Jerry Scott Heidler:20 year old quadruple murderer in Santa Claus,GA:a detailed update
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Here are a whole bunch of interesting articles concerning Jerry Scott
Heidler, the 20 year old fellow who broke into a residential foster home in the
town of Santa Claus, Georgia, very early Thursday morning, and proceeded to go
on a killing rampage, slaughtering Danny and Kim Daniels, along with two of
their children, aged 16 and 8, then kidnapping three other children from the
home, before later releasing them unharmed.
In the below articles we learn a LOT of details about Jerry, although the
exact motive for his rampage is still not fully clear. First of all, in case
any of you have not seen a photo of Jerry in your local print newspapers, you
can go to the following URL address:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/1997/12/05/four_dead.html
At the above address you will find a rather clear photo of Jerry, which was
taken sometime on Thursday or Friday, after his arrest. He looks quite calm and
composed, arms folded over his chest, and a nice full head of hair, as you
might expect a 20 year old to have.
We learn below that Wednesday was the fifth wedding anniversary for Danny and
Kim. They celebrated quietly at home, with their SEVEN children, 3 of them
foster kids, before going to bed. Just a few hours later,in the wee hours of
Thursday morning, Jerry broke into the house and slaughtered Danny & Kim, along
with two of the seven kids, as they slept.
There is some speculation that Jerry might have had a crush or love obsession
with 16 year old Jessica, one of the two children that he killed. There is also
speculation that Jerry may have been very upset by the stillbirth of a child
that a woman named Marie Spivey had on Saturday. It is POSSIBLE, although
unconfirmed, that Jerry may have been the father of this stillborn child.
Although there appears to be NO connection between Marie Spivey and this
residential foster home.
Jerry continues to tell police "I don't know why I did it." The Sheriff is
quoted as saying that Jerry "Slept like a baby", the night after his arrest,
and has demonstrated absolutely no remorse whatsoever.
We do know that Jerry has involved in a relationship with a woman named Marie
Spivey. They had a two year old son, and apparently were living together. On
Saturday, Marie gave birth to a STILLBORN baby. Also on Saturday, Jerry wrote a
POEM, it's not clear if he wrote it befpre or after the stillbirth occured. The
poem, in full, is printed below, in one of the articles. Marie tells us that
Jerry TOLD her to read the poem to him, aloud, at least once a day. What type
of significance it held for Jerry, is not clear. But it was obviously a poem
that spoke from the depths ofhis soul, as evidenced by the fact that he wrote
it himself, and then asked his girlfriend/lover to repeatedly read it aloud to
him, in the days prior to his killing rampage early Thursday morning.
Jerry's aunt tells us that indeed had been in and out of various foster homes
throughout his childhood. She also states that Jerry had a drug problem and was
committed to a mental hospital two years ago, after he tried to commit suicide.
He was arrested by police at the home of his biological mother, where he had
gone after abandoning the three children that he kidnapped. It's not known why
he went to his mother's house, or what he may have said to her before police
arrived. Jerry did not resist arrest with any degree of force.
The wife of the local church pastor tells us that the Dainelses did bring
jerry to church several times, but not anytime recently. And that Jerry was
always "Very withdrawn. The only times he talked was when you talked to him".
So, all in all, we do learn quite a lot of new information in the below news
articles. But the exact motivation of Jerry, and why he chose to target this
house and to kill Danny & Kim Daniels and two of their children, is still not
at all clear. But so be it, it is not FAIR of me to insist upon finding ANY
"motive". Jerry obviously felt that he had a good reason to do what he did, and
to target the people that he did, and I respect his True Reality right to have
acted as he did. He does not owe anyone any explanation.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 12/7/97 online edition of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitition newspaper:
'Sheltered in the arm of God'
By Jingle Davis and Mark Bixler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Santa Claus, Ga. -- The slaying of four members of a family who tried to keep
Christmas all year long has uncovered depths of misery dark enough to
overshadow every icon of the stereotypical Southern Gothic.
The Danielses, evidently, died for the sins of others.
Kim Daniels, 33, who became a foster child after seeing her father killed, lost
her own children to state custody while a teenager. She lived in her little
car, deep into drugs and alcohol, until she met Danny Daniels, 47. Married to
the gentle letter carrier, she fought off her problems, got her children back
and devoted her life to her church and to children -- her own and others who
needed love.
