5 missing S.C. children found dead; father confesses

Therese Apel, Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger 11:06 p.m. EDT September 9, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

JACKSON, Miss. — The father of five South Carolina children whose bodies were found in Alabama Tuesday confessed to killing them while  in custody in Mississippi, then led authorities to their bodies, according to Smith County Sheriff Charlie Crumpton.

Authorities found the remains of the five children — aged 1 to 8 — around 3 p.m. on a dirt road off Alabama Highway 10 near the Oak Hill  community in Wilcox County, said Alabama Law Enforcement Agency spokesman Sgt. Steve Jarrett.

Jarrett declined to say how the children were killed.

“It would be premature to speculate,” Jarrett said.

The children, who were found buried in individual garbage bags, were reported missing to the Lexington County (S.C.) Sheriff’s department  Sept. 3 by the children’s mother.

The mother, divorced from the children’s father, told South Carolina deputies that she had been unable to contact her ex-husband, Timothy  Ray Jones, said Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty. Deputies entered the five children and their father as missing persons on the  National Crime Information Center computer database.

 

 

 

 

 

The children were last seen with their father, who was their primary legal guardian. Neighbors told deputies that Jones told them he and the children were moving from Lexington to another state.

Jones, 32, was arrested in Mississippi on unrelated charges Saturday. Authorities said they suspected foul play when the children were not with him, according to a release from McCarty.

Jones was stopped Saturday night at a driver’s license checkpoint, Crumpton said. Officers determined that he was under the influence and got him out of the vehicle. When they ran his license, nothing came up, but when they ran his tag, it registered a hit with NCIC.

A deputy found what was believed to be chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine and a substance believed to be the street drug Spice, a form of synthetic marijuana, a sheriff’s department press release stated. Then an investigator was summoned to the scene and found what appeared to be bleach, muriatic acid, blood and possible body fluids, the release said.

 

Jones was taken into custody on charges of DUI and possession of a controlled substance, Crumpton said.

Late Tuesday, Lexington County Coroner Earl Wells was arranging to transport the bodies back to South Carolina for autopsies and to positively identify the remains.

Lexington Sheriff’s Department detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Jones on a charge of unlawful neglect of a child by a legal custodian, McCarty said. Detectives expected to obtain additional arrest warrants for Jones and return him to South Carolina, he said.

Jarrett said law enforcement would remain at the scene in Alabama for as long as it takes.

“It is going to be a very detailed processing to ensure that the case is as solid as possible,” he said.

In Mississippi, Crumpton expressed relief that the children were found.

“I’m a father of two, and I can’t imagine what goes through a man’s head when he does this. It was a horrible, horrible crime,” Crumpton said. “As tragic as it is — and it’s terribly tragic — at least it didn’t last long. We had to get some closure for their mother.”

Contributing: Scott Johnson, The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/09/deputies-seek-5-children-missing-from-sc/15350941/