Too often in the news we are seeing more and more stories of children who have suffered abuse or even death at the hands of their parents. Today, there is another story of a father who committed an unspeakable crime; he murdered his five young children. Police found the bodies of the children along the road, each wrapped separately in a plastic garbage bag. The father of the children, Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, is expected to be charged with five counts of murder of his kids who were 8,7,6,2 and 1. Law enforcement officials have stated that Jones killed his children in South Carolina and drove the bodies to Alabama, where he dumped each child along a stretch of lonely country road.
Jones then fled to Mississippi, where he was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving. When police ran his license plate, they found out he was wanted in connection with the missing children. He will be extradited from Mississippi to South Carolina, where he will be charged upon arrival. According to neighbors who knew Jones, he was a volatile and often violent person. On numerous occasions, school authorities stated that his children were frequently dressed in dirty clothes.
Autopsies on the children’s bodies will be held Thursday. At that time, a cause of death will be determined. In addition to the murder charges, Jones is expected also to face charges of child cruelty, child abuse and neglect.
