2 at GBI resign after taking photo with head

Man photographed had been found dismembered.

Two GBI employees are out of a job after one took a photo of the other posing with the dismembered head of a homicide victim, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The former medical examiner employees, who have not been named, were allowed to resign instead of being fired following an internal investigation, Channel 2 reported. The person who took the photo was a graphic arts specialist, and the person in the photo was a homicide investigator.

The victim was Robert Page, a 76-year-old grandfather who was found dismembered in his neighbor’s home in Morrow in November, the news station reported. Christian Ponce-Martinez, 25, was charged with malice murder in connection with the death.

Page’s family is livid at the two employees, saying it’s bringing back the trauma of finding out their loved one was brutally killed.

“You taking pictures, making light of a situation like that ... I mean, you’re just as evil to me as that murderer,” Reba Sanchez, Page’s daughter, told Channel 2.

Police said they found Page’s body in various places around Ponce-Martinez’s house, including part of his body within a cooler and other parts of his body under two tarps in the backyard.

The GBI was performing an autopsy on the body in Decatur after it was recovered. His widow, Lila Page, told Channel 2 that hearing about the photo is extremely disturbing.

“Awful that somebody would be that evil,” Lila Page, who had been married to Robert for almost 50 years, said.

GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles told the news station, “The GBI’s position on this is it was highly inappropriate, and it’s been addressed.”

She went further, saying it is now against GBI policy for personal photos to be taken in the medical examiner’s office.

Sanchez said she wishes the GBI didn’t allow them to resign and fired them instead.

“That’s someone’s loved one,” she said. “You wouldn’t want anyone to do that to your family member, so why would you do it to mine?”