Bikini Murderer Suspect in Custody

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," June 6, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Tonight: Non-stop action in the Clemson murder. Jerry Inman captured, booked and jailed. And to top it off, police say he has confessed to murdering and raping Clemson student Tiffany Souers. And there's more. Police say Inman also admits to attacking two other young blond women.

Joining us from Pickens, South Carolina, is Samantha Epps, a reporter for The Anderson Independent-Mail.

Welcome, Samantha. And where is Mr. Inman tonight?

SAMANTHA EPPS, ANDERSON INDEPENDENT-MAIL: Hi. Tonight, he's right here at the Pickens County Law Enforcement Center. He was arrested last night about 11:45 in Tennessee, had a hearing this morning in Tennessee and was brought back here today.

VAN SUSTEREN: And did he have a hearing once he got to South Carolina?

EPPS: Right. Yes, ma'am. We understand that overnight, he did confess to the killing and to two other sexual assaults on women in Alabama and Tennessee. The chilling thing about that is that he said in all those cases, he was driving around the area and just spotted young women that he liked their looks and decided to do these horrible crimes to them. So chilling news for us here tonight.

VAN SUSTEREN: Samantha, how far is the area from where — where he was picked up, which is the home of his mother and his sister, to the — to the apartment where the Clemson student was murdered?

EPPS: We'd estimate about 100 miles away. But from what we understand, he was a construction worker, and there was a construction site right beside the apartment complex.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is there any connection of Inman to this construction site? I saw a statement released by someone associated with the construction site who said he didn't work for them. Have you been able to confirm whether he did or did not work for them?

EPPS: We haven't been able to confirm that. We do understand that he was fired last week from a construction company in Tennessee, and his mother said that she didn't know whether he had been in South Carolina or not. But we would like to know where he has been in the time between that firing and this time.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did the police release any information or has any reporting made a determination as to why he picked out Tiffany Souers? How did he see her? When did he see her? Did he spot her that night? How did he get into the apartment? Those types of questions.

EPPS: Those types of questions we don't have answered yet. But again, it's just really disturbing for us to know that, basically, he was driving around the neighborhood, saw Tiffany, decided that he liked her looks. And that's troubling for us because, you know, it could have been any other woman in our community, and we don't know how long it was that he was riding around, searching for a victim.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So Jerry Inman in custody in your jurisdiction tonight. Does he have another court appearance planned for next week? And does he have a bond so we know he's going to stay in jail until that next court appearance?

EPPS: That is a good question. We understand that he was released from prison last September. And in the talks that we've been having with people today, we were wondering why he was on the loose, in the first place. And so we're certainly hoping that if there is a bond hearing, these things will be taken into consideration because we would not like to see him back out on the streets.

VAN SUSTEREN: Samantha, thank you.

This was the police work at its very best. Police announced a suspect in the murder of the Clemson student, and within hours, in another state, police make the arrest. How did it all go down?

Joining us by phone is chief deputy G.W. McCoig of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. Deputy chief, when did you first get the call from South Carolina that they wanted this man?

G.W. MCCOIG, JEFFERSON COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: Around mid-day on the 6th, I received a call from agent-in-charge Bob Denny (ph) of the TBI to assist them in locating this subject. He had been on the TBI web site and saw that I'd registered him as a sex offender in our county.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So at about what — now, were you present at his arrest?

MCCOIG: Yes. I am the one who took him into custody.

VAN SUSTEREN: What time — or when did you — where did you first spot him, and at what time?

MCCOIG: It was approximately 11:30 on the 6th that I spotted him driving by his mother's and father's address.

VAN SUSTEREN: Now, you knew — you knew him, is that right, so you recognized him?

MCCOIG: Yes, I did.

VAN SUSTEREN: What happened next?

MCCOIG: As I pulled up behind him, he sped off. And as I caught up to him, got closer to his vehicle with my blue lights and siren activated, he pulled into a church parking lot. And at that time, I took him into custody.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. I take it that you approached his car cautiously, gun drawn for security?

MCCOIG: Yes, ma'am. I did.

VAN SUSTEREN: And did he seem to indicate that he recognized who you were?

MCCOIG: Yes, he did.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did he say — did he know you by name, at that point?

MCCOIG: Yes. I told him who I was, this is Bud, and asked Jerry to step out of the car, and he did.

VAN SUSTEREN: What did he say to you?

MCCOIG: At that time, I told him that we were wanting him for warrants out of South Carolina. And I said, do you know what we were wanting you for? And he nodded his head, yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did he say anything else at that time about the incident in South Carolina, which, of course, we know to be the murder of Tiffany Souers?

