Father Kills Five Children, Dumps Bodies In Alabama

A man accused of killing his five children in South Carolina and driving their corpses through several states before dumping them in Alabama will be charged with murder, law enforcement authorities said on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, confessed to the killings of the children, ages 8 and under, but did not reveal a motive, authorities said, the AP reported.

On Tuesday, he led police to the decomposed bodies, which had been stuffed in garbage bags and left near a logging road about 50 miles southwest of Montgomery, authorities added, according to the AP.

Jones appears to have killed the children shortly after they were last seen and then began driving a circuitous route that computer tracking indicates included South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, McCarty said, the AP reported.

Jones confessed to the killings to authorities in Mississippi, Crumpton said. He is expected to be extradited to South Carolina by Thursday, officials said, according to the AP.

"This case has been a nightmare," Lewis McCarty, sheriff of South Carolina's Lexington County, told a news conference on Wednesday, the AP reported. "In all my years of law enforcement, I have never seen a case like this."

The children, whose names will not be released until autopsies are performed, were reported missing by their mother on Sept. 3 and were last seen with their father on Aug. 28, authorities said, according to the AP.

An Amber alert was not issued because Jones had legal custody of the children, said South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, the AP reported.

Jones was pulled over on Saturday by authorities in Mississippi and arrested on charges of driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance, according to Charlie Crumpton, sheriff of Mississippi's Smith County, according to the AP.

Authorities found in the man's Cadillac Escalade what appeared to be chemicals used to make crystal methamphetamine as well as the presence of what appeared to be bleach, hydrochloric acid, blood and possible bodily fluids, the Smith County Sheriff's Office said, the AP reported.

The South Carolina Department of Social Services received a report on Aug. 7 that Jones had abused the children, according to the AP. Authorities interviewed Jones and the children but saw no evidence of abuse or that the children were in imminent danger, the department said.