KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The wife of a Kansas bail bondsman charged with abusing his missing 7-year-old son said she feared her husband was plotting to kill her and the other children living in the home.
In interviews with The Associated Press, Heather Jones alleged that her husband, Michael A. Jones, abused her and the boy, Adrian, who is now missing, and was armed with several assault weapons when he was arrested.
The remains of a juvenile were found at a barn on the property when police went there last week to investigate a domestic disturbance. Six girls from age 10 to less than 2 were taken from the home and are in state custody.
"He was coming to the house to kill me and the girls," Heather Jones told the AP on Thursday. "He was going to end it all today because I found out about Adrian. That's what he said."
Spokesmen for the Kansas City, Kansas, police department and the Wyandotte County district attorney's office said Friday they could not comment on the case because the investigation in ongoing. The state Insurance Department said this week it was suspending Michael Jones' bail bondsman license while the case was pending.
Michael Jones, 44, was charged Monday with child abuse, aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a firearm. No charges have been filed in connection with the child's disappearance or with the discovery of the human remains. He was being held on $10 million bond.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome A. Gorman has declined to address reports that the juvenile's remains were fed to the family's pigs but has said investigators described the scene "as one of the worst things that they have ever seen." He said the discovery of the human remains launched the "much larger investigation."
The child abuse charge against Michael Jones, described as "torturing or cruelly beating," indicates authorities believe the boy was abused between May 1 and Sept. 28. The battery charge involved an alleged assault of Heather Jones.
Michael Jones had no listed attorney. He's scheduled for a court appearance Tuesday. His father, Jerome Jones, of Baltimore, said his son is a "caring and outstanding person" who wouldn't hurt a child.
Lenore Walker, a forensic psychologist and professor at Nova Southeastern University in south Florida, said she was not familiar with the Jones case, but said domestic violence situations can be "almost impossible to leave safely."
Women, however, do manage to leave abusive situations, said David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center. He also said when someone is facing a possible criminal charge they may claim battered woman as a defense. He said the fact that Heather Jones doesn't have custody of her children signals how state child protection officials feel about her parenting skills.
"They obviously think that even on her own she's not capable of protecting her kids," he said.
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