Gordon County sheriffs begin internal investigation

<p>An internal investigation is being launched into the Gordon County sheriffs deputies response to the Jan. 7 murders of four people in Ranger, a top sheriffs official said Thursday.</p><p>Chief of Detectives Mike Garigan, who is heading the murder investigation, said he did not know who would handle the internal inquiry.</p><p>More than eight hours passed between the time a family member first called 911 to report her ex-boyfriend had killed someone and the time the bodies were found.</p><p>Sheriffs deputies went to the two mobile homes in Ranger twice on Jan. 7 after being notified about 3 p.m. by Melissa Peeler, whose mother and 10-month-old daughter were among the dead.</p><p>On the first trip, the deputies reported not seeing anything and left. They did not enter the homes. Only when Peeler reached a sheriffs captain about 10:30 p.m. did deputies enter the homes and begin finding the bodies.</p><p>Murder suspect Jerry Jones, 31, also is accused of abducting three of Peelers children _ ages 3, 4 and 10 _ and was on the run for nearly 28 hours before crashing his car just over the state line in Tennessee during a police chase. The children were not physically harmed.</p><p>Jones shot himself once in the face as the chase ended and was in a Chattanooga hospital until Wednesday, when he agreed to return to a state prison medical ward in Augusta.</p><p>Jones, Peelers partner for six years, is the father of the 3- and 4-year-old and the infant who was killed.</p><p>When deputies entered the Blaylock homes on Pack Road in Ranger at 11:26 p.m. they found the body of Peelers mother, Nola Blaylock, 61, who had been shot to death, in the bedroom of one home. They also found the strangled body of Jerri Georgia Jones, Peelers infant daughter.</p><p>The body of Peelers half-sister, Georgia Bradley, 34, was found in her adjacent trailer, bound with duct tape and covered with clothes inside a closet. The body of Tommy Gene Blaylock, 60, was later found behind Bradleys trailer.</p><p>Sheriff Jerry Davis was unavailable for comment on Thursday. On Wednesday, he defended the actions of the deputies assigned to the initial call.</p>