Suspect found dead after Facebook confession about killing mom, friend

Therese Apel | The Clarion-Ledger

Show Caption Hide Caption Man who confessed on Facebook to killing mom, friend found dead A 23-year-old is on the run, after allegedly confessing to the murders of his mother and his friend on Facebook.

A Tennessee man who posted a Facebook confession Sunday describing how he fatally shot his mom and a friend, was found dead in Vossburg, Miss., according to police.

Casey James Lawhorn, 22, was being sought in the shooting deaths of his mother and a friend. Lawhorn's body was found about 100 yards from his abandoned vehicle at the 118 mile marker of Interstate 59, Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said in a statement Monday morning.

Lawhorn posted to Facebook late Sunday afternoon describing how he fatally shot Vi Lawhorn and Avery Gaines at around 5 a.m. ET Sunday in the Chattanooga suburb of East Ridge, Tenn. The post has since been deleted.

"I've spent a lot of time thinking about murder, wondering what it feels like, but I've barely felt anything," he wrote in the since-deleted post.

In his Sunday Facebook post, Lawhorn wrote:

Since so many people keep trying to reach out to me on Facebook, I figure I can just say my piece once here and be done with it. Before I start, I need to emphasize that I take full responsibility for my actions. Nothing anyone has or hasn't done to me caused this, my decisions and my failures are my own. Technical Details: This morning, at around 01:30, I shot and killed my mother (Vi Lawhorn) and a close friend of mine (Avery Gaines) with a stolen .22 LR.

He went on to give graphic details about both of their deaths, saying he shot Gaines as he lay sleeping on the floor. He said it appeared Gaines died instantly.

He then went into his mother's room and tried to shoot her, but his gun jammed, he said.

She was intoxicated and didn't appear to recognize it had happened, he said. He left the room to clear the jam and then went back in.

Vi Lawhorn was trying to comfort her dog Oscar, Casey Lawhorn wrote, and he shot her several times until she died.

Both victims were shot in the head.

Lawhorn goes on to tell his Facebook friends to save their "thoughts and prayers."

Don't give me or my family your thoughts and prayers. No one will be hurt by this more than my brother. He will probably need a lot of help getting through this, and if you think you are helping him just by talking to the sky, you're f---ing wrong. If you want to help him in this insanely difficult time I'm putting him through, actually do something, don't just think about it. I'm sorry to him more than anyone



That said, I don't want or need forgiveness from anyone. What I did is unforgivable. And prayer is a waste of time, nothing happens after death, but if there is a hell, I'm going to be in the lake of ice at the bottom.

He identified a different position at the end of the post.

"However, as I sit here in Mississippi, writing this on the side of I-59 south after my car broke down, what I look forward to is the nothingness after death. I've spent a lot of time thinking about murder, wondering what it feels like," he said. "But I've barely felt anything."

Follow Therese Apel on Twitter: @TRex21