The Summerfield man accused of killing his wife and possibly her four children was brought back to Marion County on Wednesday morning.
Michael Wayne Jones, 38, was booked into the Marion County Jail at 12:15 p.m. after being transferred from a detention facility in Brantley, Ga. He has been charged with second degree murder in the death of his wife, Casei Jones, and is a suspect in the deaths of her four children – 10-year-old Cameron Bowers, 5-year-old Preston Bowers, 2-year-old Mercalli Jones and 1-year-old Aiyana Jones.
Casei Jones and her children were first reported missing this past Saturday. A family member called the sheriff’s office and said she hadn’t heard from them in about six weeks. They had last been seen in the Ocala area.
The next day, Jones reportedly was involved in a vehicle crash in Georgia and told sheriff’s deputies there that his wife’s body was inside his van. The remains of four children were then located in a wooded area near Brantley, Ga.
Sheriff’s officials believe Michael Jones killed his wife and the children at their Summerfield home at 14680 SE 86th Terr. and stored the bodies there and in his van for several weeks before transporting them to Georgia, a sheriff’s office report states.
A somber Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods revealed the suspected deaths of the children during a Monday afternoon press conference.
“As a father, as a parent, it breaks my heart,” Woods said. “As a sheriff, it angers me. Our hopes were to find them somewhere that he left them alive.”
Woods said his detectives didn’t yet have a motive for the murders but will diligently continue to investigate the crimes.
“We may not know why, but we will do our damndest to find out how it was done,” he said. “All we need to know is that’s evil and evil needs to pay for what he did – plain and simple as that.”
