A manhunt for a Pennsylvania man wanted for murder ended when U.S. Marshals and Pennsylvania state police found him at a Yonkers hotel.
Terence Leroy Ray, 55, was taken into custody without incident just before dawn on Thursday, May 8, at the Hilltop Inn & Suites on Tuckahoe Road, 12 days after he allegedly killed a woman in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, dumped her body and set it on fire.
Authorities in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, believe the victim, 39-year-old Jessica Lockwood, had met Ray to buy painkillers from him. Ray has been charged with criminal homicide, abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence, in Lockwood’s April 26 killing. The mother of two was a volunteer firefighter and ambulance technician and died from blunt force trauma and a gunshot wound.
It was not immediately revealed what led authorities to the Yonkers hotel. Ray appeared virtually before Westchester Judge Maurice Dean Williams on Friday and in person there on Wednesday, May 14. He waived extradition, agreeing to be picked up by Pennsylvania authorities from the Westchester County jail to be returned to Luzerne County to face the charges.
Pennsylvania police found Jessica Lockwood’s body near Terence Leroy Ray’s home
Police were contacted on the afternoon of April 26 after Lockwood failed to pick up her son as scheduled. According to a criminal complaint filed by Hazelton police, her family tracked down her cell phone, which had been dumped by the side of a road, and took it to police.
They discovered her last text messages with someone named ‘Og.’ They interviewed Lockwood’s husband, who was in jail, and he told them his wife had become addicted to pain medicine following neck surgeries and they would buy pills from ‘Og,’ who police learned was Ray.
On April 27, Lockwood’s body was discovered wrapped in tarp and smoldering along the side of Club 40 Road less than two miles from Ray’s home. License plate readers showed his car had been the last one to enter the area where the body was found.
Police found Lockwood’s car near where Ray lived and a search warrant executed at his home revealed a bloody scene, including live 9mm rounds and a 9mm shell casing, fabric consistent with what was wrapped around Lockwood’s legs and part of a tarp that matched the one wrapped around the body. There was also a single gold stud earring that matched the one on Lockwood’s ear when her body was found.
When police viewed surveillance video from a neighbor’s home, Ray was seen moving Lockwood’s car and handling some of the garbage bags that were found saturated with blood, according to the complaint.
Police also said that a confidential informant told them she spoke with Ray hours after Lockwood’s body was discovered. “I (expletive) up bad. I won’t see you guys again,” she said Ray told her.
The complaint led to the arrest warrant for Ray that was executed Thursday in Yonkers.
The Hazleton Standard Speaker contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Man wanted in Pennsylvania murder arrested at Yonkers hotel
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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