41-year-old Jason Alan Thornburg, an apprentice of an electrician, has admitted to sacrificing people in a motel room by murdering them.
Since June 28 of this year, Thornburg has stayed at Mid City Inn in Euless, Texas, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. During his stay, Thornburg would often read the Bible, blast church music, and offer help to other people whilst spreading the word of God. He would place pamphlets at each room and invite guests to his own hotel room.
For about two months, the man who stayed in Room 113 at the Mid City Inn in Euless, Texas, would sit outside, reading the Bible and encouraging others to come to church with him, according to a manager of the motel, Kanti Gandhi.
“He was a fanatic about the Bible,” Mr. Gandhi said, recalling how the man, Jason Alan Thornburg, once invited a woman who works at the inn at night to come to his room and study the Bible with him.
Mr. Gandhi said he was wondering if Mr. Thornburg, who had helped him with a malfunctioning air-conditioner, really could have carried out such gruesome crimes. “He was a nice guy,” he said. “He never had any fights.”
But the three murders at the motel is a portion of the five murders Jason Alan Thornburg has committed. According to an interview with homicide detectives of the Fort Worth Police Department, Thornburg has admitted to “having an in-depth knowledge of the Bible” and stated that “he was being called to commit sacrifices”. Thornburg gave the same reasoning for the other two murders he committed, with his victims being his girlfriend in Arizona and his old roommate / “good friend”, 61-year-old Fort Worth man Mark Jewell. Furthermore, Jason Alan Thornburg would place his murder victims into a dumpster and set them on fire. The first discovery of the motel murders began when firefighters of the Fort Worth Fire Department were contacted about a dumpster fire at a local business.
Around Sept. 17, Lueras showed up at Thornburg’s room, No. 113 at the Mid City Inn, and stayed with him, according to the affidavit. But Thornburg told investigators that he believed Lueras needed to be sacrificed. So Thornburg cut his throat and dismembered his body using a straight blade in the room’s bathtub, Thornburg told police, the affidavit states. Thornburg allegedly kept the remains in plastic storage bins.
About two days later, a female acquaintance of Thornburg’s stopped by, and Thornburg told police he believed she, too, needed to be sacrificed, according to court records. So he cut her throat, dismembered her body and stored her remains in storage tubs, according to the affidavit.
Two days later, another woman showed up. Thornburg told police he strangled her after initially trying to stab her, according to the affidavit. Like the others, he dismembered her body and placed the remains in storage tubs, the affidavit states.
Police were able to identify Thornburg through the sight of his Jeep Grand Cherokee (model year 2005-2010) in security footage, after cross-referencing more than 7,000 vehicles in the area.
Investigators said during the press conference that they were familiar with the man because he was a person of interest in another suspicious death that occurred in the same area in May. At the time, they did not have probable cause to arrest him.
Police located Thornburg's vehicle and learned that he was staying at a motel in Euless. Security footage obtained from the business depicts a resident exiting a room of the motel carrying plastic bins to a vehicle that investigators said they believe to be the victims' body parts.
Jason Alan Thornburg has been held at Tarrant County Jail, with bond being set at $1 million.