MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A 54-year-old man with a long criminal history is now suspected of a 10-day rampage in three states that includes the fatal shooting of his boss and the abduction of a university student who is still missing.
Leonard J. Young was arrested Monday at a former girlfriend's home 60 miles east of Memphis after the student's car was found just across the state line in Tippah County, Miss.The FBI and law officers from Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama spent the week trying to document Young's movements late last month.
Police say he has admitted abducting University of Memphis graduate student Hillary Johnson, 24, of Chicago. She disappeared Nov. 20, four days after Young allegedly killed his boss in Oxford, Miss.
During questioning, Young admitted carjacking Johnson near a Memphis supermarket but "claims he let her out on the highway," said chief deputy Mike Lawson of the Hardeman County Sheriff's Department.
Young was arraigned Wednesday in Oxford on charges he shot and killed 60-year-old William Bramlett on Nov. 16. Young worked as a handyman for Bramlett, and police say the killing started Young's crime spree.
He is being held without bond in Oxford. He has not been charged in Johnson's disappearance.
Searchers have not found any evidence indicating what happened to Johnson, FBI spokeswoman Kelli Sligh said.
Young's long criminal history includes charges on sex crimes in three states and two escapes from Tennessee prisons. During one escape, he was considered a suspect in a Mississippi slaying that remains unsolved.
Young's last prison time was in Mississippi, where he served five years for grand larceny. He was released Feb. 18, 1998.