A manhunt was launched last week after a seven-month-old baby girl was abandoned in a stranger’s front yard, hours before four of her relatives were found dead in a wooded area in Tennessee.
Reports of the infant in Dyer County last Tuesday (July 29) sparked a statewide search for her guardians, leading cops to discover the bodies of the child’s parents, James Matthew Wilson, 21, and Adrianna Williams, 20, in neighboring Lake County.
The baby’s maternal grandmother, Cortney Rose, 38, and maternal uncle, Braydon Williams, 15, were also found dead, officials said.
On Tuesday, the City of Jackson Police Department announced it had arrested a suspect, Austin Drummond.
Three other people have also been arrested in connection with the deaths. Tanaka Brown and Giovonte Thomas, both 29, who were charged over the weekend with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, followed by Dearrah Sanders, who faced the same charge on Monday.
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.
Authorities have not revealed how the four people died, but have ruled their deaths homicides.
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 suspect’s arrest followed a day later.
The FBI and a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force were among the nearly dozen agencies working on the case. A combined reward from the TBI and U.S. Marshals Service reached $32,500.
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 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.