EP. 256 - FLORIDA: THE FAMILY IN THE VAN: THE MURDER OF CASEI JONES

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Rep #10004. This episode is brought to you by DeeDees Discounts. Back to school season is officially here and DeeDees has everything on your list. I'm talking bold styles, cool kicks, backpacks, and even dorm room essentials. All the prices that won't hurt your wallet. So don't sleep on DeeDees. Whether you've got a second grader or a sophomore, DeeDees has your whole family covered. Find a DeeDees discount store near you and go check it out today. Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. For six weeks, 32-year-old Casey Gilbert Jones' family waited. They sent texts. They called. They told themselves there was a reason. She was not answering. People get busy. Life gets complicated. There had to be an explanation. But the texts that came back did not sound like her. The silence between them felt wrong in a way nobody could quite name. And the longer they waited, the worse that feeling got. She was a mother. She was loved. She was the kind of person nobody worried about. Because she was always fine. Always there. Always holding everyone else together. Casey was the kind of person who never missed a birthday. Who called just to check in. Who showed up without being called. Who was being asked every time. For anyone who needed her. And then one summer, she was just gone. Her children had gone with her. And nobody knew. By the time a sheriff's deputy approached a crashed minivan on a dark highway in rural Georgia, it was September. Summer was coming to an end. And so was everything else. What that deputy found when he reached that driver's side window would shake a county, break an entire family, and finally provide answers in this horrific mystery. So this is the story of Casey Jones. I'm Courtney Braughan. And I'm Colin Braughan. And you're listening to Murder in America. You're listening to Murder in America. This is a production of the National Public Television. And I'm Casey Braughan. And I'm Courtney Braughan. In every video, it's clear that Casey and Richard both had a lot of love to give. And on August 22, 2014, that love was doubled with the birth of their second son, a boy they named Preston James Bowers. Immediately, Preston and Cameron were attached at the hip. Even with a five-year age difference, the two became best friends. Cameron loved to play with his little brother and try to teach him things he was learning in school. In one video, he plays peek-a-boo with Preston and beams at his mom every time he makes his little brother laugh. In another, he encourages Preston to talk. In the videos and photos, the Bowers looked like a perfect family. But behind the scenes, things weren't as great as they appeared. Casey and Richard. Richard struggled throughout their marriage, and the two often got into big, blow-up fights that would end in tears and screaming. Both of them struggled with trust issues and would often accuse each other of cheating. The police were never called on the family, however, which makes what was happening behind closed doors an unfortunate case of he said, she said. In an interview with police in 2019, Richard Bowers claimed that Casey was physically and verbally abusive. And that at one point, she even chased him with a knife around their townhouse until he was forced to climb out of a window. And call for help. Now, keep in mind, we don't have any written or physical proof of this, just like we don't have any regarding the statements that Casey made. Casey told friends and family that Richard had been physically and verbally abusive throughout their marriage, not just to her, but to their sons as well. We'll never know the truth of what happened inside the home, but obviously, the two weren't a healthy match for one another. And in 2015, Casey laid eyes on someone who she thought might be a better fit. *Ding* *Ding* When she started a job as a vet tech at Mount Dora Veterinary Clinic, she was excited to spend time with animals, support her kids, and make some new friends. But when she laid eyes on her coworker, fellow vet tech Michael Wayne Jones Jr., she knew she had discovered someone who would be more than just a friend. Now, we want to preface this by saying, we've seen a lot of negative comments about this portion of Casey's life, and the decisions she made. The people whose stories we tell aren't perfect. They're real people. And real life gets messy. People make mistakes. And usually, when people die, those private mistakes that occur within their relationships aren't on display for all to see. They aren't held up to be judged by an audience of hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people. All of this is to say, Casey was a real person who made mistakes, as all of us and all of our loved ones do. And we don't want her to be defined by that, just like we don't want her to be defined by her death. So we aren't going to tell you that she was a saint. But we are going to tell you that in absolutely no way did she deserve what happened to her after she made the poor decision to begin an affair with a coworker. Which brings us back to Michael Wayne Jones Jr., who had a very different upbringing and very different life from the one Casey was living. Michael was born on May 1st, 1981, to Connie and Michael Wayne Jones Sr. in Brattleboro, Vermont. Brattleboro is a quaint New England town nestled against the borders of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. In the state's southwestern corner. Located on the meandering Connecticut River, it's a picturesque city. Unfortunately, though, Michael's childhood was anything but. According to testimony later given in court by multiple people who knew Michael growing up, his entire adolescent years were defined by abuse, first at the hands of his biological father and namesake, Michael Sr. Michael Jr. later alleged, at trial as an adult, that his father molested him and physically abused him. And looking at his father's history, Michael Jr. said, That seems tragically in line with his past behavior. In 1982, the year after Michael Jr. was born, his father was arrested after he followed a woman through a store and out to the parking lot. Where he threw his arms around her and attempted to sexually assault her. When he was confronted regarding his actions, he claimed that he had just been trying to help her load her groceries into the car. Just a few months later, he picked up a female hitchhiker and began making sexual comments to her. Before she had a chance to escape. He grabbed her chest, she fought back and fled out of the car to stoplight, where she quickly wrote down his license plate and called the police. And that was just the beginning for those charges, as well as several DUI's. Michael Sr. was in prison for the majority of Michael Jr.'s childhood. But as soon as Michael Sr. was released, he immediately went back to his bad behavior. And this time, Michael Jr. was the target. In the year 2000, staff at Brattleboro Area Middle School looked down on Michael Jr. and said, But as soon as Michael Sr. was released, staff at Brattleboro Area Middle School looked down on Michael Jr. and said, He stumbled down the hall, drunkenly yelling at students. Sometimes he just swore. Other times he made sexual comments while groping himself. This horrific behavior was all in front of innocent children. But when the staff rushed him, pulling him out of the hall and into a room while they awaited police, Michael Sr. had an excuse for his behavior. He said, His son, of course, was Michael Jr. But Michael wasn't in middle school. In fact, he wasn't in high school either. At that time, Michael was 19 years old. Michael Sr. was so drunk he forgot his son's age. Or he was simply using that as an excuse to be inside the school. We don't know. But it is clear to say the least. Michael Sr. was not a great father. And unfortunately, he wasn't the only abusive one that Michael had growing