Police are searching for a 22-year-old man suspected of stabbing his father and grandfather to death at a Decatur home [at 41 Village Court]. According to news reports, police said the younger Jordan was last
seen traveling in a green 2001 Nissan Altima with Georgia license plate
4484 AMR. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Decatur police are
investigating the Sunday killing, Decatur Police Chief Mike Booker told
WSB-TV. He declined to release the names of the victims, but said the
suspect's name is Miller Jordan III. A Decatur police spokeswoman declined to discuss the details of the case when reached by phone early Monday morning. Clarke County school officials identified one of the victims at
Miller Jordan Jr., assistant principal at Clarke Central High School (see photo in continuation),
the Athens Banner-Herald reported. Miller lived in Decatur with his three children and wife, Gale
Jordan, an assistant principal at Kennedy Elementary School in Barrow
County. School officials say they were notified of the killing Sunday
evening but had few details other than that. "It's just been a tremendous shock," Clarke Central Principal Maxine Easom told the Banner-Herald. "It's really unbelievable." A follow-up AJC report [see continuation] indicates the suspect suffered from mental illnesses well known by local authorities. AP via AJC|2007DEC31 WSB TV WSB Radio 11Alive News Online Athens UPDATE: The suspect was apprehended in Alabama Monday night. See this inDECATUR post for details. Incorporated Decatur was doing so well in terms of murders in 2007. Can't remember ANY earlier this year, but there might have been one or even several. This occurred in a relatively new development containing large homes.
Police said the suspect hadn't lived at home for a couple of years,
and he'd had scrapes with the law in the past. They also said they'd
responded to the home when the Jordans had domestic difficulties with
their son.
See 12/31 AJC upadate and aerial image in continuation
Published on: 12/31/07 by AJC:
Miller William Jordan III stood in a DeKalb County courtroom in March and agreed with a judge who told him how lucky he was to have parents who stood by him even though he had burglarized their house repeatedly during years of mental illness, which he made worse by smoking marijuana rather than taking his prescribed drugs.
A court transcript shows Jordan's father, Miller Jordan Jr., had told prosecutors he wanted to drop a burglary charge against his son and again enroll him in a mental health treatment program. "Do you think that's the best thing for your future?" Superior Court Judge Gail Flake asked the defendant. "Yes, ma'am. I'm tired of coming to jail. I don't want this anymore," Jordan replied. The youngest Jordan entered a mental health treatment facility, but it isn't clear how long he stayed.
Less than 10 months later, the 22-year-old man is wanted for murder, accused of stabbing to death both his father and grandfather at his parents' home. Decatur police said they suspect Jordan stabbed Miller Jordan Sr. and Miller Jordan Jr. about 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the trim brick house on a quiet cul-de-sac near downtown Decatur. No motive was immediately given, but Jordan had been charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, burglary, rape and child molestation over the past five years, court records show. "We have dealt with him on domestic disturbances and also burglary complaints at (the family's) house and other locations," said J.K. Lee, assistant police chief for the city of Decatur.
The department is investigating the murders with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The court records show most of the charges were dropped, but Jordan pleaded guilty to a 2004 burglary and was sentenced to 90 days in jail plus probation. His probation later was revoked after he was arrested again for burglarizing his parents' home in September 2006. He served about six months in jail, records indicate, and was released last March after the hearing in Superior Court where his parents had the charges dropped.
Jordan's father, who was 57, was an assistant principal at Clarke Central High School in Athens. Maxine Easom, principal at Clarke Central, called Miller Jordan Jr. "a wonderful and fine man," according to the Athens Banner-Herald. "He's somebody we depended on and he was always very caring and sensitive when dealing with kids," she said.
His wife, Gale Jordan, is an assistant principal at Kennedy Elementary School in Barrow County. She and the couple's two daughters discovered the bodies, police said. The mother and children were not at the home at the time of the killings, police said. Police believe Miller Jordan III fled in his father's car, a green 2001 Nissan Altima with Georgia tags 4484 AMR.
A Georgia native, Jordan dropped out of Decatur High School in 2003, according to court records. He had been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. "When the defendant fails to take his medicine," defense attorney Richard Green III wrote in a court filing, "it often results in negative consequences, including hallucinations, paranoia, extreme agitation and physical sickness." Jordan had not lived with his family for several years, Lee said. Before his September 2006 arrest, he was living in an extended-stay motel, defense lawyer Green told the judge in the March court hearing. Green said
Jordan was living without a car or other frills and walking to work at a Wendy's restaurant in Decatur. Miller Jordan III had attempted suicide in jail and been rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital "on more than one occasion," Green wrote. "The defendant is not a threat to anyone but himself," the lawyer wrote. "His parents have done what they could to provide him a good home and also to provide him good treatment medically," Green told the judge in March. But he said Jordan had fallen into a cycle afflicting many mentally ill patients who improve with medication only to stop taking it until their worsening behavior again gets them into trouble and court-ordered treatment. "In his situation, that trouble generally has to do with smoking marijuana," Green said.
he judge then asked Jordan to step to the podium and told him, "You're very fortunate that you've got parents that support you ... if you didn't have them, you probably would not be as healthy as you are today and wouldn't have the treatment available to you." Jordan answered, "Yes, ma'am," according to the transcript. Shortly after his release in March, Jordan was living at Open Arms Outreach Ministries in Atlanta. An official there described him in a letter as "a high-energy self-starter" and "very personable." The letter said, "He is making a sincere effort to change his life and become a responsible member of society."
There is no indication in the court file when Jordan left the Open Arms facility. On Monday, law enforcement agents were searching residential motels near Lawrenceville Highway around I-285 where Jordan had been known to stay.
The Decatur Square is only a few blocks to the NW (just off the left of this aerial image):
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