On the fateful evening of March 30, 2008, Doris Jones returned from work to a horrifying discovery: her son had been savagely murdered in their living room.
Gary Jones was gruesomely found with a green towel wound around his head, tied to a chair, while a bloody hammer and knife were ominously strewn nearby.
Adding to the nightmare, disturbing messages had been eerily scribbled on the walls, marking a chilling aspect of the case later detailed on Oxygen’s The Real Murders of Atlanta.
However, it was a seemingly innocuous detail—a folded load of laundry noticed by Doris days prior—that would lead detectives to piece together the puzzle and unmask the unexpected perpetrator.
What Happened to Gary Jones?
For months, life was peaceful for Doris and Gary in their Covington, Georgia home. Yet, this tranquility was shattered on the night Doris returned from work after 11 p.m. to find her world irrevocably changed.
“As I was walking up to the door, the TV was so loud,” she remembered. “That was kind of strange.”
But she didn’t suspect anything unusual until she walked inside and discovered their living room “just torn up” and her 28-year-old son dead on the floor in a pool of blood.
Terrified that the attacker could still be in the house, Doris backed out of the home and called 911.
As former Newton County Sheriff’s Office detective Jason Griffin remarked, “The crime scene was probably one of the most violent homicide scenes I’ve seen in my 24 year career.”
Blood was spattered on the walls and floor and Gary lay badly beaten, still tied to the chair.
“There was a lot of blood evidence,” former Newton County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Bill Watterson said. “This was an up close and personal crime that occurred.”
Detectives Find Chilling Clues at Gary Jones’ Crime Scene
According to Watterson, the attacker had used a bloody hammer to strike Gary in the head.
“The total residence was in disarray,” Griffin added. “It appeared to us that somebody may have been looking for something and went through every drawer, every closet, tossing things about the residence.”
Investigators found blood spatter in front of Gary’s bedroom, and noted signs of a struggle inside the room, leading them to believe that’s where the attack may have begun.
There was also a broken window on a back door that could have signaled the intruder’s point of entry.
“We still don’t know is this a robbery?” former Newton County Detective James Fountain wondered. “Did he come home and surprise someone burglarizing his home? But we couldn’t determine that anything was stolen.”
In the home’s stairwell, they found disturbing messages written on the wall, including phrases like “$25,000” “dead in 20 days” “ATL MOB,” along with strange symbols.
Watterson remarked, “This was our first key piece of evidence of who did this.”
Investigators forwarded photos of the messages to multiple gang units to see if they recognized any of the symbols or writing.
Who Was Gary Jones?
But those who knew Gary didn’t believe he had any gang ties.
“None of the messages made any sense to me,” Doris said. “I was petrified.”
Gary had been a straight-laced kid who avoided drugs and alcohol and was actively involved in his church. Once a talented boxer, Gary had also served as a corrections officer and was planning to become a sheriff’s deputy before his death.
“Everybody adored him,” his aunt Aretha Sampson recalled. “He had a way of making each individual that he met, making them feel special. I mean, this kid was just an all together good guy.”
Given Gary’s clean-cut reputation, detectives began to suspect that the messages may have been written to mislead investigators.
Folded Laundry, Love Letter Provide Clues to Gary Jones’ Death
Detectives learned that on the last day of his life, Gary had attended church with his girlfriend Shanika, known as Sunshine, until about 1:30 p.m. that afternoon.
He had gone home to change his clothes before he planned to meet back up with her later that afternoon. Yet, she never heard from Gary again. Concerned, Sunshine called Doris, who was also unable to reach her son.
Investigators looked into Gary’s past, but were unable to find anyone who would have wanted to harm the 28-year-old.
Then, Doris remembered something strange that happened just two days before her son died. Someone had broken into the house and folded her laundry.
“It was very confusing to me, cause I knew Gary wouldn’t touch my clothes,” Doris explained. “They were just sat there, as soon as I opened up the door, for me to see them.”
The detail struck detectives as a red flag but they were unable to make sense of the clue until the next day when Doris called, saying she’d found a strange letter in the mail from her ex-fiancé Rodney Young, who still lived in New Jersey.
“It was strange because we had broken up,” Doris said. “And I wasn’t calling him. We didn’t have any communication.”
In the letter, Rodney professed his love, writing, “Doris I really miss you and want to be with you for the rest of are’s (sic) lives.”
Doris described her relationship with Rodney as difficult, telling authorities that he’d once put a brick through her car. She’d finally cut off their engagement and moved to Georgia to live with her son a few months earlier.
“In any investigation, you have a turning point,” Watterson said, “and as the information was progressing about Rodney Young, we had finally established a suspect.”
Cell Phone Records Place Rodney Young in Georgia During Gary Jones’ Murder
Investigators also learned that the day Gary was killed a tipster reported being approached by a Black male, driving a red sedan with New Jersey license plates who asked for directions to Benedict Drive, the street where Gary was killed.
The tipster recognized Rodney as the person he’d spoken to that day.
Detectives went to New Jersey to speak with Rodney, who had noticeable cuts on his hands. Although he insisted he had never been to Georgia, his boss said he’d asked for two days off and borrowed a GPS device for a trip. Cell phone records also placed Rodney in Covington at the time of the murder.
During a search of his home, authorities also found Gary’s cell phone.
Investigators believed they had their killer.
“Rodney was still in love with Doris and still wanted to have a relationship with her, and I think that’s what the whole motive was,” Watterson said. “Just to try to scare her to get her to come back to him.”
Though Rodney never spoke to his motive, investigators concluded that Rodney had likely come into town a few days before the murder to scope out the house. They believed he had broken in and folded the laundry to try to unnerve Doris.
Then, Fountain theorized that he returned to kill Gary, eliminating “her only tie to Covington.”
In Fountain’s view, “This was a homicide committed simply to get Doris Jones back in Rodney Young’s life.”
Detectives concluded that he tried to cover his tracks by writing those messages on the wall meant to scare Doris into moving back to New Jersey.
Where is Rodney Young Today?
Rodney was arrested for murder on April 3, 2008.
“I felt some relief,” Doris said. “But then, it also bothered me because, like I said, I was the one who introduced this man to my son.”
She added that she was “really traumatized” by learning her ex had taken her son’s life.
In 2012, Rodney was convicted and sentenced to death. He remains on death row.
“I think its very deserving in this case,” Griffin remarked. “If there’s ever a monster out there that deserves to be put to death, Rodney Young is that guy.”