up. Soon after Michael Jr. was born, Michael Sr. was arrested for one of his assault cases and the DUI he committed. Michael's mom, Connie, filed for divorce when Michael was just five years old. And soon after, she married his stepfather, who, tragically, was also abusive. Michael's stepbrother, Dana Waterman, testified that Michael's stepfather beat Michael extensively and repeatedly. One of his cousins corroborated everything Waterman said and added that Michael would often sacrifice himself to save his younger cousins and step siblings from harm. If one of the younger girls was at the wrong end of his stepfather's rage, Michael would put himself between them, taking the beating instead so they wouldn't be hurt. And unfortunately, those beatings happened all the time. Now, Michael's mother, Connie, had to work two jobs to support the household because his stepfather refused to work, which left him as the only caretaker of the children, a job which he failed miserably at. As a result, Michael was later diagnosed with PTSD. At school, teachers referred to him as, quote, "lost, confused, and abused." They stated that he was often bullied in class because he lived in a rundown home. So through it all, Michael tried to shrink himself down as much as possible to fly under the radar. He found solace wherever he could. And in high school, he found that solace in a neighbor just down the road. A woman named Dorothy Camp later testified that Michael had dated her daughter on and off for four years. And during that time, he had been kind, respectful, and gentle. He adored her daughter and was good to her. So much so that even decades later, the whole family remembered him fondly. For quite some time, he felt like one of their own. And we can't help but wonder if it's because, really, that's the only family he had as an adolescent. Dorothy stated that Michael would do everything he could just to stay with the family. He cleaned, did dishes, and offered to help with yard work or projects around the house. For him, anything was better than going home. And upon graduating from high school in 1999, he leaped at the opportunity to leave home for good by joining the Navy. From 2000 to 2005, Michael served as a medic. The structure of the Navy offered him a place where he could find stability for the first time in his life. And in that stability, he found a family of his own. In his early 20s, he married his first wife, a woman named Sarah. Together, they had three kids and settled into a home just outside of Mount Dora, Florida, where Sarah got a job as a vet tech. Now, at the time, Michael was still pretty fresh out of the Navy and searching for work. So Sarah actually got him a job at the same clinic she worked, Mount Dora Veterinary Hospital. The clinic was owned by Beau and Casey Delaporte, who quickly became close friends with Michael. Beau referred to Michael as, quote, "his right hand man," adding that, quote, "all the clients loved Mike," end quote. There, he was the kind of employee who would run out to help an elderly woman carry her animal inside. He would go out of his way to help grieving pet owners smile. His fellow employees described him as happy-go-lucky, hardworking, cheerful and respectful, and it's that very personality that caught the attention of Casey Jones when she started working at the clinic in late 2014. Despite Casey being married to Richard Bowers and Michael being married to Sarah, the two immediately hit it off and they started an affair. How their respective spouses found out about the affair hasn't been publicly released, but we know that the ends of their marriages were fast and messy. By the end of 2015, both couples were filing for divorce, and the two families were forever split in half. Michael's wife, Sarah, moved with their three kids two hours north to Jacksonville. And meanwhile, Casey's husband, Richard, stayed in the area while he and Casey worked out a custody agreement. As for Casey and Michael, the end of their marriages served as the beginning of a new life together. They moved into a trailer in nearby Summerfield, a rural community about an hour north of Orlando, and tried to start their relationship in earnest. But there were a few things holding them back and a few things that they had done that would come back to bite them. If you recall, Michael's ex-wife, Sarah, also worked at the clinic with he and Casey. she's the one who had gotten Michael the job there in the first place. She was also close friends with the owners. Throughout Michael's separation and eventual divorce from Sarah, he had been lying to Sarah as well as his bosses. In one instance, he said that he was going to Vermont to bury his mother. He told his bosses that his mother was an alcoholic and that she had drunkenly walked out into the night, fallen into a snowbank, and froze to death. Michael's bosses comforted him. They hugged him. They gave him time off and listened to him as he mourned his dead mother for months. But his mother was still alive and well. Her death was just a lie he had told so he could slip away and go to the beach with Casey for a few days. Which really just goes to show how comfortable he had gotten with not just his lying, but manipulating the feelings of others as well. His boss, Casey Delaporte, told WFTV that discovering the lie was devastating. After all, he wasn't just an employee. After so many years, he was like family. Called, he was our best friend. I considered him a little brother. Our children even call him Uncle Mike. He was great around his own kids and our kids. He found out who you wanted him to be and he was that person to you. So that's his way of luring you in. When she and her husband discovered the extent of his lies, they fired him for unethical behavior. It was the severing of a on the hit it gave his ego and his bank account. Rather than take the loss and move on, Michael, instead, did the unthinkable, and it was just a taste of his behavior to come. Sometime in late 2015, a single car's headlights swiped across the back doors of the Mount Dora Veterinary Clinic. The night was silent, aside from the chirping of crickets and the distant drone of cars on the highway. The roar of the engine fell silent as Michael Jones turned off the ignition. Somehow, either using a key or sneaking in, Michael entered the building. Inside, he stole anything of value he could get his hands on. He had no idea what he was doing. Money out of the register, files out of drawers, drugs out of the cabinets, and most troubling of all, a small handgun that one of the employees kept inside the building for self-defense. He didn't care that he was robbing the business that had taken care of him and loved him for nearly a decade. He didn't care that the children of the owner called him Uncle Mike. He didn't care about anything except getting what he wanted and getting out. When the owners discovered the burglary the next morning, they knew Michael was behind it. It's never been reported how, but what has been reported is that they immediately called the police. Soon after, a warrant was issued for Michael's arrest related to the robbery, and all the while, he was holed up with Casey, lying to anyone who asked about his whereabouts. But it seems that eventually the charges were dropped, and in the process, several relationships were forever tarnished. And that is, unfortunately, how the romance between Casey and Michael began, under a cloud of destruction and heartbreak. But for everyone who knew Casey, the new relationship seemed to light up her life. Her sister Sarah told News 4 Jack's, Michael and Casey were always joking, laughing, and kissing. Michael would even open the door for her. When you saw them, you were jealous of their cute little relationship and how much they looked like they were in love. I used to tease my fiancé at the time, telling him, why can't you be more like Michael? In retrospect, that last question, why can't you be more like Michael, haunts Sarah. But