In Tennessee, the man who is thought to have killed his 18-year-old girlfriend has been caught.
In a news release on July 24, the Knoxville Police Department (KPD) said that Juan Carlos Diaz Perez, who is 20 years old, had been arrested. WSAZ said that Diaz Perez was wanted in connection with the death of his girlfriend Suceli Perez. On Monday, July 22, warrants were issued charging him with first-degree murder.
The KPD said, “He was found and arrested near the Oak Ridge Quarry by the U.S. Marshals Smokey Mountain Fugitive Task Force.” He is now being taken back to Knoxville.
The group thanked the Oak Ridge Police Department, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the 7th Judicial Drug Task Force for their help.
On July 22, police were called to a home in the 1200 block of Mercer Street to look into a possible murder after hearing that “a man had seriously hurt his girlfriend.”
The press release said that officers from the Homicide Unit and forensics experts went to the house and found signs of an assault that could have been fatal.
But neither the suspect nor the victim, who was later identified as Perez, were at the house when the police came.
On July 23, KPD said that Perez’s body “was found in the bed of Diaz Perez’s truck that was recovered in Oak Ridge.” on July 23.
At the time, anyone who might have seen or talked to the 20-year-old was told to call 911 instead of approaching him.
Later on Tuesday, the police said they thought Perez had died from blunt force injuries, but they couldn’t say for sure until the Medical Examiner’s Office did an autopsy.
There are still people involved in the probe.