Serial Murder Suspect Caught
Melissa Atkeson, a store clerk at J.J.'s Northside Truckstop in Dyersburg, Tennessee was sitting at work on Sunday when Steven Ray Thacker came in, reports Todd Angkasuwan, of CBS affiliate WREG in Union City Tennessee.
Thacker needed a towing service for the red Cutlass he was driving, so Atkeson called the local tow truck operator, Ray Patterson.
While Thacker waited for Patterson to show up, Atkeson talked with the wanted man for half an hour. Thacker told her he was feeling depressed because his wife was going to leave him, Atkeson said.
"I feel lucky I was in a store 30 minutes with this guy. I had like a normal conversation. I feel like I'm a lucky person but Ray wasn't so lucky," said Atkeson.
Steven Ray Thacker, 29, of Chouteau, Okla., was charged during an arraignment in Dyersburg with first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery in the stabbing death of Ray Patterson, 52, of Dyersburg.
Thacker also is considered the prime suspect in the late December death of Laci Dawn Hill, 25, of Bixby, Okla., and the stabbing death of Forrest Boyd, 24, of Polk County, Mo. Patterson, a tow truck driver, was killed early Sunday, authorities said.
According to an affidavit filed by Dyersburg investigator Jim Joyner, "Thacker was interviewed and confessed to the robbery and murder of Ray Patterson." The accused is being held on a five million dollar bond.
Thacker, who said nothing during the arraignment, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 12. About 40 of his family members attended the arraignment.
Prosecutors believe the crime spree started when Ms. Hill had advertised a pool table for sale at her Tulsa County home and Thacker answered the ad. Her partially clad body was discovered in a wooded area east of Chouteau on Wednesday, six days after she was reported missing.
Officers targeted Thacker after a surveillance video showed him using Ms. Hill's credit cards following her disappearance, said FBI spokesman Dan Vogel.
On Wednesday, police found Thacker's car abandoned in a Springfield, Mo., pharmacy parking lot. The same day, a man matching his description carjacked a vehicle from the same lot, police said.
On Saturday, Thacker allegedly stole a car from Boyd's home in rural Polk County about 20 miles north of Springfield and stabbed Boyd to death. A credit card belonging to Boyd was used the following morning near the Tennessee border, and Boyd's car was found with Thacker at the Union City motel where he was arrested.
The car had a broken fuel gauge, and officials said Thacker may have run out of gas and called for a tow truck. Authorities said they believe he stabbed Patterson, then towed the car before abandoning the truck.
Thacker was registered under another name and had dyed his hair when he was arrested while taking bags of trash out of his room, police said.
Thacker has been in prison before, for check fraud and vehicle theft, but not for violent crimes. His wif, Trena Thacker, says her husband "can rot in prison."
Hazel Lynch, the 78-year-old woman who was in the back seat of a vehicle that Thacker allegedly carjacked Wednesday in Springfield, described him as calm, even nice during the ordeal.
"He only spoke when I asked him questions," Lynch said. "I asked him if he was going to kill us and he said `Nope, I'm not into that."