at the time, at least in the beginning, there were signs that anything was wrong. Michael doted on Casey and treated the boys as if they were his own from the very beginning. According to Sarah, both Preston and Cameron, Casey's two oldest boys, were on the autism spectrum and had very specific needs. But from everything she saw, Michael was patient. He never got upset with the boys and would "do anything to make sure the boys had what they needed." It was no surprise when, after just a year together, Casey and Michael announced that they were expecting. On November 6th, 2016, their daughter, Mercalli Jones, was born. For Michael and Casey, it was love at first sight. Here's a snippet of a family video, playing with Mercalli when she was just 9 weeks old. As Michael pretended to nibble Mercalli's stomach and fingers, she giggled and reached up for her dad. Looking at these clips is just one of the things that I love about Michael and Casey. They are so close together that it's almost impossible to comprehend. Yet, things were moving along for the new family. On Halloween 2017, they got married on the beach, not far from their house, with their kids and families in attendance. In the photos, Casey is absolutely glowing. She looks at Michael with that unconditional love that's hard to find. And less than a year later, in September of 2018, the couple welcomed their second child together, another baby girl who they named Ayana. With her birth, their family was complete. While Michael worked odd construction jobs, Casey stayed home with the kids, for the most part. Her two boys, Cameron and Preston, were with her. A few times a year, they would take a long vacation to spend it with their biological father, who had moved to Georgia, but the majority of the child-rearing was on her shoulders. And it's something she excelled at. Casey took raising her kids incredibly seriously. Her sister told News 4 Jacks, "Casey lived and breathed her babies." Her mom added, "She loved them more than anything, anything in the world. She loved being a mother." Even her ex-husband, who she had an understandably rocky relationship with, has never had anything bad to say about Casey's parenting. Throughout all his police interviews and public appearances, he made it clear that Casey was a wonderful mother who would, quote, "go to war for her kids," end quote. And Michael appeared to be the same. Casey's sister recalled, quote, "I always thought he was such a hands-on father. He changed their nappies, made the kids plates, and played games with them," end quote. And though Michael may have seemed like the perfect father, there were signs that his love for his children and for his wife wasn't unconditional, and that inside the home, things were not as happy as they appeared. The couple lived in the town of Summerfield. The neighborhood where Casey, Michael, and the children lived isn't so much a neighborhood as it is a stretch of trailers spaced out between dense patches of woods and farmland. At night, few cars pass. The only sound is the orchestra of katydids, crickets, and tree frogs filling up the humid night. But up and down the stretch of South East 86th Court, there was a different sound that people could count on hearing every night: screaming, thudding, objects shattering. Night after night, like clockwork, people up and down the street were awakened by the sound of Casey and Michael arguing. One neighbor, a 12-year-old boy, struggled to sleep for nights on end as he listened to the couple's screams echo through the neighborhood. He wondered what they were throwing, if they were hitting each other, if the fight was ever going to end. And if it did, what would that mean? Yet, despite the constant arguing and the effect it had on the neighbors, the police were never called. Marion County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Paul Bloom confirmed on record, "We've never been to the house before on any calls and had no dealings with this couple prior to now. Not a single 9-1-1 call. Not one." If those three numbers had been dialed, police might have seen the depths of what was happening inside the home. And maybe, just maybe, some lives could have been saved. Now, inside the home, during these hour-long fights, Michael, wouldn't just beat Casey. He would turn his rage on the children. Cameron would later tell his biological father that Michael would grab hangers, or any other object nearby, and strike the kids repeatedly whenever he became the slightest bit angry. No one in the home was safe. Not 9-year-old Cameron, not 5-year-old Preston, not 2-year-old Mercalli, and not even Ayanna, who was only a few months old at the time. They were all just innocent babies, children at the mercy of their environment, and unfortunately, even as much as Casey loved them, their environment was a violent and toxic one, one that was growing more and more volatile by the second. As spring gave way to summer in 2019, it seemed that Michael was having more and more trouble holding up the façade that had made everyone think he was such a perfect partner. When the family made the 19-hour drive up to Alkhart, Indiana to visit Casey's father, stepmother, and siblings, Michael showed his true colors to someone other than Casey for the very first time. "It was sometime in May. If you live up north, you know what a special time that is. Everything is blooming. The sun is out for what feels like the first time in forever. People are eagerly dusting off their grills, fire rings, and patio furniture, and they're all gathering outside together. Even if they're not willing to admit it's still a bit too cold. But one night, Casey, Michael, and the kids stayed at her father's house to enjoy an evening out by the bonfire. Around the crackling fire, the adults drank, chowed down on burgers, and laughed with each other. They laughed over old stories they'd heard time and time again. Inside, the kids were fast asleep, but outside, something was awakening in their father. It's never been reported what exactly set Michael off. But there, next to the bonfire, he began to scream at Casey and berate her. He was drunk, his mask was slipping, and he no longer cared who saw the real him. The family was completely stunned to see Michael, who had always seemed to be so patient and good-natured, fly off the deep end. Casey's sister, Sarah, who had already left the house, had already left the house, had already gone to bed, but heard about the exchange the next morning, said, quote, "I was really shocked. I'd never witnessed even heard them fight before, end quote. But someone in the family spoke up, calling Michael out on the way he was talking to Casey. And from there, the wheels came off. Michael began screaming at the family as Casey begged him to leave and tried to pull him away. But disturbingly, at one point in the night, he yelled out, quote, I'll cut up your bodies and no one will find you. Imagine that for a second, that you've known someone for years. You've never seen an ounce of aggression from them. And then all of a sudden, you see their true colors, loud and proud. You hear them threaten to cut you up and hide you out of nowhere. From that moment on, Casey's family never saw Michael the same way again. Panic set in. They worried for Casey and the children. They didn't feel like they could trust him, but Casey told them everything was fine. That night, she managed to pull Michael away. She woke up the kids, piled them in the car at 4 a.m., and they left in the night. It was the last time her parents and sister ever saw her. The next morning, when Casey's sister learned about what had happened, she immediately tried to talk to Casey about her concerns. But Casey brushed her off. She texted back, it was blown out of proportion. Everyone was just drunk, she said. It really wasn't that bad. Michael was just being stupid, but everything was fine now. However, Sarah didn't buy it. Even as Casey posted happy family photos visiting the beach and