"DA: Bodies of 5 missing SC children found" Associated Press September 10, 2014
CAMDEN, Ala. — The bodies of five children missing from South Carolina have been found in rural Alabama and their father is being held, authorities said.
Mississippi authorities said Tuesday night that 32-year-old Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was in custody in Raleigh, Miss., after being detained Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence.
They said Jones’s SUV was towed and upon inspection of the vehicle, evidence of a crime was found. They said further investigation led them to the children’s bodies.
Michael Jackson, district attorney in Wilcox County in Alabama, said the father is suspected of killing the children in South Carolina and dumping the bodies in Alabama. He said all charges will be filed in South Carolina.
Police have not released details on how the children died. Lexington County Coroner Earl Wells was arranging for their bodies to be taken to South Carolina for autopsies, officials said.
Deputies said the man’s former wife reported her children, ages 1 to 8, missing on Sept. 3, when she could not contact her former husband.
--more--"
"Father in slaying faced abuse inquiry" by Alan Blinder and Timothy Williams | New York Times September 11, 2014
LEXINGTON, S.C. — The father accused of killing his five children in South Carolina and then dumping their bodies about 700 miles away in Alabama had been investigated for child abuse about a month before the children’s disappearance, the authorities said Wednesday.
At the time, investigators said they had found no evidence that the children had been hurt or were in danger.
The father, Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, was arrested Saturday at a motor vehicle checkpoint in Smith County, Miss., authorities said, and after questioning He led police to the bodies of his children, who ranged from 1 to 8 years old.
The children’s bodies, wrapped in garbage bags, had been left off a dirt road near Camden, a small city in rural Alabama, more than an hour’s drive southwest of Montgomery. The authorities said they did not know why the bodies were left there.
The children were last seen Aug. 28 and were reported missing Sept 3. The authorities said Jones picked up the older children from school and the younger ones from day care. Jones, who shared custody with his former wife, was supposed to return the children to her Sept. 2.
On Aug. 7, children’s services workers and the South Carolina police questioned Jones, who worked as a computer engineer with Intel in Columbia, S.C., about a report that he had physically abused at least one child earlier in the day. On Wednesday, however, the authorities said that no signs of abuse were found after visiting the home and speaking to Jones and the children.
Although South Carolina law mandates that a follow-up on children’s welfare be conducted within 45 days of an abuse report, the Department of Social Services had not made a second visit to Jones’ home by the time the children were reported missing, the authorities said.
South Carolina officials said Wednesday they were moving to extradite Jones from Mississippi and that he was expected to be charged with five counts of murder.
The children’s bodies have been returned to South Carolina for autopsies, which are scheduled for Thursday, according to the medical examiner, but authorities have declined to comment on the cause of death or why Jones might have killed the children.
“He has not indicated why he did this,” Lewis McCarty, the acting sheriff of Lexington County in South Carolina, said during a news conference Wednesday.
McCarty said the children’s mother, Jones’ former wife, was “in shock and is extremely distraught.”
Jones’ father, Timothy Jones Sr., said Wednesday in a brief phone interview from Mississippi that the family was stunned. “We just want to try to work through this,” he said. “It’s a very difficult time for the family.”
McCarty said investigators believe Jones killed his children in South Carolina, put them in garbage bags in the back of his Cadillac Escalade, and embarked on a circuitous route — driving from South Carolina to North Carolina and back to South Carolina before heading to Athens, Ga.
Jones then returned to South Carolina before driving back through Georgia to Mississippi and Alabama, where he discarded the bodies, police said. “We feel that the deaths took place early on,” McCarty said. “These children were in the car — deceased — in garbage bags, for some time.”
The sheriff added, “I have no idea why he dropped them in Alabama.”
South Carolina officials said Wednesday that they did not issue an Amber Alert after the children’s mother reported them missing because Jones had primary custody as part of the couple’s divorce settlement. The children’s mother also told the police that she often had difficulty contacting her former husband.
But McCarty said the state police and the FBI had carried out a vigorous search for Jones and the children. “We were looking for this man with all resources and assets,” he said.
Jones was finally caught at a police checkpoint in Mississippi on Saturday.
--more--"
"S.C. caseworker reported slain children’s father was ‘overwhelmed’" by Jeffrey Collins | Associated Press September 12, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The man accused of killing his five children was a onetime prison inmate whose homes were visited by social workers a dozen times in the last three years.
