MERAH, ELIAS, NAHTAHN, GABRIEL and ABAGAIL ELIZABETH JONES - 8,7,6,2 and 1 - (9/14) - / Charged: Father, Timothy Ray Jones Jr - Raleigh, Mississippi; Columbia, SC; Wilcox County, AL

CBS/AP
September 9, 2014, 6:39 PM       

5 missing S.C. kids turn up dead in Ala.; dad arrested


The scene of a search for 5 missing kids in Alabama on Sept. 9, 2014.  WLTX-TV

Last Updated Sep 9, 2014 8:00 PM EDT

CAMDEN, Ala. - A district attorney says the bodies of five children missing from South Carolina have been found in rural Alabama. The children's father is in custody.

Wilcox County, Alabama, District Attorney Michael Jackson told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the father is suspected of killing the five children in South Carolina and dumping the bodies in Alabama.

Mississippi authorities said in a news release Tuesday night that 32-year-old Timothy Ray Jones Jr - . was already in custody in Raleigh, Mississippi, after being detained Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence. The children were not with the father when he was taken into custody.

They said Jones' 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.

Jackson said the father is suspected of killing the five children in South Carolina and dumping the bodies in Alabama.

CBS affiliate WLTX in Columbia, S.C., reports the children were between the ages of one and eight.

He said all charges will be filed in South Carolina and the children's bodies will be taken back to that state.

Deputies say the man's ex-wife reported her children missing on Sept. 3 when she could not contact her ex-husband. She told investigators there were other times she hadn't been able to contact him and the children turned up safe.

The husband is the children's primary legal guardian, WLTX reports. Neighbors told deputies that the children's father said he was moving with his children from his home near Lexington, S.C., to another state.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-missing-south-carolina-kids-turn-up-dead-in-alabama-dad-arrested/

Hope to read news of the mother.  If this man had custody, she must not have been June Cleaver.

This saddens my heart and turns my stomach.

This man is evil to the marrow of his bones.  He's not fit to live.,

I think he slaughtered these poor children to hurt their mother.

OMG, people like this walk among us and we are unaware.

South Carolina dad confesses to killing his 5 kids


Authorities gather in a fielded area surrounded by trees Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Camden, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
AP
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
LEXINGTON, S.C. --
A South Carolina man confessed to killing his five children, ages 1 to 8, then dumping their bodies wrapped in trash bags in a secluded clearing along a rural road in Alabama, authorities said Wednesday.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, will be charged with five counts of murder, and officials believe he acted alone, Acting Sheriff Lewis McCarty of Lexington County said. Authorities think all five children were killed at the same time, but they said they don't yet know how or why. Autopsies were scheduled to begin Thursday.

The case has unfolded over the past two weeks, covering five states and about 700 miles in what the sheriff called a "logistical nightmare." It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon - when authorities made the gruesome discovery of the children's bodies - that they went public with the case.

"We were trying to balance the children and the investigation against the releasing of information," McCarty said. "I am a police officer. I'm not a politician. My job basically is to get this job done."

Jones was stopped at a traffic checkpoint in Mississippi on Saturday, authorities said. A deputy spotted bleach, blood and children's clothes in his Cadillac Escalade. It would be another three days before the children's bodies were discovered.

He was charged with driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance. When authorities ran his license plate, they discovered Jones and his five children had been reported missing by their mother.

Jones was taken into custody that day, and late Monday he confessed to deputies that he had killed his children and dumped their bodies, said Charlie Crumpton, sheriff of Smith County, Mississippi.

On Tuesday, Jones led authorities to the bodies off a dirt road in central Alabama.

Jones' father told officials his son was highly intelligent, but Crumpton said he had difficulty reading Jones' emotions during the confession. "Sometimes he was up, sometimes he was down on himself," Crumpton said.

The children were last seen Aug. 28. The older children were at school, and Jones picked up his younger kids at daycare. He was to return the children to their mother's home Sept. 2, but never showed up. Their mother, Jones' ex-wife, reported them missing Sept. 3.

