Police: Dad Admits Burying Missing Children in Mississippi and Alabama

Dec. 7, 2010— -- Police are trying to find the bodies of two children whose disappearance went unnoticed for months and now the kids' father and stepmother are blaming each other for the deaths.

Police in Mobile, Ala., sayJohn DeBlase, 27, has admitted burying one child this past March in Mississippi, and another in June in Alabama.

But no one realized the children had vanished until November when stepmother Heather Leavell Keaton told police that 5-year-old Natalie and 3-year-old Chase DeBlase were missing. Keaton allegedly told police she feared DeBlase had killed the children.

Mobile Police Chief Michael Williams said DeBlase has not admitted to killing the children, only to burying them.

"He's given us an indication of a location where they may be, where he remembers burying the children. So the investigators will go out and they will scout those areas with a team of people, with cadaver dogs and with the teams that do that for a living," Williams said.

But police say DeBlase is blaming Leavell-Keaton for the children's death. Leavell-Keaton is currently in custody in Louisville, Ky., and awaiting extradition to Mobile, Louisville police told ABC News.

"He's placing the blame on Heather, and Heather's placing the blame on him," Mobile Police Officer Chris Levy said.

Police, however, say both are responsible.

"Detectives have determined that both John Deblase and Heather Keaton are responsible for the deaths of 3-year-old Jonathan DeBlase and 4-year-old Natalie DeBlase, and police will continue to search for the children," Levy said in a press release.

DeBlase was arrested in Florida on Friday and charged with abuse of a corpse and aggravated assault in connection with the case police said. Leavell-Keaton was arrested on an outstanding warrant charging her with child abuse.

The grisly story came to the attention of police on Nov. 18 when Leavell-Keaton allegedly told police she feared the children were dead, a report from the Louisville Police Department states. The report says she was requesting a restraining order against DeBlase.

"I feel he may have murdered his children because he said that they were nonresponsive," Leavell-Keaton allegedly told police according to the report.

"Choices were made this morning, and he had to do what he had to do," Leavell-Keaton told police, according to the report.

According to police, the couple had moved to Louisville from Mobile several months ago.

Officer Carey Klain of the Louisville Police told ABC News that as they filed Leavell-Keaton's request for a restraining order and took down her report on the children, they became aware that she had an arrest warrant in Alabama for child abuse.

Klain said her department placed Leavell-Keaton in custody and contacted the Mobile police to inform them about the statements Leavell-Keaton had made, triggering a national missing children's report as the Mobile police began trying to locate DeBlase and the children.

DeBlase was picked up on Dec. 2 in Florida. According to a report out of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office, DeBlase had been staying in Florida with friend Randall Melville since Nov. 30.

Mellville received a phone call from an associate who, according to the police report, told Melville he saw a television report about DeBlase being wanted in connection with the disappearance of his children.

"Melville said he asked John about this information which John then got up yelling 'I didn't do it,' and left the residence," the police report states.

DeBlase was picked up by police a short time later, and he again allegedly blurted out to the officers, "I didn't do it," the report says.

Police are still unclear if the children were killed at the same time.

According to Mobile Police DeBlase, who has not entered a plea, is being held on a $206,000 bond.