LT, yes, solid advice about the mags, especially when he said it worked for him for years
Musashi,
My guess without actually seeing the gun is the extractor. Just as Thud said, load one round in the mag and see if it extract... My PT92 once jammed in similar ways when piece of brass shaving got stuck under the extractor.
I would say just to send it to Taurus as their service is pretty good but unfortunatelly your father "stoning" by now probably voided lifetime warranty that Taurus provide so you might have to pay to Taurus to fix it for you if you are unable to find the problem.