going to concerts in June, Sarah had a sinking feeling. Michael wasn't who he had pretended to be. But even then, she never could have imagined the depths of his violence, the shallowness of his ego, the breadth of his rage. And as June turned to July, that rage was triggered by a perfect storm and an eternal weakness inside of Michael. Heading into the summer, Casey and Michael were falling apart financially. They were behind several months' rent on their trailer, and eviction proceedings were underway. The family of six was about to lose their home, and whatever threat of co-dependence or love or need that kept the couple together had frayed beyond repair. Until finally, on July 10th, it snapped. What exactly happened on that fateful day, we'll never know for sure. The only thing we have is Michael's version of events, which goes something like this. In the early morning hours of July 10th, Michael Jones was at a job site when his phone rang. It was Casey. When he brought the phone up to his ear, he was confronted with screaming. According to Michael, Casey was accusing him of cheating on her with his ex-wife, Sarah Jones. Annoyed, he hung up the phone and then turned his phone off, not wanting to deal with it. But turning off the phone didn't stop the fight. It just added fuel to the fire. According to Michael, when he got home that night, the argument was more heated than ever. The two began to call each other names, and they got into a violent altercation. In the midst of their struggle, Casey grabbed her son's metal bat and held it horizontally in front of herself, trying to push her husband away from her. Michael could have done what she wanted. He could have just walked away, but he didn't. Instead, he pried the bat out of Casey's hands. And as her children slept in the next room, he hit her with it in the head, over and over and over. 32-year-old Casey Jones took her final breath in the corner of her bedroom, bleeding out from blunt force trauma to the head, knowing that the man who had sworn to love and protect and honor her was the one who had taken her life, and that her babies were just feet away from a murderer. With his wife's blood on his hands, Michael wasted no time cleaning up the mess he had made. He dragged Casey's body and stuffed her into a plastic storage tote. He then shoved the tote in a bedroom closet. Kneeling on the floor as Casey's children slept nearby, he scrubbed her blood off the baseboard, walls, and floors of the room. He decided then and there that he was going to get new flooring and baseboards in the coming days to cover up what happened. In the meantime, there was more he had to do to cover up the murder, and he dedicated himself to it completely. He would later tell detectives he was, quote, "in it." And once the decision was made, there was no going back. So when morning came, Michael went out into the kitchen and made breakfast for the four children whose mother he had just killed. They sat and ate at the table, while their mother sat in the closet, decaying. That very morning, Michael began to send texts and make Facebook posts from Casey's phone in an attempt to make it look like she was still alive. He changed Casey's Facebook profile to a different picture of her, captioning it, "Boss Lady," with two hearts. He also texted her friends and family, making small talk to keep up appearances. Whenever anyone would call, he'd let it ring. Then he would text them as Casey, saying she'd lost her voice and was sick in bed. But as the days dragged on, keeping up appearances became harder and harder, not just outside the home, but inside it. Michael told the kids that mom was, quote, "on a trip." But all the while, he was spending hours every day laying down kitty litter in an attempt to soak up the bodily fluid leaking out of the tote in the closet. He covered the room in mothballs and ran fans, desperate to keep the horrid stench of death away. And now for a brief ad break. The month of August is a sweet spot. You're still enjoying the summer, but fall is right around the corner. And for me, that always starts with my wardrobe. Quince proves that you don't need a crowded closet to look incredible. You just need the right pieces. Quince specializes in effortless, high-quality essentials like ultra-soft organic cotton and premium Mongolian cashmere sweaters. Quince also has premium stretch denim starting at just $50, with the kind of perfect fit, structure, and weight you'd expect from luxury designer brands. As you know, me and Colin always go to Quince. Our closet is filled with timeless, quality pieces that we always find ourselves reaching for. 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He texted Casey's mother, Nikki, from Casey's phone, arranging for the two youngest girls, Mercalli and Ayanna, to stay with her for a few weeks. Initially, Nikki was overjoyed. She loved spending time with the girls, and she was excited to meet up with casey who she hadn't seen in over a week but when the girls arrived at nikki's home it wasn't casey behind the wheel nikki was shocked in all the years casey and michael had been together he had never done the drop off by himself he brushed it off telling her that casey was sick at home at the time nikki didn't have any reason to think otherwise so she thanked michael and took the girls into the house to get started with all the fun activities she had planned but over the next few days and weeks casey's family became increasingly unsettled casey was always one to facetime and call on an almost nightly basis the fact that she was dodging everyone's calls started to ring alarm bells then there were the texts nikki jones described receiving the texts from casey's phone in her news for jack's interview she said the text to me got weirder and weirder like well that's not casey the texts they did receive were filled with overwhelming spelling errors strange typos and diction that casey would never use her sister told news for jack's we received messages that she was sick that her phone was messed up increasingly worried nikki demanded that when mercalli and ayana were picked up from her house in late july she wanted casey to come a text from casey's phone then promised she'd be there but when michael arrived to get the girls casey was nowhere to be seen michael offered an excuse took 11-month-old diana and two year old mercalli into his arms and drove away nikki jones watched them go she had no idea that as the girls disappeared out of view she was experiencing something significant something she would never experience again across the border in georgia casey's ex richard bowers was excited to spend time with his boys casey had texted him offering him visitation with nine-year-old cameron and five-year-old preston from july 27th to august 10th but just like nikki had experienced he was faced with confusion when the vehicle pulled up to drop off the kids and michael was the one driving when michael got out of the car he told richard that casey had back surgery which put her out of commission so he'd be the one doing pickups and drop-offs in the meantime richard remembered thinking this was odd like nikki he had never known michael to be involved in custody drop-offs when it came to the kids and he hadn't heard anything about casey getting a back surgery but any confusion or doubt was overshadowed by his joy at having his sons alongside him as richard loaded them up into his car to take them home he had no idea that their mother his ex-wife had already been dead for 17 days however soon after he got his boys home it became clear that something wasn't right several times nine-year-old cameron told his father about the abuse happening inside the home he said he didn't know what was going on but he had no idea the home he told him that michael beat casey almost every night that they got into fights where things were thrown and that several times michael had also struck him and his siblings i wish i could tell you that right then