State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because the case didn't meet the criteria - Jones had legal custody of his children.

On Wednesday, food and other garbage were piled up outside Jones' mobile home south of Lexington. The yard was overgrown, with broken toys strewn about.

A sign on font door said, "Is there life after death? Trespass here and find out" with a photo of a gun.

Jones - who worked as an engineer with Intel, with his 2013 divorce record showing he made more than $70,000 a year- was awaiting extradition from Mississippi on Wednesday.

The children's bodies have been brought back to South Carolina for the autopsies. Officials won't comment on any causes of death until the autopsies are completed.

The children's mother, Jones' ex-wife, is in shock and distraught, McCarty said.

"I'm sure everybody wants to know the answers," Jones' father, Timothy Jones Sr., told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Amory, Mississippi. "It's just a terrible tragedy."

"They were wonderful. They were happy," Jones' stepmother, Julie Jones said of the five children as she cried. "They were wonderful, beautiful."
http://abc7.com/news/south-carolina-dad-confesses-to-killing-his-5-kids/302862/

Sheriff: We don't know why father killed his five children


By Tim Flach, Harrison Cahill & Anne-Kathryn Flanagan
Columbia - The StateSeptember 10, 2014 Updated 7 minutes ago




Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty held a press conference about the father who is accused of killing his five children in Lexington County and dumping the bodies in Alabama


LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC — Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty said in a press conference Wednesday that Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, was calm as he led investigators to where he dumped the bodies of his five children Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2; and Abagail Elizabeth, 1.

Sheriff McCarty did not release the names of the children during the press conference, however, their names and ages were obtained from divorce records on file at the Lexington County Family Court.

According to the divorce order, the name of Abagail Elizabeth was changed to Elaine Marie Jones. No explanation as to why was given.

The bodies of the three boys and two girls were found around 4:45 p.m. outside the town of Camden, Alabama, according to investigators.

On Tuesday, Jones took Lexington County Sheriff's deputies, FBI agents and State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agents to a dirt road in the Oak Hill Community in Wilcox County, Ala.

Jones led them to the remains of the five children, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department.

McCarty said the children were in an advanced state of decomposition and that the deaths took place early on in the hunt for Jones. The children were last seen in school and day care on Aug. 28, according to a timeline released by the sheriff.

Investigators do not yet know the children's cause of death, McCarty said.
Authorities hope to have the autopsies completed as early as Thursday. And they do not know what made Jones kill his children. The drug known as Spice, a strong hallucinogenic, was found in Jones' vehicle, the sheriff said.

McCarty said the five sets of remains of the Jones children are in Lexington County now, and a team is on the way to Mississippi to pick up Jones.

McCarty said Jones traveled to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia then back to South Carolina and then to Mississippi.

Authorities said Jones is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and that his father lives there.

Jones, who will be charged with five counts of murder upon his return to Lexington County, was believed to have carried the children in garbage bags across three states, McCarty said.

Jones was pulled over in Mississippi, and that's when authorities saw blood and cleaning supplies in his car, along with children's clothing but no children.

The case resulted from old fashioned police work and multi-agency cooperation, according to the FBI.

Initial investigations began on Aug. 7 when the Department of Social Services received a report of abuse against Jones.

DSS went out that day to investigate, and found that it was not warranted, according to Jackie Swindler, a DSS official. He would not say who call authorities.

Swindler said DSS workers were notified, interviewed the children and determined that they were not in danger, according to Swindler.

Swindler said the entire investigation file will be made available later today.

Jones' ex-wife reported that he and the children were missing on Sept. 3, which is the day after he was scheduled to return the children to her, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Jones and his ex-wife, who had been married since June 2004, were granted a divorce on Oct. 14, 2013.

An Amber Alert was not issued because it did not meet the five criteria for the alert, according to SLED chief Mark Keel. Primarily because it wasn't an abduction by someone who wasn't a legal guardian, an Amber Alert was not issued, he said.

