Tenn. Police Make Arrest in Fatal House Fire

WHITE HOUSE, Tenn. --

Police have charged a convicted rapist with homicide, after a woman's body was found inside a burning home in Robertson County.

Jackie Dillon of Cotton Town was formally charged with the crime Monday night.

Authorities found the woman's body after responding to a house fire at 10 a.m. on Possum Trot Road. They now believe that woman was homeowner Marla Abel, though the victim's identity and cause of death won't be confirmed until an autopsy is complete.

Don Bennett, a lieutenant with the Robertson County Sheriff's Department, said an eyewitness saw a vehicle near the burning house. When a White House police officer spotted that same vehicle at a car wash on Highway 76 a short time later, authorities took the driver, Dillon, into custody.

Dillon is a registered sex offender who, according to the state Department of Correction, was released from prison in May 2008 after serving time for aggravated rape in Smyrna. He also served time for two Davidson County armed robberies in the 1980s.

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