[May 23, 2013] Authorities questioning person of interest in triple homicide Tweet May 23, 2013 (The Macon Telegraph - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Appling Middle School Principal Steve Jones is mourning the deaths of his parents and younger brother in a homicide near Augusta, according to a Bibb County school system email. A person of interest was being questioned late Wednesday after three bodies were found burning in the woods when firefighters arrived about noon Tuesday near a new subdivision in Hephzibah, Richmond County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Calvin Chew said. Chew said no charges had been filed. Autopsies were not complete, Chew said, and authorities are not able to confirm the identities of the victims. Earlier Wednesday, Chew said firefighters extinguishing the blaze discovered the victims off Mickey Court, although the road signs are not even up in the new development. "Whoever disposed of the bodies apparently set them on fire," Chew said. The sheriff's office also got a call Tuesday evening to check on the welfare of people living at 3729 Pinnacle Place Drive in Hephzibah, listed online as the residence of Roosevelt Jones, the Macon principal's father. "When we made arrival, we believe it's a secondary crime scene involved in the discovery of the bodies," Chew said in a phone interview with The Telegraph on Wednesday morning. Chew could not confirm the address belongs to the Jones family as he is awaiting confirmation of the identities from Wednesday morning autopsies at the GBI Crime Lab in Augusta. Chew did say the bodies belonged to two adult black males and an adult black female. Acting Bibb schools Superintendent Susanne Griffin-Ziebart issued a statement to school administrators Wednesday morning. "I spoke with Steve this morning and he has indicated that the investigation is ongoing and that the family has not yet received the final report from investigating authorities," the statement read. "As you can imagine, the loss is beyond devastating for the family." Griffin-Ziebart asked that the school district respect the family's need for privacy and she asked that staff keep Jones and his wife, Danielle, and their family in their thoughts and prayers. A woman who answered an earlier phone inquiry to Appling Middle School on Shurling Drive said, "We can just pray," as she referred The Telegraph to the district's communications department. According to the Augusta Chronicle, neighbors said they had not seen Edna and Roosevelt Jones or their son Russell all day Tuesday. Cynthia Daly, who lives nearby on Pinnacle Way, told the Chronicle that Roosevelt Jones had once taught at Paine College before joining the faculty at Tutt Middle School. Edna Jones had retired from teaching at Jamestown Elementary School, where Daly has worked as a teaching assistant for 20 years. "She was working at Jamestown when I started there," Daly told the Chronicle, which was interviewing nearby neighbors Tuesday evening. Daly's next door neighbor told the Chronicle she asked if police thought Jones was OK, and they said, "No." The Chronicle also reported three vehicles at the home were towed to the sheriff's office on Walton Way. Terrence Everett, 21, one of the many neighbors who came by the Jones home Tuesday evening, told the Chronicle he was worried about his friend Russell, the younger of the Jones' two sons. Everett said he and Russell Jones knew each other from Hephzibah High School, and that Russell was a sophomore at Fort Valley State University. "I'm just preparing myself for the worst," he said. Information from The Augusta Chronicle contributed to this report. ___ (c)2013 The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.) Visit The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.) at www.macon.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]