Action News Jax reporter Jenna Bourne received a two-page handwritten letter written behind bars by the man police are investigating after pulling the remains of a young woman's body out of his home on Jacksonville's Southside last month.
Russell Tillis' neighbors have called it a "house of horrors."
Tillis remains in Duval County Jail, where he’s been locked up since May on charges unrelated to the body found in his home.
The letter is addressed from the jail and stamped by the Department of Corrections.
“I could show you letters that we get from the jail or from prisoners. They’re not like that at all,” said Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert and former FBI special agent Dale Carson.
Carson said the clear handwriting, tight margins, numbered pages and formal subject line of the letter tells you a lot about Tillis.
“A lot of thought has gone into this. A lot of preparation. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least that if you pulled his trash, you’d find three drafts,” said Carson.
In the letter, Tillis sets specific parameters.
Tillis said he wants to talk to Bourne about the evidence he said he has that Jacksonville Sheriff's officers fabricated crimes against him.
Officers said they were injured by booby traps in Tillis’ yard when they arrested him on active warrants in May.
Tillis also said in his letter he wants to talk about the human remains found on his property and reveal another person he said JSO is targeting in that investigation.
“Here he has created himself in a controlling position where he is now the victim of all of this. He’s innocent, he’s a victim, he needs to be interviewed to get his story out there. That’s the surface. But the truth of the matter is, he’s lost his ability to control things. And that makes them crazy,” said Carson.
Action News Jax was there when JSO pulled the body of a young woman with shoulder-length brown hair from his home in February.
JSO spent more than a week searching Tillis’ house and yard for more bodies, but only found the one.
JSO later asked the public for help identifying an unnamed woman in a Polaroid photo. Two sources independently confirmed to Action News Jax that investigators are trying to figure out whether she's connected to the Tillis investigation.
Cox Media Group
