The Creepy Gremlin Voice: Timothy Jones Jr

0:00 [MUSIC] A kindergartener school folder came back torn in half. The day after a teacher's aide called the state about the bruises that they saw on his neck. A kindergartener was Nathan Jones. He was six and his mom called him Tater. He lived with his dad and his brothers and sisters up in Hillside, Red Bank, South Carolina. [MUSIC] Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was mostly raised by his dad, Timothy Senior.

1:02 His mom was out of the picture since early on in his life. His dad remembers a good kid who got angrier in high school. Tim picked up an Illinois conviction at a pile of stuff, stuff like cocaine possession and stealing a car and burglary. And he'd forged checks on his own dad's bank accounts, pretty bold move. He met Amber Kaiser in the Chicago area and they got married in 2004 after a really short courtship. He finished with a computer engineering degree at Mississippi State in 2011 and he took a job with Intel and South Carolina. Tim told a psychiatrist he wanted a country living and for a while you'd find the family in a mobile home on a wooded lots at the end of a sand road.

1:46 They had chickens and goats and turkeys and rabbits. You can keep in mind he's not a farmer, he's an engineer. But they lived that country rule lifestyle. Amber, his wife didn't even have a car out there. Amber told the jury that Tim got really strict about religion after they got married and she testified he had butted her and threatened to cut her up. The marriage fell apart after Amber had an affair with the teenage neighbor and they divorced. Tim got the kids. Amber told the jury that she went along with it because Tim had a steady income and transportation and she trusted him when he promised to take care of them. The car he had by the way, a Cadillac escalate. His wife didn't have a car but he was driving an escalate.

2:29 Tim and the kids ended up in a mobile home community up in Hillside Red Bank and if you ask the neighbors there about Tim, all they could really tell you about him was that they'd see him and his escalate as it pulled in. There were five kids in that house. Mira was the oldest at eight and Janet Ricard, an administrator at Sachs Gotha Elementary, remembered Mira as sweet and usually quiet. She started first grade behind in reading in math so the school got her some extra help and Janet told the jury that Mira made such big progress that she won recognition for how much her reading improved. Mira loved Princess Costumes and brushing other people's hair. Next came Eli.

3:09 He was seven and his teacher Jacqueline called him her little buddy. She told the jury that he'd come in every morning wanting a hug and when kids got left out during partner reading, Eli would pull them into his group. He loved Spider-Man and Janet remembered he brought a turtle to school one time. Then there was Nathan who was six. Asuka's teachers and you'd hear about a busy friendly kid. He loved Iron Man and fishing, riding his bike and Woody from Toy Story. Amber, his mom called him Tater. Gabriel was two and a neighbor watched him and his baby sister Abigail while Tim was away at work. Abigail was one. The state's child welfare agency DSS was coming around by 2011.

3:51 Back then it was mostly about the house with clothes and food scattered around and tools lying out. And on a later visit the place was cleaned up. Then the school started noticing Nathan. His kindergarten teacher stopped sending frowny faces home when Nathan after he came back up set one day and said that his dad made him exercise for hours because of that. The teacher's aide one day said that she saw bruises on Nathan's neck. He told her his dad held him by the neck against a wall. She picked up the phone and called DSS. The next day his school folder came back torn in half. The aide also said that you'd see him in the same shoes all through kindergarten, holes and all. There was no effort to make sure the kids had adequate footwear.

4:35 Nathan made her a necklace at church one time and she kept it. DSS kept looking into things and in May 2014 they set up a safety plan and Tim agreed to no physical punishment and no rough handling. The state newspaper reported that Joy Loric was 17 and she went from babysitting for Tim to living with him as his girlfriend. The paper said that she left because he was abusive toward her. She later told the jury that she reported Tim to DSS for whipping the kids and not giving them enough to eat. The new report came in that August about the beatings and the kids not getting enough food. A caseworker went out and wrote quote, "Dad appears to be overwhelmed and noticed that Tim couldn't keep up the house and the kids looked clean and dressed okay.

5:21 It got a second safety plan, the kids stayed with their dad." The South Carolina Supreme Court wrote that Tim was stressed about a project at work that Thursday and he smoked spice at work and then more at home. Spice is a synthetic weed, basically sketchy stuff. Late that afternoon he picked up the three oldest kids from their afterschool program and their surveillance video from that pick up where you can see Mira walking with her dad and she asked him if he's feeling better. Amber got Nathan on the phone at 7-12 that night. She told the jury that he sounded upset and she could hear Tim going off about electrical outlets in the background and then the call ended.

6:01 The only information we get about the rest of this night comes from Tim and his story changed on some of the bigger points. He accused Nathan of messing with the outlets and he made him do calisthenics for a long time. Nathan died. Tim showed Mira and Eli that their brother wasn't breathing and he sent them away. Around one in the morning he took Mira the oldest with him to a store for some cigarettes. Tim told the court psychiatrist that on the drive home a creepy Grimland voice told him to kill the other kids. Mira went to bed when they got back. Tim strangled Eli and Mira with his bare hands. He used a belt on Gabriel and Abigail.

6:42 Tim woke up the next day scared that he was going to get arrested. He wrapped up the kids bodies and put them in the escalate. He got in touch with the babysitter with an excuse about running late and then he just drove. For eight days he went through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. And you can follow the trip by what he bought along the way like trash bags and chemicals and protective gear. Plus a saw. Amber tried and couldn't reach anybody and on September 3rd she reported it. That had happened before her not being able to get in touch with the kids later turning up fine. And you couldn't get an amber alert because Tim had legal full custody. Somewhere in there Tim left the kids in separate bags beside a rule road near Camden, Alabama.

7:27 No one really knows why he picked that spot in particular. His drive ended on the night of September 6th at a routine traffic safety point near Raleigh, Mississippi. A veteran lawman told the jury that he smelled death in that SUV. They arrested Tim for DUI and ran the escalates plate. They came back as connected to five missing kids. Questioning stalled so the investigators brought Tim's dad in. After that meeting Tim admitted the kids were dead and on September 9th he led investigators to their bodies in Alabama. Tim's lawyers agreed at the 2019 trial that he calls the deaths of his kids and he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

8:07 And if you were on that jury a lot of it you would find came down to the court's psychiatrist and the defense psychiatrist who each spent about 19 hours with Tim and they both came back with completely different answers about what was going on inside of his head. The court psychiatrist said the spice called the psychosis and that Tim knew right from wrong. He called the Grimland voice anxious thoughts. The defense psychiatrist said Tim had serious schizophrenia and that when he killed four of the kids he couldn't tell moral right from wrong. After about six hours of deliberation the jury convicted him on every single count. At sentencing the teachers aid that reported the abuse that she saw on Nathan had that necklace that he made her at church.

8:52 The kids mom Amber told the jury that some days she wanted Tim to fry and she asked them to spare his life because the kids did actually love him. Tim's dad asked them to spare him too and showed the jury tattoos of all five grandkids. The jury took that all into consideration and recommended death on June 13th. The US Supreme Court refused to hear Tim's appeal on February 26th 2024. His lawyers filed for post-conviction relief the next month. The state Supreme Court put his execution on hold while that all plays out. And if you look at the docket through August 2026 you'll see competency and evaluation orders with no final ruling yet.

9:34 Amber sued the state and county DSS agencies and got $1.5 million in settlement. The agencies still denied liability. As of November 2026 Tim is still on death row at Broad River Secure Facility. Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories. Hello, I'm Joe, I'm the host and here's an email. Subject, my sister-in-law, Joe. My sister-in-law got me into your show and now I like it more than she does if that's possible and she's annoyed about it.

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