and there richard called the cops to report the abuse i wish that with this admission michael was investigated and the boys and girls in his care were taken to safety taken away from the man who killed their mother but that's not the case richard didn't tell the police what his son admitted until september and by then it was too late on august 10th after spending the week with his boys richard waited in a designated meet-up spot to give cameron and preston back to casey but once again he was met instead with michael and this time the exchange was even odder than the first you see michael and richard obviously didn't have a great history with one another they had gotten into altercations in the past around the time the infidelity was revealed and since then they had talked to each other as little as possible but that day michael said something to richard that shocked him he apologized for not believing richard when during the divorce proceedings he stated casey was crazy michael told richard he was sorry for trusting casey when she told him that richard had been abusive and cruel and that now michael saw casey for who she was then he hugged richard telling them that they should go get a drink sometime and then with that he left with the boys richard watched them drive away like nikki he was completely unaware that he was experiencing something for the very last time but there were plenty of signs seven days later on august 17th a woman named april was thrilled to find a facebook marketplace listing for two twin beds pictured in a little boy's room the beds were listed for just fifty dollars so she quickly messaged the seller and organized a time to go pick them up later that day just after noon she pulled up to fourteen six eighty southeast eighty-six court in summerfield florida the home of casey and michael jones michael met her and her husband out front where he immediately began to load the two mattresses into their truck when april's husband offered to help he shut him down refusing any assistance whatsoever he was oddly quiet and reserved except for when he mentioned twice that his boys had outgrown the mattresses and that's why he was getting rid of them the whole exchange left april feeling uneasy but even more so when they got home to unload the mattresses at the time because michael had been loading them she didn't notice the foul smell emanating from them but when they opened the back of their truck cab they were overwhelmed with a horrific stench they knew the smell was death but they both assumed that it was the smell of a dead rat or mouse april laid the mattresses in the sun and sprayed them with bleach baking soda and water for several weeks trying to get the smell out but it lingered the stench of death rolling off the mattresses of two baby boys and april and her husband weren't the only two people exposed to it while all of this was going on michael was still going through the process of being evicted on august 23rd he texted the landlord as himself and as casey from her phone stating that they had moved out of the house about a week later on september 1st the landlord and a maintenance worker performed a walkthrough of the trailer and what they found was stomach churning the home was still full of belongings kids toys clothes pots and pans everything you'd need for living just abandoned in piles across the floor the only items that weren't there were michael's belongings any sign that an adult male had been living there was gone but the kid stuff and casey stuff had been abandoned there was simply no use for it anymore but the most disturbing part of the home was the stench as the maintenance worker entered he later recalled that it quote smelled like something died end quote yet the landlord ordered him to clean the apartment and get it ready for the next tenants who were moving in the maintenance worker did as he was told unaware that he was cleaning up a truly horrific home crime scene with no place to go post eviction michael turned to his ex-wife sarah jones sarah lived up in jacksonville with their three children and when michael asked if he could stay with her for a few days she didn't hesitate a category 5 hurricane hurricane dorian was set to make landfall and she didn't want to be the only adult in charge of three kids for days or weeks especially if they lost power when michael arrived he arrived in the family minivan filled to the brim but it wasn't to sarah's surprise it was full of totemins michael explained them away by saying that he and casey had separated and that he was getting ready to move casey had all four of the kids with her according to him and in the meantime he was just trying to pick up the pieces for the next few days michael lived with sarah and his kids as if nothing had happened when his son noticed a foul smell coming from his van parked in the driveway he used an excuse that had yet to fail him a rat must have died in it and with that excuse the visit went on as normal sarah described those two weeks to action news jacks saying he was playing with his kids every day he was taking them to the pool he was talking about a future with them there was absolutely nothing that would have peaked in my mind to say oh my gosh i think he did something at the same time two hours away casey's family didn't feel the same way when cameron's 10th birthday came on september 12th casey didn't make a post every single year she made a post for her kids on their birthdays she'd add a collage and sprinkle it with all the reasons she was proud of them and loved them but that day was silent casey didn't facetime her mom or her sisters she didn't schedule a party and no one had talked to cameron for sarah that was it she told news for jacks i don't care hurricane or not she would have posted something she lived and breathed those babies she would never have let that happen that's when we knew for sure something was wrong it was late into the evening on september 14 2019 when casey's mother nikki jones called the marion county sheriff's office requesting a welfare check on her daughter and grandchildren she had officially reached a point that she could no longer reason her way past she knew deep within her that her daughter was gone nikki told dispatch that she hadn't seen or heard from her daughter or grandchildren in weeks and that she was worried michael jones had done something to them she later told the media quote if i didn't call at that time he would have gotten away with it because he was getting ready to dump my daughter's body end quote and indeed he was by the 14th michael had already left his ex-wife's house and was driving aimlessly around georgia trying to figure out what to do next he knew it was only a matter of time before the world would know what he had done and back in summerfield thanks to the call from nikki the sheriff's department was putting the pieces together as they opened the door at 1 40 in the afternoon the sheriff's department was putting the pieces together as they opened the door at 1 40 in the afternoon the sheriff's department was putting the pieces together as they opened the door at 1 4680 southeast 86th to conduct a welfare check the officers were instantly overwhelmed with the scent that they were far too familiar with decomposition and everything they saw in the trailer only solidified what they already knew new flooring and baseboards appeared to have been recently installed cleaning products sat near the door there were rust color stains, which appeared to be blood, on portions of the wall and floor. As police began to dig, the landlord who provided them with access to the house demanded that they leave and said he wouldn't be answering any further questions. It seemed to the police that he was afraid he could be implicated for hiring a cleaner to clean up the trailer, but it didn't matter because less than an hour later, investigators had declared the trailer a crime scene, giving them full access, and inside they found far more