hope will have a positive impact on their lives and their futures,” he said. “We will make presentations that we hope will help them later in life.”

Scheduled to make presentations to the ECHS students are the state Department of Public Safety, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Corrections.

The board also will conduct is usual business, with reports from the directors of the Department of Public Safety, GBI and GPSTC.

Longtime board member Murray Kight of Springfield also will be honored for years of his service.
Effingham Step-Grandmother Gets Life for Crocker Children Murders
Crocker Case
Elwyn Crocker Jr. and Mary Crocker were discovered buried behind their family’s home in Effingham County in 2018.
Updated: Sep 16, 2025, 6:41 PM
Published: Sep 16, 2025, 6:42 PM

GUYTON, Ga. — The step-grandmother of two Effingham County children whose bodies were found buried in the family’s backyard has pleaded guilty and was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Kim Wright admitted to multiple charges, including two counts of malice murder, aggravated sexual battery, cruelty to children, concealing a death and false imprisonment.

The case drew national attention in December 2018, when investigators acting on a tip discovered the bodies of 14-year-old Mary Crocker and her brother, Elwyn Crocker Jr., who had disappeared two years earlier at age 14. Authorities later revealed the children suffered severe abuse, including beatings, confinement and neglect.

Wright is the fourth of five defendants in the case to plead guilty. Her son, Mark Anthony Wright; her daughter, Candice Crocker; and Candice’s boyfriend, Roy Prater, are all serving life without parole. The children’s father, Elwyn Crocker Sr., is the only suspect who has not entered a plea.