 A Gordon
County Georgia man suspected of shooting his in-laws to death
and apparently strangling his 10-month-old baby girl Wednesday
before fleeing the scene with three children has been found in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, officials said Thursday
evening.
Jerry William Jones, 32, apparently tried to
shoot himself, Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials said.
His condition is not known.
The three girls he was
holding as hostages -– 10-year-old Brittany Phelps, 4-year-old
Brandy Jones and 3-year-old Amber Jones -– were with him, but
appear to be unharmed.
"The way that he's treated these
people, I want him bad," said Gordon County Sheriff Jerry
Davis as he held up a flyer of Jones during a news conference
held at the murder scene in northwest Georgia Thursday
afternoon.
According to police, Jones took time to
clean up the murder scene and hide the bodies. He then stole
his father-in-law's 1991 Ford Explorer and disappeared with
his two daughters, ages 3 and 4, and stepdaughter, age
10.
"We know that we have a very violent crime scene.
The victims, some have suffered multiple gunshot wounds," said
GBI director Vernon Keenan.
A second call from the
suspect's ex-wife led to the discovery of Tommy and Nola
Blaylock, Jones' in-laws, late Wednesday at a home on Pack
Road. The bodies of his sister-in-law, Georgia Bradley, and
baby girl, Harley, were found at a second home.
Authorities expanded the Levi's Call for the three
missing children throughout the Southeast and posted alerts
nationwide.
Jones' ex-wife, Melissa Peeler, left her
four children in her parents' care when she traveled to visit
a boyfriend in Elliott, Ore. Peeler called authorities
Wednesday morning to ask that they check on her
relatives.
Two deputies were dispatched to Pack Road,
walked the grounds, reported nothing suspicious, and left the
scene, the sheriff said.
Later that evening, Peeler
called the sheriff's department a second time and said that
Jones had called her and said he had killed her family and
would harm the surviving children if she called
police.
"The senior captain entered the house with the
information that he had and found the subjects in the house,"
said Sheriff Davis.
The murders occurred sometime
between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday, a GBI spokeswoman said.
Davis said Jones' stepdaughter had last been seen just after
that time at school.
"We can trace her to the school at
2:15...she got on the school bus and she came back
here."
It is not known if the younger, missing girls
witnessed the killings. The bodies of the four murder victims
have been transported to the GBI Crime Lab in Summerville for
autopsies.
Authorities early Thursday evening said
they have begun to form a task force and are in the process of
putting together an 800 number for tips.
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