A man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his five children.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr. is suspected of killing his five children in South Carolina and then driving to Alabama, where he dumped their bodies on a dirt road before fleeing to Mississippi.

After he was arrested, Jones brought police to the site where the bodies of the children were found wrapped in plastic bags.

Sheriff Lewis McCarty of Lexington, South Carolina, said in a statement: "Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, Jones has been charged with unlawful neglect by a legal custodian and police expect to file additional charges as the investigation develops".

The children ranged in age from one to eight years old and were reported missing by their mother on September 3rd. Jones had joint custody of the children and was divorced from their mother.

Thirty-two-year-old Jones Jr was detained in Smith County on Saturday after being stopped at a checkpoint near Raleigh, Mississippi, and charged with drunk-driving.

While carrying out a background check, police discovered that Jones Jr. was wanted in South Carolina "regarding a welfare concern of his children" who were on a national missing persons list, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities then began looking for the children and found their decomposed bodies in Camden, Alabama.

Image via South County Sheriff's Office/ Associated Press