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Raleigh- The man accused of killing his five young children and dumping their bodies off a rural road was being extradited Thursday to his home state of South Carolina to face murder charges.
Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, was loaded into an unmarked vehicle Thursday morning and was leaving Mississippi for South Carolina — a trip of more than 800 kilometres.
He had been held in Mississippi since his arrest Saturday at a traffic checkpoint. Jones eventually led authorities to the children’s bodies in neighbouring Alabama, and Mississippi law enforcement officials say he confessed to killing all five of them — ages 8, 7, 6, 2 and 1.
He will face five murder charges in the deaths of his five children, officials in Jones’ hometown of Lexington, South Carolina, have said.
Jones Jr. earned a computer engineering degree and worked at a $71,000-a-year job. Then, just over two years ago, he discovered his wife was putting their children to bed in their South Carolina home and going to the neighbour’s house and sleeping with the neighbour’s 19-year-old son, according to divorce papers. Jones moved out with the children and seemed friendly to his new neighbours, but began to withdraw to the point where the woman who lived next door thought he and his family had moved away.
On Thursday, Jones wore a striped jail uniform and protective vest as he was escorted into the SUV. Officials also loaded up boxes of evidence for the trip to South Carolina.
“He’s in the hands of South Carolina authorities at this time,” Smith County Sheriff Charlie Crumpton said. “I feel sorry for what their next phase is.”
Officials said the children were likely killed shortly after they were last seen in school and day care Aug. 28. Police didn’t say how the children 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 them into his 2006 Cadillac Escalade, South Carolina authorities said. He drove hundreds of miles (kilometres) and crisscrossed several Southeastern states for days, apparently using bleach to try to mask the smell of the decomposing bodies, authorities said.
Jones stopped at an isolated hilltop in Alabama and left them near an isolated road, officials said.
He then kept driving for several more hours Saturday until he reached the drunk-driving checkpoint in Smith County, Mississippi. 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 Tuesday, authorities said. Only then did authorities go public with the case.
Divorce records listed the five children as Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2, and Elaine Marie, 1. Elaine Marie was born Abagail Elizabeth but the parents agreed to a name change, records show.
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. The company confirmed he was still employed there when he disappeared.
Court records also showed a troubled life for Jones and his children. The divorce included allegations of adultery against Jones’ wife, Amber.
A therapist who saw Jones during the divorce described him as “highly intelligent” and responsible, yet emotionally devastated and angry.
Jones got primary custody of the children after the divorce and moved from one ramshackle mobile home to another in Lexington. At first he was friendly, waving at neighbours. His children played outside. But they all slowly started disappearing from view, said neighbour Dorothy Wood.
