ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Seth Willis Pickering, 38, of Leicester, N.C. was ordered to serve life in prison for killing his daughter, 6-year-old Lila Pickering.
On February 9, 2018, Pickering pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and admitted to fatally stabbing his daughter on September 9, 2016, within the boundaries of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Citizen-Times reported: On Sept. 9, Seth Pickering picked his daughter up from her caretakers’ home and, against their warnings, took her camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Brevard Road. Lila’s guardians notified the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, which was preparing to issue an Amber Alert at the time of Lila’s death.
Just before 7 p.m. two park rangers approached Pickering and his daughter, investigating what they believed to be an illegal campsite.They knew nothing about the Amber Alert, as it was never issued. Things went terribly awry after the rangers greeted Pickering and his daughter.
“Without warning, (one ranger) observed Pickering turn away from the rangers and make a lunging movement toward Lila who was standing a few feet behind him,” according to the federal complaint. “(The ranger) heard an audible “thud-like” noise and a brief high-pitched wince or grunt sound coming from Lila, who then fell to the ground.”
She had been stabbed through the heart and died at the scene.
Pickering will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
In handing down today’s sentence, Judge Cogburn said that “there was no excuse for what happened,” and stated that Pickering “killed a child to punish social services and his wife.”