Sheriff McCarty said media were not informed because investigators were balancing the investigation with multiple agencies.

Investigators said Jones picked up his three school-aged children from their school and the other two children from their daycare Aug. 28.


http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/10/3671959_live-updates-from-lexington-press.html?sp=/99/132/&rh=1#storylink=cpy[/size][/left]

Slain 5 Kids Loved to Play, Wrestle With Their Dad


AMORY, Miss. — Sep 12, 2014, 6:34 PM ET
By ADRIAN SAINZ and JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press


Timothy Jones, Sr., right, hugs a supporter after a memorial service in Amory, Miss., Friday, Sept. 12, 2014. Police say Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, killed his three boys and two girls, wrapped their bodies in separate trash bags and drove around for... View Full Caption The Associated Press


The five children who authorities say were killed by their father loved to dress up as superheroes, play in the park and pool, and pose for the camera, always smiling.

And they loved "wrestling with their dad."

At their memorial in this rural Mississippi town Friday, about 100 people, some who didn't even know the Jones children, watched a slide show of their short lives. Mourners in wooden church pews cried and soft music accompanied the images of Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2; and Elaine, 1.

Associate minister Derrick Maranto said Elaine loved to give high fives, dance and act as a "leg ornament."

"That is, whether you find yourself at Walmart or find yourself at the grocery store, or even at home, you feel something heavy on your leg," Maranto said. "It's a child, like hanging on to you. That was Elaine."

Gabriel loved to watch Care Bears and "VeggieTales." Elias — who Maranto called Eli — loved fishing and dressing up like Spiderman. Nahtahn liked to fish, ride his bike and dress up like Ironman.

Merah put op princess outfits, played with dolls and liked brushing people's hair.
And "they all loved wrestling with dad," Maranto said, the only specific mention of the father at the memorial.

"They loved going to the park. They loved swimming. They loved chocolate cookies and a chocolate fountain."

About 400 miles away in Lexington, South Carolina, their father 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 attorney said.

Authorities said Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, killed his three boys and two girls, wrapped their bodies in separate trash bags and drove around for days with their decomposing bodies before dumping them on a rural hilltop in Alabama. Jones killed them at his home about two weeks ago, before his ex-wife reported them missing, Acting Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty said. The motive and cause of death was still being investigated, authorities said.

Jones has been treated for mental health problems in the past, his attorney Aimee Zmroczek said. She would not elaborate.

"He is scared and simply wants someone to guide him through the process," Zmroczek said.

His attorneys filed documents saying the initial hearing was entirely unnecessary and could taint a potential jury pool and prevent him from receiving a fair trial.

Jones' attorney Zmroczek said he has been held in isolation under suicide watch. Lexington County authorities transferred him to a state prison for his safety.

On Thursday, social services officials released a file detailing allegations of abuse and about a dozen visits to Jones' homes in the last three years. There were accusations the children had bruises and were spanked with a belt, but authorities never found anything serious enough to take the children away.

Case workers made visits as Jones' marriage fell apart amid allegations his wife cheated on him with a neighbor. His wife talked about being lonely and what a mistake the couple thought they made moving from Mississippi. They left for South Carolina after he got a degree at Mississippi State University and landed a job making $71,000-a-year job as a computer engineer at Intel.

A therapist who saw Jones more than two years ago described him as "highly intelligent" and responsible, yet emotionally devastated and angry over his wife's alleged infidelity, divorce records show.

An intoxicated and agitated Jones was arrested at a DUI checkpoint in Smith County, Mississippi, on Saturday, 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, authorities said he led police to the bodies on a remote hillside in Alabama.

Through it all, Jones' father, Tim Jones Sr., spoken up for his son, who he called Little Tim. Jones Sr. said his son made a stupid mistake when he was convicted as a 19-year-old for cocaine possession and a crime spree that including stealing cars.