On Wednesday, she and Danny celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary. In
their comfortable brick house at the foot of Dasher Road there were seven
children -- Danny's adopted daughter, Jessica, 16; Kim's three children, Amber,
12, and 8-year-old twins Brooke and Bryant; and three foster children, Amanda,
9, Corey, 4, and Gabriel, 10 months.
And then, police say, a few hours after they went to bed, one of Kim's many
efforts at salvation came back not to haunt them, but to kill them.
His name is Scott Heidler, and he is 20 years old. To the Daniels family, he
was Scott Taylor.
No one -- not his mother or his half sister or his own foster family or the
mother of his child -- seems to know what lurks in his heart.
He has been charged with murdering Danny and Kim and Jessica and Bryant in
their sleep and forcing Amber, Amanda and Brooke into a stolen van and dumping
them on a dirt road some 50 miles away. The infant Gabriel was left crying in
his bed, and the terrified Corey hid under a table in the blood-spattered
house.
No one can imagine why.
Some suggest it was, somehow, connected to unrequited love for Jessica. Others
say it perhaps was triggered by the stillbirth on Saturday of Marie Spivey's
second child, which may or may not have been Heidler's.
Scott Heidler himself says "he doesn't know why he did it," according to Toombs
County Sheriff Charles Durst.
"He has no remorse," the sheriff said Friday. "He slept like a baby last
night."
Few others who knew the Danielses did. "There's a lot of sorrow, a lot of
grief" in Toombs County, Durst said.
Heidler was being held in jail Friday. His first court appearance is scheduled
for Monday. Also on Friday, a dive team was searching the Altamaha River for
the gun that is believed to have been used in the killings. Police said Heidler
allegedly threw the weapon off a bridge on U.S. 1.
---------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/6/97 online edition of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution newspaper:
'Sheltered safe in arms of God'
By the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Murder suspect Scott Heidler wrote this poem last Saturday, said Maria Spivey,
the mother of Heidler's 2-year-old son, Joshua. She said Heidler had her read
it to him at least once daily. The last time was the day before a couple and
two of their children were found dead at their home in Santa Claus, Ga. The
poem, as he wrote it on a sheet of ruled notebook paper:
I feel the touch of hands so kind and
tender. They're leading me in the paths that I
must trod. I'll have no fear for Jesus walks
beside me. And I'm sheltered in the arm of God
so let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise.
They won't worry me for I'm sheltered safe
in the arms of God. He walks with me and
naught of earth shall harm me for
I'm sheltered in the arms of God.
Soon I shall hear the call from Heavens
portal, "Come home, my child, it's the last mile
you'll have to trod." I'll fall asleep and wake in
God's new Heaven. Sheltered safe within the arms of
God
P.S. What will you do for Jesus?
He's done so much for you
He gave his life, a ransom for sin
What will you do for Him?
Scott Heidler
--------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/6/97 online edition of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution newspaper:
Suspect "slept like a baby all night" and has shown no remorse, sheriff says.
By Jack Warner and Mark Bixler, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Santa Claus, Ga. -- Jerry Scott Heidler, the man accused of killing four
members of the family that tried to help him, says, "he doesn't know why he did
it," Toombs County Sheriff Charles Durst said today.
Heidler, returned to Lyons, about 7:30 p.m. Thursday night from Alma, where he
was arrested Thursday, "slept like a baby all night," the sheriff said. "No
remorse at all."
"I think he's plain crazy," said the 68-year-old Durst, who has been sheriff of
"bloody Toombs" for 21 years.
Durst said that Heidler's younger sister was a foster child in the home of
shooting victims Danny and Kim Daniels at one time -- he was not sure when --
and that several years ago, the Danielses took Heidler himself into their home
"trying to help him as a drug and alcohol addict. But he was not there long."
Toombs County, population 25,463, had 14 homicides last year, but the sheriff
said "there's never been anything like four homicides and three kidnappings in
one day. That doesn't happen very often anywhere."
Toombs County has borne the adjective "bloody" for decades, "long before I got
to be sheriff," Durst said. "I don't know where it came from."
