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Foster parent charged with murder
Claudette Foster
The foster parent for twins Raelynn and Payton Keyes has been arrested and charged with murder.


According to Hinesville Police Detective Bryan Wolfe, Claudette Foster turned herself in to Hinesville Police Department detectives around 9 a.m. Monday.

Foster has been charged with two counts of second degree murder and two counts of cruelty to children in the Sept. 29 deaths of the 3-year-old twins, who were found dead inside a car parked in the back yard of an Augusta Way home in Hinesville.

Preliminary Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab autopsy results showed the twins died of heat stroke.

Foster is expected to make a first appearance Tuesday before a magistrate at the Liberty County Jail.

According to Hinesville Police Department Detective, Capt. Tracey Howard, the twin girls were in private foster care contracted through the state along with their two brothers.

Howard said the children were visiting the home of the foster parent’s fiancé. The two young girls were last seen Saturday evening when they were placed in bed for the night. Sunday, the girls’ brothers, ages 6 and 8, told the foster parent that the girls were not in their room and could not be found.

Foster told authorities she had seen the girls playing that morning.

When the search began earlier that morning, the foster parent could not locate the children inside the home. The search was expanded to the backyard and the surrounding area in the neighborhood. The foster parent returned to the home to resume the search and recheck the backyard. It was during this second search that the children were found unresponsive inside a vehicle parked in the home’s backyard.

Foster said she called 9-1-1.


According to an earlier release from the City of Hinesville, the 9-1-1- call came in at 1:42 p.m. Sunday Sept. 29. Officers were immediately dispatched to the home in the 200 block of Augusta Way.

Morris-Reed said that once first responders determined that the children were deceased, HPD immediately began a death investigation. A perimeter was established and all individuals were removed from the home.

A search warrant for the home was obtained and GBI was contacted to assist with the investigation. A crime scene unit processed the scene with the assistance from GBI and the bodies of the children were removed from the scene and taken to the crime lab.

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Motorcyclist dies following Friday evening collision
traffic accident graphic

A Long County motorcyclist was killed Friday night after colliding with another vehicle.
According to Hinesville Police Department Traffic Accident Investigator Michael Rameriz, the motorcyclist was traveling west bound on West Oglethorpe Highway shortly before 6 p.m. when a GMC Yukon was making a left turn from Mattie Street onto West Oglethorpe.
The motorcyclist struck the Yukon. Medical first responders were in the process of airlifting the motorcyclist when she succumbed to her injuries.
Rameriz said the accident is currently under investigation and declined to comment whether charges are pending.

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