FBI database botched fingerprint check of suspected serial killer

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HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press

ATLANTA - The FBI says its computer database botched a fingerprint check on a suspected serial killer who is charged with two murders, one in Alabama and one in Georgia, that occurred after he was released because of the error.

Jeremy Bryan Jones, who also is charged with a third murder in Louisiana and is suspected of at least five others in three states, was arrested and jailed in January 2004 in Carroll County, Ga., on a trespassing charge. At the time, he was using the alias John Paul Chapman.

Local police fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the FBI under the name Chapman, but the FBI computer did not match the prints to Jones, who was wanted since 2000 in Oklahoma for sexual assault, the FBI said. As a result, Jones was released.

Jones is charged with killing a 16-year-old girl in Douglas County, Ga., who was reported missing in March 2004. He also is charged with raping and killing an Alabama woman in September 2004. It's not clear exactly when the Louisiana murder occurred; Katherine Collins was reported missing on Jan. 10, 2004, and her body was found the next month.

Jones, now held in Mobile, Ala., has been named a suspect in at least two other murders in Georgia, two in Oklahoma and one in Missouri. In one of the Georgia cases, police say Jones has confessed to killing a hairdresser in April 2004, but he has not been charged. The woman's body has not been found.

In a statement issued late Tuesday by FBI headquarters in Washington, the agency blamed a database error for the fingerprint mistake, adding that it was not a case of an examiner failing to make an appropriate match. The FBI said that only after the Alabama arrest did the agency realize that Jones was already in the database.

"Law enforcement lost an opportunity to prevent further criminal activity by this individual," the FBI statement said. Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, added in the statement, "The FBI regrets this incident."

An FBI review of the incident is still ongoing. A spokesman in Washington, Joe Parris, said Wednesday he could not elaborate beyond the statement.

In Georgia, Stan Copeland, chief deputy of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, said Wednesday the FBI computer also failed to match Jones' prints to the Oklahoma warrant when he was arrested in Douglas County on drug charges in June 2004. The FBI statement did not mention that incident.

Despite the mistakes, Copeland did not speak ill of the FBI.

"I've seen the system work much more than it has ever failed," Copeland said. He added, "Because whatever happened, the ball was dropped. Unfortunately, it was dropped with someone of the caliber of Jeremy Jones who may be a serial killer."

Since his arrest in Alabama, Jones has been questioned by authorities from several states, including Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri. Officials in those states as well as Florida and Kansas have contacted the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, where Jones is in jail, as they try to determine if he might be tied to unsolved murders in their states.

An Alabama prosecutor has said that investigators in California, Arkansas and Tennessee also have expressed interest in Jones in regards to unsolved murders in their jurisdictions.

Still, investigators are not sure exactly how many murders Jones may have committed beyond the three with which he is charged.

"If they knew for sure, they would be able to bring additional charges," said Christina Bowersox, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.