MCCOIG: Yes. We interviewed him about that case, and he did fully confess to...

VAN SUSTEREN: Did — I'm not going to ask you about the details. I'm going to spare the family and even the audience. But did he provide you details, which would then corroborate physical evidence in the apartment?

MCCOIG: Yes, he did.

VAN SUSTEREN: How long did you interview him?

MCCOIG: It was approximately an hour.

VAN SUSTEREN: How would you describe his demeanor?

MCCOIG: He would hold his head down. And we'd ask him questions, and he just barely looked up. And sometimes he would just answer with a nod.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did he say why?

MCCOIG: No. The only thing he would tell me about the situation about that, he said that he was a vicious animal.

VAN SUSTEREN: And what — how did you respond to that?

MCCOIG: We just interviewed him on about things that was — we had knowledge of about the crime scene, and he kept — he did confess and give quite detailed of a confession.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did he say why he picked out Tiffany Souers?

MCCOIG: He said he was just driving down the road and noticed her sitting on a balcony. And he — when he saw her, he just waited at that apartment until he thought she might be asleep.

VAN SUSTEREN: And did he — was it earlier in the evening, or was it after she had come home that night that he spotted her? I mean, did he, like, stalk her apartment?

MCCOIG: He saw her earlier, in the daylight, is my understanding, and then waited that night until he thought she was asleep.

VAN SUSTEREN: Any reason why he was even in that area?

MCCOIG: No. He said he was just driving. We'd tracked him on May the 22nd. He had raped a person in Sevierville, Tennessee, and left that location. And the next day, on May the 23rd, he stopped in DeKalb County, Alabama, and he attempted to rape a female there. And she witnessed to him, and he did not rape her. He just attempted to with a knife.

VAN SUSTEREN: Chief deputy, thank you very much. And of course, congratulations to you and all law enforcement. Great job. Thank you, sir.

MCCOIG: Thank you, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: He has been convicted of other sex crimes, escaped from jail and police say Jerry Inman, the 35-year-old registered sex offender, has struck again, more than once.

Joining us from Nashville, Tennessee, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, Mark Gwyn. Welcome, sir.

MARK GWYN, TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS DIR.: Good evening, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: Sir, tell me, other crimes. What is this man's history, and what is he now saying that he — in addition to Tiffany Souers, apparently is talking about other crimes?

GWYN: Well, we know that he was arrested and convicted in Florida for sexual battery, kidnapping, robbery. So he has a very violent history. We do believe he is a prime suspect in at least two other rapes or attempted rapes in Alabama and Tennessee.

VAN SUSTEREN: When did you, sir, first hear from South Carolina that they wanted this man, that they believed this man was the killer of Tiffany Souers?

GWYN: Well, we were in contact with South Carolina all day yesterday, Chief Stewart and the officials over there. When we learned that they were definitely going to seek murder warrants for Jerry Inman, I instructed the upper east division of the TBI to go ahead and locate Jerry Inman.

If he could not be located, I instructed them to begin surveilling any location that he was known to frequent. That's why we were surveilling his mother's home, and that's what led to his capture.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. And you were also watching his sister's. Doesn't he have a sister who lives near, as well?

GWYN: We were watching the sister and some other locations. Any location that we knew that he would frequent, we began to surveil those locations.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know where he was living? Was he actually living with his parents?

GWYN: We believe he was living with his mother there.

VAN SUSTEREN: So what did you do, set up cars all in the area, waiting for that drive-by because you knew what vehicle he was likely to be in? But was that sort of the stakeout of the parents' house?

GWYN: Yes, it was. We had agents in local law enforcement at several different locations, watching both the entrance and the exits of the locations in an attempt to locate him.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you make any contact with his parents before he was arrested?

GWYN: No, we do not think so. We think that he was out somewhere that we don't — an undetermined location and just was returning home when we were able to effect the arrest.

VAN SUSTEREN: And we should probably tell the viewers, I mean, that in many ways, this is an art. You got to make — you know, you got to make your arrest, make sure nobody else is killed, and you don't know — you don't know where he is, and you have to worry, as well, about the safety of your officers, don't you, sir?

GWYN: Absolutely. But this was a textbook operation. The cooperation between the state agencies was unprecedented, and I think that's what led to the quick apprehension of Jerry Inman.

VAN SUSTEREN: And of course, also, the intrastate cooperation because even in South Carolina, with the police, the solicitor, everyone was working pretty well in concert. This was textbook. Thank you, sir. Great job.

GWYN: Thank you.

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