EAST RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — A fugitive who announced on social media that he had fatally shot his mother and a friend in Tennessee has apparently killed himself, authorities said after the man's body was found Monday in neighboring Mississippi.
Casey Lawhorn, 23, apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after allegedly shooting his mother Vi Lawhorn and friend Avery Gaines on Sunday in East Ridge, Tennessee, according to a statement from Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson. According to media reports, Lawhorn had said in the online posts that he had "spent a lot of time thinking about murder, wondering what it feels like."
Mississippi Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain said the man's body was found Monday morning in Vossburg, a community about 330 miles (530 kilometers) southwest of East Ridge. Lawhorn "used social media to announce he had murdered his mother and friend," Strain said in a statement.
East Ridge Assistant Police Chief Stan Allen said in a statement that Lawhorn had notified authorities about the bodies before fleeing Tennessee. His abandoned car was found along Interstate 59 in Mississippi not far from where his body was found.
Allen said police believe the announcement about the slayings, made on Facebook, was posted by Lawhorn because it had details only the killer would know.
Lawhorn said in the posts that Gaines was sleeping at his house while he left early Sunday to pick up his mother at a bar. After Lawhorn returned home with her, he began putting his plan into action, according to the man's post.
"I nervously paced for a few minutes, playing the coming events out in my head, which were vastly different from what actually happened. I walked up to Avery as he slept and shot him in the head once, he seemed to die instantly."
He then shot his mother, but she didn't die immediately, according to the posts.
"She started screaming the worst scream I've ever heard. Movies really don't do justice to how true terror sounds," he wrote.
He said in the posts he shot at her twice more before it was over and then he took money and heroin from Gaines. "I was shaking from adrenaline," he wrote, but said he didn't feel anything else except disgust at the corpse.
Lawhorn signed off by saying their pets were safe: "I didn't hurt our dog or cat, in case anyone was wondering about the animals."
