ST. LOUIS — “Every couple of months he’ll call me and ask for money," said Donnie Terry of his son Tyler Terry. "'Dad I'm getting a job,'" Donnie said his son would tell him.
But investigators said Tyler was most recently on the run.
Along with Adrienne Simpson, Tyler is accused of killing four people in two states, including Dr. Sergei Zacharev and Barbara Goodkin in St. Louis County.
More than 300 agents tracked Tyler down in South Carolina and both he and Simpson are now behind bars on murder charges.
Tyler’s father said it's not his first time in custody.
When Tyler was 15 years old, his father said he set fire to several town homes while people were inside.
“He wrote like a three to four-page confession and in one part it said, 'I burned down the houses, ha ha ha,'" Donnie recalled in a phone interview. "He said, ‘Yeah dad I did it all by myself and I didn’t have no help,’” he said his son told him.
Donnie said after four years in juvenile detention his son was able to convince authorities he was reformed. But now believes it was all an act.
For a time, Donnie said he lived with his mother in Ohio, and that didn't go well either.
"The kids picked on him, so he eventually stopped going to school," said Donnie.
When Tyler came back to South Carolina to live with his father, Donnie said he had to kick him out of the house.
“He was violent, knocking holes into walls," said Donnie. “My son needs help ... something going on with him."
Authorities said Tyler has a 3-year- old daughter and while the manhunt for him was underway, they moved his daughter and her mother to a secret location for their safety.
Tyler is still in custody in South Carolina.
A judge there denied his bond while he waits for trial.
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