Jones Sr. said his son was a loving father, brother and son.

At the conclusion of the memorial, everyone was given pink, yellow, green and blue balloons and asked to go outside. Once there, Jones Sr. sobbed.

"I don't want to let go," he said, still holding the balloons. As he released them, the rest of the mourners followed, watching in silence as the balloons drifted toward the clouds.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/memorial-set-slain-kids-dad-heads-court-25450472?singlePage=true

Boo hoo, he's scared.  Imagine how those poor FIVE slaughtered children felt when their dad was murdering them.

Dad who 'murdered his five young children' thought they were going to 'kill him, chop him up and feed him to the dogs'

• Timothy Jones Jr, 32, said he believed that his kids 'were going to kill him, chop him up and feed him to the dogs' 
  
• Jones' attorney says he has been treated for mental illness in the past and they want a mental evaluation to performed on him as soon as possible
  
• Jones faces charges for unlawful neglect of a child and he also faces five counts of murder
  
• The Intel engineer was arrested for a DUI and later admitted he had dumped his children's bodies down a dirt track in Alabama 
  
• Jones is an ex-con who was charged with burglary, car theft and cocaine possession in 2001  
  
• Jones crisscrossed several states for days, apparently using bleach to try to mask the smell of the decomposing bodies 
  
• Children were likely killed shortly after they were last seen in school and day care on August 28   
  
• Jones discovered his wife of ten years Amber was going to have sex with 19-year-old neighbor
  
  

Published: 01:15 EST, 18 September 2014  |  Updated: 09:50 EST, 18 September 2014

A South Carolina father who killed his five young children said he believed that his kids 'were going to kill him, chop him up and feed him to the dogs,' according to an arrest warrant released yesterday.

Police say that Timothy Ray Jones killed his children-aged eight, seven, six, two and one years old- at his home in Lexington, South Carolina then put their bodies in plastic trash bags and drove them around for nine days around the Southeast.

CBS reports that the warrant says that authorities found blood in his car and found handwritten notes about chopping up bodies after he was stopped at a DUI checkpoint in Mississippi on September 6. 

Timothy Ray Jones Jr, 32,  seen here escorted by lawmen out of the Smith County Jail in Mississippi to a
vehicle for transport to South Carolina last week , said he believed his children were trying to murder him

The bodies of the five children - Merah, eight; Elias, seven; Nahtahn, six; Gabriel, two, and Elaine Marie, one -
were found inside trash bags down a dirt track in rural Alabama

Even though a warrant was released last week, Lexington County deputies kept some of the information hidden.

Daniel Jones, the district attorney of Smith County, Mississippi, who is not related to Jones Jr. says he thinks that the cuckolded father went crazy.

'I think he probably just went mad,' said the prosecutor

 Jones faces charges for unlawful neglect of a child and he also faces five counts of murder.
Jones' attorney says he has been treated for mental illness in the past and they want a mental evaluation to performed on him as soon as possible.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr earned his computer engineering degree, worked at a $71,000-a-year job, had a wife of ten years and several young children.

Then, just over two years ago, he discovered his wife Amber was putting their children to bed in their South Carolina home and going to the neighbor's house and sleeping with the neighbor's 19-year-old son, according to divorce papers.

Jones moved out with the children and seemed friendly to his new neighbors, but began to withdraw to the point where the woman who lived next door thought he and his family had moved away.

Jones and his five children - aged eight, seven, six, two and one years old - disappeared a few weeks ago, but no one called police for days.

Authorities weren't convinced anything was wrong until they said an intoxicated, agitated Jones was stopped at a DUI checkpoint in Mississippi where officers found him alone, with blood and children's clothes in his SUV and the stench of death in the air.

He was described as 'high as a kite' on synthetic marijuana known as Spice, which is readily available in head shops and online.

Jones, 32, would lead investigators to his children's bodies, wrapped in five trash bags on an isolated Alabama hilltop, but it's still not clear why he killed his children, authorities said. Officials believe that he was acting alone. 



