JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As Aiden Fucci awaits his sentencing, the State Attorney’s office has released new evidence that would have been used in his trial. Fucci pleaded guilty to first-degree murder within the month of the killing of his schoolmate, 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey, on Mother’s Day in 2021.
In new discovery, detectives released interviews they conducted with several people, including Fucci, Tristyn’s sister, and the man who found Tristyn the night of the murder.
“Are you Aiden?” a detective says to Fucci in the midst of the search.
“Yes ma’am,” he responds.
“I’m detective Peluso, I’m a detective here with the Sheriff’s office. We are trying to figure out where Tristyn is at,” she tells Fucci.
It’s one of the first encounters the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office had with Fucci. A detective approached him as they were still searching for Tristyn. At this point in the interview, she was considered missing.
Fucci told detectives they were at a friend’s house and he wanted to get home, he said he pushed her because something made him angry. Fucci said she may have been down a certain path.
“There’s like a trail that goes super deep down there,” Fucci says.
“Down into the woods?” the detective responds.
“Yes ma’am,” Fucci says.
“Have you heard from her at all?” the detective asked.
Fucci said no.
“Now down this path, you’re telling me about, is this a place where kids go to do drugs or to drink?” the detective said.
“It’s usually a place where we chill out do acid....smoke weed,” Fucci said.
During the search, detectives also spoke with Tristyn’s sister.
“I was making pancakes for everyone and told my brother to go wake her up, and that’s when we found out she was missing,” says Tristyn Bailey’s sister. Her sister said she last saw Tristyn just after midnight on Sunday when she was on FaceTime with a boy, but she assumed Tristyn eventually went upstairs.
Tristyn’s sister said this had never happened to her before, and she had never heard of her sneaking out.
The search ended in heartbreak. Investigators said Fucci stabbed Tristyn more than 100 times in Durbin crossing, less than a half-mile from Fucci’s house in the neighborhood where they both lived.
“I went for a run and my wife mentioned maybe checking the woods here at the end of the cul-de-sac and the pond at end of the property next to us,” a neighbor in the area said.
Tristyn was found by a jogger in the area, who detectives also interviewed. He told investigators where exactly he found her and said he called 911 right away.
Fucci has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder within the last month. Sentencing will begin on March 21.
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