Dad murdered his wife and four children – then lived with their bodies for weeks
A man out foraging for wild berries in Georgia’s Brantley County rushed to the aid of a driver who had crashed his van. But he was overwhelmed by the foul smell coming from the back of the vehicle. When the police arrived, they were only too aware of what the loathsome odour was – decomposing flesh.
At the start of a series of horrific confessions, van driver and father-of-seven Michael Wayne Jones told officers, “You may want to put me in handcuffs because there’s a dead body in there.”
It was 2019, and Jones lived a three-hour drive away in Summerfield, Florida, with his wife Casei and their blended family. Casei, 32, had two sons from a previous relationship, Cameron Bowers, nine, and his four-year-old brother, Preston. She and Jones, 41, had two daughters, Mercalli, two, and 11-month-old Aiyana, while he also had three children with his former wife. Casei was a stay-at-home mum and had been with Jones for about five years.
On 14 September, the police went to the couple’s home after Casei’s mother, Nikki Jones, requested a welfare check on her daughter and grandchildren. She hadn’t seen or heard from them in about six weeks.
Casei had been sending text messages, which had abruptly stopped, and Nikki told the police she thought Jones had “done something to them”.
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Jones beat his wife Casei to death with a metal baseball bat
Casei with the husband who butchered her and her childrenThere was no sign of Jones, Casei or the children at the house, but there was a smell of decaying flesh – and blood on the ceiling and floors, although attempts had been made to clean it up. Something terrible had obviously happened and the property was declared a crime scene.
The next day, Jones crashed his van and was arrested after admitting the dead body in the vehicle was his wife. He had been driving around with her body in the back – and Casei had clearly been dead for some time.
Fears then rose over the safety of the four children. When questioned, Jones admitted that they were dead, too, and led officers to
an area of local woodland where their bodies were found, stuffed into suitcases.
Jones said he’d killed his wife during an argument on 10 July. He’d been at work when she’d called and accused him of being unfaithful. Jones said he’d turned his phone off but “that made things worse”. When he arrived home the argument had escalated.
Drowned in the bath
According to Jones, Casei had poked him with a metal baseball bat, so he’d snatched it from her and beaten her to death with it as the children slept.
He wrapped her body in blankets and stuffed it into a large bag, then tried to clean up the blood before attempting to hide the tote in the wardrobe. He then used Casei’s phone to message her family and update her Facebook page so it would appear that she was still alive.
Jones managed to keep the children occupied for a while, then sent them away as he considered what to do. Cameron and Preston went to visit their biological father, while Mercalli and Aiyana went to stay with Nikki. But with the school terms about to start, he couldn’t hide their mother’s absence for much longer.
When the boys came home two weeks later, Jones killed them. Sometime between 10 August and 22 August, he went into Cameron’s room as he slept, pulled him from his bed and strangled him with his bare hands. Jones said he’d put a knee on Cameron’s chest to stop him breathing. He hid the child’s body in a suitcase.
The next night he killed Preston, using a zip tie, because his hands “hurt” from strangling Cameron, before drowning the boy in the bath. Jones told the police he’d used kitty litter to help “soak up the bodily fluids” while storing the bodies for several weeks.
When the girls returned from visiting their grandmother, Jones said he’d sat with them outside the police station with the intention of giving himself up.
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Michael Jones is sentenced after admitting killing his wife and four children (WFTV9) Instead, he drove home and drowned them in the bath. He stuffed their little bodies into a tote bin – and continued to live at home
– with the remains of his wife and children – for about three weeks.
On 1 September, he loaded the bodies into his van where they would remain for a couple more weeks.
He then started to drive more than 150 miles, attempting to disguise the stench from the bodies with cleaners, moth balls and fly sprays. At one point he visited his ex-wife and their children and told her he and Casei had separated.
On 15 September, at about 7pm, he crashed his van after dumping the children’s bodies in woodland just off a highway. When the police arrived he had no choice but to confess – the smell of death was everywhere.
When asked why he’d killed the children, he replied, “I don’t know. Just everything mounted up and it seemed like the way out.”
He said he’d had to keep up the façade that Casei was still alive.
Jones was extradited to Florida where he was charged with killing his wife and the four children. The community in which the family lived was shocked. The husband and father had lived among them for weeks with the dead bodies of his wife, daughters and stepsons. He was referred to by law officers as “true evil”.
In December 2022, Jones pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the children and the second-degree murder of his wife.
A jury was brought in to Marion County court in Ocala to decide whether Jones should face the death penalty for the children’s killing. The most severe penalty he could be given for second- degree murder was life in prison.
During the trial’s penalty phase, jury members were presented with evidence to enable them to make their recommendation. The defence argued that Jones had psychological problems after being sexually and physically abused as a child. But several witnesses claimed the killer had been abusive to his wife.
He’d had plenty of time to confess he’d killed Casei in a fit of rage, but instead, in the weeks that followed, he’d killed the four children in cold and calculated acts.
Awaiting his fate on death row
The jury recommended Jones be given the ultimate penalty and in April the judge agreed and sentenced him to death for the murders of Cameron, Preston, Mercalli and Aiyana. He was also sentenced to life in prison, without parole, for killing his wife. Jones, wearing
a red prison suit and shackles, stared ahead as he heard his fate. Afterwards, his lawyers said they were preparing an appeal.
Michael Wayne Jones killed his family one by one and lived with their bodies for weeks. Now he awaits his own fate on death row.
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