Abandoned boy leads police to slain mother

Abandoned boy leads police to slain mother

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Story Published: Jan 5, 2009 at 8:59 AM PDT

Story Updated: Jan 5, 2009 at 8:59 AM PDT

By Associated Press

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - The FBI questioned three men in the fatal shooting of an Ohio woman whose 4-year-old son was left unharmed by the gunman at a highway rest area.

FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas said the men were taken from a house near Ohio State University in Columbus on Sunday evening. No charges were filed.

Trombitas did not know Monday morning if the men were still being held or what they might have told authorities. He added that the FBI's role had been to provide support for the Montgomery County sheriff's office, which planned a news conference for later in the morning.

A car police believe was the getaway vehicle was found Sunday in a parking lot in Columbus, some 75 miles from Dayton where the woman was slain.

Jennifer Nelson, 29, was found dead at her Dayton home on Friday after a couple discovered her son, William, at an Interstate 70 rest stop in central Ohio.

The travelers who found the boy, Mike and Judith McConnell, said Sunday on NBC's "Today" that they took William into their warm vehicle and contacted authorities.

They said he told them a strange man had entered the home without knocking and shot his mother. His account, including his home address and parents' names, led to the discovery of Nelson's body.

"I began asking him questions, and he told me that a stranger had come into his house without knocking," Mike McConnell said from Baltimore. "And I said 'Well, where was your mommy?' And he said 'He shot my mommy."'

Nelson's husband, Eddie Nelson, was at work at the time she was slain.

On NBC's "Today" on Monday, Eddie Nelson said his son was "still terrified. I don't know that he fully understands what's going on. He's just in total shock right now."

Explaining how the little boy was able to give specific information to authorities, Nelson said: "He's a very sharp kid. He's like a sponge, he just soaks everything up. My wife, especially, insisted that we work on him learning his address, learning the phone numbers, just important things ... a lot of things people would take for granted, and it saved him."

Vickie Nelson, the boy's grandmother, said earlier that her son Eddie's car had been stolen in Columbus about a week and a half before Christmas.

She said she believed the person who stole the car obtained personal information about where the Nelsons live.

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