DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia Bureau of Investigation employee is off the job after he was seen in a disturbing photo with a victim's remains.
Authorities said Robert Page was killed by Christian Ponce-Martinez, 25, who then dismembered and hid Page's body.
Page's family reported him missing on Nov. 8. Using a neighbor's surveillance video, police were able to arrest Ponce-Martinez after he was seen on Page's property.
A source told Channel 2 Action News, a photo of a GBI employee posing with Page's head was passed around the office and the agency began an investigation.
The employee resigned in lieu of termination. The person who took the photo also resigned.
Members of the victim's family told Channel 2's Tom Jones they are furious the employee was allowed to resign rather than being fired.
"Visually trying to see my father's head in a cooler is enough. But now you take it and you take pictures with it?" said Page's daughter, Reba Sanchez. "You taking pictures, making light of a situation like that? I mean, you're just as evil to me as that murderer."
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The GBI took Page's body to perform an autopsy.
"It's awful that somebody would be that evil," said Page's widow, Lula Page.
She said the worker in the picture and the one who took it obviously have problems.
"The GBI's position on this is it was highly inappropriate and it's been addressed," said GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles.
Sanchez said the workers have no heart.
"That's someone's loved one. You wouldn't want anyone to do that to your family member. So why would you do it to mine," Sanchez said.
The GBI said it is now against policy for personal photos to be taken in the medical examiner's office.
Page's family is not happy that the workers were allowed to resign. They said that makes it seem like the GBI condones what they did.
Cox Media Group
