{"id":29710,"date":"2025-08-06T05:21:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29710"},"modified":"2025-08-06T05:21:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:21:46","slug":"man-accused-of-killing-4-and-abandoning-baby-arrested-in-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/08\/06\/man-accused-of-killing-4-and-abandoning-baby-arrested-in-tennessee\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of killing 4 and abandoning baby arrested in Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A man suspected of targeting and killing members of his girlfriend’s family and leaving a baby abandoned in front of a stranger’s home has been arrested in rural Tennessee.<\/b><\/p>\n

The weeklong manhunt for Austin Robert Drummond ended after local authorities instituted an early morning shelter-in-place for residents near Jackson after he was sighted there. Residents were warned to lock doors and windows as police searched for him.<\/p>\n

Police accuse Drummond, 28, of killing the baby’s parents, grandmother and teenaged uncle before abandoning the infant in front of a stranger’s house.<\/p>\n

The arrest “marks an important step in restoring safety to our community,” Jackson Police Chief Thom Corley said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Director David Rausch had called the killings “targeted” and said the suspect had a relationship with the family.<\/p>\n

Police elaborated on that after his capture, saying on Tuesday that the killing spree targeted members of his girlfriend’s family.<\/p>\n

Authorities did not offer a motive but said at least one of his girlfriend’s sisters were killed, along with her mother.<\/p>\n

Drummond was caught after multiple people called law enforcement at 8:00 CDT (14:00 BST) on Tuesday to say they had seen the suspect, Jackson Police Chief Thom Corley said during a news conference. They arrested him shortly after, at 9:05 local time, he said.<\/p>\n

The arrest comes a week after a baby, left in a car seat, was found in front of a stranger’s home in Tigrett, Tennessee on July 29, prompting a search for the parents.<\/p>\n

Soon after, the four family members were found dead about 40 miles (64km) away in Tiptonville. It prompted a statewide manhunt for Drummond.<\/p>\n

The baby is safe and being cared for, authorities have said.<\/p>\n

A photo of Drummond’s capture shared by the TBI shows him in a black hoodie in a wooded area in Jackson, about 70 miles south of Tiptonville, where the family was found dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The victims have been identified as James M. Wilson, 21, and Adrianna Williams, 20, the baby’s parents; Cortney Rose, 38, the infant’s grandmother; and Braydon Williams, 15, the baby’s uncle.<\/p>\n

Three other people have been arrested and charged with assisting Drummond after the quadruple killings.<\/p>\n

Before his arrest, police released footage appearing to show Drummond carrying a gun and wearing camouflage clothing while trying to enter a building.<\/p>\n

A $32,500 reward for information that would lead to his arrest was offered on Monday as authorities scrambled to end the search.<\/p>\n

Drummond is facing charges including four counts of first degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of felon in possession of a firearm, and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.<\/p>\n

He was previously convicted of robbing a convenience store in 2013 with a gun. He was released in September 2024 after serving 13 years in prison, according to Tennessee prison records.<\/p>\n

In 2020, a district attorney warned the state’s parole board against releasing Drummond early, citing threats to jurors and multiple disciplinary actions while in prison.<\/p>\n

“This type of behavior clearly demonstrates that Drummond has no desire for rehabilitation and is not capable of living among society,” Jody Pickens wrote.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man suspected of targeting and killing members of his girlfriend’s family and leaving a baby abandoned in front of a stranger’s home has been arrested in rural Tennessee. The weeklong manhunt for Austin Robert […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[9471,11549,1345,3060,9123,11548,11547],"class_list":{"0":"post-29710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-jackson","10":"tag-jackson-police-department","11":"tag-manhunt","12":"tag-tennessee","13":"tag-tennessee-bureau-of-investigation","14":"tag-tigrett","15":"tag-tiptonville","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29712,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29710\/revisions\/29712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}