Social services investigated Zebulon man years before children’s killings, records show
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- Court records show Wake County investigated Wellington Dickens and his wife in 2016.
- Dickens faces four murder charges after he confessed to killing his children.
- Child welfare workers investigated after the couple refused medical care for their infant.
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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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Wake County Child Welfare workers previously investigated the Zebulon man accused of killing four of his children, according to records reviewed by The News & Observer on Wednesday.
Wellington Dickens III, 38, is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of 6-year-old Leah Dickens, 9-year-old Zoe Dickens, 10-year-old Wellington Dickens IV and 18-year-old Sean Brasfield, his stepson.
In a 911 recording released Wednesday, Dickens confesses to the killings, saying God “influenced” him to do it.
Dickens’ 3-year-old son was found unharmed in the home Monday night after Dickens called 911. The toddler is now in the custody of the Johnston County Department of Social Services, said Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell.
But this isn’t the first time a county social services department has been involved with the Dickens family. Court records show WakeMed Raleigh staff contacted Wake County Child Welfare workers in August 2016 after Zoe’s birth, as first reported by WRAL.
WakeMed lawsuit
Dickens and his late wife, Stephanie Rae Jones Dickens, married Aug. 1, 2015, according to social media posts from family members.
Court records show Wellington Dickens was charged with misdemeanor child abuse Sept. 3, 2015, in Raleigh, but the charge was dismissed by the Wake County District Attorney’s Office in April 2016 because the victim, who was unspecified, wasn’t present.
Oldest daughter Zoe was born Aug. 18, 2016, court documents show. After the birth, hospital staff were concerned the infant was suffering from jaundice, a condition that occurs when bilirubin builds up in the blood and can lead to brain damage if left untreated.
However, before Zoe’s birth, the couple apparently told their medical team they didn’t want any needles used on the child because of their “religious and spiritual beliefs,” according to a federal complaint Dickens filed against WakeMed and Wake County. After their daughter was born, they declined standard infant vaccines, blood draws and Vitamin K eye drops, court records indicate.
When hospital staff warned the Dickenses they believed Zoe was jaundiced, the couple refused bloodwork to test the level of bilirubin in her blood and allegedly repeatedly removed the infant from a blue-light crib meant to treat her jaundice, according to court documents. Stephanie Dickens also allegedly tested positive for marijuana at the time of Zoe’s birth and apparently had not sought prenatal care during her pregnancy, court documents state.
Four days after the baby’s birth, the Dickenses discharged their daughter from the hospital against medical advice, then failed to attend a scheduled follow-up with a pediatrician the next day, prompting the Child Welfare call, court records show.
Wake County Child Welfare workers arrived at the Dickenses’ Raleigh home Aug. 23, 2016, but the couple wouldn’t allow them to see Zoe, with Wellington Dickens using “extreme profanity” and posting the social worker’s license plates on Facebook, according to court documents.
Workers returned to the home two days later, accompanied by two Raleigh police officers, warning they’d need to file a petition in court if the Dickenses didn’t allow them to see Zoe, Wellington Dickens wrote in his complaint. The couple allowed police to confirm Zoe was alive, but wouldn’t allow social workers into the home, according to court documents.
On Sept. 20, 2016, Child Welfare workers filed a petition in Wake County District Court to order the Dickenses to disclose Zoe’s whereabouts and allow social workers to examine her and arrange for a doctor’s visit. The couple didn’t attend an Oct. 13, 2016, hearing at which Judge Keith Gregory granted that request, according to court documents.
Wellington Dickens was subsequently arrested Oct. 31, 2016, on a charge of contempt of court, court records show. He was released from jail after his wife took Zoe to a county health clinic, according to his complaint.
Dickens sued WakeMed and Wake County in May 2018, alleging the hospital and the county had violated his civil rights, according to court documents. That suit was dismissed by Judge Louise Wood Flanagan in July 2018, and Dickens’ appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit was denied in February 2019, court records show.
Other complaints: ‘Mark of the beast’
Dickens also filed a complaint against Durham County in 2017, alleging the county violated his constitutional rights by requiring him to pay child support, according to court records. It’s not clear from court documents who Dickens was supposed to pay child support to, though court records indicate he divorced a previous wife in 2008.
Dickens claimed he shouldn’t be subject to federal statute 42 US Code section 666, which governs state child support procedures, because the number 666 violated his religious beliefs, the complaint states.
“I can not [sic] associate myself in any way, shape, form, or fashion with the ‘mark of the beast’ labeled as the number six-hundred and sixty-six,” Dickens wrote.
That complaint was dismissed by Judge William L. Osteen Jr. in August 2019, and the federal appellate court upheld Osteen’s ruling in May 2020.
Dickens additionally threatened to sue former Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and former Wake County Commissioner James West in federal court in June 2016, but never followed through with the proper paperwork, leading to a dismissal. The proposed complaint apparently stemmed from a 2014 arrest in Wake County on a trespassing charge that was later dismissed, though documents indicate McFarlane and West weren’t directly involved in the charge or court proceedings.
Wife dies in 2024
Zebulon, which lies partly in Johnston County, is about 24 miles east of Raleigh, mostly in eastern Wake County.
The Dickens family moved to their Zebulon home in the new Harvest Meadows neighborhood in the spring of 2023, property records show.
None of the Dickens children attended public school in Johnston County, according to a school system spokesperson. The children were apparently homeschooled, Bizzell said, though The N&O could not find any record of a homeschool being registered under Dickens’ name on state websites Wednesday.
Stephanie Dickens died in April 2024 at the home from complications of a miscarriage, Bizzell said Wednesday. She was about three months pregnant at the time and began bleeding the night before her death, but declined to seek medical treatment, according to Bizzell.
It’s unclear if that refusal was also tied to the Dickenses’ religious beliefs. In her obituary, Wellington Dickens describes his late wife as “a God-fearing strong woman who tried her best at all times to please God in the best way she knew alongside her family.”
Thirteen months later, Stephanie Dickens’ youngest daughter, Leah, was also dead. Wellington Dickens allegedly killed Leah first in May 2025, then killed Zoe in August, Wellington IV in August or September and Sean in September, Bizzell said.
Dickens remained in the Johnston County jail Wednesday afternoon without bail.
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM.
