66-year-old woman charged with murder after police find body in box at Gulfport home

Police charged a 66-year-old woman with first-degree murder Saturday after detectives found a body inside a large storage box at a Gulfport home this week.

Jerri Lynn Isreal, 66, was arrested Saturday. She had previously been convicted of a murder charge in Florida around 1995, according to a news release from Gulfport Police.

Her arrest came days after detectives searched a home at 16th Avenue and 22nd Street in Gulfport for a missing person and found a body inside a large box, police said. Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer identified the body Friday as John Gaither, 42, of Gulfport.

Gaither and Isreal shared the home, police said. Gaither was first reported missing Dec. 22, Gulfport police Sgt. Jason Ducre said Friday. Police first responded to the home on the evening of Dec. 22, the release said.

Detectives started to notice discrepancies in what Isreal told them, the release said. “Some stuff just didn’t add up,” Ducre said Friday. Police said Isreal had become “increasingly uncooperative.” They said she “changed her statements multiple times.”

Police searched the home with a warrant about 10 a.m. Thursday, the release said, and found Gaither’s body in a wooden box. The box was so large that police cut out part of the wall Thursday to extract it from the home, authorities said. It was filled with junk and found on the ground, as Switzer put it, “like a coffin.”

Isreal was sent to a hospital at that time for medical treatment, according to the release.

Isreal was being held Saturday at the Harrison County jail in lieu of bond.

Gaither’s full autopsy is scheduled for Monday.