Officials claim accused killer on crime spree

Published Thursday, June 8, 2006

PICKENS, S.C. (AP) - As investigators questioned him about the death and sexual assault of a Clemson University student from Missouri and other sex crimes in two states, Jerry Buck Inman kept looking down, calling himself an "animal," Jefferson County, Tenn., Chief Deputy Bob McCoig said.

Before he was taken back to South Carolina yesterday to face murder and other charges, the sex offender registered in two states confessed to the crimes, McCoig said.

Inman, 35, traveled around the Southeast looking for victims to sexually assault, Jefferson County Sheriff David Davenport said.

Authorities said the crimes got progressively more violent until Inman entered the off-campus apartment of Tiffany Souers, a 20-year-old civil engineering student from Ladue. She was found by a former roommate May 26 wearing only a bra on the bedroom floor of her apartment. A bikini top used to strangle her about 12 hours earlier was still around her neck, and her wrists and ankles were bound.

"He didn’t know the victim," Davenport said of Souers. "It is our information he was driving around in the (victim’s) neighborhood and saw her and he liked her looks."

Inman was arrested late Tuesday near his mother’s home in Dandridge, Tenn., during a nationwide manhunt launched after investigators matched Inman’s DNA to samples taken from Souers’ apartment.

His family described him as an itinerant construction worker. Inman is registered as a sex offender in Florida and North Carolina and has spent a good part of his adult life behind bars.

Inman was quickly brought back to South Carolina and spoke softly during arraignment when questioned by a magistrate about whether he understood the charges of murder, rape and kidnapping.

The magistrate did not set bond for Inman, who was being held in solitary confinement.

Inman also was charged with burglary, robbery, theft of property and attempted rape in an incident three days before Souers was found where authorities said he broke into a home in Rainsville, Ala., and tried to attack a woman after she came home for lunch. Davenport said he expects Inman will also be charged with a May 24 rape in Sevierville, Tenn.

Davenport said the victims identified Inman from his tattoos. Florida prison records indicate Inman has several skull tattoos and an image of a bat tattooed on his neck.

Inman’s mother, Vera McArthur, told The Greenville News on Tuesday that her son is bipolar and often suicidal and had no idea South Carolina authorities were looking for him.

Inman’s family didn’t return phone calls to The Associated Press.

Souers’ mother, Bren Souers, said any mental illness Inman might have "holds no credence for me."

At Clemson, 19-year-old sophomore Meredith Moore said the arrest was all people at the school talked about yesterday. "Chemistry was the furthest thing from our minds," she said.

Moore lives near the apartment complex where Tiffany Souers was killed. She said her mother has called to check on her every day, and she wants to start taking self-defense classes.