Menu

Topics

Connect

Comments

Comments closed.

Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.

Please see our Commenting Policy for more.

Inmate considered extremely dangerous escapes Tennessee prison on tractor

WATCH ABOVE: Authorities are searching for an inmate who escaped from Tennessee State Prison after the prison administrator was found dead in her home on prison grounds – Aug 8, 2019

RIPLEY, Tenn. — Authorities are searching for a Tennessee convict who officials say is a person of interest in the death of a corrections employee and escaped a prison on a tractor.

Story continues below advertisement

The tractor used by Curtis Ray Watson, 44, was found about 1.6 km away from the West Tennessee State Penitentiary on Wednesday, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said. The facility is about 97 km from Memphis.

Department of Correction Commissioner Tony Parker said 64-year-old administrator Debra Johnson was found dead in her home Wednesday. He said she lived in a property on site.

Story continues below advertisement

Watson was serving a 15-year sentence on an especially aggravated kidnapping conviction and worked at the prison as a farm labourer.

TBI reported Thursday morning on Twitter that while there have been reports of sightings across the state, none of those reports had been confirmed.

Roadblocks have been set up near Henning, with authorities searching vehicles for Watson. Law enforcement agents fanned out throughout the area, which includes farms, fields, rivers and woods. Railroad tracks also crisscross a landscape dotted by small towns and cities.

Johnson, the slain administrator, had been a state employee for 38 years. She oversaw wardens at several area prisons, corrections officials said.

TBI says Watson should be considered extremely dangerous.

Advertisement

You are viewing an Accelerated Mobile Webpage.

View Original Article