Mom sees girls briefly after kidnapping
Suspect in killings recovering after wounding self in chase
From Martin Savidge
CNN
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Authorities gather near an SUV that suspect Jerry William Jones crashed while being pursued in Tennessee.
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The hunt for a man suspected of killing four people and abducting three girls ends in a wreck.
Georgia investigators detailed their hunt for the suspect.
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CALHOUN, Georgia (CNN) -- Three girls had a brief reunion Friday with their mother after a harrowing kidnapping ordeal that began with four relatives' deaths and ended with a police chase and car crash with their accused abductor.
The girls are safely in the custody of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services in Calhoun, 60 miles north of Atlanta and county seat of Gordon County, where the gruesome tale began Wednesday.
The girls' mother, Melissa Peeler, was snowbound in Portland, Oregon, but returned to Georgia on Friday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials said. The children cannot be released to Peeler's custody until DFACS completes an investigation, standard procedure in such cases, officials said.
Jerry William Jones, 31, the man accused of kidnapping the girls and killing the others, is recovering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Police said the killings apparently were motivated by a jealous rage stemming from a domestic dispute.
Jones is in critical condition but expected to survive following surgery, officials said. He shot himself in the chin after a crash, the result of a Georgia State Patrol officer nudging the suspect's sport utility vehicle, they said.
Brittney Phelps, 10; Brandy Jones, 4; and Tammy Jones, 3; were treated and released from the hospital Thursday night to Georgia authorities. Brittney suffered minor injuries in the car crash, officials said.
Jones is the father of the younger girls and stepfather of the 10-year-old. A frantic search for him and the girls began early Thursday, a day after police said he shot Peeler's mother, father and sister and strangled his 10-month-old daughter. Peeler is Jones' estranged common-law wife.
Jones then phoned Peeler, who was visiting friends on the West Coast, according to police. He told her about the killings and warned her he would hurt the surviving girls if she called police, the authorities said.
Gordon County Sheriff Jerry Davis said deputies went to one of the victims' homes after Peeler notified his office at about 3:30 p.m. ET Wednesday of Jones' phone call. Deputies looked in through the windows and saw nothing amiss, Davis said.
Deputies went to the home after a second call at about 11 p.m., he said. "A senior officer took it on his own to enter the home, and when he entered the home that's when we found the bodies," Davis said. One body was also found in the yard, and another in a neighboring trailer home.
Authorities and relatives identified the dead as Jerry Georgia Jones, age 10 months; her grandparents, Tommy and Nola Blaylock; and their daughter, Georgia Bradley.
"Several of the victims have suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and the infant appears to have been strangled," Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan said.
The sheriff said deputies were unable to issue an Amber Alert for the surviving girls until shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday because they didn't know what kind of vehicle Jones was driving. "It took several hours to determine what type of vehicle was missing from the residence and to determine the tag number," Davis said.
Jones was considered armed and extremely dangerous. The FBI sought a nationwide fugitive warrant for him.
The alert for Jones said he was believed to be driving a red or maroon 1991 Ford Explorer with Georgia license plate 730 YFV, a vehicle he took from one of the slain relatives, investigators said.
Motorist tips police
There were no sightings during daytime Thursday. As the sun set, police said they got a call from a motorist, who recognized the vehicle from the Amber Alert and said the SUV was heading north on Interstate 75.
"I need to know the Amber Alert license plate number," the unidentified male caller told the emergency dispatcher.
The caller confirmed the number and said, "Yeah, that's it. We're right behind it."
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Jones has a previous criminal record.
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Police quickly gave chase. When Jones crossed the state line into Tennessee and took the first exit, Georgia State Patrol officer Jason Davis -- the son of the Gordon County sheriff -- bumped the suspect's SUV, causing it to spin out on the rain-slicked road and slam into a telephone pole.
Authorities said the oldest of the girls jumped out after the vehicle hit the pole. Jones was slumped in the driver's seat, and the youngest of the girls was sitting in the seat immediately behind her father, covered in blood from his gunshot wound.
The sheriff said he was "just glad it turned out the way it did."
Officials said Jones will have to stand for an extradition hearing in Tennessee before he can be brought back to Georgia for trial, but they added they had no clear idea when that might take place. He is unable to speak due to his wound and surgery, they said.
Jones' criminal record dates to 1989, when he was arrested on burglary charges and sentenced to eight years in prison. He is on probation for two other offenses in Henry County, Georgia, where he grew up.
Relatives express relief
Stacey Worthington, a relative of the slain victims, said the capture is a "big relief to us all," but he stressed the family is worried about the children's health after such a trauma. (Full story)
"It's just really bad that little girls have got to go through this -- not only the police chase and the self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the stuff they had to go through the night everything took place," Worthington said.
David O'Donnell, Jones' brother-in-law, said the suspect's relationship with the girls' mother collapsed over Christmas, and he had threatened to start killing people if she left him.
He said he was elated his nieces were safe.
