Possible murder weapon recovered in Pulaski County double-killing case

Divers from the Georgia Department of Public Safety searched about two hours Thursday before a possible murder weapon was found in Pulaski County.

Shortly after 8 a.m., divers went into the pond on Sandridge Road near where the bodies of Kelvin Jurand Thompson, 22, of Patrol Road in Forsyth, and Robdreckious Jamal Quainton, 23, of Leisure Lake Drive in Warner Robins were found early Tuesday morning.

One of the victims was lying at the edge of water on Sandridge Church Road, and the other was near the entrance to Sandridge Church, close to the corner of Woods Road.

To calculate the possible distance the gun could be thrown, an object similar to the weight of a 9 mm pistol was thrown from the edge of the water by a person about the same age as the accused killer, Pulaski County Sheriff Danny Brannen said.

While the divers were searching in an arc pattern using a rope in the water, other members of the dive team searched near the spillway and found a gun.

“It was located in the woods on the other end of the pond,” Brannen said. “That’s very reassuring, but we’ve got to get it to the crime lab to see what kind of results they get off of it.”

The GBI crime lab will analyze the weapon to determine if it was used by suspected killer Dennis Penix, 24, who was captured on the edge of downtown Macon about 10 hours after the bodies were found.

Brannen praised his law enforcement colleagues from the across the state who offered their assistance in the rare double-homicide investigation for the community around Hawkinsville.

He particularly appreciated Bibb sheriff’s deputies and U.S. marshals who captured Penix on the edge of downtown, as well as officers in Houston County who recovered a vehicle Penix might have used.

“We don’t like these kind of things to happen in our community,” Brannen said. “This is a very nice, quiet community, and it’s our job to try to keep it this way, and I hope this is a step toward doing that.”

Brannen said Penix, Thompson and Quainton have no apparent connection to Pulaski County.

The sheriff has said the motive for the killing was believed to be a drug deal gone bad on the rural dirt road off Ga. 129, about 6 miles south of Hawkinsville.

This story was originally published June 29, 2017 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Possible murder weapon recovered in Pulaski County double-killing case."