Police say he admitted to snapping her neck and choking her before allegedly wrapping her in a rug and leaving the property.
Authorities in Champaign County, Illinois, apprehended the fugitive at a truck stop after he allegedly tried to break into a farmer's combine machine, with the farmer still inside, and took him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, reported The Morning Call.
A sheriff's official said the 34-year-old was acting strangely and was not making sense.
Meanwhile, troopers in Pennsylvania searched Tucker's home after being contacted by Tara Serino's father and discovered the woman's lifeless body in a bedroom. Her injuries appeared consistent with Tucker's confession.
Tara's father, Fred Serino, told police he last saw his daughter at 12.38am on October 30 when she went out, promising her parents to give them a call later to tell them she was fine. That call never came.
At 9.30pm on October 31, Serino called state police in Hamburg, asking them to perform a welfare check at Christopher Tucker's home.
Troopers were dispatched to the address but could not reach anyone inside the house.
The next day, Fred Serino got a visit from Tucker's father, whom he did not know. John Tucker said he had been contacted by a hospital in Illinois saying his son was undergoing an evaluation there following his arrest at a truck stop.
Tucker also told Serino that some of Tara's belongings, including her purse and phone, were in his son's home and that he wished to return them. It's unclear whether or not the suspect's father saw Tara's body when he entered his son's house.
Following Tucker's visit, at around 1.30pm on November 1, Fred Serino contacted police to report his daughter missing, leading to the gruesome discovery.
Christopher Tucker will be extradited back to Pennsylvania to face murder charges, as well as counts of aggravated assault and possession of an instrument of crime.
Tucker had been arrested just days before Serino's killing on DUI and drug possession charges in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He was released from jail after posting bail on October 27. His past criminal record also includes two other DUI arrests.
According to her obituary, Serino graduated from Parkland High School in 2015 and had an interest in nature photography. She was described as "generous, artistic and open-minded, and had a positive outlook on life".
She is survived by her parents and two older siblings, a brother and sister.
- Additional reporting by the Daily Mail UK
