When a 38-year-old man crashed his van in Brantley County, Ga., on Sunday, he told responding officers that his dead wife was in the back of the vehicle, the police said. She had been dead for weeks.

The man, Michael Wayne Jones Jr., later told the police that he could lead them to the remains of his wife’s four children — Cameron Bowers, 10; Preston Bowers, 5; Mercalli Jones, 2; and Aiyana Jones, 1 — in nearby Charlton County.

Casei Jones, 32, of Summerfield, Fla., and her four children were declared missing on Saturday, but had not been seen by her family in six weeks, the police said.

Mr. Jones was charged Sunday with second-degree murder in his wife’s killing. The department is still working with the state attorney’s office on the children’s deaths. The authorities said two of the children were Mr. Jones’s.