TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A newly released court document revealed new details in an investigation into the disappearance of an entire family in Pasco County.
On June 15, the Pasco Sheriff’s Office announced that Rory Atwood, 25, of Hudson was arrested on a murder charge after human remains were found on his property.
At the time, deputies were searching for a missing family of four: Phillip Zilliot II, 25; Rain Mancini 26; and their two children, 5-year-old Phillip Zilliot III and 6-year-old Karma Zilliot. The family were said to be Atwood’s previous roommates.
“We believe it may be this family, but at the same time, I can’t give a definitive until…the [medical examiner] gives us final confirmation that it is,” Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said Saturday.
According to a criminal complaint affidavit, Pasco County deputies first began looking for the family after getting a request to do a welfare check on June 13.
The woman who called the sheriff’s office told deputies Atwood contacted her brother on a video call to help him burn some trash. The affidavit said the caller’s brother noticed a pool of blood and the bodies of adults and children through the video call.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies arrived at Atwood’s home on Nottingham Trail in Hudson and spoke with the defendant, who said he last saw the Zilliot family walking away from his property on the evening of June 12.
Deputies said they did not find anything suspicious in their first search of the home and yard, but they noticed a fire pit in the backyard that was “actively smoldering and smoking.”
However, on June 14, the sheriff’s office got another call from a man who said Atwood admitted to killing the couple and their children.
Deputies followed up on the call and spoke with Atwood who said the family had not returned. He also said the family had taken their belongings out of the home two weeks earlier after Atwood kicked them out for not paying their rent.
Investigators said when authorities searched the home, they found items belonging to the family. When asked, Atwood said the victims did not have time to take those items with them.
In an interview with another detective, the suspect said Mancini told him she was going to stay at a women’s shelter with her children while their father was going to stay in a tent at a nearby park, as stated in the affidavit.
Deputies also searched the property and inspected the fire pit, which appeared to be 10 feet in diameter and had “various unburned items on the top and ash and various burned debris at the base.”
According to the affidavit, a cadaver dog removed “small skeletal remains” from the fire pit.
The document said F1RST Forensic Science Administrator Austin Polonitza responded to the scene and found several fragments of human long bones on the surface of the fire pit and “two apparent human vertebrae, all of which had apparent thermal damage to them.”
Polonitza also determined that the remains the cadaver dog found were a part of a human skeleton that still had soft tissue.
The affidavit said in addition to these remains, deputies also noticed a possible scent of chlorine on the front porch, but the cadaver dog detected the scent of human remains in the area, although it could not pinpoint them.
According to the document, the defendant told a detective they might find horse bones on his property and asked “how fast human flesh would decompose, suggested bodies wouldn’t decompose in a day.”
Detectives spoke with several of Atwood’s acquaintances, including his 4-year-old daughter, during their investigation.
Authorities said Atwood’s daughter told them that the suspect got into an argument with Mancini at his house. She also said Phillip Zilliot II and the couple’s children were also at the home.
The 4-year-old’s mother told detectives that she got a call from Atwood at 2:57 a.m. on June 13 saying there was a fight and that she had to take their daughter. She said when he arrived, he was acting abnormally, according to detectives.
Another man who was best friends with Atwood and Phillip Zilliot II said he got a FaceTime call from Atwood at about 2 a.m. that morning. The affidavit said in the call, Atwood admitted to killing Phillip Zilliot II and Mancini during an argument on the porch.
Meanwhile, a woman who visited Atwood’s home on the evening of June 12 told detectives she last saw Mancini sitting on a couch while Phillip Zilliot II paced around the living room. Deputies said this couch was not in the home when they searched it on June 14.
On Saturday, June 15, detectives interviewed Atwood again, who initially denied involvement in the victims’ deaths.
However, detectives said he eventually admitted that the bodies of the entire Zilliot family were burned in the fire pit.
According to the affidavit, Atwood claimed that he was attacked by a knife-wielding Phillip Zilliot II while Mancini threatened Atwood’s daughter with a knife.
The suspect said the fight later continued in the living room near the front door where he and Phillip Zilliot fought over a handgun.
He said during their struggle, the gun went off and shot Mancini multiple times. The suspect then said he used the gun to kill Phillip Zilliot with two gunshots to the head, according to the affidavit.
Detectives said Atwood told them he believed the fire pit was started by the couple, not him.
However, the sheriff’s office said despite his story, the suspect did not have any “significant injuries” on his body from a fight, even though he said he was punched several times on the left side of the head.
According to the affidavit, the suspect did not mention what happened to the children in his initial statement, but he claimed the couple killed their own children and denied seeing them after they went to their room earlier that evening.
Detectives said Atwood told them he dragged the couple to the fire pit and put them in there, along with a blood-covered couch and the firearm used in the incident.
“The defendant informed your affiant he didn’t remember cleaning the interior of the residence, but if he did clean, then he would have disposed of the towels and/or cleaning items into the fire,” the affidavit said.
Despite Atwood’s story of self-defense, detectives said their investigation led them to believe Atwood caused the premeditated murder of at least Phillip Zilliot II and/or Mancini and then tried to conceal it by discarding the evidence.
“During a post-Miranda interview, the defendant admitted to involvement in the death of both adult victims and he admitted to knowledge both juveniles (Phillip Zilliot III and Karma Zilliot) were also burned in the same fire pit,” the affidavit said.
As of this report, the identities of the remains found in the fire pit have not been officially released as detectives await results from the medical examiner. Detectives were also still sifting through the ashes of the fire pit Monday morning.
Atwood was charged with at least one count of first-degree murder, but other charges could be pending as the investigation continues.