evidence than they had even been expecting. When the interior was sprayed with luminol, several rooms lit up like a Christmas tree, indicating the presence of blood. The question police had as they went room by room was a haunting one. How many people had contributed to the blood they were finding? How many victims did they have? Immediately, they put out an endangered missing persons alert for Casey Jones, Cameron Bowers, Preston Bowers, Mercalli Jones, and Ayanna Jones. The white, 27 Chrysler that Michael was believed to be driving was also flagged for immediate attention, and police urged people to be on the lookout for Michael Wayne Jones. As police launched their investigation and manhunt, Casey's family handed out flyers, posted on Facebook, and spoke with local news stations, desperately trying to raise awareness and help find Casey and her four kids. The reality that the entire family was just missing was almost impossible to comprehend. Her mother, Nikki, told the media, "I've never ever been so scared. They don't know where she's at. They went to the house and she's gone. The house is empty. Casey's my baby. She was my last one. I don't want nothing to happen to her. I don't know what I would do without any of them. I want them home. I want them safe. And if anybody knows anything, please, please, I'm begging mothers all over the world if you see my daughter and my grandkids to please be a mother and call the police." It was a heartbreaking plea, and behind the scenes, police were getting closer to finding her, and her family answers. Although it increasingly seemed like they were heading towards a heartbreaking conclusion, rather than a reunion. Police called Michael Jones repeatedly, trying to get in contact with him. And surprisingly, he actually called them back, leaving a voicemail with one of the detectives. In it, he said this. Yes, hi, this is Michael Jones. I've heard through the grapevine that you were trying to contact my wife and I. I'm not in town right now as far as in Marion County. I can be there late this evening, more likely early in the morning. I can be there early in the morning, come to the office and speak with you. And if you can give me a detailed message, whereabouts that is, as well as your office, we can be there as early as nine o'clock that morning. But as you've likely suspected, he never went. Instead, he pushed deeper into Georgia, hell-bent on escape. However, justice, if we can even call it that in this case, found him in an unexpected place. On the evening of September 15th, 2019, a man named Levi Strickland was enjoying a peaceful night, picking berries and rural Brantley County, Georgia, as he gathered handfuls of the berries. The sound of birds overhead and frogs just coming out for the evening was interrupted by an ear-splitting crash. At first, he thought it was an explosion. He sprinted out of the bushes towards the sound, heading towards US Route 301. And there, he saw something he didn't expect. Far off the road in a ditch was a large white van with its front end smashed in. The driver had slammed into a concrete culvert while he was looking at his GPS. And there he sat, helpless, his journey at an end. The berry picker ran towards the van, wanting to make sure everyone was okay. And that's when the stench overwhelmed him. He told WJXT, quote, I smelled that smell. It smelled horrible. I never smelled that in my life, end quote. The man called the police to report the crash. But that smell, that horrible smell, that was the undercurrent of his call. A Brantley County Sheriff's deputy responded within minutes. And even from 50 feet away, he could smell it too. The stench of decomposition was overwhelming. The officer pulled out a gun and slowly approached the vehicle. Michael Jones was sitting in the passenger seat, silent and dejected. He didn't look like a threat. He looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, which somehow made him even more terrifying. The deputy yelled out, are you injured? Jones shook his head and quietly responded, no. Then there was silence. The deputy asked the question he already knew the answer to. What's that smell? And Jones responded as if he was saying the most normal thing in the world. You may just want to put me in handcuffs. My wife's in the trunk. It was September 15th. Casey Jones had been dead, decaying inside of a plastic tote for over two months. As Michael was put under arrest and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation descended upon the scene, investigators looked in the back of the van. The van was drenched in what a 142-page incident report described as, quote, body fluid, end quote. The interior of the van had been sprayed over and over with air fresheners and mothballs were stuffed into every nook and cranny, trying to ward off the smell. Police knew what they were going to find, but still nothing could have prepared them. In the back of the van, inside of a large gray tote, they discovered the remains of Casey Jones. She had been wrapped up in an area rug and a black and white shower curtain, which had then been duct taped around her body. For two months, she was carried around like that, hidden in a closet, transported in the back of the van, sitting in the Florida heat, while her babies unknowingly played right nearby. It was pure evil. But as the police continued to search the van, they were faced with the question of how deep this evil went. Because though they had found Casey, the four children were still missing, and neither they nor their remains were in the vehicle. On the way to the sheriff's station, deputies asked Michael where the kids were. He looked at them as though the question was preposterous and told them, nonchalantly, that they were with his mom. For investigators, it was their first spark of hope in an otherwise pitch-black case. Someone swiftly called Michael's mother, but the answer wasn't what they expected. She seemed confused by the statement her son had made. And then, in tears, she admitted that the children weren't with her. Finally, faced with no other choice, Michael admitted the truth to investigators, right there, in the back of a cop car, just moments after his arrest for the murder of his wife. He admitted that Cameron, Preston, Aiyana, and Mercalli were all dead. He had killed them. And he hadn't just killed his flesh and blood. He had killed them in the most horrific, violent, and senseless ways possible. In his formal interview immediately after being arrested, Michael told police what he had done. And he didn't hold back. According to the 142-page incident report, after getting Cameron and Preston back from their biological father in August, Michael saw no way he could get away with murder. So, he decided that he would get rid of every piece of her. And this is how he did it. According to Michael, it was around August 15th, and as nine-year-old Cameron slept in a bed surrounded by his favorite Mickey Mouse stuffed toys, Michael crept into the room. He pulled Cameron by the ankles onto the ground, where he began to strangle the child with his bare hands. Cameron was face down, squished against the floor, struggling to breathe, as his stepfather tightened his hands around his neck. And, Cameron fought like hell. He kicked and thrashed and tried to scratch at Michael, as he tightened his grip more and more. Until finally, Michael sunk his knee into Cameron's back. There, on his bedroom floor, Cameron took his last breath. All while the man who promised to love him as if he were his own looked down at him, watching and waiting for him to die. And then, just like he did with Casey, Michael hid Cameron's body by stuffing him inside a red suitcase. Now, five-year-old Preston was still in the home. But Michael didn't kill him just yet. For about 24 hours, Preston walked around, having no idea that his brother was dead. And it wasn't until the next night, when Michael walked into Preston's room. He would later admit that the act of