A Camden County prosecutor’s office announced that a New Jersey father, his wife and their adult son were charged Friday in the killing and alleged dismemberment of a 48-year-old man whose body has not been recovered.
Everton Thomas, 41; Sherrie Parker, 41; and their son Deshawn Thomas, 22, were each charged Sept. 5 in connection with the death of Harold Miller of Deptford, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said in a release. Prosecutors said Everton Thomas faces a first-degree murder charge in addition to counts of desecration of human remains and tampering with physical evidence; Parker and Deshawn Thomas were charged with desecration of human remains and tampering with physical evidence.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Miller had been playing cards at a friend’s home in Camden on June 12. Cellphone tracking data indicated he entered the Thomas residence on Baird Boulevard later that day. Surveillance footage showed Miller walk into the house at about 11:30 a.m., shortly before a gunshot rang out from inside the building, prosecutors said. Miller never came out of the home and a missing-person report was filed on June 14.
Prosecutors allege that after the shooting, Parker and Deshawn Thomas bought a chainsaw, containers, trash bags and cleaning supplies. Surveillance video later recorded Everton and Deshawn hauling heavily loaded trash bags to dumpsters at Tamarack Apartments in Camden, the release said.
Camden police executed a search warrant at the Thomas residence on June 20. Officers observed bloodstains and found Everton Thomas in possession of a loaded firearm, prosecutors said. The following day, Everett Thomas attempted to flee to Canada despite not yet being charged in the case; he was arrested at the Port of Buffalo after crossing the border on a commercial bus, the prosecutor’s office said.
Miller’s body has not been recovered, and prosecutors did not disclose additional details on the location of potential remains. The prosecutor’s office did not immediately provide further comment on a possible motive or on the nature of the relationship between Miller and the Thomas family.
Everton Thomas was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree desecration of human remains and fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence. Parker and Deshawn Thomas were each charged with second-degree desecration of human remains and fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence, according to the release.
The case remains under investigation by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and local law enforcement. No court records attached to the release indicated whether defense attorneys had entered pleas for the defendants. Authorities did not provide a timetable for any upcoming hearings.