ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A 21-year-old believed to be a person of interest in the shooting deaths of his stepmother and his 10-year-old half brother in Pennsylvania has been captured by U.S. marshals, authorities said.
Jack Elijah Tuner, who had been spotted several times in St. Augustine, hopped a bus Wednesday in Jacksonville and was captured by U.S. marshals in Charleston, West Virginia, authorities said.
The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office said Turner came to St. Augustine by Greyhound bus but was believed to have left the area. The United States Marshals Service was tracking Turner, who lived in St. Augustine before moving to Pennsylvania and still has family in the area.
The marshals said there were three apparent sightings of Turner in St. Augustine but he later caught a Greyhound bus in Downtown Jacksonville, using an assumed name to buy a ticket to Erie, Pennsylvania.
Turner missed a connection Wednesday in Charleston, West Virginia, and the marshals found him still sitting at the bus station there.
Multiple media outlets in Pennsylvania reported Turner was believed to have stolen a car from the scene where his stepmother, 49-year-old Shannon Whitman, and his 10-year-old half-brother were found shot in the head Aug. 10.
Turner was also being sought in the armed robbery of a convenience store in Ohio on Aug. 11.
A friend of the family, who did not want to be identified, told News4Jax that Shannon Whitman worked at a nursing home and her 10-year-old son, Darrin Whitman, loved fishing and sports.
"Shannon's husband and Darrin‘s father came home from work around 10 p.m. and found the two of them on the floor," she said.
The friend said Turner was Whitman's stepson. He posted a Facebook Live before he was captured, with one person commenting, "Turn yourself in."
"I know he’s had a hard life," the friend said. "He took one of Scott’s (his father) guns and we were told also he had stolen a gun."
The friend said Turner had previously lived with his father, stepmother and half-brother on several occasions, but was asked to leave after causing trouble.
"They couldn’t get him to stay on the right path and they had to ask him to leave," the friend said. "They were a good family. They were good people. Just keep them in your prayers and your thoughts because they're family and they're going to need it."
News4Jax was told Darrin Whitman was planning on going on a camping trip with his father Friday in Canada to go fishing before he went back to school the end of this month.
There is a fundraiser for the Shannon Whitman and Darrin Whitman's funeral expenses.