SC CHILD WELFARE AGENCY UNDER FIRE … AGAIN
By now everybody in South Carolina has heard the shocking story of thirty-two year old Timothy Ray Jones, Jr. – the Lexington County, S.C. resident who is accused of killing his five children.
The bodies of Jones children – eight-year-old Merah, seven-year-old Elias, six-year-old Nathan, two-year-old Gabriel and one-year-old Abigail – were found off of a dirt road in Wilcox County, Alabama this week. Jones led investigators to the scene, but has yet to explain why, when – or how – he killed the children.
“He was relatively calm,” Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty said. “But he did lead them to these bodies.”
Jones’ five children were last seen alive on Thursday, August 28 – when he picked three of them up from school and two of them up from daycare after 6:00 p.m. EDT. The following day – Friday, August 29 – the children did not show up for school. Jones’ ex-wife reported them missing on September 3, the day after they were supposed to be returned to her.
The Jones’ divorce was finalized last October.
According to authorities, the children’s bodies were transported to Alabama in garbage bags after Timothy Jones made trips to North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. They believe the children were killed at the same time.
According to McCarty, the bodies of the children were in an “advanced state of decomposition.”
“We feel that he killed the five children at the same time,” McCarty said. “He traveled three states with these children in garbage bags in the back of his vehicle.”
Ready for the kicker?
On August 7, officials at Gov. Nikki Haley’s Department of Social Services (SCDSS) received a report that Jones had abused one of his children. The agency sent a case worker to investigate, and after interviewing the children it was determined that they were not in danger.
In fact the SCDSS report on Jones described him as a “highly intelligent, responsible father capable of caring for his children.”
Another agency in Haley’s cabinet – the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – is also under fire for failing to issue an emergency missing children’s alert.
SCDSS former director Lillian Koller resigned her post in June after a public outcry over the agency’s mishandling of a prominent child welfare case in Richland County.
Expect this case to ratchet up the heat on the agency … which is facing a state audit, federal audit and heightened scrutiny of its child welfare programs, especially in light of a seismic memo from a whistleblower published exclusively this week on FITS.
In fact Tom Ervin – a former judge who is running for governor as an “independent Republican” – called on members of the S.C. General Assembly to convene in special session and strip Haley of her authority over the agency.
“Governor Haley’s record of failed leadership over DSS necessitates an immediate transfer of authority and control before another child is put in harm’s way,” Ervin said.
63 comments
How do you like me now?
A bleeding heart liberal moron will say, but what about all the good things Timothy Ray Jones, Jr did?
Well they would have the same mind as Casey Foundation!!!
Casey is a hottie, Nikki is not
wack’em
Kind of makes me wish Old Sparky was still waiting for him off of Broad River Road.
u mean u !
Love ya, kill anyone not right, start with Haley !
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/The_Innocent_and_the_Death_Penalty.php
How could anyone lay a harmful finger on children?
Alabama LEO’s found BATH SALTS in his vehicle. Do a search on bath salts if you’re not familiar with their affects.
effects
Should get the death penalty.
Liberals won’t let that happen. Why do you think this S#!* just gets worse and worse, every time you read the news? Killers are cult figures, taking fan mail in prison, while leftwing Trial Lawyers, laugh, upon getting them lesser sentences.
Sounds like a job for Vincent Sheheen.
Sounds not like a job for Haley anymore>>>>
Haley isn’t a criminal defense attorney, Sheheen has had some experience representing some despicable characters.
Everyone is entitled to a defense. We don’t let mob mentality determine justice, we let a judge and jury do that.
If South Carolina still has the death penalty, it does not matter if liberals or conservatives say about it. It depends on the judge and jury.
Logic is not your strong point.
Five charges of 2nd degree murder all not guilty by reason of insanity. Out of SCDMH in five years.
Vincent ” was ” in charge at the time ?
Ya think? It really won’t matter, they’re having to hold him in a prison cell rather than a jail cell because he can’t get the security needed in a county jail. I say put him in general population and he’ll not make it 24 hours and inmates will be playing soccer with his head. He’s headed to spending the rest of his days in a maximum security solitary confinement prison cell and has spent his last day in the company of others.
Ya’ll still marching in the streets for more drugs, more porn and the pollution of society?
Obama showed where your foreign policy will get us. Now this Demon manifests the kind of horror your movement for irresponsibility brings.
