A manhunt continued in Tennessee on Friday for a suspect who the authorities said killed four members of a family and abandoned the infant daughter of two of the victims in a yard some 40 miles away.
The man, Austin Robert Drummond, 28, faces four counts of first-degree murder and other charges, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
Investigators did not say how the four victims, whose bodies were discovered on Tuesday in Tiptonville, Tenn., in the northwestern part of the state, had been killed or elaborate on a motive, but confirmed that they had been targeted and had a family connection to Mr. Drummond.
As of Friday afternoon, Mr. Drummond, an ex-convict who had served time in prison for armed robbery, was still at large.
The authorities were offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the capture of Mr. Drummond, whose white 2016 Audi A3 was discovered on Friday about 75 miles southeast from the murder scene on a dead-end street in Jackson, Tenn.
Mr. Drummond was still believed to be in the area, according to law enforcement officials, who advised people to keep their doors locked.
“He is considered armed and dangerous,” David B. Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said at a news conference on Friday in Jackson.
The case began to unfold just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, when a caller informed the authorities that a minivan or sport-utility vehicle had dropped a baby in a car seat in a front yard near the community of Tigrett, Tenn., the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office said.
By 5:10 p.m., the authorities had identified the baby and were searching for three family members, whom they named as Matthew Wilson, Adrianna Williams and Cortney Rose.
Shortly after, the three were confirmed dead.
In a separate post two days later, the sheriff’s office confirmed the deaths of Mr. Wilson, 21, Ms. Williams, 20, Ms. Rose, 38, as well as that of Braydon Williams, 15, who they said had been found murdered on Tuesday in the small lakeside community of Tiptonville.
Mr. Wilson and Ms. Williams were the parents of the baby, the authorities said. Ms. Rose was the baby’s grandmother, and Mr. Williams the uncle, the district attorney’s office said.
The authorities said the killings had taken place along Carrington Road in Tiptonville, which has less than 3,500 people in far northwestern Tennessee.
They described Mr. Drummond as 5 feet 10 inches, with brown hair, blue eyes and a goatee. He was added to Tennessee’s Most Wanted list.
Mr. Drummond is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and various firearms charges.
Mr. Drummond previously was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Tennessee and was released in September 2024, according to state records.
He was convicted in 2014 of armed robbery of a convenience store in Jackson, Tenn., according to local media reports.
At the news conference on Friday, Danny Goodman Jr., the district attorney for Dyer and Lake Counties, Tenn., where the baby was abandoned and the victims were murdered, said that Mr. Drummond had also been indicted on drug charges and attempted murder while in prison.
Those cases are still pending, and he had been free on bond at the time of this week’s quadruple murder, Mr. Goodman said. It was not clear if Mr. Drummond had a lawyer.
Mr. Rausch, who oversees the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, pleaded on Friday with Mr. Drummond to turn himself in. He said that Mr. Drummond had shown a measure of compassion by leaving the baby for people to find.
“So we’re appealing to that piece,” Mr. Rausch said, “as inhumane as the situation is.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories for The Times.
Livia Albeck-Ripka is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering breaking news, California and other subjects.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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