Heidler, 20, was arrested at his mother's home in Alma seven hours after the
Daniels couple and two of their children -- Jessica, 16, and 8-year-old Bryant
-- were found shot to death in their home about 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
Three other children kidnapped from the home were later abandoned about45 miles
away in Alma.
Authorities said three of the dead family members were found in a single
bedroom in the Daniels' rural home and apparently had been shot as they slept.
The fourth body was found in a second bedroom. The killer had forced his way
into the house, said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation.
Two foster children escaped harm. Deputies found 10-month-old Gabriel in a crib
and 4-year-old Corey hiding under a kitchen table when they arrived early
Thursday, Bankhead said.
The three children who were kidnapped from the house -- Brooke Daniel, 8,
Bryant's twin; Amber Daniel, 12; and a 9-year-old foster daughter, Amanda --
were released before dawn and left to wander down an empty Bacon County road,
authorities said.
"A farmer that way, up mighty early, saw them walking on the side of the road,"
said Durst.
He took them immediately to the Bacon County Sheriff's Department in Alma.
Authorities in Alma quickly notified Toombs County authorities in Lyons of the
deaths.
The Daniels children were in the custody of the Department of Family and
Children Services on Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
Bankhead said the abandoned children told Bacon County sheriff's deputies they
had been kidnapped by "Scott Taylor."
He said GBI agents working with county law enforcement authorities learned
Thursday that Heidler, using the alias Scott Taylor, was acquainted with the
Daniels family, but he said authorities have established no motive for the
slayings. Heidler was not related to anyone in the house, he said.
Mary Lee Taylor, Heidler's aunt, said he had been in and out of foster homes
himself. She said that his half sister, JoAnn Mosley, had spent time in foster
care with the Danielses when she was younger.
Christy Wood, the wife of the family's pastor, said that the Danielses brought
the man they knew as Scott Taylor to their church, Mount Vernon Pentecostal,
several years ago. "He lived in Lyons, then," Wood said. "But not for long."
Bankhead said Heidler is wanted on a felony probation violation warrant, but he
did not know where the warrant was issued or for what crime Heidler was on
probation. As GBI agents, Alma police and Bacon County deputies converged on
Heidler's mother's home Thursday afternoon, "He [Heidler] stuck his head out of
the house, and they grabbed him," Bankhead said. He would not say whether a
weapon was recovered.
Law enforcement authorities said the slayings occurred sometime between 9:30
p.m. Wednesday and 5 a.m. Thursday. The bodies of the dead were to be taken to
the State Crime Laboratory at the GBI's headquarters in DeKalb County for
autopsies.
Toombs County District Attorney Rick Malone wouldn't say whether he will seek
the death penalty in the case. But, he said, "Four homicides certainly
qualifies as a death penalty case."
Stunned friends of the family in the tiny hamlet of 250 people, about 70 miles
west of Savannah, said Daniels was a rural mail carrier -- a quiet, introverted
man who taught Sunday school at Mount Vernon Pentecostal Church.
Kim Daniels became a foster parent several years ago because she had been a
foster child who once was shuffled among 13 foster homes in a single year,
according to her friends.
As a young adult, she struggled with drugs and alcohol and watched as her own
children were placed in foster care, said her friend Angie Wood, 29, a
convenience store clerk. But Kim Daniels sobered up, changed her life,
reclaimed her children from state custody and then, in turn, became a foster
parent, Wood said.
"She just wanted to make it up," she said.
"You don't find better people," said Lori Bargeron, another friend.
Jessica was Danny Daniels' daughter by an earlier marriage. Kim had three
children -- the twins, Brooke and Bryant, and Amber -- from a previous
marriage. Foster children Amanda and Corey had been with the Daniels family
about 3 1/2 years, said Christy Wood. Gabriel had been with them since birth,
she said.
Wood said the Daniels' life revolved around church and children. "They invited
a lot of people to church," she said. "They'd load them up in that van and
bring them to church."
She said they brought Heidler to church several times, but, "I haven't seen or
heard of him in a couple of years. He was very withdrawn. The only times he
talked was when you talked to him."
A thrifty shopper, Kim Daniels began Christmas shopping for her children in
July, said Angie Wood, Christy Wood's sister.
