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Suspect in Missing Mississippi Family Case Leads Investigators to Bodies

 Jackson, Miss., man has been arrested in the deaths of a Brandon, Miss., mother, her young son and her husband. The family had vanished without a trace after a car wreck over the weekend.

The bodies  of Atira Hill, 30, her 7-year-old son, Jaidon, and her husband, Laterry Smith, 34, were found this morning, a relative told ABCNews.com.

Timothy Lydell Burns, 42, of Jackson, Miss., was arrested today, Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones told ABC’s Jackson, Miss., affiliate WAPT-TV.

The family members had last been seen driving in their car on Friday, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said in a statement.

Their abandoned, smoldering, tan Dodge SUV was found upside down in a ditch in Hermanville, Miss., Saturday morning, Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones told ABCNews.com Monday, but the family had not been seen or heard from since Friday.

Burns led investigators to an old home near the rural area where the family’s overturned car had been found. Inside the home, law enforcement officials found the bodies of the three family members, who had all been shot, WAPT-TV reported.

It is unclear if there is a connection between Burns and the family.

Copiah County Coroner Ellis Stuart told ABCNews.com that the family’s bodies were sent to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office in Jackson, where an autopsy will take place this afternoon.

Stuart confirmed the bodies appeared to have gunshot wounds, but declined to say where the mother, her son and her husband had been shot.

Penny King, who is a relative of Atira Hill, told ABCNews.com this morning that the family was found dead but that she didn’t “know all the particulars yet.”

Officer Colendula Green, a spokeswoman for the Jackson Police Department, told ABCNews.com that three bodies were found early this morning but declined to comment further.

May they all rest in Peace