The children seemed happy and well-adjusted despite occasional spankings, and the family took a summer trip to Disney World and the beach, according to documents released by the Department of Social Services on Thursday. Authorities never found anything serious enough to take the children away, but the documents show that Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was a single father and computer engineer struggling to raise his children.
Two weeks before the children’s disappearance, a social worker summed up Jones’s life in a report: ‘‘Dad appears to be overwhelmed as he is unable to maintain the home, but the children appear to be clean, groomed and appropriately dressed,’’ wrote the caseworker, whose name was blacked out, on an Aug. 13 report.
On Aug. 28, Jones picked up his children, ages 8, 7, 6, 2, and 1, from school and day care. Acting Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty said the three boys and two girls were probably killed soon after that, with Jones loading their bodies in trash bags in his Cadillac Escalade, driving around the Southeast for days with the bodies.
An intoxicated and agitated Jones was arrested Saturday at a DUI checkpoint in Smith County in Mississippi, and authorities said he had a form of synthetic marijuana on him. Officers found children’s clothes, blood, and maggots in his SUV.
Three days later, he led police to the bodies on a remote hillside in Alabama. Authorities said they still don’t know his motive, how the children were killed, and why they were buried there.
Jones was returned to South Carolina on Thursday to face murder charges. His first court appearance is Friday, the same day a memorial for his children is to be held in Mississippi, where other relatives live.
In South Carolina, social workers in Jones’s hometown of Lexington released their 50-page file on Jones.
In October 2011, Jones confronted a caseworker who demanded he clean up the clothes and blankets scattered on the floor and boxes of food on top of the counter with tools scattered around them where the children could be hurt. The argument got so heated that the caseworker called deputies; Jones calmed down when they arrived.
Three days later, the caseworker returned and wrote: ‘‘observed the home to be VERY VERY VERY CLEAN.’’
Caseworkers made follow-up visits over the next several months as Jones’s marriage fell apart amid allegations that his wife cheated on him. Jones’s wife talked of being lonely and the mistake the couple made in moving from Mississippi, where his family lived. They moved after he got a degree at Mississippi State University and was hired for a $71,000-a-year job as a computer engineer at Intel.
--more--"
"Georgia man charged in hot car death" Associated Press September 05, 2014
ATLANTA — More than two months after his son’s death in a hot car, a Georgia man who prosecutors say sat in his office exchanging nude photos with women while his son languished for hours was charged with murder Thursday.
A Cobb County grand jury indicted Justin Ross Harris on multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder, and cruelty to children.
The malice murder charge indicates that prosecutors intend to prove Harris intentionally left his son, Cooper, in the hot car to die.
Harris will be arraigned in the next few weeks, and Reynolds said he will decide before then whether to seek the death penalty.
Harris has been in jail since his arrest the day his 22-month-old son died.
Harris has told police he was supposed to drive his son to day care the morning of June 18 but drove to work without realizing that the child was still strapped into a car seat in the back.
Police have said the toddler was left in the vehicle for about seven hours on a day when temperatures in the Atlanta area reached at least into the high 80s.
--more--"
I didn't mean to abandon you on those stories, sorry.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"S.C. man accused in children’s deaths avoids court" Associated Press September 13, 2014
LEXINGTON, S.C. — The man who police say killed his five children waived his first court appearance Friday because he is being ‘‘portrayed as a monster’’ and needs a mental health evaluation as soon as possible, his lawyer said.
Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, has been treated for mental health problems in the past, his lawyer Aimee Zmroczek said. She would not specify what sort of treatment or problems he has had.
Now the questions become what pre$cription pharmaceuticals was he on or is this a limited hangout position for another sick psyop. That is the point we have reached with this here media.
‘‘He is being portrayed as a monster,’’ she said. ‘‘He is scared and simply wants someone to guide him.”
Well, he did kill five children and drive around in a drunken stupor with blood in the car and body bags in the trunk if reports are to be believed.
About 400 miles away in Amory, Miss., Jones’s children were remembered at the Amory Church of Christ. A program showed a photo of each child and offered a description of what they liked to do.
The youngest, 1-year-old Elaine, loved giving high fives and kisses. The oldest, Merah Gracie, 8, enjoyed dressing like a princess, going to church, reading books, and coloring.
Two of the boys — 7-year-old Elias and 6-year-old Nahtahn — loved to fish.
Their brother, 2-year-old Gabriel, enjoyed watching Care Bears, ‘‘VeggieTales,’’ and playing with the family.
Authorities said Jones killed his children, wrapped their bodies in bags, and dumped them in Alabama.
--more--"
