Sex crime fugitive commits suicide

STARKE, Fla. – Police officers sent to check out a tip that a man wanted on multiple charges of rape and other sex crimes in Putnam County was at a hotel in Starke found the man dead inside one of the rooms.

According to the Stake Police Department, officers went to the Best Western on Temple Avenue just after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday trying to locate Timothy Brian Raulerson.  They found a vehicle believed to be the fugitive's in the parking lot but they not no response at the door of the room that he had rented.

With the vehicle being present and the arrest warrant being confirmed, officers responded as if there was a barricaded subject in the room. Officers forced their way inside of the room and located Raulerson dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"The location and position of the deceased along with additional evidence in the room is consistent with a suicide," Starke Police Captain Barry Warren said.

The body was released to the Eighth Judicial Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.

Raulerson was wanted on five counts of sexual battery and engaging in sexual conduct with a minor age 12 to 18.