By Bob Kalinowski
The Citizens’ Voice
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Prosecutors have launched a manhunt against a man accused of fatally beating and shooting a woman before burning her body along a roadside last month, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce announced Monday.
Authorities filed charges of homicide, abuse of corpse, and tampering with evidence against Terence Leroy Ray, whose last known address was 137 Muir Ave. in Hazleton.
Ray has fled the area and should be considered armed and dangerous, Sanguedolce said, advising that the suspect should not be approached by the public.
The 55-year-old is accused of murdering Jessica Lockwood, 39, a volunteer firefighter, ambulance technician and mother of two on April 27 in Hazleton.
Police say Lockwood had been suffering from chronic pain from neck surgeries and had been purchasing painkiller pills from Ray.
“That’s the only relationship we know of,” Sanguedolce said.
Sanguedolce said investigators believe they know why Ray killed Lockwood.
“We have a theory we are not prepared to make public yet,” Sanguedolce said.
Lockwood’s bloodied, naked body was located on fire along Club 40 Road in Hazleton around 7 a.m. on April 27, a day after she was reported missing after failing to pick up her juvenile son.
A search of her cell phone — which was located along Route 424 using a tracking app on her son’s phone — determined the last person Lockwood was in contact with was someone she saved in her phone as “Og.”
Lockwood and “Og” exchanged several text messages on April 26 presumably about buying drugs until her last known communication when she wrote, “Here. I have to get my son,” police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause that was filed April 29, but only unsealed on Monday.
Investigators determined “Og” to be Ray.
Authorities further confirmed “Og” to be Ray after interviewing Lockwood’s husband, James, in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. James Lockwood was sentenced earlier in April to one year in prison for shooting a gun at a jeep full of teenagers who were caught trespassing on the property of the Harwood Volunteer Fire Company in Hazle Twp., where he and his wife were members.
James Lockwood said his wife had been purchasing painkillers from “Og” and she developed an addiction. He said he always accompanied his wife to the transactions in an alley behind Ray’s house prior to him being sentenced to prison.
Police say they confirmed Ray is prescribed Percocet pills from a doctor.
During a search of Ray’s apartment, police found pools and trails of blood throughout the home and in garbage cans in the backyard, police said.
They also found one of Lockwood’s gold-plated diamond earrings, police said. She was only wearing one when her partially charred body was located.
An autopsy determined Lockwood was shot in the upper right chest and was badly beaten, leading to broken ribs, a shattered clavicle and head trauma.
Police said they reviewed license plate detectors at the entrance to Club 40 Road and a Ford Explorer registered to Ray’s wife was the last vehicle to enter and leave the road minutes prior to Lockwood’s body being spotted on fire.
It has been confirmed Ray’s wife was in upstate New York at the time, police said.
When investigators visited Lockwood in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility to inform him about his wife’s death, he said he had called “Og” after his wife went missing.
“Og” said she never showed up at a prearranged meeting and he didn’t know where she is, police said.
Police said they also spoke to a confidential informant who said she spoke to Ray hours after the reports that a woman’s body was found on fire in Hazleton.
“I (expletive) up bad. I won’t see you guys again,” Ray reportedly said.
Since that conversation, calls to Ray’s cell phone go straight to voicemail, police said.
Sangurdolce said authorities are committed to bringing Ray to justice and are seeking the public’s help in locating him.
“We are far from the end of the road on this case,” Sanguedolce said.
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