JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The two men who found the bodies of two women on the side of the road told Action News the sight was disgusting and sickening.
The bodies were found in North Jacksonville Thursday morning. Police identified the victims as 19-year-old Angelia Ella Mangum and 18-year-old Tjhisha Monique Ball. Both girls were from Tampa.
Police are calling the case a double murder.
Jason Brown was on his way home after visiting his friend Alton Soles, when he saw the bodies on the side of the road.
“At first I thought it was one, and then I did a U-turn to see if it was a dead animal. That’s when we saw that it was one laying on top of another that looked like they were tossed from the overpass,” Brown said.
Soles says Brown returned immediately.
“They came back to use my phone. We rode around there, saw those two dead bodies and we called the cops,” Soles said.
The sight was horrific.
“Not too good. Blood splatter, they were naked, bound. They had like zip ties around their hands and their feet,” Soles said.
“They were hog tied like wild animals,” Brown said.
Soles thinks they were dropped from the overpass.
“If there wouldn’t have been blood splatter, I would say maybe they had been placed there. There was too much blood splatter for them to just be sat there,” he said.
Brown says the girls looked young, and as a father, he feels sympathy for their families.
“It’s disgusting, it’s sickening. One of my first thoughts was the parents,” Brown said.
“They were both young. They had tattoos, but their faces looked like they was no more than 18-20 years old,” Soles said.
Both men live in the area.
“This is the worst thing I’ve seen happen around here,” Soles said. “Sick individuals out here. Only sick people would do something like that.”
Brown says his prayers go out to the victims families, but he is not worried about his own.
“I’m not worried about my safety at all. From my understanding that wasn’t done there, it was done before and placed,” he said.
Brown and Soles think police could have responded more quickly. They called the police, and were asked to block off the road until they arrived.
“As far as their respond time, they can be a little faster because that’s a substation,” Brown said, pointing across the street.
The witnesses said it took police around 30 minutes to arrive.
Soles just hopes they catch the person responsible. “It turns your stomach to think that there’s people out here like that.
I love this side of town, I grew up over here, but it’s just getting worse and worse.
I love the Northside, but it’s just going downhill,” Soles said.
WJAX
