The search to find the man responsible for killing a North Philadelphia lesbian woman in broad daylight last month has ended.
Randolph Sanders, a coworker of Kim Jones, confessed last Sunday to murdering the 56-year-old newlywed the morning of Jan. 13 at the corner of 12th and Jefferson
streets near Temple University, according to police. Investigators say Sanders killed Jones because she was investigating his alleged theft from their workplace.
Jones was listening to gospel music through headphones while waiting for a SEPTA bus to her job at Turning Points for Children, a youth and family-services organization, when police say Sanders, 36, approached Jones from behind and shot her point-blank in the back of the head.
New details of the incident released after Sanders’ confession reveal that he placed a phone call to Jones’ cell phone just minutes after killing her, asking on her voicemail if she was OK since he hadn’t seen her that morning.
The move was one Homicide Capt. James Clark called “a calculated effort” to hide his role in Jones’ slaying.
Sanders was known to Jones’ family; he attended her birthday party over the summer and her funeral last month.
“I’ve talked to him, I’ve joked around with him,” Jones’ son, Andre Jourden, told the Philadelphia Daily News. “He seemed like a normal human being with a normal head on his shoulders. We were wrong. I was wrong.”
Jones, program director of Turning Points’ Families and Schools Together Program, hired Sanders as her assistant director two years ago. The morning of the crime, Jones had a meeting scheduled with the Department of Human Services to discuss Jones’ role in allegedly misappropriating $40,000 in funds from Turning Points.
Clark said the two had experienced “some friction” at work, which put him on investigators’ list of possible suspects.
“We are both shocked and saddened by this news,” said Turning Points CEO Michael Vogel in a statement. “This is a very difficult situation for everyone involved and we appreciate all of the words of support from friends, family and supporters.”
Vogel also said he believes Sanders’ misappropriation of funds was an isolated incident and that third-party investigators were being hired to confirm that.
“He’s an absolute scumbag,” Jean-Paul Jourden, Jones’ other son, told NBC 10. “That’s all I can think about this guy. To shoot a human in broad daylight in front of people and leave her on a corner.”
Detectives connected Sanders with the crime by using surveillance video that showed the suspect fleeing the crime scene to the northbound Broad Street subway line. Upon exiting the subway at the Hunting Park stop, the suspect walked to a silver GMC Yukon with a rear sticker that they were able to trace to Sanders.
He has been charged with murder as well as carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a firearm in public in Philadelphia and possession of instrument with criminal intent. He has no prior arrests.
According to an online profile he created on Vitae.com, Sanders earned a bachelor’s degree in social relations and psychology in 2002 from Cheyney University and a master’s in education in 2004.
A judge on Monday denied Sanders’ request for bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18.
Jones married her partner in December.