A manhunt is underway after a seven-month-old baby girl was abandoned in a stranger’s front yard, hours before four of her relatives were discovered murdered in a wooded area in Tennessee.
Austin Drummond, 28, remains at large after being linked to the quadruple homicide in rural Lake County last Tuesday (July 29).
Reports of the abandoned infant in neighboring Dyer County sparked a search for her guardians, leading cops to discover the bodies of the child’s parents, James Matthew Wilson, 21, and Adrianna Williams, 20. Her maternal grandmother, Cortney Rose, 38, and maternal uncle, Braydon Williams, 15, were also found dead, officials said.
Tanaka Brown and Giovonte Thomas, both 29, were charged over the weekend with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A third “associate,” Dearrah Sanders, was charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree on Monday, the bureau announced.
As officials continue their search for Drummond, here’s what we know about the case:
The crime
Deputies from the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports at about 3.10 p.m. last Tuesday that a dark-colored minivan had dropped off the child in a car seat at a “random individual’s front yard” in the unincorporated community of Tigrett.
It set off a scramble to find the baby’s caregivers, Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s offices in Lake and Dyer counties, said at a news conference Friday.
Just before 10.30 p.m., Rose and Williams were reported missing, according to audio of a 911 call obtained by NBC affiliate WMC-TV.
The bodies of Wilson, Rose and the two Williamses were found nearly 40 miles away later that evening in a wooded area along Carrington Road in Tiptonville, authorities said.
The baby is “safe and being cared for,” Sutton said.
Drummond is wanted for first-degree murder, kidnapping, and unlawful firearm possession in connection with the murders of the four victims.
Authorities have not revealed how the four people died, but have ruled their deaths homicides. It was not immediately clear what led authorities to name Drummond as a suspect.
Documents filed by the U.S. Marshals Service on Friday (August 1) speculated that Drummond may have fled the state, after he was last seen two days earlier. Officials said he is considered armed and dangerous.
Footage shared by the City of Jackson Police Department on Monday showed Drummond at a home near the area of Pipkin Road, Jackson, on Sunday evening, wearing matching camouflage pants and a shirt, and carrying a rifle.
On Monday, investigators searched a wooded area near Union University in Jackson. Less than a mile down the road, Jackson Christian School was on lockdown, a receptionist told CNN.
The FBI and a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force are among the nearly dozen agencies working on the case.
A combined reward from the TBI and U.S. Marshals Service reached $32,500.
A white 2016 Audi A3, believed to be driven by Drummond, was found unoccupied in Jackson and has since been recovered by authorities, the bureau said on Friday. A white 1988 Ford pickup truck with a red stripe believed to belong to Drummond was found in Dyer County on Saturday.
Rausch revealed that there is a “familial relationship between the suspect and the family.”
A relative of the victims said in a Facebook post Thursday that Drummond, who is believed to have previously dated Rose’s sister, had “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids.”
It was not immediately clear how Thomas and Brown, whom the TBI described as Drummond’s “associates,” assisted the suspect.
Authorities said Thomas is being transferred from Madison County Jail to Lake County Jail, where Brown is also being held without bond. Sanders was also set to be booked into Lake County Jail, officials said Monday.
The suspect
Records show that Drummond has a lengthy criminal history, with the suspect out on bond at the time the family of four was found dead.
Drummond was released from prison in September 2024 after serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated robbery, stemming from a 2014 conviction in Jackson where, aged 16, he held up a gas station with a handgun.
Just two months later, in November, he was charged with attempted murder and drug-related crimes while incarcerated at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Lake County.
He is facing other charges, including attempted first-degree murder and drug charges stemming from his time in prison.
In a letter from the West Tennessee District Attorney Jody Pickens to the Tennessee Board of Parole in December 2020, obtained by WSMV Nashville, Drummond was described as someone who is “not capable of living among society.”
Pickens wrote that recorded calls to Drummond’s father revealed apparent threats against jurors, with the suspect allegedly saying they would “regret” their decision and that he’d “be out one day.”
Pickens said that Drummond is a “confirmed” member of the Vice Lords street gang, one of the largest and most violent prison gangs in the U.S.
The suspect had more than two dozen disciplinary issues in prison as of the 2020 parole hearing. They include possession of a deadly weapon, assault, refusing a drug test and gang activity.
The victims
Friends and family members of the victims have shared their heartbreak online.
Wilson’s sister, Amanda Myatt, set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the funeral costs of the four victims.
“Matthew and Adrianna were very loving parents to beautiful baby girl whom that they got to love and support her for 7 months,” she wrote. “Courtney was sole provider for her kids.”
A separate GoFundMe campaign was set up by Wilson’s grandmother, who said she hopes to “provide him a proper service.” A funeral service is expected to be held for Wilson on Tuesday afternoon in Newbern.
A friend of Wilson’s partner, Williams, told CBS affiliate News Channel 3 that she was “the sweetest person” who “loved being a mama.”
The couple’s last social media update was posted a day after the birth of their little girl.
The last photo posted to a Facebook profile believed to belong to Rose, in May, appeared to show her beside her infant granddaughter.