Authorities are on the hunt for a dangerous inmate who broke out of a Tennessee prison on his birthday Wednesday — and may have killed a state Department of Corrections employee.
Dept. of Corrections administrator Debra Johnson, 64, was found dead around 11:20 a.m. Wednesday in her home across from the West Tennessee State Prison in Henning, authorities said.
As officials investigated, they found that convicted kidnapper Curtis Ray Watson, 44, was missing from his prison work assignment as a farm laborer.
The inmate fled on a tractor and then dumped it and continued on foot, said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch.
Police say Watson is a person of interest in Johnson’s death and has been added to their “Most Wanted” list.
He’s been behind bars since a 2012 conviction for aggravated kidnapping.
Police said at the time that he knocked a woman out by hitting her on the head with a baseball bat and then raped her multiple times.
Before that conviction, he’d been sentenced to 10 years in state prison for aggravated child abuse.
Prison officials said he should be considered “extremely dangerous” and shouldn’t be approached.
They issued a “Blue Alert,” which is used to inform the public about violent suspects who kill or seriously hurt law enforcement officers in the line of duty.
Curtis is 5’11”, 180 pounds with brown eyes and has a long, gray goatee, and multiple tattoos of skulls on his arms.
Authorities said Johnson was a dedicated 38-year employee of the state corrections department.
“Rest assured we’ll find this offender and bring justice for Debra Johnson,” Parker said.
With Post wires
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