Man Who Confessed To Killing Mom On Facebook Found Dead: Police

EAST RIDGE, TN -- A 23-year-old East Ridge man who confessed to murdering his mother and friend in an evanescent Facebook post was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot in Mississippi Monday, according to investigators.

Police across several states were searching for Casey Lawhorn after his mother, Vi Lawhorn, and his friend, 22-year-old Avery Gaines, of Ringold, Ga., were found shot inside a home in East Ridge, Tenn., a town of 20,000 people outside of Chattanooga, Sunday.

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Late Sunday night, in a highly detailed, 1,000-word Facebook post, a person purporting to be Lawhorn confessed to the murders. Because the message contained information only the killer would know, investigators believe it to be veracious, East Ridge Assistant Police Chief Stan Allen said.

"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," the post began.

Lawhorn said he picked up his mother from a bar at 12:30 Sunday morning and then an hour later, took a stolen rifle from his room and shot Gaines, who was sleeping on the living room floor, "in the head once." Gaines "seemed to die instantly," the post said.

The post then described how the rifle jammed when Lawhorn tried to shoot his mother, but that he was able to fix the gun, return to the bedroom and shoot her twice.

"She started screaming the worst scream I've ever heard. Movies really don't do justice to how true terror sounds," the post continued.

The rifle jammed a second time and, again, Lawhorn fixed the problem and fired twice more. The post said Lawhorn took heroin and cash from Gaines before fleeing the home.

He also noted that he did not shoot the family pets. It goes on to say that Lawhorn was having trouble in college and that he intended to commit suicide.

"Surely any normal person would wish death on themselves after doing what I did, seeing what I saw, and hearing what I heard," the post read.

Also Sunday, East Ridge dispatchers received a call, now believed to be from Lawhorn, alerting police to the murder. Both the call and the Facebook post were made from Jasper County, Miss., 340 miles southwest of East Ridge on Interstate 59.

Jasper County Sheriff's officials and Mississippi Highway Patrol troopers located Lawhorn's car near the exit of I-59 to Vossburg. Lawhorn was not inside, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff's office, but his body was found in the area Monday morning.

Photo via Jasper County Sheriff's Department