Oak Ridge manhunt ends with capture of slaying suspect

Wanted Juan Carlos Diaz Perez has been taken into custody. He was located and arrested near the Oak Ridge Quarry by the U.S. Marshals Smokey Mountain Fugitive Task Force. Diaz Perez is being transported back to Knoxville.

The Oak Ridger will update this story as more information becomes available.

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The body of 18-year-old Suceli Perez was found in the bed of a pickup truck Oak Ridge police found Monday on the west end of the city. The woman is the girlfriend of a suspect officers from several law enforcement agencies are now searching for in west Oak Ridge.

Knoxville police think she died from blunt force trauma after they searched a home on the 1200 block of Mercer Street in Knoxville. They're waiting for autopsy results.

Warrants charge the suspect, 20-year-old Juan Carlos Diaz Perez, with first-degree murder, according to the KPD. Anyone who sees him is instructed not to approach him but call 911.

The KPD has asked for help from the U.S. Marshals Service, which is leading the search. Evidence suggests he is still in the Oak Ridge area, possibly near the Oak Ridge quarry on the west end of the city, Knoxville police said in a news release.

Also involved in the search are officers from Knoxville and Oak Ridge police departments, the Roane County and Blount County sheriffs' offices.

The KPD said they received a third-party report July 22 that a man had gravely injured his girlfriend. Detectives and forensic specialists went to the home and found evidence of "a potentially deadly assault," they said. Neither the suspect or victim were there when officers arrived.

Mercer Street is in the Western Heights area of Knoxville, northwest of downtown, according to Scott Erland, Knoxville Police Department spokesman.

Police say the suspect left in a white pickup truck, which was located by Oak Ridge police off of the Oak Ridge Turnpike near Sweet Gum Lane.

The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on Twitter@ridgernewsed.

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This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Oak Ridge manhunt ends with capture of slaying suspect