Florida detectives said Saturday they were investigating the deaths of three close friends who were driving to a lake at night to fish and were beaten and shot.
It happened on a Friday night around 10 p.m. at Lake Streety in Frostproof.
“This is a horrible scene,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters from the scene on Saturday morning. “I’ve been to a lot of murder scenes and this is among the worst I’ve ever been to.”
Polk Sheriff Grady Judd briefed reporters Saturday at the scene of a triple homicide at Lake Streety in Frostproof, Florida.
(Polk County Sheriff’s Office)
Judd identified the victims as Damion Tillman, 23; Keven Springfield, 30, and Brandon Rollins, 27, all frost-proof, and said they had been “butchered.”
He said the fishing spot was “as far away from the forest as possible.”
The victims were attacked when they arrived at the scene minutes apart in two trucks, authorities said.
Judd said detectives were called to the scene by Rollins’ father, who said he was asleep when his son called and said “help.”
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He knew where his son was and got there in 10 minutes, the sheriff said. When he got there, he found his son barely alive, and Tillman and Springfield dead.
Judd said the father called 911 from a gas station, having left his cell phone behind when he ran out of the house after receiving the call from his son.
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The sheriff said the son was able to speak to the father, but that the things he said “we are not releasing at this time.”
He said Rollins died before paramedics arrived.
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In response to a journalist’s question, Judd said it was too early to say if the victims knew the killers “but our intuition tells us that you just don’t bump into someone here.”
