On Jan. 13, hours before the DHS meeting, sources said, Sanders waited in a breezeway until the 56-year-old mother of two made her way to the bus.
He approached her from behind as she leaned against a wall, sources said. As she listened to gospel music on her headphones, they said, he shot her in the head. Then he calmly walked away.
On Sunday, investigators from the Homicide Task Force arrested Sanders, who gave a videotaped and written confession to detectives, law enforcement sources said.
Jones, the program's director, had hired Sanders as its assistant director in 2012, the sources said, and had recently come to believe he had misappropriated a significant amount of money from the program, which is run by the DHS-funded organization Turning Points for Children.
Coworkers and friends had told investigators they were aware of contention between Jones and Sanders in the workplace, one law enforcement source said.
The brutality and apparent calculation of the killing of a woman dedicated to helping children shocked the city. Homicide Capt. James Clark, at a news conference shortly after Jones' death, called her killer a "heartless predator."
Using surveillance tapes, investigators methodically traced the killer's path to and from the crime scene, trawling through hours of footage to search for the man bundled in black clothing with a cap obscuring his face. Police were at first unable even to see his face - he had made a point of not looking at security cameras as he stalked and killed Jones, Clark said.
Eventually, the killer was tracked to an SUV that investigators were able to link to Sanders, sources said.
DHS spokeswoman Alicia Taylor did not immediately return a call for comment. Turning Points for Children's chief executive, Mike Vogel, also did not return a call for comment.
Detectives are working to determine how much money was allegedly misappropriated from the organization and whether Jones had shared her suspicions with any supervisors.
Jones, who had remarried in December around Christmastime, directed the organization's FAST program, which is aimed at strengthening families, according to the program's website, and which features after-school activities to help children and their parents connect and build stronger relationships. The program promotes "parent nurturing" as well as improving children's school performance, according to the site.
awhelan@phillynews.com