strangling was physically harder than he expected. His hands were still sore from killing Cameron the previous night. So, he decided that for Preston, he would use a zip tie. Just think about that for a moment. The thought that went into not only his actions, but how he could be comfortable while carrying them out. Once again, Michael ambushed Cameron, while he was sleeping. Tightening the zip tie around five-year-old Preston's neck. Once he lost consciousness, Michael carried him into the bathroom, where he had already run the water in the tub. He didn't have a stopper for the drain, so he shoved a rag into it so that the tub would fill. And once it had enough water inside, he held Preston under that water until he was gone. Then he placed him into plastic garbage bags and left him there on the bathroom floor. Now, Michael's daughters, Mercalli and Diana, had been staying with their grandmother, Nikki, during this period. In the weeks between killing the boys and eventually bringing the girls back, Michael Jones had continued living in the house with three decomposing bodies. Cameron and Preston were stored in their containers, Casey was in the closet, and Michael Jones went about his daily life among them, fighting back the stench with mothballs, kitty litter, and fans. During that time, his daughters were asking about their mom, they were asking about their brothers, and Michael was fighting off the questions with lie after lie. But the walls were closing in. The eviction process had formally begun on August 23rd. On the fifth day of the proceedings, Michael Jones loaded the two youngest girls into his vehicle and drove to Bellevue, a small city nearby. He parked across the street from Bellevue City Hall and turned off the car. Then he just stared. From where he sat, he could see the police department. He later told investigators he sat there trying to get up the nerve to turn himself in, or hoping that someone would arrest him. And that's the part of this video that I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you this part of the video that I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you this part of this case that is devastating to me. Because he could have stopped there. He could have looked his baby girls in their eyes and given them a chance at life. Even if he was in jail, there were so many people who loved those girls. girls. So many people who could have stepped up and taken the men. Salvation was just a few feet away. But instead, in the backseat, Michael heard his baby girls babbling. Ayana was just starting to talk. Mercalli had just started to develop her personality. She was giggly, in awe of everything, and more prone to cuddles than to fits. He had to have heard the girls playing in the backseat. He could see them in the rear view. And yet, he started the car back up. Then he drove home, took his daughters inside, and began to fill up the bathtub once more. He carried Mercalli Jones, just two years old, into the bathroom and shoved her face beneath the running water. He held her underwater until she stopped thrashing and drowned. Next, he picked up his daughter, the one he had seemingly been so proud of and loved so dearly, and he laid her on the ground. Then he went to get Ayana. She was just 11 months old. She had just started to find her voice, just started to tremble. She had just started to find her voice, and without hesitation, her dad pushed her under the water and drowned her. Michael picked up the girls' bodies and placed them together into a single plastic tote. Five people were now dead. A mother and her four children, killed in the same house where no police call had ever been made. Their bodies were stored in closets in plastic containers, surrounded by kitty litter and cleaning spray, while Michael Jones continued to go about his daily life. When investigators later asked Jones why he had committed the murders of the children, he stated, I don't know, just everything mounted up and it seemed like the way out. Eventually, Michael admitted the location where he had abandoned his innocent children after murdering them. Police found themselves barreling down a dirt road in rural Georgia. They followed Michael's instructions, wandering through the woods until the horrible smell of decay became their guide. And there, in a clearing, they saw several totes, each covered haphazardly with palm fronds. Opening one of the totes, they saw a red suitcase. Nine-year-old Cameron had been stuffed inside. Disturbingly, a towel had been shoved in Cameron's mouth to soak up any bodily fluids. Nearby Cameron, five-year-old Preston was found in a separate tote. Although severely decomposed, investigators could clearly see the zip tie still wrapped around his neck. And then there was the final tote. When investigators opened it, they found something that has stayed with everyone who followed the case. Inside, there was a red suitcase, which was wrapped around his neck. Inside, next to the bodies of Mercalli and Ayanna, was a baby bottle with Ayanna's name on it and a small pink pair of girls' sandals. All five bodies were transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Medical Examiner's Office. Dr. Edmund Donahue performed the autopsies on Casey and Cameron, and Dr. Joni Skipper performed the autopsies on Preston, Mercalli, and Ayanna. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods held a press conference. Unfortunately, he said, true evil poked its head up here in the woods. Marion County. That's about the only way to describe it. He added, he has no right to walk on the face of this earth, and I'd hate to be him when he stands before the Lord. In his recorded interrogation, when investigators asked how he felt being in custody, Michael Jones said he felt relieved. When asked what his plan had been, he said, um, the only thing I really had planned was to get out of Florida for now, or cross the border here, sit at a rest stop and try to think. When asked why he had killed the children, he said, I don't know, just everything mounted up and it seemed like the way out. Deputies noted that Jones showed no remorse during his initial interviews. Shortly before this, Casey's family received that dreaded knock on their door. They had that sinking feeling that told them something was wrong, but the truth of what happened was something they never expected. The pain was unimaginable. Casey's mom, Nikki, told WESH, quote, I knew something was wrong, but I didn't think he would kill them. Didn't think he would kill my babies. I didn't think he would kill my children. I didn't Why would he do that? End quote. Casey's sister, Sarah, reflected on the loss of the kids, asking, why would he do that to someone who worships the ground you walked on? Why would he do that? End quote. But there's no answer that could satisfy that question, because there's no logic in the choices that Michael made in that two-month period. On November 2nd, 2019, a celebration of life was held for Casey Jones and her four children at LifePoint Church in Lake County, Florida. Family, friends, and community members were all in attendance. Casey's mom, Nikki, stood before the gathering and said, quote, I want them to be a light for everybody else, because they were good people, good kids, a great mother. I want them to be a light, and I'm not going to let that monster take my memories away. He can't take away the love I had for those kids and for my daughter. He can't do that. Michael Wayne Jones Jr. waived extradition and was returned to Florida. His first court appearance was September 19th, 2019, before Judge Robert E. Lant in Marion County. He was initially charged with second-degree murder in Casey's death, and a grand jury later returned an indictment, adding four counts of first-degree premeditated homicide, one for each child. Those four counts were capital offenses, carrying the possibility of execution. The state attorney's office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit