A Summerfield man accused last month of killing his wife is now facing murder charges in the deaths of four children as well.
Michael Wayne Jones Jr., 38, who has been charged with murdering his wife, Casei Jones, also was charged Monday with four counts of first-degree premeditated homicide in the deaths of his two children, 2-year-old Mercalli Jones and 1-year-old Aiyana Jones; and two stepchildren, 10-year-old Cameron Bowers and 5-year-old Preston Bowers.
Casei Jones and her children were first reported missing on Sept. 14 when a family member called the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and said she hadn’t heard from them in about six weeks. They had last been seen in the Ocala area.
As detectives began investigating, Jones was located in Brantley County, Ga., following a traffic crash on Sept. 15. He told the officers on scene that his wife’s body was inside the van that he had just crashed. And he later led detectives to the location of the remains of four children.
Detectives believe, based on evidence at the scene and their interviews with Jones, that that he killed the victims at their Summerfield home, located at 14680 SE 86th Terrace. He is accused of killing Casei Jones on July 10 by blunt-force trauma and the following day, detectives believe he killed the two oldest children by strangulation. Approximately two weeks after that, detectives believe he killed his two youngest children by drowning them, a sheriff’s office report states.
Jones then left all of the bodies in the home for a few weeks before placing them into his van and keeping them there for the last two weeks prior to transporting the victims to Georgia, detectives believe.
Jones previously was charged with second-degree homicide in the death of his wife and remains booked into the Marion County Jail.
