Timothy Jones Jr.

Timothy Jones Jr. (born December 28, 1981) is an American murderer who killed his five children: Merah, Elias, Nahtahn, Gabriel, and Abigail Elaine, in their mobile home along South Lake Drive in Lexington County, South Carolina.

Jones admitted to working Nahtahn to death and killed the other four children in a panic.

Jones pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but the court rejected this plea.

Timothy Jones, Jr was born in 1981 to Timothy Jones, Sr and Cindy Jones, who was 16 when she became pregnant.

Her husband described Cindy Jones as violent and erratic.

She behaved strangely, giving Timothy Jones Jr. laxatives as an infant and cutting up clothes with knives.

Though she was never formally diagnosed, it is believed she had a mental illness.

When her son was 18 months old, she left the family.

Timothy Jones Sr. later remarried.

In 2001 Jones Jr. was arrested in Illinois for possession of cocaine, check-forgery, and car theft.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released two years later in 2003.

Timothy Jones Jr. met Amber Kyzer, a Pennsylvania native, in Chicago.

In June 2004, 22-year-old Jones married 18-year-old Kyzer in DuPage County, Illinois.

Amber Jones gave birth to five children: Merah, born in Pennsylvania, Elias and Nahtahn, born in Mississippi, and Gabriel and Abigail, born in South Carolina.

In 2011 Jones graduated from Mississippi State University with a degree in computer engineering.

He moved to South Carolina to work as an engineer for Intel in Columbia, earning a salary of approximately $71,000 annually.

The couple moved into an inexpensive trailer in Lexington County in the suburbs of Columbia; Amber Jones was a stay-at-home mother.

In her testimony at trial, Amber Jones indicated that her husband believed, "women are to be seen and not heard, keep the children out of the way… at one point wanted a farm full of children."

Jones is a strict Christian fundamentalist.

After his arrest, police seized his religious belongings, including scripture with verses highlighted on corporal punishment.

He also accused his wife of neglecting the children, resulting in the state's Department of Social Services (DSS) opening an investigation in the family's home in 2011.

Investigators found the home in a state of disarray but closed the case.

The couple remained split, with Timothy Jones taking the children to Mississippi to live with his parents.

In later court depositions, Dr. Hames noted that Jones "did not want to feel abandoned by his wife."

When Amber Jones became pregnant with the couple's youngest child, Abigail, Timothy Jones was tested to verify he was the biological father, which he was.

The couple separated for two weeks in May 2012, and according to Jones's divorce lawyer, when Jones returned to their shared home, he discovered that his wife "was putting the children to bed and then going next door to meet her paramour."

According to court records, Amber Jones was having an affair with a 19-year-old neighbor.

Jones began meeting with a family therapist and marriage counselor, April M. Hames.

He stated that he distrusted his wife because of his troubled childhood.

The couple finalized their divorce in October 2013.

Timothy Jones was awarded custody, while Mrs. Jones only retained visitation rights and was required to be supervised by her husband.

Timothy Jones and the children moved back to Lexington County to another mobile.

The mother's visits rarely took place at the rented trailer.

Rather, they usually occurred at a Chick-fil-A in Lexington.

Reportedly, Jones allowed his ex-wife to talk to the children over the phone each night.

On Sunday evenings, Jones allowed his children to participate at youth night programs at The Salvation Army.

Jones lived in a trailer off of a dirt road in Red Bank, a neighborhood of Lexington, South Carolina.

He was found guilty of five counts of murder in 2019 and was sentenced to death.

As of 2022 he is awaiting execution on death row in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Supreme Court denied his appeal.