Sex Offender Nabbed In 'Bikini Murder'

A registered sex offender suspected of strangling a Clemson University student with her bikini was headed back to South Carolina to face charges Wednesday, and authorities said he is suspected in at least two other sexual assaults.

Jerry Buck Inman has been talking to investigators since his arrest late Tuesday near his parents' home in Dandridge, Jefferson County Sheriff David Davenport said.

"It seems like he was just wandering around, finding vulnerable people, women, and preying on them and conducting sexual assaults and getting progressively worse," Davenport said. "This may be just the tip of the iceberg."

Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said it's "unusual" to have a man under arrest so soon after the murder.

"This is going to be evidently a forensic driven case. And the DNA gave the South Carolina officials their suspect in Jerry Inman. We just affected the arrest," Gwyn told CBS News' The Early Show.

Inman, 35, was arrested on warrants for murder, rape and kidnapping in the death of Tiffany Marie Souers. DNA from her South Carolina apartment led authorities to Inman.

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

Davenport said he expects Inman will also be charged with a May 23 attempted rape in DeKalb County, Ga., and a May 24 rape in Sevierville "because he has made some admissions that he did those things."

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

In his first court appearance Wednesday, Inman told a judge that he wouldn't fight extradition to South Carolina to face charges. South Carolina law enforcement officials expected to have him behind bars in the state by afternoon.

Souers, a civil engineering student from the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Mo., was wearing only a bra when she was found May 26 on the bedroom floor in her off-campus apartment. The bikini top was still around her neck and her wrists and ankles were bound.

Inman's DNA matched samples taken from Souers' apartment, said Robert Stewart, division chief of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement.

Souers' brother said he was relieved to learn Inman had been arrested.

"I gave my mom a hug and she said she felt happy for the first time in a while," 16-year-old Trevor Souers said.

Inman was registered as a sex offender in Florida and North Carolina. Davenport said his department had been told by South Carolina authorities to look for Inman, whose family moved to the area from Florida in 2000. In Tennessee, as long as Inman registered as a sex offender and was in compliance, he was free to move and go wherever that he wanted to, Gwyn told The Early Show.

Authorities staked out the relatives' homes and spotted Inman driving by in a red Chevy Blazer around 11:45 p.m.

Chief Deputy Bob McCoig pulled him over and arrested him without incident.

"His vehicle had several items in it that were related to the crimes," McCoig said Wednesday.

Inman arrived in Tennessee sometime in 2005 after he was released from prison in Florida, where he served 16 years for sex offenses. Authorities said he had listed the Dandridge homes of his parents and a sister on a sex offender registry.

After coming to Tennessee, Inman got a job with Shular Contracting Inc. for about two months on a condo construction site in Pigeon Forge, said Phil Loeffler, company vice president. When he didn't show up for work about two weeks ago, he lost his job.

Inman's mother, Vera McArthur, told The Greenville News that her son is bipolar and often suicidal and had no idea South Carolina authorities were looking for him. She said he had been doing construction work in Tennessee, but didn't think he had been in South Carolina recently.