Why feature an article about a serial killer on the loose- and yet not post a photo. Apparently it's more important for USA Today to reveal the FBI's failures than it is to protect the public.
"The newspaper said Jones is now a suspect in as many as 20 slayings, but did not elaborate."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-04-serial-case_x.htm
FBI botches fingerprint tests of suspect in serial killings
ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI admitted it made mistakes on fingerprint tests that allowed a man to go free who now has been charged in three murder cases and suspected in at least five others.
Jeremy Jones was arrested and jailed on minor offenses three times in Georgia's Douglas and Carroll counties in 2003 and 2004 under the name John Paul Chapman.
Local police fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the FBI under the name Chapman, but the FBI did not match the prints to Jones, who was wanted in Oklahoma for sexual assault, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday. As a result, Jones was released.
The newspaper said Jones is now a suspect in as many as 20 slayings, but did not elaborate.
A grand jury in Alabama returned a capital murder indictment against Jones on Monday. He has been held there since he was charged with raping and murdering Lisa Nichols of Turnerville, Ala., on Sept. 18.
He also is charged with murder in the death of Amanda Greenwell, a 16-year-old neighbor of Jones in Douglasville, Ga., whose remains were found in April 2004, and Katherine Collins, a 45-year-old New Orleans woman whose body was found in February 2004.
The FBI issued a statement Tuesday saying "law enforcement lost an opportunity to prevent further criminal activity by this individual."
"The FBI regrets this incident," said Thomas Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Assistant Deputy Director Terry Gibbons said she was surprised to learn of the mistakes.
"It's very infrequent to have this sort of error with automatic fingerprint identification systems now in use," Gibbons said.
Last month, authorities in Forsyth County, Ga., northeast of Atlanta, said Jones had confessed to raping and killing Patrice Tamber Endres in April 2004 and dumping her body off a bridge. No body has been found and no charges have been filed in that case.
Since his arrest in Alabama, Jones has been questioned by authorities from several states, including Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri. Officials in those states as well as Florida and Kansas have contacted the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.
In northeastern Oklahoma, where Jones lived, officials have said he is a suspect in the slaying of a couple in Welch in 1999 and the disappearance of their daughter, 16, and a second teenager. Last month, authorities said Jones also was a "person of interest" in the March 1997 killing of an Oklahoma couple who were found slain across the state line in Kansas.
He also has been named a suspect in the 2002 stabbing death of a woman in Douglasville, Ga., where Jones also lived for several years, and in the case of an unidentified woman's torso found last summer near an Interstate 70 rest stop west of St. Louis.
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Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
"The newspaper said Jones is now a suspect in as many as 20 slayings, but did not elaborate."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-04-serial-case_x.htm
FBI botches fingerprint tests of suspect in serial killings
ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI admitted it made mistakes on fingerprint tests that allowed a man to go free who now has been charged in three murder cases and suspected in at least five others.
Jeremy Jones was arrested and jailed on minor offenses three times in Georgia's Douglas and Carroll counties in 2003 and 2004 under the name John Paul Chapman.
Local police fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the FBI under the name Chapman, but the FBI did not match the prints to Jones, who was wanted in Oklahoma for sexual assault, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday. As a result, Jones was released.
The newspaper said Jones is now a suspect in as many as 20 slayings, but did not elaborate.
A grand jury in Alabama returned a capital murder indictment against Jones on Monday. He has been held there since he was charged with raping and murdering Lisa Nichols of Turnerville, Ala., on Sept. 18.
He also is charged with murder in the death of Amanda Greenwell, a 16-year-old neighbor of Jones in Douglasville, Ga., whose remains were found in April 2004, and Katherine Collins, a 45-year-old New Orleans woman whose body was found in February 2004.
The FBI issued a statement Tuesday saying "law enforcement lost an opportunity to prevent further criminal activity by this individual."
"The FBI regrets this incident," said Thomas Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Assistant Deputy Director Terry Gibbons said she was surprised to learn of the mistakes.
"It's very infrequent to have this sort of error with automatic fingerprint identification systems now in use," Gibbons said.
Last month, authorities in Forsyth County, Ga., northeast of Atlanta, said Jones had confessed to raping and killing Patrice Tamber Endres in April 2004 and dumping her body off a bridge. No body has been found and no charges have been filed in that case.
Since his arrest in Alabama, Jones has been questioned by authorities from several states, including Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri. Officials in those states as well as Florida and Kansas have contacted the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.
In northeastern Oklahoma, where Jones lived, officials have said he is a suspect in the slaying of a couple in Welch in 1999 and the disappearance of their daughter, 16, and a second teenager. Last month, authorities said Jones also was a "person of interest" in the March 1997 killing of an Oklahoma couple who were found slain across the state line in Kansas.
He also has been named a suspect in the 2002 stabbing death of a woman in Douglasville, Ga., where Jones also lived for several years, and in the case of an unidentified woman's torso found last summer near an Interstate 70 rest stop west of St. Louis.
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Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
