An arrest has been made in connection with a fire started in a Athens, TennesseeChurch and police say they believe the suspect killed a woman inside the fire.
A police report obtained by WZTV states that surveillance footage captured Kyle Jay Hickox in the area several times before and after the historic church was burned to the ground earlier this month.
According to the report, the victim found dead in the church, Linda Buchanan, did not die from the fire but was killed by another person before the fire ignited.
Hickox was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree murder. Additional charges pending.
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Kyle Jay Hickox was charged with second degree murder. (McMinn County Sheriff’s Office)
The surveillance footage allegedly captured Hickox on Aug. 15 running across the property of the nearby Athens YMCA and onto Tennessee Wesleyan University property.
He entered a maintenance building at the school where a worker inside ordered him to leave. Hickox, according to the report, replied that he was “going to get God’s water” before leaving the building.
The maintenance worker told investigators he then saw Hickox running toward St. Mark AME Zion Church and enter through the back door.
The victim found dead in the church, Linda Buchanan, did not die from the fire but was killed by another person before the fire ignited, police said. (Getty Images)
About 10 minutes later, Hickox was reportedly seen in the footage running through the YMCA property toward the college’s football field.
The suspect then took off his shirt and wrapped it around one hand. He also used a hose to spray the body away, surveillance footage showed.
The police executed a search warrant at Hickox’s Athens home two days later and found clothes they believe he was wearing when the church was set on fire.
Hickox told a maintenance worker that he “was going to get God’s water.” (iStock)
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab revealed that the blood on Hickox’s left shoe matched Buchanan’s blood.
Hickox was booked on McMinn County Jail but has since been released.