Bargeron remembered shopping trips to Savannah to buy as many as 200 Christmas
gifts for the seven children.
That's why the attic of the modest brick ranch with the green shutters on
Dasher Road just outside of Santa Claus was filled with presents when the
bodies were found Thursday, Angie Wood said.
In the attic, Kim Daniels had hidden toys, video games and movies for her
brood, Wood said, and already had shopped with her daughter Jessica, a junior
at Toombs County High School, for the clothes she would give her for Christmas.
She had begun decorating the house for Christmas. The family had already set up
the tree and had placed 50 to 60 presents around it.
"We were supposed to go wrap presents this morning," said Melinda Dixon, a
22-year-old housewife who also was a close friend of Kim Daniels.
At Christmas, "They always had the living room full of presents. . . . She was
that type of person -- Christmas stockings all over the house."
Christy Wood said two of her children stopped at the Danielses' house to visit
at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night. She said the children reported that the family's
two dogs, as usual, put up a commotion when their car appeared.
Bankhead said the dogs were not there Thursday afternoon. Christy Wood said her
two children, Rachel, 22, and Sheena, 11, may have been the last to see the
Danielses alive and were badly shaken. They reported that everything had seemed
normal at the house while they were there.
Late on Thursday, an armada of television satellite trucks and vans camped in a
sprawling pasture behind a four-strand barbed-wire fence separating it from the
Daniels home. Photographers with telephoto lenses lined the fence. Roughly two
dozen cars, most of them belonging to investigators, jammed the lane leading to
the home, set well back from Dasher Road.
-----------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 12/5/97 online edition of The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution newspaper:
20-year-old held in south Georgia slayings
By Jingle Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Santa Claus, Ga. -- The man charged with killing a married couple and two of
their children as they slept Thursday morning was well-known to the family. His
half sister had been in their foster care as a young girl, family members of
the suspect said.
Jerry Scott Heidler, 20, was arrested at his mother's home in nearby Alma about
seven hours after the bodies were discovered.
An intruder killed Danny and Kim Daniels, their 16-year-old daughter Jessica
and their 8-year-old son Bryant as they slept, authorities said. Deputies found
two foster children, 10 months and 4 years old, unharmed inside the home.
Three other children were taken from the home, including a foster child, and
abandoned about 40 miles away, police said.
Heidler and his half sister, JoAnn Mosley, had been in foster care for a time
growing up, said Heidler's aunt, Mary Lee Taylor.
She was unable to say when Mosley lived with the Daniels family and Mosley
could not be reached for comment.
Taylor said Heidler had a drug problem and was committed to Georgia Regional
Hospital in Savannah two years ago after a suicide attempt.
"Scottie was out of control for a long time," said Taylor. "He wanted to kill
himself. He took a bunch of pills. He told his mom, over and over, he wanted to
be dead.
"If Scott did this, he was doped up on some kind of drugs. But I don't believe
he did it," she said.
Police say he did.
The killing happened before dawn at a one-story brick house on Dasher Street in
this town of 250 people about 70 miles west of Savannah in southeast Georgia.
Heidler was charged with four counts of murder, three counts of kidnapping and
one count of burglary, said Toombs County Sheriff Charles Durst.
Durst said the kidnapped children were dropped off on the side of a road in
Bacon County, two counties to the south. A farmer who found them called local
authorities, who alerted olice in Toombs County. The bodies were discovered
when deputies then went to the Daniels home, the sheriff said.
Sylvia Dennis, spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Children Services
in Toombs County, told the Associated Press the slain couple had been foster
parents since 1995.
"They opened the doors of their home to probably 15, 16 children," she said.
"We have contact with them weekly," she said. "We had no worry about their
safety."
Heidler's mother, Latrelle Mosley, said Heidler and his girlfriend have a
3-year-old son and that the girlfriend lost their second child two days ago
when the baby boy was stillborn.
Robotclaw
<<<Toombs County, population 25,463, had 14 homicides last year,>>>>
That's quite a few. I live in Santa Fe, NM, population about 60,000 and we
normally get 2-4 homicides in a year. A couple of times in the past 20 years or
so we had 10 homicides and that seemed like a lot to us.
SWT
Check my web site:
http://members.aol.com/bluespud/