Mother of slain boys expresses thanks, asks for privacy

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas mother whose estranged husband is charged with killing the couple’s two sons before fleeing with their two daughters is thanking the people who helped track down the girls nearly 400 miles (643.74 kilometers) away in Oklahoma.

Tara Jackson’s attorney, Gary Nelson, also described the deaths of 14-year-old Logan Jackson and 12-year-old Austin Jackson as “traumatic” in a statement released Wednesday. He asked for privacy “during the next very few hard few weeks and months that Tara and her family have ahead of them.”

The Leavenworth County Sheriff’s Office said she went to the home of Donny Ray Jackson Jr., 40, on Saturday with the children’s paternal grandmother after one of the siblings didn’t show up for a soccer game. They found one of the boys dead, and law enforcement then discovered the other body.

The boys’ younger sisters, 3-year-old Aven Jackson and 7-year-old Nora Jackson, were found unharmed near Erick, Oklahoma, after a massive search. And their father was charged Tuesday with capital murder and two alternative counts of first-degree murder.

Nelson said there are “a lot of unanswered questions” regarding what happened the day of the killing and in the preceding months. But he said he couldn’t answer further questions because the investigation is ongoing.