A Piper, Kansas man’s son has been missing for months, and now, police fear that the father may have beat the child to death and fed the body to pigs.
Police received a call Wednesday that Michael A. Jones was involved in an “armed disturbance” at his residence where he lived with his eight young children and wife, Heather. The 44-year-old had allegedly shot at his 29-year-old spouse.
Upon investigating, authorities reportedly received a tip that Jones’s 7-year-old son, who had been missing for months, may be found on the man’s property. After police searched his barn, they found human remains and suspect that the pigs could have consumed the child’s body. It is not yet clear whether the remains are of Jones’s son.
His wife, who is not the mother of the missing boy, had purchased the pigs in September, which is around the time that police think the child may have been killed. Authorities suspect that Jones fatally beat the young boy.
According to Wyandotte County Detention Center records, Jones was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and abuse of a child, NBC News reported. After the possible discovery of his son, the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office said the suspect is also being charged with “torturing or cruelly beating” his son.
An unnamed woman told WSFA that the family lived in squalid conditions. The children were reportedly home-schooled.
“Their house was horrible,” the anonymous source said. “Their house was just filthy. The kids lived in filth. Trash everywhere. Dried food all over the house.”
Heather’s brother, Michael Williams, said the couple have been married for 9 years and that abuse was not uncommon in the household.
“There are bullet holes in the walls of that house. So I’m sure you can understand what terror may have been going through that household daily,” Williams said.
Jones is being held on $10 million bond.
