Police find body of Tennessee man who confessed to killings on Facebook

(Reuters) - A body found on Monday in rural central Mississippi was believed to be that of a 23-year-old Tennessee man accused of killing his mother and a friend then posting a lengthy confession on Facebook, a county sheriff said.

The corpse was located in the unincorporated community of Vossburg, about 100 miles southeast of Jackson, said Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson in a statement on Facebook.

The dead man was believed to be Casey Lawhorn who on Sunday said in a Facebook post that he had killed his mother and his friend in his home in East Ridge, Tennessee, outside Chattanooga, according to East Ridge Assistant Police Chief Stan Allen on Monday. The post was later taken down.

Allen would not confirm details of the Facebook post but said police found Lawhorn's 44-year-old mother and a 22-year-old friend inside the home. Both died from apparent gunshot wounds, he said.

Lawhorn called the East Ridge police from Mississippi before dawn on Sunday to report that he had committed murder and was going to a remote area to kill himself, Allen said.

Lawhorn's vehicle was found in Jasper County, Mississippi, about 350 miles (560 km) from his home, on Sunday afternoon, according Allen and the local sheriff's department. Police described Lawhorn as armed and dangerous.

In the Facebook post Lawhorn admitted to shooting his mother and Gaines with a stolen .22-caliber rifle as they slept in separate rooms in his home, ABC News reported. Lawhorn described his mother as screaming when he shot her, ABC reported.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman)