018 - The Murder of Garrett Phillips

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2017

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Twelve year old Garrett Phillips walked the five blocks home from school during the early evening hours of October 24th, 2011. Shortly after arriving at the second floor apartment where he lived with his mother and half-brother, an unknown assailant attacked and strangled him. Though Garrett survived the initial attack, he would pass away two hours later at Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

Almost immediately, police zeroed in on a single suspect: Oral “Nick” Hillary, Garrett’s mother, Tandy Cyrus’ ex-boyfriend. Despite the possibility of other suspects, and no physical evidence tying Hillary to the crime, he would remain the prime suspect for several years until a new, upstart candidate won the position of St. Lawrence County District Attorney and indicted him on charges of second degree murder. The town became split, with many believing Hillary was guilty, and others standing by his side and arguing that one of Tandy’s other ex-boyfriends may have been responsible: Sheriff’s Deputy John Jones.

Fingerprints and DNA evidence were recovered from the scene of the crime, and police theorize that the killer gained entry to the apartment and escaped via a second floor window, dropping twenty feet down to the pavement. Both Jones and Hillary had previously possessed keys to the apartment, and both had difficult breakups with Tandy. After a two week trial, Hillary was acquitted on all charges in 2016 due to a lack of evidence.

All of these years later, and many still believe Hillary is guilty, regardless of being found innocent, while others feel the police railroaded Hillary to cover-up for one of their own. Five years after this monstrous crime, and there have been no answers nor justice found for Garrett Phillips. Did Nick Hillary murder his ex-girlfriends son, blaming him for the breakup? Did John Jones concoct a plan and kill twelve year old Garrett in order to punish Tandy and frame Hillary? Or did a yet unknown suspect commit this disturbing crime and skate away scot free when police focused their investigation elsewhere?

Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines the very disturbing murder of twelve year old Garrett Phillips and the ensuing storm of political manipulation, evidence contamination and an investigation with tunnel vision.

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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/garrett-phillips

Transcript

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0:00.0	12-year-old Garrett Phillips lived with his mother and half-brother in an old apartment
0:11.9	building on Market Street in Potsdam, New York.
0:16.0	Garrett's mother had recently ended her relationship with a local college soccer coach and moved
0:20.6	her and the kids into their new place and was happy to find it was just five blocks away
0:26.0	from Garrett's school.
0:28.2	In the small town, Tandy Cyrus felt his son was safe walking himself home from school
0:33.4	and he had a key to let himself into the apartment when he arrived there.
0:37.9	After their move, Tandy alleged that her recent ex, Oral Hillary, known to his friends
0:43.0	as Nick, entered the apartment multiple times without her permission and that on at least
0:47.8	one occasion, she awoke to find him entering her bedroom in the middle of the night.
0:53.0	It was raining during the early evening of October 24, 2011, when Tandy called her
0:58.4	son Garrett after school and told him to get home and start on his homework.
1:03.2	Surveillance cameras and eye witnesses would track Garrett's short trip from the parking
1:06.8	lot where he was playing basketball to his family's apartment building.
1:11.4	Strangely, these same witnesses and cameras would also see a light blue SUV following him,
1:17.8	very much like the one Nick Hillary drove, and Garrett would also be seen having a conversation
1:22.6	on the sidewalk with Tandy's other ex-boyfriend, Sheriff's Deputy John Jones.
1:28.2	Garrett arrived home at approximately 5pm and within minutes, his across the hall neighbor
1:33.6	was on the phone with 911, reporting sounds of a struggle and cries for help.
1:39.0	By the time police gained entrance to the apartment, the young boy was found laying on the floor
1:43.6	of the master bedroom, the victim of strangulation.
1:47.3	He was rushed to the hospital but passed away two hours after he had been attacked.
	...

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