Associates of suspect in killings of abandoned Tennessee baby's relatives arrested, authorities say

CNN

8 hours ago

The man authorities allege killed four relatives of a Tennessee baby found abandoned alive remains at large but two other men have been arrested and charged with helping the suspect after the crime, authorities announced Saturday evening.
Tanaka Brown, 29, whom investigators described as an associate of Austin Robert Drummond, 28, was arrested Friday and has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Giovante Thomas, 29, has also been charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, TBI said.
The bureau did not specify what evidence led to the charges against Brown and Thomas. Brown was booked into the Lake County Jail. Thomas was already being held on an unrelated charge in Madison County, Tennessee, and will be transferred to Lake County to be arraigned, officials said. It is unclear if Brown or Thomas have legal representation.
Meanwhile, investigators are continuing their search for Drummond in connection with the deaths of James M. Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Cortney Rose, 38; and Braydon Williams, 15, whose bodies were found Tuesday in Tiptonville, a town in northwest Tennessee's Lake County, the TBI said.
The four were found dead hours after the baby daughter of Wilson and Adrianna Williams was found abandoned Tuesday afternoon in a car seat in a 'random' front yard near the Dyer County community of Tigrett, nearly a 40-mile drive southeast of Tiptonville, authorities had said.
The vehicle Drummond was believed to be driving, a white 2016 Audi, was found unoccupied in Jackson, Tennessee, and has been recovered by authorities, the TBI said Friday. Jackson is about 45 miles southeast of Tigrett. A second vehicle sought in the hunt for Drummond, a 1988 white Ford pickup truck with a red stripe, has been located in Dyer County, the TBI said Saturday.
The TBI hasn't said what led it to name Drummond as a suspect, or whether investigators know of a motive in the killings or why the baby was abandoned a county away from where the bodies were found.
Rose was the baby's maternal grandmother, and Braydon Williams was the baby's maternal uncle, according to Danny Goodman, district attorney for Dyer and Lake counties.
'The victims were all from Dyer County, and we suspect the person that killed them knew all of them,' Goodman, who also confirmed Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the baby's parents, told CNN Thursday.
Warrants for Drummond have been issued 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.
Drummond is believed to still be in the area and should be considered dangerous, authorities said at a Friday news conference, urging the public not to engage with him if he is spotted, and instead call 911 for assistance.
'We do need the community to be very careful, we do not need them to try to approach this person,' said David Rausch, director of the TBI.
Drummond was previously convicted of aggravated robbery for robbing a gas station in Jackson, Tennessee, with a gun in 2013, court records show. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that conviction and was released in September 2024, records show.
The US Marshals Service and TBI announced a joint $15,000 reward Thursday for any information leading to Drummond's arrest.
He is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 190 pounds, and has brown hair, blue eyes and a goatee, according to the TBI.
The investigation began Tuesday afternoon when the baby was found in a car seat in a front yard near Tigrett, the Dyer County Sheriff's Office said.
Investigators, spurred by a 911 caller who saw the child, were checking reports that a 'dark-colored minivan or a white mid-size SUV' had left the baby there, the sheriff's office said; the heat index was 116 degrees. The baby girl is approximately 7 months old, Goodman said.
Hours after the baby's abandonment, the sheriff's office announced four people – later identified as the baby's relatives – were found dead in Tiptonville.
The bodies were found Tuesday along Tiptonville's Carrington Road, the TBI said without elaborating.
The TBI, when CNN contacted it with questions about the investigation, referred only to its news releases. The releases 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.
'This is a deeply saddening day for our community,' Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Box said in a Facebook post Tuesday. 'We are committed to uncovering the truth and ensuring justice is served.'
Nearly a dozen agencies are working on the case, including the FBI and a US Marshals Service fugitive task force, the TBI said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN's Rebekah Riess, Gene Norman and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.