Proud of yourselves?
I don’t see what a has to do with b. The more laws the less justice.
Like those dead children. Is that justice to you? The man that murdered them was high on drugs. The more permissive you are with decadence, the more brutal society becomes. Only the stupid and the A-moral think we’re too restrictive, now.
We’re doing it your way, and the bodies keep mounting. Time to execute murderers, and jail drugs fiends. Sober up and Shut up. Go to work, and quit trying to stay high all the time.
Way to channel Hitler and his faux morality. Heil Tango!
Meth is not legal and never will be legal.
Salvia, which is what he was found with, only lasts for 5-10 minutes in the body.
Porn has literally nothing to do with this. This was not a sex crime.
This has nothing to do with anything foreign. This was an American right winger with a college education from a good school, with a good job, who murdered his children.
Nothing to do with foreign policy.
Who was the last person I read about “jailing drug adicts”..oh yeah..Rush Limbaugh
The Tango digest is a joke.
NikkI Haley…..worst Governor is the history of the United States.
Barack Obama….. worst President in the history of the United States.
Still does not change Haley as the worst..in this state. They are both alike.
SLED Chief Keel should resign also!
I read he said, the case did not meet criteria for an Amber Alert!
One was NOT issued!
Yet, the media reported there was serious concern that the children were in grave danger!
Keel dropped the ball, ignored the danger to these children and should resign, or be FORCED out immediately!!!
Keel is another Haley failure!!!
Lindsey Graham….worst Senator in the history of the United States.
Enhance governmental accountability by allowing registered voters to recall
elected officials who violate the trust placed in them by the electorate. Many
states allow such recall efforts if enough voters are upset with the actions of
an elected official. We in South Carolina need this ability as well. This is a
strong weapon in maintaining government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people instead of government by special interests.
Start with haley and Harrell
Or as Big Timmy stated in his press conference, “please pray for Little Timmy” and “he was a good father, brother, and son”.
Urban translation: “Ma baby di’in do nuffin”
“he was a good father, brother, and son”.
“Was” being the operative word.
I live in a county where a few years ago an elected sheriff made an Amber Alert for an 18 year whose mother worked in his/the sheriff’s office. The little heifer had run off to party in Columbia and was texting her mom that she had been kidnapped.
If a simpleton sheriff can do an Amber Alert on an 18 year old, if Amber Alerts appear to be routinely used in custody cases, why in the world was no Amber Alert initiated by the Lexington Sheriff – Trikki’s appointee – in this case?
Amber alert and Jessica alert. These Koller cronies are running what’s left of DSS into the ground.
I think it’s been explained on several media sites why there was no Amber Alert. He was the primary guardian for these children per their divorce settlement.
If you take your children for a ride and your wife can’t get in touch with you, should an Amber Alert be put out?
I don’t give a rip about morale at LCSD or Jimmy Metts or the old man who replaced him. I give a rip about an Amber Alert procedure that appears to be managed by simpletons.
In a case that LCSD knew had a domestic violence history (per the DSS records published at WIS), where a SC Family Court judge gave custody of children to the perpetrator of DV, where children had stopped attending school, where the mother with JOINT legal custody could not contact the father or get LCSD to do anything…YES, an Amber Alert should have been issued.
These children were undoubtedly dead by the time the mother reported them missing. But, Keel is obfuscating about criteria when his agency has approved Amber Alerts on 18 year olds.
Well I guess you need to start writing people to change Amber Alerts to include every single case where a parent doesn’t know where his kid is at that exact moment or if a teacher sees a kid isn’t in school that day. God forbid a kid gets sick for a week, they’ll have the SWAT team at his door.
There’s a story about a boy who cried wolf…
One thing I will say, you’d be one hell of a Monday morning quarterback.
There was a history of domestic violence and and child abuse/neglect + Lexington County law enforcement involvement in both. Did you read the DSS case files? They rarely went to this home without a cop.
Latest news is that the guy was in prison in Illinois in 2003 for drugs and a crime spree. Did LE not check the NCIC in 2011/12 when the DV case happened? They sure would have in the 2 counties where I worked CPS.
Keel and the old sheriff are trying to cover their and Trikki’s butts.
This case had red flags, probably more for LE than for DSS, than a rational person, someone not working for LE, can shake a stick at.
