Trial starts for man charged with killing wife and child, then posting deaths on Facebook

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Raleigh man charged with strangling his wife and daughter to death and then posting their deaths on his Facebook page.

The accused man, Elhadji Seydou Diop, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the April 5, 2016 deaths of his wife, Aminata Drame, 40, and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Fatim Diop. They were killed in their West Raleigh townhouse.

Diop, 55, appeared in Wake County Superior Court in late September of last year and rejected a plea agreement that would have allowed him to avoid a trial. Instead, Diop entered pleas of not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

The unexpected move stunned the family and friends of the victims. Diop had agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, said Kristen Fetter, a Wake County prosecutor. Diop would have spent between 30 and 38 years in prison under the plea bargain, Fetter said.

If Diop is convicted of first-degree murder, he could face the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

An autopsy report made public in July 2016 may be at the heart of Diop's rejection of the plea deal. State medical examiners could not determine whether Diop had strangled his daughter. It’s possible, the report said, that she was smothered when her fighting parents landed on top of her hours before she and her mother were found dead at their home at 5943 Farm Gate Road.

“According to information received, Fatim Diop, a 2-year-old girl, was present during a physical altercation between two adults when they landed on top of her on 4/5/2016 around noon,” the report stated.

“Afterward, she was reportedly not breathing, but Emergency Medical Services were not called.”

Police officers went to the family’s home that day after Diop’s niece, who lives in Dakar, Senegal, saw photos of the dead bodies of Drame and Fatim that Diop had apparently posted on his Facebook page.

“Look what god did 2. Me.,” investigators believe Diop posted at 2:41 p.m. that day. “A beautiful family. all gone.”

According to the Senegalese online newspaper DakarFLASH.com, Diop had also written on his Facebook page, “They just died, and I will be next. Who will stop me?”

Police think Diop had tried to kill himself after he killed his wife and daughter. It appeared that Diop had positioned his wife and daughter before taking the pictures. They were lying face up, with Fatim resting on her mother’s right arm and her head tilted up into her mother’s face.

After seeing the photos, Diop’s niece called her husband, who lives in New York City, according to a 911 recording made public shortly after the victims were found. The husband called 911 in New York, and a dispatcher there contacted Wake County’s 911 center.

Neighbors in the townhouse complex said the couple had been living there for about two months.

DakarFLASH.com reported that Drame had found work at a post office and was looking forward to enrolling in school.

This story was originally published March 19, 2018 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Trial starts for man charged with killing wife and child, then posting deaths on Facebook."