The brothers and sisters were all murdered at the same time but it is unclear as to how the children were killed


The father had told neighbors that he and his five children were moving to another state after he divorced from his wife and became their primary legal custodian


Investigators said that they believed all five children had been killed together soon after they were taken from school and daycare on August 28. Autopsies were due to be performed last Thursday 
Jones' father, Timothy Jones Sr., stood outside his Amory, Mississippi, home a day after his grandchildren's bodies were found, and asked for prayers for his family and for the son he referred to as Little Timmy and Little Tim.

'Let it be known that people will come to their own conclusions and as parents we can understand that decision based on the circumstances,' the father said in a statement. 'But please remember that our Little Tim is a very loving father, brother and son.'

That was not the picture painted by Lewis McCarty, the acting sheriff in Jones Jr.'s home of Lexington County, South Carolina.

The lawman who started his career on patrol 50 years ago took a second to collect himself as he started to talk to reporters.

'I made a promise to these children's mother that I would bring these children home. And I was not going to go back on that promise,' McCarty said.

Jones is an ex-convict who went on a crime spree more than a decade ago in Illinois, prison documents and a family member confirmed on Thursday.

He was arrested on a cocaine possession charge March 30, 2001, in Carpentersville, Illinois.

Six months later, he was arrested for a crime spree that included stealing a car, burglary and passing forged checks, according to Michael Combs, chief of the criminal division of the McHenry County, Illinois, State's Attorney's Office. He was 19 years old at the time.



A dirt road leads up to the isolated spot in rural Alabama where Jones admitted he dumped the bodies
of his five children in individual trash bags

Divorce records listed the five children as Merah, eight; Elias, seven; Nahtahn, six; Gabriel, two, and Elaine Marie, one. Elaine Marie was born Abagail Elizabeth but the parents agreed to a name change, records show.

McCarty said the children were likely killed shortly after they were last seen in school and day care on August 28.

He didn't say how they were killed, or where, except that it wasn't in their home.
Jones put each child's body in its own trash bag and loaded the bodies into his Cadillac Escalade, McCarty said.

He drove hundreds of miles and crisscrossed several Southeastern states for days, apparently using bleach to try to mask the smell of the decomposing bodies, authorities said.

Fox reported that Jones was caught on surveillance camera making a stop at a Dunkin Donuts in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Labor Day. It is believed Jones had the bodies of his dead children in the truck at the time.

The suspect left his SUV by a dumpster as he went into the store to buy an iced coffee and six donuts, Fox claimed.

Jones stopped at an isolated hilltop in central Alabama and left them near Pine Apple, 20 miles off Interstate 65 and about 65 miles south of Montgomery, authorities said.

He then kept driving for several more hours until he reached a DUI checkpoint in Smith County, Mississippi, about 500 miles from his hometown.

An officer said he 'smelled the stench of death' along with chemicals used to make methamphetamine and synthetic marijuana. There was blood, bleach and maggots in the car.

A check of Jones' license plate showed his ex-wife had reported him and the children missing three days earlier when he failed to bring them over for visitation.

He slowly acknowledged what happened to his children, and led police to their bodies , authorities said. Only then did authorities go public with the case.

The suspect's father Timothy Jones Sr., center, stands next to his son Travis, right, as he reads a
statement to the media about his slain grandchldren in front of his home last week in Amory, Tennessee

 
Man kills his five children then dumps bodies in trash bags



'We were trying to balance the children and the investigation against the releasing of information,' McCarty said.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr, 32, was charged with murder of his five children and says he believed they would 'murder him and feed him to the dogs'

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because the case didn't meet the criteria - Jones had legal custody of his children.

Bob Lowery, a vice president at the National Center for Missing Exploited Children, agreed.

'The joint custody issue and his having primary custody does complicate the matter,' Lowery said. 'He has every right to have those children.'

