MISSING MARATHON TEEN FOUND IN ALABAMA

A14-year-old girl who went missing from Marathon on the morning of June 14 was found in Alabama within 36 hours, according to Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay and family members in communication with the Weekly.

Social media posts began circulating Wednesday afternoon when the family of Phoebee Elizabeth Ritchie reported her as missing. According to the posts, Ritchie was last seen at a bus stop in Marathon around 7 a.m., but did not report to summer school in Marathon as expected.

Various reports sent to the Weekly throughout that night and the morning of June 15 detailed slightly different versions of events. Speaking with the Weekly at 1 p.m. on June 15, Ramsay said that the Sheriff’s Office believed the incident was a case of a runaway, not an abduction.

“This is not someone that we believe was a snatch-and-grab from a bus stop. … It’s still important, still concerning, and she’s been listed into state and national databases as a missing runaway,” he said. He reiterated several times that MCSO did not believe the case was a “nefarious foul play situation” at that time.

Ramsay said that an interview with the girl’s grandmother and primary caregiver, Audrey Curtiss, showed “a change in (Phoebee’s) routine” the day before she was reported as missing, and that he believed there had been prior confrontation between Ritchie and Curtiss.

An update to the original social media post around 4 p.m. on June 15 indicated that Ritchie had been found.

Ramsay confirmed to the Weekly at 4:30 p.m. the same day that Ritchie had been located in Alabama and that the case was a runaway as expected, with no foul play involved. It was not immediately clear how the teen had reached her final destination.

Speaking with the Weekly in follow-up messages on June 19, Curtiss confirmed Ritchie had been found and had returned to Marathon, but disputed earlier reports of confrontation between the two, saying there “had not been any problems with Phoebee in over a year.”

“Thank you to the men and women on the police force who were so diligent in searching for her and bringing her back home safely,” she said.

Woman Arrested In Fatal Shooting Of Boyfriend On Big Coppitt Key

ROOMMATE CALLED 911, SAID THE COUPLE HAD BEEN ARGUING AFTER DRINKING

MANDY MILES mandy@keysweekly.com

Ashooting early Saturday morning at a house on Big Coppitt Key led to the death of Tyler Nulisch, 30, and the arrest of his girlfriend, Brittany Holbrook, 33, for murder.

Jordan Kinn, the couple’s roommate in the home at 491 Avenue F, called 911 just before 3 a.m. on June 17, saying “his roommate, Tyler Nulisch, ‘is in bad shape. He’s hurt real bad and there is a lot of blood,’” according to the arrest affidavit provided to the Keys Weekly by the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.

Deputies and detectives from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrived within five minutes, followed immediately by paramedics from Monroe County Fire Rescue.

The victim, Nulisch, was lying on the living room floor, bleeding from his lower back. A 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun was visible to investigators, along with a spent shell casing on the floor near a dog kennel, the affidavit states.

The roommate said he was aware of two handguns in the home, one of which was owned by Holbrook, who told police she had been in a dating relationship with the victim for about nine months, and was living with him in the Big Coppitt home.

When paramedics and deputies arrived, Nulisch was unconscious, but breathing. He was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center, where he died an hour later.

Kinn, the roommate, who had been sleeping in his bedroom, told investigators his roommates had been arguing, and he was later awakened by Holbrook’s scream.

When he went to the living room to investigate, Nulisch was lying on the floor bleeding and was in and out of consciousness. When the roommate asked the victim what had happened, Nulisch reportedly said, “The bitch shot me in the back,” according to the arrest affidavit.

Kinn told detectives Holbrook hadn’t responded when the victim said she had shot him in the back.

Kinn was neither charged nor arrested.

He told detectives the three roommates had been drinking alcoholic beverages after work on the patio under their stilted house. All three eventually went to bed. Then the roommate woke up when he heard Holbrook screaming in the living room.

During interviews with detectives, “Holbrook stated there was a gap in her memory.” After going to bed in the room she shared with the victim, the affidavit states, “The next thing she remembered, she was in the living room holding Nulisch, who was covered in blood. She was screaming, which woke up Kinn. Kinn contacted 911 and let responding deputies in the front gate a few minutes later. Holbrook stated Nulisch did not make any statements while he was laying on the floor,” the affidavit states, despite Kinn’s report to detectives that Nulisch had told him that Holbrook had shot him in the back.

In later interviews with detectives, Holbrook said she had remembered more.

“She stated she remembers Nulisch leaving their bed and walking to the bathroom. When he returned from the bathroom, he was like a different person and began to attack her. While she was being held against the wall, she described Nulisch squeezing her throat with his hands hard enough that it restricted her breathing. No marks of any kind were observed around her throat. No petechiae were observed in either of her eyes,” according to the affidavit.

(Petechiae are small, flat red dots that represent burst capillaries, according to medical forensics. In strangulation cases, they are above the point of constriction and are a result of the obstruction of the jugular veins.)

The arrest document continues, “Holbrook stated she punched and scratched Nulisch. Bruising on several knuckles on her right hand were observed. Holbrook stated she believed Nulisch was attempting to kill her.”