A baby was abandoned in a Tennessee yard. Cops launched a manhunt after finding four of her family dead
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:
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.
