Chilling details have emerged about a Colorado man accused of killing his young nephew with an ax last month after he allegedly lured the 4-year-old into the basement of his home.
Emanuel Joseph Doll, 25, of Broomfield, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the slaying, according to KUSA-TV in Denver. The boy's name has not been released, but he has been identified as the son of Doll's twin sister.
Details of the homicide were obtained from an arrest affidavit, which Denver-area media outlets successfully petitioned a judge to unseal.
The affidavit indicated that the Doll's parents, the boy's grandparents, were babysitting the child on the morning of April 27 when he was killed. The Broomfield Enterprise reported that the grandmother, Charlotte Doll, told police she sat with her grandson for a while as he played with an iPad.
At some point, Emanuel Doll went into the home’s basement and, a few minutes later, asked his nephew to join him. The family told police that the pair often played games and surfed the internet together on one of six computers in the home.
About 30 minutes after the boy arrived, Charlotte Doll heard noises from the basement that sounded like "a pillowcase loaded with items hitting the floor," the Enterprise reported.
Charlotte Doll told police she yelled out to her son, asking him what the noise was. Emanuel Doll told her the noise was “nothing,” and a few minutes later, he returned upstairs and walked out the back door of the home.
Charlotte Doll and her husband, Joseph Doll, soon found their grandson's body in the basement and called 911, the newspaper reported. In that call, Joseph Doll told a dispatcher that "Emanuel used an ax and that the ax was still inside the house," the affidavit said.
Police found the boy lying unresponsive and with a “massive amount of trauma,” the affidavit said. The iPad and a bloody ax were found near his body.
Emanuel Doll was found in the backyard, covered in blood, the Denver Post reported.
Doll is being held without bail on the charges, one of which alleges he killed his nephew with deliberation. The second murder charge alleges that he killed a person under the age of 12 while in a position of trust.
The Post reported that search warrants indicate detectives seized multiple computers and electronic devices from the home. Doll, who worked for his father's computer coding business, spent a large portion of his time on the devices.
KUSA-TV reported that the day of the slaying was not the first time police had been called to the Doll home. Broomfield police officers were called to the house 14 times since March 2016, including six calls that police characterized as dealing with mental health issues.
Emanuel Doll had multiple prior run-ins with police, including a December 2014 incident in which he assaulted his mother, who was then 58 years old. KUSA-TV reported that Doll told officers at the time that it bothered him when his mother walked around the house partially naked.
"It was disgusting, so I slapped her in the back of the head," he told officers, according to the news station.
He was later sentenced to a year of probation for third-degree assault.
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