Tennessee’s Nashville.According to court documents, the guy wanted in the deaths of the parents, grandmother, and uncle of a baby discovered alive in a yard over thirty miles away in northwest Tennessee had served years in jail for robbing a convenience store when he was sixteen and threatening to attack jurors.
A reward of up to $15,000 is currently being offered by authorities for information that results in the arrest of Austin Robert Drummond, age 28. Drummond has been charged with four charges of first-degree murder, one act of aggravated kidnapping, and firearms violations, according to warrants acquired by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
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According to a social media post by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, authorities in Jackson, Tennessee, discovered an unoccupied vehicle on Friday that they believe Drummond was operating.
Officials stated that Drummond, who is on the TBI’s Most Wanted List, ought to be regarded as dangerous and armed. Questions concerning how the four were slain have not yet received a response from authorities.
For the robbery in Jackson, Tennessee in July 2013, Drummond was put on trial as an adult. According to court documents, he commanded the cash register to be unlocked and pointed a firearm at the gas station employee during the altercation, stealing the $44 inside.
Drummond said he was under the influence of Xanax the night of the heist and had no memory of robbing the gas station during a 2020 hearing where he was denied parole. It was a BB gun, he said.
“He threatened to go after jurors after the jury found him guilty of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014,” Drummond said at the parole hearing. In February 2015, he entered a guilty plea to 13 charges of retaliation for previous actions.
In a 2020 letter, Madison County district attorney Jody Pickens pushed against Drummond’s early release, calling him a dangerous criminal offender and a confirmed member of the street gang known as the Vice Lords.
According to Pickens, Drummond threatened the jurors and the crime victim over the phone with his father.
Through public records requests, the Associated Press was able to access documents and audio from the parole board session.
Drummond received a 13-year sentence in all. Records from the Tennessee Department of Correction show that his sentence completed in September 2024.
Drummond had more than two dozen disciplinary infractions in prison as of the 2020 parole hearing, including gang activity, assault, refusal to submit to a drug test, and possession of a lethal weapon. Drummond claimed he was nearly battered to death, which is why the assault and the allegations of lethal weaponry happened.
An infant in a car seat was discovered in a front yard in the Tigrett area on Tuesday afternoon, sparking the start of the investigation. According to a social media statement from the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office, a caller said that a minivan or mid-size SUV had left off the kid in the front yard of an unknown person, along with a picture showing the child in the arms of a paramedic.
Later that evening, after identifying the baby, the sheriff’s office announced that they were assisting investigators in nearby Lake County, where four bodies had been discovered.
The four individuals discovered deceased in Tiptonville on Wednesday were identified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as Braydon Williams, 15, James M. Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, and Cortney Rose, 38.
According to District Attorney Danny Goodman, Rose was the mother of Adrianna and Braydon Williams, while Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the infant’s parents. According to him, all four of the victims were residents of Dyer County.
Investigators began searching for the baby’s family as soon as they found him and soon discovered that the four relatives had not been seen since the previous evening, according to Goodman. Then, after discovering two cars in a distant location, a relative dialed 911. According to Goodman, the four remains were discovered in adjacent forests.
Goodman said that all four victims had been slain, but he would not explain how.
Although the baby’s name was not disclosed by the authorities, Wilson’s daughter, Weslynne Wilson, is listed as his surviving relative in his obituary.
A message seeking comment was not immediately answered by the lawyer who defended Drummond in his lawsuit as a teenager.
There was no telephone listing for Drummond.
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Sarah Brumfield, a reporter from Cockeysville, Maryland, provided a contribution.
