Florida triple murder case: Two brothers and a woman arrested for gruesome killing of fishing buddies
BARTOW, FLORIDA: Florida police said on Wednesday, July 22, that two men and one woman have been arrested in connection to the triple murder case that happened on July 17. Damion Tillman, 23; Keven Springfield, 30; and Brandon Rollins, 27, were brutally killed when they went for a fishing trip to a popular lake in Frostproof, which is located around 70 miles south of Orlando in central Florida.
Now, police have arrested two brothers -- Tony "TJ" Wiggins, 26, and Robert Wiggins, 21, -- and the elder one’s 27-year-old girlfriend Mary Whittemore for allegedly murdering all the three men. "We have locked up the three people responsible for the murders of these guys," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Describing what apparently happened on the night of the incident, Judd said all the three accused followed the victims after overhearing their fishing plans in a local Dollar General store on July 17. Tony reportedly wanted to confront Springfield over “some kind of truck deal”. The sheriff said: "The only conflict we see is this - 'Where's my truck? I heard you stole the engine out of my truck.’”
Judd also said that all three suspects were found “living off the grid” in two travel trailers on Monday, July 20. Along with them, police also discovered two SKS rifles, two Mossberg shotguns, and ammunition for both in a gun safe belonging to the elder Wiggins in one of the trailers. Tony, with a lengthy criminal history including 230 felonies, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder while his younger brother faces three counts of accessory to murder and tampering with evidence. The woman has been charged with three counts of accessory to murder. Judd also deemed Tony as “evil in the flesh”.
In a statement on Wednesday, police said: “During a search of the crime scene, detectives found a Dollar General bag and receipt dated the night of the murders, and worked their way backwards from there. They responded to the Dollar General store, and retrieved store video surveillance that showed one of the victims - Damion Tillman - making some purchases.
“Detectives spoke with the clerk, who knows Damion as a frequent customer. The clerk told detectives that Damion said he was going fishing. The clerk also saw the suspects in the store at the same time, and they are also seen in the video. The clerk told detectives that the suspects heard Damion say he was going fishing, and that Keven would be with him, as the clerk listened to all of them talk to each other about it.”
Continuing further, police added: “The search warrant at the trailer also yielded ammunition that was compared to the shell casings found at the scene of the triple homicide. The ammunition was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) lab for testing. The FDLE expedited the testing. The test results came back positive - the ammunition found in the trailer is the same ammunition fired from the gun that night, a Smith & Wesson handgun.”
It has also been reported that after allegedly killing the victims, the Wiggins brothers and Whittemore went to a nearby McDonald's and ordered ten double cheeseburgers and two McChicken sandwiches.