DANDRIDGE, Tenn. – A registered sex offender was in custody Wednesday after authorities said his DNA was found in the apartment of a Clemson University student who was strangled with her bikini top. Jerry Buck Inman, 35, was arrested without incident late Tuesday after sheriff’s deputies spotted his car driving past his parents’ home in Dandridge, about 30 miles east of Knoxville, Jefferson County Sheriff David Davenport said.

“He showed back up, and by God we got him and we’re going to send him back to South Carolina,” Davenport told The Associated Press.

Inman was arrested on warrants for murder, rape and kidnapping, and was being held in the county jail pending a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Tiffany Marie Souers, a 20-year-old civil engineering junior from Ladue, Mo., was wearing only a bra when she was found May 26 on the bedroom floor in her off-campus apartment. The bikini top was still around her neck and her wrists and ankles were bound. Inman’s DNA matched samples taken from Souers’ apartment, said Robert Stewart, division chief of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement.

Souers’ brother said he was smiling from ear-to-ear when he learned Inman had been arrested.

“I gave my mom a hug and she said she felt happy for the first time in a while,” 16-year-old Trevor Souers said. “I was just really relieved.” Inman was registered as a sex offender in Florida and North Carolina. Davenport said his department had been told by South Carolina authorities to look for Inman, whose family moved to the area from Florida. Authorities staked out the relatives’ homes and spotted Inman driving by in a red Chevy Blazer around 11:45 p.m.

Chief Deputy Bob McCoyg pulled him over and arrested him without incident. No weapons were found on Inman, but deputies weren’t able to fully search the truck, which has been sealed to protect any evidence and will be shipped back to South Carolina.

“He talked with us, and he was cooperative. He told us where he has been,” Davenport said.

Souers’ apartment building is in the back of a sprawling three-story apartment complex about three miles from Clemson’s campus, which is about 100 miles southeast of Dandridge. A construction site of new townhouses is adjacent.

Inman was a construction worker, but authorities didn’t know whether he had worked near the apartments. Davenport said Inman was fired last week from a construction company in neighboring Sevier County, Tenn., but it was not clear how long he had worked there.

Inman’s mother, Vera McArthur, told The Greenville News that her son is bipolar and often suicidal and had no idea South Carolina authorities were looking for him. She said he had been doing construction work in Tennessee, but didn’t think he had been in South Carolina recently.