Infanticide/Parental Murder

"We do not have all the answers, and we may never have them But anyone who knows Little Tim will agree that he is not the animal he will be portrayed as through the media."
Timothy Jones, Sr.

This is Timothy Jones the elder speaking of his beloved son, Timothy Jones, junior, named after his father. Evidently Timothy Jones Sr. raised his son in love and with ample emotional support to enable him to reach adulthood, marry, have a lovely family of five children. In that, he discharged his paternal duties very well. Clearly, something went dreadfully wrong along the way. Obviously difficult to detect, particularly as the senior Timothy Jones viewed his son through the lens of love.

But then, what was there not to be proud of. His son was an Intel engineer, and that takes a goodly amount of grey matter and discipline; the former inherited through his gene pool and the latter the result no doubt of familial exposure to responsibilities gearing toward success in life. The message still went awry somewhere between childhood and adulthood.

Though Timothy Ray Jones Jr. earned a satisfactory salary for his family's upkeep, his family is no more. First was the separation from his wife, leading to an absence in the lives of their five children, but for those times when the children were temporarily in the care of their father as befits a civil arrangement where both parents share the blessings and tribulations inherent in the care of five very young and very dependent and very trusting children.

The children were last seen on August 28, when their father picked the older ones up at school, then the  younger children at daycare. They were to be returned to their mother's home on September 2. By the following day, September 3rd, Timothy Jones Jr.'s former wife was extremely concerned, enough so to report them missing. Her concern was justified.

All five children, aged one to eight were killed within a very short space of time, all placed in garbage bags, and all remained in their father's Cadillac SUV while he drove aimlessly some 1,125 kilometres in five states until he was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in Smith Country, Mississippi. Where a sheriff's deputy noticed bleach, blood and children's clothing in the vehicle. Three days later the bodies of the children were discovered, in a state of decomposition

In the interim, their father was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and with possession of a controlled substance. On checking the licence plate investigators discovered the missing children report. Which was when Mr. Jones was taken into custody where he later confessed he had killed the children and as they were placed within garbage bags, treated them accordingly, as garbage, dumping their bodies off a dirt road in central Alabama.

In Vancouver, a young woman is on trial for two counts of infanticide. She was twice pregnant and both times gave birth, dropping the babies into the toilet where she squatted in her parents' home where she lived, fearing to inform her strict parents of her condition. Her secret life extended to not informing her parents that she was married, let alone that her relationship had resulted in two pregnancies.

Both times she had placed the babies in plastic bags, and discarded them as garbage. On the first occasion the body of the baby was discovered by her father and brother and this is when authorities were alerted, though her family had no idea their own daughter was involved. On the second occasion she was more careful with the disposal of the baby and she succeeded in having it taken with garbage collection undetected.

In Quebec, a cardiologist whose mental equilibrium went awry when his physician-wife became interested in another man leading him to stab his two children, a little boy of five and a little girl of three to death, was permitted to go free on bail until his second trial in the stabbing deaths of their two children takes place.
            Three year-old Anne-Sophie, left, and five-year-old Oliver Turcotte, right

"Despite the public indignation and incomprehension of the actions posed, the rule of law must continue to apply, as this is the guarantee afforded us in a free and democratic society", said Superior Court Justice Andre Vincent on Friday of his decision to release the man from prison while awaiting this second trial. "A  conditional release does not in any way indicate that the prisoner has been exonerated of criminal responsibility."

In December of 2012, Guy Turcotte had been found not criminally responsible for killing his children in 2009, but last fall the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned that verdict, ordering a new trial. Subsequently Mr. Turcotte was returned to prison though temporarily transferred to a psychiatric hospital with the deterioration of his mental state when the new trial was ordered.

"Letting him go free ... to the detriment of the victims, forget that. We're putting [first] the well-being of the accused killer, 47 stab wounds with a knife, I remind you. I don't think a child killer should be allowed to walk the streets", stated the children's uncle who stormed out of the courtroom, telling reporters he has lost faith in the justice system.