A 66-year-old Mississippi woman has been charged with murder in the death of her son, who was found dead behind a false wall in her home weeks after he was reported as a possible missing person.

Jerri Lynn Isreal is accused of killing 42-year-old John Allen Gaither, Gulfport Police said. The investigation began on December 22, 2023, with a request for a welfare check.

Detectives followed up five days later “and began noticing discrepancies in statements provided by Isreal.” She also became “increasingly uncooperative and changed her statements multiple times.”

In the course of the investigation, Gulfport Police learned that Isreal had been convicted of killing a woman in Florida in 1995 and driving around with her body in the trunk of her car for several days before dumping it in Indian River County, WLOX reported. Armed with that information, the detectives secured a search warrant this week.

But Isreal took an “unsafe amount of pills” and was taken to the hospital. While she was there, the detectives conducted the search and found Gaither’s body in a box behind a false wall.

Isreal was taken to the Harrison County Adult Detention Center, where she is being held without bond.

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[Featured image: Jerri Lynn Isreal/Gulfport Police Department]