DaytonDailyNews.com

HARRISON TWP., Montgomery County — The Baltimore couple who found a murder victim's 4-year-old son at a Madison County rest area said the boy was inside alone, looking out the window, even though other people were there.

"It was very, very busy," said Judith McConnell on Sunday, Jan. 4, on NBC's "Today" Show. "I just happened to be the one that connected with (the boy)." McConnell is a Pre-K teacher.

On Friday, an intruder shot and killed Jennifer Nelson, 29, kidnapped her 4-year-old son and fled the scene in a stolen car.

The boy gave sheriff's deputies his home phone number and address and said, "Somebody killed my mom," according to the boy's grandmother and Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer.

Mike and Judith McConnell took the boy into their car and gave him a blanket to warm up.

"He said, 'I'm alone here. I was dropped off by this man who took all our stuff, and he has a gun,' " Judith McConnell recalled. The couple did not see an adult with the child and realized that he was telling the truth.

"He told me a stranger had come into his house without knocking," Mike McConnell said. "I said where was your mommy and he said, 'He shot my mommy.' At that point I knew there was something seriously wrong, and of course we were calling 911."

Vickie Nelson, Jennifer Nelson's mother-in-law and the boy's grandmother, said on Sunday that he is "kind of in shock. He's not talking about what happened."

According to Plummer, the boy described the intruder as a white male and a "stranger." He said it appears the man forced his way into Jennifer Nelson's home, stole two computers after killing her and then fled the scene in Jennifer's mother's car.

The getaway car was located Sunday afternoon. Plummer said his department will hold a news conference on Monday, Jan. 5 at 10 a.m. to discuss further developments in the case.

Nelson said she also has been on the Internet visiting Columbus-based chat rooms to help spread the word.

Columbus and the Ohio State University campus may be central to the investigation because Jennifer Nelson's Honda had been stolen there a week-and-a-half before Christmas.

Vickie Nelson said the Honda was stolen from an OSU parking garage and didn't reappear until it was found near Jennifer's home at 80 Redder Ave. on Friday night after the murder.

"Whoever busted in had their address and came back for whatever reason," Vickie Nelson said. "Jenny did not know them. My son works three jobs to try to take care of his family and she's a stay-at-home mom. She didn't have no enemies."

Plummer said Jennifer's husband was at work at the time of the incident and is not a suspect.

Plummer said Saturday that Jennifer Nelson had been shot multiple times but Vickie Nelson said Sunday she was told by investigators that her daughter-in-law had been shot only once in the abdomen and that she may have bled to death. The Montgomery County Coroner's office declined comment Sunday.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the sheriff's office at 225-4357.