The Walker County Sheriff’s Office ended its search for a murder suspect around 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7.

Police say Eric Thomas Jackson, 30, is the key suspect in the murder of his father at their residence at 1038 Lee School Road in LaFayette.

According to Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson, the time of the murder is believed to be sometime between 3:45 a.m. and 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, Dec. 7.

A witness, aware of the description, spotted Eric Thomas Jackson in his vehicle atop Taylor’s Ridge on a Georgia Forestry service road and immediately called 911.

“There is a lot of evidence surrounding the truck,” Wilson said after Jackson was in custody.

Wilson said that Jackson is in custody as a suspect at this time and has not been formally charged with murder.

Jackson is being held at the Walker County Jail.

Wilson said there was no problem with Jackson once he was taken into custody.

Background

The victim, Clarence Jackson, was found by his wife around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

Mrs. Jackson, Wilson said, left for work at her normal time of 3:45 a.m.

Mrs. Jackson told authorities that both Clarence Jackson and Eric Thomas Jackson were at the residence the time she left for work.

Clarence Jackson leaves for work at around 5:30 a.m., Wilson said.

Mrs. Jackson returned home around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and found that her husband’s vehicle and lunchbox were still at the residence.

Knowing something was wrong, Mrs. Jackson had one conversation with Eric Thomas Jackson by telephone and soon went outside the residence

and found her husband’s body in the backyard.

Wilson said there was signs of a struggle inside the residence that led to an altercation at the back of the residence.

According to Wilson, there was obvious trauma to the body of Clarence Jackson, and laceration wounds indicated that some type of knife had been used.

Wilson said that Eric Thomas Jackson and his father have had tension between them in the past.