A man with a “significant criminal history” is accused of murdering his nephew and abandoning his body on the side of a Mississippi road after the boy was temporarily placed in his uncle’s care.
Victor “Jerry” Carver III, 37, is charged with manslaughter in the death of 17-year-old Caden Cantrelle. According to authorities, Carver requested permission from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) to watch Cantrell, which was granted, but they were not permitted to leave Tennessee.
On Monday, when their visit was supposed to end, Cantrelle did not return, and DCS contacted his father, who had a tracking device on his son’s phone and discovered that it last “pinged” in Mississippi. That is when Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson became aware of the situation.
Jasper County is located in the center of Mississippi, nearly 250 miles south of the Tennessee border.
It is unclear what relationship Cantrelle’s father had with DCS regarding Cantrelle’s care, or whether a court was involved in the decision to release him into Carver’s care.
Johnson told Law&Crime that four of his deputies drove to the location where the phone’s activity was last recorded – on County Road 39 near the intersection with County Road 8, near Vossburg, Mississippi. They parked their cars and searched.
The deputies discovered Cantrelle’s body on the rim of a gully overgrown with vines. According to Johnson, they immediately “suspected foul play.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department discovered who Cantrelle was and contacted the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee. A warrant was issued for Carver’s arrest, and deputies discovered him asleep inside his home, with his vehicle outside. He had not contacted any authorities regarding his nephew.
According to investigators, Carver took Cantrelle to Louisiana to visit family, but they got into an argument on the way back to Tennessee. However, the uncle reportedly denied harming his nephew, claiming only that he had left him on the side of the road.
Johnson suggested that the evidence they have will prove otherwise, and that the manslaughter charge could be upgraded. Carver is expected to be extradited back to Mississippi.
According to Nashville’s NBC affiliate WSMV, the suspect has a nearly 20-year criminal history in Wayne County, Tennessee.
The attorney who represented Cantrelle’s interests in court was astounded to learn how Carver was permitted to care for his nephew.
“If it had been presented to me, or a judge, and we knew the criminal history, and I believe many of us knew this uncle had a significant criminal history, we would have been opposed to giving this level of access to this child,” Cantrelle’s guardian ad litem, Stacie Odeneal, told the source.
“We as a system prevented him from having a chance,” she observed.
Odeneal told WTVC in Chattanooga that she has 15 years of experience as a certified child welfare law specialist.
“Worst outcome I’ve seen,” she said of Cantrelle’s case.
Tennessee DCS stated that they are “deeply saddened over the death of Mr. Cantrelle.”
“DCS has taken immediate steps to engage with our law enforcement partners as they conduct a criminal investigation, and the employees involved are currently on leave as the department continues to assess its established policy and the application of those policies in this particular case,” the agency said in an interview with WTVC.
