Slaying suspect on state Tennessee Sex Offender Registry

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Terry Releford

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The man suspected in the slaying of a woman early Sunday is a twice-convicted rapist and lives at the house where the attack took place, according to the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry.

Authorities are looking for Terry Releford, 34, whom the registry says lives at 8912 Lovell Road near Soddy-Daisy.

Hamilton County Sheriff's Office deputies were called about 8 a.m. to the home, where they found a woman dead. No information has been released on her identity or the cause of death, but authorities said it was a homicide.

The sheriff's office is looking for Releford. He's 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 230 pounds and drives a red 1994 Dodge Ram, license plate number G4090B.

The Sex Offender Registry lists a secondary address for Releford on Bent Oak Trail in Cleveland, Tenn.

Releford was convicted twice of aggravated rape in separate cases in August and December of 1997, according to registry files.

Chattanooga Times Free Press archives show that Releford was living in Cleveland when he was arrested in December 1997, at age 18, in connecting with the kidnapping and rape of a Meigs County woman whose car ran out of gas on Interstate 75 near a closed rest area.

He was free on bond from an August 1997 arrest, when police said he and another man went to a woman's home, forced her into her car and drove her to a remote area in Bradley County. Police said the pair beat, choked and raped her, then turned her loose near her house.

Hamilton County authorities said Releford should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to please call dispatchers at 423-622-0022.