JAIDON HILL - 7 yo - (And mother Atira Hill-Smith, stepfather Laterry Smith) / Arrested: Timothy Burns - Jackson, MS

3 bodies found in Miss. believed to be family

By JACK ELLIOTT JR., Associated Press

Updated 10:39 am, Tuesday, November 5, 2013

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The bodies of three people believed to be members of a family that went missing have been found in Mississippi.

Copiah County Coroner Ellis Stuart says the bodies were found in an abandoned house about a mile from where the family's vehicle was found Saturday.

Stuart says the bodies matched the descriptions of 7-year-old Jaidon Hill, 30-year-old Laterry Smith. They were reported missing Friday. Their wrecked vehicle was found burning Saturday morning.

On Monday, Jackson police recovered items linked to the family in a trash bin at a Jackson gas station.

Copiah County Sheriff  told Jackson television stations that a 42-year-old man has been taken into custody in the case.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/3-bodies-found-in-Miss-believed-to-be-family-4957086.php

Suspect in Missing Mississippi Family Case Leads Investigators to Bodies


Nov. 5, 2013

By Alexis Shaw



Atira Hill, 30, son Jaidon Hill, 7, and husband Laterry Smith, 34, were last seen travelling in a vehicle, Nov. 1, 2013.
Copiah County Sheriff's Department

A Jackson, Miss., man has been arrested in the deaths of a Brandon, Miss., mother, her young son and her husband. The family had vanished without a trace after a car wreck over the weekend.

The bodies of Atira Hill, 30, her 7-year-old son, Jaidon, and her husband, Laterry Smith, 34, were found this morning, a relative told ABCNews.com.

Timothy Lydell Burns, 42, of Jackson, Miss., was arrested today, Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones told ABC's Jackson, Miss., affiliate WAPT-TV.

The family members had last been seen driving in their car on Friday, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said in a statement.

Their abandoned, smoldering, tan Dodge SUV was found upside down in a ditch in Hermanville, Miss., Saturday morning, Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones told ABCNews.com Monday, but the family had not been seen or heard from since Friday.

Burns led investigators to an old home near the rural area where the family's overturned car had been found. Inside the home, law enforcement officials found the bodies of the three family members, who had all been shot, WAPT-TV reported.

It is unclear if there is a connection between Burns and the family.

Copiah County Coroner Ellis Stuart told ABCNews.com that the family's bodies were sent to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office in Jackson, where an autopsy will take place this afternoon.

Stuart confirmed the bodies appeared to have gunshot wounds, but declined to say where the mother, her son and her husband had been shot.
Mississippi Family Vanishes After Car Wreck: 'We Have No Idea Where These People Are'
Penny King, who is a relative of Atira Hill, told ABCNews.com this morning that the family was found dead but that she didn't "know all the particulars yet."

Officer Colendula Green, a spokeswoman for the Jackson Police Department, told ABCNews.com that three bodies were found early this morning but declined to comment further.

On Monday afternoon, investigators were seen collecting items from a Dumpster at a Shell gas station in Jackson, Miss., that were linked to the family, reported ABC's Jackson affiliate WAPT-TV.

Among the items found were bloody clothes and Hill's ID badge from her job at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, WAPT-TV reported.
A hospital spokesman had confirmed earlier to ABC News that an Atira Hill-Smith worked at the hospital but had not shown up for work on Monday.

King said she last spoke with Hill a week ago but knew of a "strange" conversation that Hill had with her mother.

"Atira told her mother on Friday that she was going out of town and something had just come up," King said. "She said that they were going to see some of Laterry's people about some business."

King said she did not know what Smith did professionally, adding the couple had only been married a few months and Smith "did not come around much."

King described Hill as a "very quiet" person whose son, Jaidon, "was her life."
King became tearful when speaking about the 7-year-old, whom she described as an "energetic, all-American boy.

"He's full of energy and full of life. He worked in the church," she said as she choked back tears. "He just didn't deserve this at all."

ABC News' calls to the Copiah County Sheriff's Department were not immediately returned.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-missing-mississippi-case-leads-investigators-familys-bodies/story?id=20788463

Second arrest made in killing of Mississippi family

Published November 07, 2013

AP Photo: Rogelio V. Solis
Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones speaks to reporters following a Copiah County Justice Court appearance by Timothy Lydell Burns, the man investigators say they suspect in the deaths of three family members, outside his office in Gallman, Miss., Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013.

Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. –  Authorities say a second person has been arrested in the abduction and killing of a Mississippi couple and their 7-year-old son.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said early Thursday that 30-year-old Cedric D. Mason, of Jackson, was arrested late Wednesday on two counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping.

Authorities found the family's wrecked and burned vehicle Saturday in a remote area southwest of Jackson. Police say after they questioned 42-year-old Timothy Ladell Burns, also of Jackson, he led them the bodies at an abandoned home about a mile from the vehicle.

Burns has been charged with two counts of murder and arson. Authorities have not released a motive for the killings or said whether Burns and Mason knew the family.

All three victims had gunshot wounds.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/07/second-arrest-made-in-killing-mississippi-family/