formally announced it would seek the death penalty, and Michael was then placed on suicide watch at the Marion County Jail and remained there for more than three years as the case moved through the system, delayed, and delayed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2022, Michael Wayne Jones Jr. stood before Marion County Circuit Court Judge Anthony M. Toddy and pleaded guilty. Four counts of first-degree murder, one for each child. One count of second-degree murder for Casey. Because he pleaded guilty, there was no trial. The case was then sent straight to the penalty phase, where a jury would decide whether Jones would be executed or imprisoned for life. His public defender, John Ivey, said his client entered the plea to take responsibility for what he had done. The penalty phase began in late December 2022 and resumed after the holidays in early January 2023. The jury was nine men and three women, 13 total, including one alternate, and Judge Toddy presided. Assistant State Attorney Amy Burnt opened for the prosecution, describing what she called a summer of violence. She told the jury Jones had brutally murdered his wife and then savagely killed her four children. She walked through the full timeline. The bat, the closet, the kitty litter, the fake texts, the flies in the van, the suitcases, the totes, the zip ties still around Preston's neck, the rag shoved into the drain, the towel in Cameron's mouth, the baby bottle, and the pink sandals in the tote with the girls. The state rested after three days. The defense called 18 witnesses and presented 54 mitigating circumstances. The defense team described their client as a man whose life was a free fall of psychotic chaos. They called a neuropsychiatrist from Harvard Medical School named Dr. John Fabian, who testified about Jones' childhood trauma, low IQ, and undiagnosed depression and PTSD, which formed the backbone of how he ended up here. A jail consultant testified that Michael had no disciplinary infractions during the more than three years he spent in jail. Witnesses were called to the stand, who talked about how Jones earned his GED, how he served as a doctor, and how he was able to live a life of his own. The defense team served in the Navy for five years and held steady jobs after that, but the prosecutors challenged the defense at every point. Casey's sisters, Brandy and Sarah, testified during the victim impact portion of the proceedings, describing the toll the murders had taken on their family and what it meant to lose five people, an entire branch of a family tree, over one summer. Sarah had to quit her job because she worked in children's clothing. Every single thing she saw reminded her of her nieces and nephews. For six months, she did nothing but lie in bed. She was a child of her own, and she was a child of her own. Being awake was too painful. Doing anything else felt like an uphill battle. When asked how she felt about Michael being executed, she told the jury she was against it, stating, quote, he'd be put to sleep like a family pet. Yet my sisters, nieces, and nephews didn't have those rights to die peacefully. The jury deliberated for just under five hours. On January 12, 2023, all 12 jurors returned with a unanimous recommendation. Death on all four counts. On April 28, 2023, in a hearing that lasted nine minutes, Judge Anthony M. Toddy formally sentenced Michael Wayne Jones Jr. to death four times, once for each child. He also sentenced Jones to life in prison without parole for the second-degree murder of Casey Jones, crediting him with 1,322 days of time served. And with that, Michael Wayne Jones Jr. was sent off to Florida's death row. Eventually, Jones' defense team filed an appeal, but the Florida Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in full on July 10, 2025, exactly six years to the day after Casey Jones was killed. Today, he still sits there awaiting death, although his execution date has not yet been set. But there are things in this case that we keep coming back to, and it's not about the crash, or the trial, or the sentence. It's the smaller, disturbing details, like the baby bottle. When investigators opened the tote where Michael Jones had put the baby bottle in, they found that the baby bottle was not the baby bottle. They found both girls inside. They found a baby bottle with Ayanna's name on it. They found a small pink pair of sandals. We also keep coming back to Cameron. He told his biological father that Michael Jones beat his mother almost every night. He described violent fights. He described a man who hit the children with whatever was closest to him. Of course, Cameron's father could have never known what was ahead. But it's heartbreaking to think about how Cameron tried to tell an adult about what was happening. There's also what Casey's sister said about Cameron on camera in those first raw days. That when you saw Casey and Michael together, you were jealous of how much they looked like they were. were in love. This was incredibly eye-opening that sometimes things aren't always as they appear. We also think about the 12-year-old neighbor who lost sleep from the shouting, the couple who drove home with mattresses that smelled like death, the neighbor who walked through the house and smelled something wrong. None of those people are responsible for what Michael Jones did, but together they form a picture of how violence stays hidden and how it lives in the gaps between what people notice and what they act on. Casey Gilbert Jones was 32 years old. She moved to Florida to be near her family. She was warm and generous. She was the first person you called, and she loved her children with everything she had. Cameron Bowers was described as a phenomenal big brother. He loved Spider-Man and cuddling with his siblings. Preston Bowers loved to laugh and play with his favorite toys, especially toy cars. Mercalli Jones was just two years old, but she loved to play with her family. She loved to play with her family. She worshipped the ground her dad walked on. Her family said she was an old soul. Her favorite thing was to sing with her grandma. And then there was Ayanna Jones, just one year old. She was just learning to talk and walk. Mama and Dada were the center of her world. Her grandma Nikki said she wants them to be a light. And that is what we will try to carry from this story. Not the darkness of what happened to them, but the brightness of who they were. In their honor, we'll be making a to helping people find safety from domestic violence. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. Courtney and I have some great episodes coming in the next few months, some episodes that we are excited to share with you guys. So definitely stay tuned because we have some exciting stuff coming up. If you want to support the show and you don't like the ads that are in the program, please consider joining us on Patreon. 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And finally, don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Murder in America, where we post photos from every case that we cover here on the show and pictures of Courtney and I, in case you don't know what we look like, we're on there too. But yeah, thank you guys for tuning in this week. I hope everybody has a great weekend. Thank you so much and catch you all in the next one. Bye-bye. I'm a skeet and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the save. It's called Free Nights and Cool Summer. You get free nights every night all year long, plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use all summer. It's a first of its kind plan created for how Texans actually use energy. Discover how much more you could save with Free Nights and Cool Summer. Free Nights and Cool Summer. TXU Energy. Rep number 10004. This episode is brought to you by Deedee's Discounts. Back to school season is officially here and Deedee's has everything on your list. 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