Jones graduated with a degree in computer engineering from Mississippi State in 2011. Records from his October 2013 divorce show he was working for Intel at the time and the company confirmed he was still employed there when he disappeared.

The court records also showed a troubled life, both for Jones and his children. The divorce included multiple allegations of adultery against Jones' wife Amber, including accusations she sneaked over to her neighbor's home after putting the kids to bed.

A therapist who saw Jones during the divorce described him as 'highly intelligent' and responsible, yet emotionally devastated and angry over his wife's actions.

Jones got primary custody of the five children after the divorce and moved from one ramshackle mobile home to another in Lexington.

His wife didn't work outside the home or have a driver's license, according to court divorce records. She moved in with the neighbor.

ARTIFICIAL REEFER: THE DANGERS OF SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA

Synthetic marijuana is plant material sprayed with chemicals that can mimic the high from marijuana. It's been tied to such health problems as a rapid heartbeat and seizures.

Sold for years under brand names like K2 and Spice, synthetic marijuana products have mostly disappeared from head shops and convenience store shelves after hundreds of teens fell ill - some gravely so - after smoking the drugs.

There have also been reports of serious kidney and lung problems resulting from use of the drugs.

The product is made cheaply in countries like China where inert herbs such as skull cap or damiana are sprayed with the chemical compounds.

However, the process can lead to some bits of herbs becoming more saturated than others, making an already unpredictable drug even more dangerous as smokers are unable to judge precisely how much drug they've consumed.

At first he was friendly and waved at neighbors and his children played outside. But they all slowly started disappearing from view, said neighbor Dorothy Wood.

'I didn't even hear them playing outside anymore. I thought they had moved,' Wood said.

Food and other garbage were piled up outside Jones' mobile home south of Lexington. The yard was overgrown, with broken toys strewn about.

A sign on front door said, 'Is there life after death? Trespass here and find out' with a photo of a gun.

In Lexington, there was an abuse complaint against Jones lodged on August 7, but when deputies and an official with the Department of Social Services went out to the house, they interviewed the children and didn't see anything to alarm them.
Officials wouldn't say who made the complaint.

The children's mother, Jones' ex-wife, is in shock and distraught, McCarty told reporters.

'I want you to know that she lost five vital body parts,' he said. 'A very nice person, a very sweet lady.' 

A view of the home of Timothy Ray Jones is shown, in Redbank, South Carolina . Jones is charged
in connection with the deaths of his five children after he led officers to a secluded clearing in
Alabama where their bodies lay wrapped in individual garbage bags

A view of the home of Timothy Ray Jones Jr,, accused of killing his five young children because he thought they would murder him, is shown strewn with trash

Marlene Hyder and her husband, Johnny Hyder, said Jones and his wife moved into the house next to the family about seven years ago in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina, 25 miles west of Columbia.

Johnny Hyder said the children were often dressed in dirty clothes and were seen home at all hours of the day because Tim Jones had said he didn't believe in the public schools. Hyder said Jones was constantly looking for a reason to argue and often threatened to call the police. 

He said Jones approached him with a gun on his hip one day and was angry about something, but Hyder couldn't remember what it was. When Hyder said he was going to call police, he said Jones told him it was only a BB gun.

Marlene Hyder said Jones threatened to kill one of their dogs when it briefly went onto his property.

She said: 'He was a nut'.

Mrs Hyder said she also remembered a day when one of the Jones' younger children came over to the Hyders' house and tried to drink out of one of their outdoor spigots.

He was dirty and disheveled and ran back to his house when she tried to speak to him, she said.

A 'no trespassing' sign was posted near the driveway of a house where the Hyders said Tim Jones' ex-wife still lived with the other neighbor.  

So this POS is going to use insanity as his defense.  There is no defense for doing something so horrendous, it's indefensible.

