A family of four, including two children, ages 5 and 6, who went missing last week may be dead after law enforcement officers found human remains during a search of a property in Hudson, Florida, authorities said.
The property’s owner, 25-year-old Rory Atwood, has been charged with first-degree murder, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement..
Sheriff Chris Nocco said at a press conference Saturday that the body found on the Atwood property has not yet been identified, but investigators believe it may belong to a missing family member. For now, the sheriff’s office is identifying the body as that of a John Doe.
Investigators say 26-year-old Rain Mancini, 25-year-old Phillip Gilliott II, 6-year-old Karma Gilliott and 5-year-old Phillip Gilliott III were last seen around 12:30 a.m. on June 12 near Nottingham Trail in Hudson.
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Rain Mancini was last seen on June 12th. (Pasco County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities said Mancini was picked up by a friend at his mother’s house around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was then driven to Atwood’s home on Nottingham Trail.
Nocco said that was the last time Mancini’s mother saw her daughter.
Officials said Mancini, her friend Gilliott II and Atwood were at the home with Mancini and Gilliott II’s two children and Atwood’s daughter, during which the adults had been drinking alcohol, according to the sheriff’s office.
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Philip Gilliott II and his family were last seen on June 12 in Hudson, Florida. (Pasco County Sheriff’s Office)
Gilliot II and his mother spoke by phone around midnight that night.
“Layne’s three friends, Per Layne, Phillip and Laurie, had been drinking and an argument began,” Nocco said. Investigators are still working to determine what happened that night, but around 2 a.m., Atwood allegedly made a frantic call to a friend saying he had shot someone.
Nocco said it took at least 12 hours before anyone contacted the sheriff’s office, and at that point, the information coming in was third or fourth-hand.
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Karma and Phillip Gilliott were last seen with their parents on June 12 in Hudson, Florida. (Pasco County Sheriff’s Office)
On Thursday evening, police, with Atwood’s permission, searched his property, which is about 10 acres of rural land, and authorities found nothing out of the ordinary.
On Wednesday evening, investigators spoke with Mancini’s mother, who said she did not know where her daughter was and had not spoken to her since Wednesday.
Police returned to Atwood’s property on Friday night to search for the missing family and discovered human remains.
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Rory Atwood has been charged with murder after police officers searching for a missing family member found human remains on his property on Wednesday night. (Pasco County Sheriff’s Office)
“As a result of this and several confessions, Rory Atwood has been charged with first-degree murder,” Nocco said.
A missing person case remains ongoing pending identification of the body.
The sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the investigation is ongoing and no new information has been provided regarding the identity of the body.
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Anyone with information on the whereabouts of these individuals is asked to call the Pasco Sheriff’s Office emergency line at 727-847-8102, option 7, or report the information online. pascosheriff.com/tips.
