‘I want to hurt him’: Parent speaks on Richmond County cop investigation
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We’re learning new details about how a Richmond County sheriff’s investigator who fatally shot himself while he was under investigation.
News 12 learned the parents of two young girls accused Investigator Brian Manecke of posting their children’s pictures in a Facebook group called “Taboo.” Both parents have a background in law enforcement and filed a complaint with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
Nine days later, Manecke fatally shot himself. His body was found in Lincoln County after he’d been reported missing.
“Pissed is about as simple as I can put it for local television. I’m pissed,” said Brent Turner.
Turner received a text from a friend, showing screenshots from a Facebook group called “Taboo.”
“It was screenshots saying, ‘Y’all need to get to the bottom of this right now,’” said Turner.
The photo shows his two young daughters, ages 8 and 12. Turner did not post the photo to the group.
“The picture was of them on the first day of school and it said ‘my babies,’” said Turner. “It was Brian Manecke’s pseudonym Facebook page.”
The pseudonym was Charles Vane.
“My wife was still friends with him on Facebook. So I mean, it was very common knowledge that that’s who it was,” said Turner.
It’s like if you had a friend and they changed their name, you’d still follow their page. The question is why the new name Charles Vane.
“The only thing I could speculate was he was in the news a few months ago doing a case in Richmond County and I guess he changed his name so people would leave him alone,” said Turner.
A family friend saw the post and told Turner and his wife.
“The screenshots went into comments that people had put on there, talking about how hot they were,” said Turner. “Another guy said that he had two stepdaughters and he wanted to trade them. One guy said, ‘Oh my God, they’re so gorgeous. I’m imagining you playing with them right now.’”
The comments were talking about the Turner’s daughters.
“I want to hurt him,” said Turner.
News 12 asked, “Who?”
Turner said: “Brian Manecke, I’m not gonna lie. I mean, any dad would.”
At this point, the Turners filed a complaint with Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
“My wife had made contact with investigators at Richmond County,” said Turner. “I told her that they’re going to drop the ball. I knew they were short-staffed. The investigators are slammed with cases. This was something that was gonna have to be dug into on one of their own. I knew that they weren’t going to do it.”
Turner showed investigators screenshots from the “Taboo” group.
“I told them that they had a week,” said Turner. “So Wednesday, they told me that they were not pursuing criminal charges anymore.”
Things didn’t end there.
“Friday night, we were actually trying to celebrate our birthdays. I mean, it becomes simultaneously our phone started going off pretty much every agency in the CSRA, but Richmond County started calling me and my wife,” said Turner.
The calls were telling him Manecke was dead.
“The investigation was, I mean, that was reckless,” said Turner. “To allow six days, and then when he goes missing not to call us. Just a simple heads-up, hey, this is what’s going on.”
The Turners say the last time they spoke to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office was Monday. They were told the investigation into Manecke would continue.
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