Parole denied for George Earl Deck in rape, murder of 9-year-old Glenna Rose Brammer in 1987
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CANTON, Ohio (WJW) — The Ohio Parole Board has denied parole for 67-year-old George Earl Deck, convicted of the 1987 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Glenna Rose Brammer in Canton.
The Parole Board gave Deck the maximum 10-year continuance on his sentence, and his next hearing is now scheduled for February 2034.
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Brammer’s family contacted FOX 8 News last month because they were concerned that Deck might be released and harm another child. FOX 8 viewers were among concerned Ohioans who added to their names to an online petition created by the organization Block Parole Inc. that urged the Parole Board to keep Deck behind bars.
The 1987 kidnapping, rape and murder of the Stark County girl made children afraid to go to the park and haunted many Canton residents for years.
Nine-year-old Glenna Rose Brammer was a happy-go-lucky child, who loved her family dearly and was proud of being a good student and a Brownie.
On July 17, 1987, while playing at King Park in Canton, Glenna was robbed of her life when she was kidnapped by a vicious predator, who later raped and murdered her.
“It devastated me, still does,” Brammer’s sister Kimberly Elmerick told FOX 8 on Thursday. “I can’t do anything on her birthday, I can’t do anything on the [anniversary] of the day she died.”
An investigation by Canton police would reveal that George Earl Deck, who was 31 at the time, approached Glenna at the park and offered to buy her candy.
It was a ruse that would lead to her brutal slaying.
“I wanted to kill him because the night before she disappeared, I said he was creeping around the park all the time and all the little kids that were there, and I said, ‘Stay away from that man. He just creeps me out,’” said Elmerick.
Detectives said Deck took Brammer to an industrial area of Canton, where she was raped, beaten and strangled. He then buried her body in a shallow grave.
“After reading the autopsy report and finding out everything that was done — that shouldn’t happen to anybody, much less a 9-year-old,” said Elmerick.
Attorneys for Deck argued at the time that he was developmentally disabled and mistreated as a child. But in 1989, Deck was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Glenna and sentenced to life in prison.
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Thirty-five years later, Glenna’s family said they were overwhelmed with fear and anger when they learned in March that Deck was being considered for parole in late April.
“He got a life sentence for a reason. He needs to stay there until he dies, period. I don’t want him out,” Elmerick said.
The family’s concern that Deck could somehow be paroled caught the attention of an organization called Block Parole Inc, that is dedicated to keeping Ohio’s most violent offenders locked up for as long as the law will allow.
Though it is rare for child killers to be paroled at their first hearing, the group organized an online petition allowing Ohioans to send a message to the parole board about Deck.
Brammer’s family is convinced that the now 67-year-old Deck continues to pose a threat to children.
“Oh, he would take another girl if he had a chance. I’m positive he would and he would probably do the same thing to them that he did to my sister,” said Elmerick.
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