No I disagree with the mistake is more law enforcement than DSS because regardless of whether of no law enforcement went to the house or not; DSS has the obligation to investigate for 45 days and should have made contact with those kids at least three times before their deaths. They should have paid close attention to history which included drugs, alcohol, domestic violence and family discord. DSS seen that this man had a good job and education and did not assess anything else.
So domestic violence is now a condition for an Amber Alert?
You sure seem to have all the answers, I bet you’re a social worker.
Very unlikely that an Amber Alert would have saved these kids, based on the timeline that is being reported. They suspect he killed them before they were reported missing by the mom.
If he is found guilty after a fair trial, SC should raffle off the chance to be his executioner.
Horribly sad, as my heart sunk hearing about this last night. You do not often hear about men killing their own children like this – its normally women, like Susan Smith, etc.
In the press conference, one of the Lexington County law enforcement officials enumerated the things found in the killer’s vehicle when he was pulled over in Alabama; the list included synthetic marijuana and BATH SALTS.
That pretty much tells the whole story right there. That stuff has been shown to affect people in all kinds of ways. Most of them “not good.” IIRC, it was what caused some guy to attack a homeless man and begin to chew his face off.
No, this is not an excuse for what this guy did. It could be most of the reason he did it, however. An unstable guy, he was reportedly undergoing psychotherapy. To experiment with bath salts on top of that is pretty much the definition of stupidity and/or desperation.
This is exactly how Koller’s agency keeps the numbers down rather than cares for children. If on the initial review the kids were put in the system, then that’s five children on the books. Instead, the kids are deemed not abused or neglected and no case is opened. Now they are dead. The. governor should address this this immediately. Or resign. Or both. She is an incompetent chief executive and her high level appointments have been complete losers.
Amber Jones, the mother, abandoned her husband, her marriage, and killed her kids when she went full tilt self indulgent, spending her husbands hard earned money while neglecting her children while having adulterous affairs. Their blood is on your hands, Amber.
I’m not sticking up for either side, but what you’re saying is her affair forced the father to kill the kids? The same man you’re saying loved his kids, murdered them and drove around with them in garbage bags and had so little respect for their bodies that he just tossed them along side a road?
Listening to his father talk about “Little TImmy”, I think the whole family is nuts.
I think Thomas must beat his wife and kids, too. Like “Little Timmy”
Have you read the DSS records posted at The State? This was a domestic violence case when DSS first was involved and a Family Court judge gave custody to the perpetrator of the domestic abuse!!!
A DV case that DSS AND Lexington County LE were involved in…and, Haley appointee Keel and that elderly Haley appointee Sheriff saw no need for an Amber Alert?!?!
Reading the interview with Keel, that idiot seems to think there are 5 criteria for Amber Alert and ALL have to be met in order to make one !
There are rules for putting out Amber Alerts, apparently this case didn’t meet those requirements. I understand you’d like an Amber Alert put out if even one of the criteria were met, but then the system would be so overwhelmed and common that nobody would even pay attention to them as they came up. It’s like firemen having to respond to every single fire call, when actually about 1 in 100 calls is actually a fire.
I agree. They all are crazy
So. He gets back at his ex by killing his own kids. Not sick. EVIL.
It’s the sign of the times!!!
These poor kids are the latest victims of SC’s failed child welfare system. Sadly there are plenty more dead children under DSS’s watch that the media either knows nothing of or won’t report. If we as a society won’t protect our most vulnerable then who will?
This is not a time for political discussion. DSS may have it’s problems, but this tragic event is not the time for making points or saying I told you so. We have five dead children and that is cause for all of us to mourn.This is not the time for talking about the electric chair either. I am heartbroken at every turn of this tragic event.
we’re gonna see this in an ad against Nimrada
My heart truly aches… I’m at a lost for words. May those sweet, sweet children be in the Lord’s comfort now. And that mother!
How sad for these innocent children so lets not forget them…….
@Fits – Why do you expect a GOVERNMENTAL agency to be able to protect children? In EXTREME cases, DSS can remove children from their parents. But do you really want a governmental agency to come and and take your kids just b/c one of your crazy neighbors/friends has a beef with you? Give DSS too much power and that’s the risk you run? Shame on the mother for leaving her babies! Shame on the grandparents, uncle and aunts for not stepping in to help a single, working father with five young children!