Fugitive Admits Killing Mom: 'Worst Scream I've Ever Heard'

Multistate manhunt is on for Tennessee's Casey Lawhorn, who also confessed to killing best friend
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2018 8:44 AM CDT

A multistate manhunt for a Tennessee man is underway after he allegedly confessed via Facebook that he'd killed his mother and best friend. The New York Daily News reports Casey Lawhorn, 22 or 23, said Sunday in the now-deleted post that he used a stolen gun early that morning to first shoot his friend, identified as Avery Gaines, 22, as he slept, then his own mother, Vi Lawhorn, whom he described as being too drunk to realize what was happening, USA Today reports. Per WTVC, police who arrived at the East Ridge home where the crime took place (Lawhorn called 911 before fleeing) found two bodies, later identified as Gaines and Lawhorn's mother. "She started screaming the worst scream I've ever heard," Lawhorn wrote in the post about shooting his mom. "Movies really don't do justice to how true terror sounds."

East Ridge Police Assistant Chief Stan Allen tells ABC News the Facebook post—part of which can be seen in a Twitter screenshot via the Jasper County News—appears to be authentic, as details sync up to what cops found at the crime scene. By 7pm Sunday, police in Jasper County, Miss., say they'd found the 2002 Ford Taurus that Lawhorn was driving abandoned on I59 near the Vossburg exit, and they're warning locals Lawhorn is "armed" and "very dangerous." In the post, Lawhorn says he was having issues at college and was suicidal, and he implored anyone reading it to look after his younger brother. He says his car broke down on the I59, after which he apparently made the Facebook post. "What I look forward to is the nothingness after death," he wrote. "I've spent a lot of time thinking about murder, wondering what it feels like. But I've barely felt anything." (More manhunt stories.)

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