Third person charged with aiding ex-con accused of killing Tennessee family of four

Tennessee authorities on Monday charged a third person with helping a suspected murderer after he allegedly killed a family of four and then abandoned their baby in a rural corner of the state.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced charges against Dearrah Sanders, 23, with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder for allegedly aiding Austin Robert Drummond following the slayings of the baby girl’s parents, her maternal grandmother and her teenage uncle.

Drummond, a 28-year-old convicted felon, remains on the run nearly a week after the July 29 quadruple killing in Tiptonville.

Tanaka Brown and Giovantie Thomas, both 29, were also charged over the weekend with being accessories to the murder. The TBI has not detailed how any of the accessory suspects allegedly lent a hand to Drummond after his deadly encounter with the family.

Officials said further that Mr. Brown was charged with tampering with evidence. Mr. Thomas was already behind bars in Madison County on a failure to appear charge when the TBI accused him of accessory after the fact.

Authorities linked Drummond to the slayings after the baby girl was left alive in a car seat by a random Dyer County home, nearly 40 miles away from the crime scene.

The Dyer County Sheriff’s Office said they originally sought to question the girl’s parents, James Matthew Wilson, 21, and Adrianna Williams, 20. But authorities later found the couple dead, alongside the baby’s 38-year-old grandmother, Cortney Rose, and 15-year-old uncle, Braydon Williams.

Police haven’t described how the four victims were killed. Drummond faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and weapons-related offenses in the slayings.

The TBI and U.S. Marshals are offering a combined reward of $27,500 for information on the whereabouts of Drummond.

The Dyer County Sheriff’s Office described Drummond as a 5-foot-10 White man who weighs 190 pounds. He has brown hair, blue eyes and a goatee, although authorities said he may have changed his appearance.

Court records show Drummond spent more than a decade behind bars after being convicted for a 2013 armed robbery, and received additional time for threatening jurors and victims post-trial.

District Attorney Jody Pickens, who put Drummond in prison for the gunpoint stickup, wrote a letter in 2020 opposing the convict’s early release.

“Austin Drummond is a dangerous felony offender and a confirmed member of the Vice Lords,” Mr. Pickens wrote to the parole board, referencing the powerful gang that originated in Chicago. The letter was obtained by WHBQ.

Drummond picked up an attempted murder charge in prison as well, but was able to bond out last September.

WHBQ reported that Kaitlyn Speed, sister of victim Cortney Rose, was a corrections officer at the same facility where Drummond served his time. Family members told the station Ms. Speed and Drummond were in a relationship.