Police Locate Person of Interest in South Tampa Murder

Tampa Police have located the person of interest in the arson and homicide investigation of a house fire early Thursday morning on Interbay Boulevard.

Police were seeking a white female who drove a four-door white car to a nearby convenience store. They saw the woman on the store’s surveillance video.

The driver walked in and out of the store several times. During one visit, she was wore a pink bandana on her head. She appeared in the video a second time without the bandana. The woman told the store clerk that she was from Lakeland, police said.

After local media showed the video, police were able to locate the woman, according to a police spokesperson.

Tampa Fire Rescue responded Thursday morning to a call reporting the fire in the area of Interbay Boulevard and South Dale Mabry Boulevard. When they responded to the scene at 1:39 a.m. they encountered the burning two-story building at 6709 Interbay, Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Lonnie Benniefield said.

After an initial search, they found 65-year-old Richard Lee Blackman in the living room of the house. Police said he lived alone.

Blackman was rushed to Tampa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.