On the morning of October 4, 1995, Simpson County Sheriff Lloyd Silas Jones, 66, was shot and killed in the front yard of his home on Mary Grove Road near Magee, Mississippi. The attack began before 7:00 a.m. when a man shot and wounded a nearby resident, Mary Walker Langston. The assailant then went to the sheriff’s home and fatally shot jail trustee RV Lewis before shooting Sheriff Jones with a shotgun while Jones was still inside his vehicle; the shots struck his neck and chest.

The gunman was identified as 44-year-old Carl Ray Johnson. A multi-agency manhunt followed; after numerous sightings and several hours, Johnson was located on Highway 35 near Mount Olive in neighboring Covington County and arrested without resistance. The Mississippi Highway Patrol took over the investigation. Sheriff Jones, a lawman with a 39-year career who had served 19 years as Simpson County sheriff after 20 years with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, was survived by his wife, three sons, and daughters.

Did anyone in the community have contact with Sheriff Jones or RV Lewis in the days before October 4 who can shed light on what happened?