Search warrants detail evidence taken in Tim Jones, Jr. murder cases

Posted: Oct 06, 2014 12:08 PM EST Updated: Oct 06, 2014 12:47 PM EST


By LaDonna Beeker
The Jones children: Merah, 8 Elias, 7 Nahtahn, 6 Gabriel, 2 Elaine Marie, 1
(Source: Lexington County Sheriff's Department)



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Tim Jones, Jr.

• Related Links

  
  
  
  

• Tim Jones, Jr.'s mental health could play role in defense

  
  
  
  

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC (WIS) -
Many personal items, as well as records for electronic devices, were obtained by law enforcement investigators in the Timothy Jones, Jr. case, according to search warrants obtained by WIS.

Jones was arrested in Smith County, Mississippi, during a traffic checkpoint. Mississippi law enforcement became suspicious of Jones when they realized he and his five children were listed as missing in the National Crime database. The children were not with Jones at the time of the traffic checkpoint.

Police later found the bodies of his five children in Alabama, where Jones allegedly dumped their bodies in bags off of a country road. Jones is now facing five counts of murder in Lexington County, where investigators believe he killed his children at the end of August.

WIS obtained search warrants for the case dating back to Sept. 7, after filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. The 42-page document includes warrants filed by detectives with the LCSD, as well a warrant filed by the State Law Enforcement Division.

The warrants show several items taken from the Jones family home, 2155B S. Lake Drive in Lexington, which could include anything located at the entrances to the home, all vehicles and any outbuildings located on the property.

Items sought through the warrant is anything that could have harmed the five children – Abigail, Gabriel, Nahtahn, Elias and Merah Jones. In addition, the warrants allowed investigators to retrieve any items from the home that could have tracked Jones' movements, any electronic devices and other evidence like clothing, blood, and saliva, among others.

Items removed from the home include:
• Photos
• Two hair brushes
• Four toothbrushes
• One set of Ninja Turtles bed linens
• One set of bed linens from a crib
• Two Sippy cups
• One "Woody" doll in pieces
• One notebook and pen
• One pacifier
• Five belts
• One black phone

Several Lexington County search warrants mention that during a search of Jones' 2006 Cadillac Escalade in Mississippi, officers found a "significant amount of bleach products – aroma – along with blood inside Jones' vehicle." Documents were also found in Jones' Escalade that show a purchase from Wal-Mart, "where items consistent with destruction and disposal of human remains were purchased." Investigators later confirmed Jones' purchase by obtaining video surveillance from a Wal-Mart store.

Detectives also received search warrants for AT&T and T-Mobile cell phone records for Jones' phone. The records were to include calls received and made, GPS locations, and tower locations for roaming calls and text or data usage from Aug. 1, 2013, to Sept. 7, 2014. These search warrants also asked for detailed subscriber information and details for how long calls lasted.

There were also two search warrants regarding Jones' email accounts – one for a Gmail account and the other for a GMX account – to review sent, deleted and unread emails from Aug. 28, 2013, to Sept. 8, 2014. Other search warrants included the gathering of any data discovered from Jones' Escalade's OnStar system, his Amazon Kindle, and a Sony portable e-reader.

Certain information was redacted in the search warrants WIS received, per a judge's order regarding search warrants, according to Melissa Taylor, a paralegal for LCSD's attorney. Taylor also told WIS that because of the recently approved gag order, no other documents regarding the Jones case will be released to the media.

To follow-up with the allegations that DSS in Mississippi was notified by South Carolina's DSS agency, WIS also filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Mississippi DSS for any case file available on the Jones children. That FOIA request was denied.

"After reviewing the request and relevant law, the court decided that the MDHS does not have the authority to release any records regarding the Jones DFCS case," wrote Julia Bryan, public information officer with Mississippi Department of Human Services. "The agency will adhere to the judge's opinion on this matter and must decline to release any records that may be associated with the case. MDHS files and any youth court records are confidential under Mississippi Law and may not be released unless an exception applies."


http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/26714661/search-warrants-detail-evidence-taken-in-tim-jones-jr-murder-cases