The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has issued a Statewide Tennessee Blue Alert for a West Tennessee inmate who escaped and is a person of interest in the death of a Department of Correction employee.

Authorities say 44-year-old Curtis Ray Watson was discovered missing from the West Tennessee State Penitentiary after Correctional Administrator Debra Johnson was found dead at her home on prison property.

Johnson was discovered dead inside her home around 11:30 a.m. yesterday. Officials consider her death as foul play.

Watson was a minimum custody offender assigned to a job of farm laborer at the prison. He was serving a 15-year sentence on an especially aggravated kidnapping conviction in Henry County in 2013. His sentence was due to expire in 2025.

He had previously been convicted of aggravated child abuse out of Carroll County. That sentence expired in 2011.

Watson left the prison area on a tractor. Authorities found the tractor about a mile from the prison facility.

Watson stands 5’11”, weighs 140 pounds with brown eyes and a long grey beard. He has a variety of tattoos across his body. He is considered very dangerous.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Curtis Ray Watson, call 911 immediately.