What we know about the suspect arrested in the deaths of an abandoned Tennessee baby's family members

By Emma Tucker, CNN
(CNN) — A weeklong manhunt is over in the killings of the parents, grandmother and teenage uncle of a baby found abandoned in Tennessee.
Austin Robert Drummond was arrested Tuesday morning in the woods in Jackson after residents saw him. The 28-year-old is a convicted felon with alleged ties to a violent street gang who was out on bail on an attempted murder charge and dating one victim’s sister, officials have said.
He is due at 9 a.m. local time Thursday in Lake County General Sessions Court for an arraignment. Still, a motive in the killings and why the baby was abandoned a county away from where the bodies were found remain a mystery.
Here’s what we know – and don’t – about the case so far:
Suspect was out on bond last week
After getting out of prison last year in a robbery case, Drummond was charged with trying to kill someone while incarcerated and was out on bond, authorities have said.
His criminal history dates to July 2013, when the then-16-year-old robbed a Circle K convenience store in Jackson just after midnight. He pulled out a pistol, pointed it at a store employee and demanded the money in the cash register, court documents show.
He was convicted in 2014 of aggravated robbery and sentenced to 10 years in prison, records show.
After the trial, Drummond called his father from behind bars and made threats against his jurors and the robbery victim, District Attorney Jody S. Pickens, who serves an area including Jackson, told CNN on Monday.
For that, Drummond in 2015 pleaded guilty to retaliation for past action and was sentenced to three more years in prison, according to Pickens and court records.
The DA’s office opposed paroling him, calling him a “dangerous felony offender” in a 2020 letter. He was not paroled, and was released last September from Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville after 11 years – counting pretrial time and credits – according to Pickens and court records.
He then faced new charges related to his time in prison: a drug arrest the day he was released, then a later one in the attempted murder case, according to records from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or TBI.
“He made bond” and was “out on bond on those charges” last week when the bodies were found, said Danny Goodman, district attorney for Dyer and Lake counties, adding only the alleged attempted murder “took place inside the prison.” CNN has asked for more details.
Drummond’s attorney in the attempted murder case, Drew Farmer, declined to give more details and would not say whether he represents Drummond in the charges related to last week’s killings.
Suspect believed to have known victims
The manhunt across rural Tennessee began after a baby was found July 29 in a car seat in a front yard near the Dyer County community of Tigrett, some 80 miles northeast of Memphis and 40 miles northwest of Jackson, the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office said. Investigators started searching for a “dark-colored minivan or a white mid-size SUV” witnesses said had left the child there.
Hours later, the sheriff’s office announced four people – later identified as the baby’s relatives – had been found dead in Tiptonville in nearby Lake County. The 7-month-old baby is safe, authorities have said.
Killed were the baby’s parents James M. Wilson, 21, and Adrianna Williams, 20, along with her maternal grandmother Cortney Rose, 38, and maternal uncle Braydon Williams, 15. All were Dyer County residents, Goodman said.
Drummond was wanted in connection with the deaths and issued warrants charging him with 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, the TBI said.
Rose’s sister was Drummond’s girlfriend, Goodman later confirmed. The sister had been a corrections officer at Northwest Correctional Complex when Drummond was incarcerated there, CNN affiliate WHBQ reported, citing the state Corrections Department.
Photos on social media show the pair together after Drummond was released from custody, the station reported.
“We suspect the person that killed them knew all of them,” Goodman told CNN last week.
“I hate that someone has taken my son from all of us,” Wilson’s father told CNN on Sunday. “He really was a good young man. He was an exceptional father. He would stop and help anyone.”
“This has left a huge hole in our family,” Matt Wilson said. “No amount of justice will ever be able to replace our son.”
Suspect believed to have gang ties, source says
Investigators believe Drummond has connections to the Vice Lords gang and suspect he may have gotten help from its members, a law enforcement source said. Vice Lords members have been involved in murder, drug trafficking and other violent crime, the Justice Department says.
The gang has members and offshoot groups in Illinois and throughout Tennessee, prosecutors said.
During the manhunt for Drummond, three others were arrested in the case, the TBI said.
Dearrah Sanders, 23, was taken into custody Monday on warrants charging her with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, accused of assisting Drummond after the killings of the baby’s relatives, the bureau said.
The same charges were filed last week against Tanaka Brown and Giovontie Thomas, both 29. Brown is also charged with tampering with evidence, the TBI said.
Authorities have not specified what the three are accused of doing to help Drummond.
The bureau has not elaborated beyond its news releases, which do not detail how the four were killed, how they were found, whether investigators know of a motive or who may have left the baby in the yard near Tigrett.
Weeklong manhunt ended in an arrest
Drummond was recorded Sunday night by a resident’s camera system in Jackson, police there said, and a vehicle associated with him was found in that city.
While Drummond was still on the run, Union University locked exterior doors to all buildings and Jackson Christian School was put on lockdown Monday afternoon as authorities searched a wooden area in Jackson.
Calls from people saying they’d seen Drummond came in around 8 a.m. local time Tuesday, and police sent more resources in that area. Another citizen’s call at 8:57 a.m. led to Drummond’s arrest by three officers at 9:05 a.m., Jackson Police Chief Thom Corley said.
“Today … we find some peace in knowing that the suspect is no longer a threat, but remain committed to the families, the community and to justice,” the chief said Tuesday.
“A couple of” firearms were recovered, the TBI Director David Rausch said, adding he could not say whether they were used in the killings.
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