Fort Meade Man Steals From Murder Victim's Gravesite: Sheriff

Lakeland FL

26 January, 2021

4:28 PM

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POLK COUNTY, FL — A 45-year-old man has been accused of stealing from the gravesite of a victim of the triple homicide that took place over the summer in Frostproof, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said. Kevin John Wheeler of Fort Meade was arrested on charges of removing a monument and petit theft, investigators said. Roy and Elizabeth Tillman, whose son Damion Tillman was murdered on a fishing trip with two friends, reported a theft of solar lights at his grave in Evergreen Cemetery on Jan. 13. After the theft, the Tillmans placed a surveillance camera at the site. Authorities said Kevin John Wheeler was seen on surveillance camera taking items from a grave. (Polk County Sheriff's Office) Monday, at about 11:15 p.m., the Tillmans saw someone on the camera at their son's gravesite removing lights. Shortly after, deputies saw the suspect in a red pick-up truck and pulled him over, according to investigators. The affidavit said Wheeler spontaneously stated he was getting lights because he had an interest in gravesite lights, and removed them because he thought they were pretty. The stolen lights from Damion's gravesite, along with five additional solar lights, were found in the bed of Wheeler's pick-up truck, detectives said. "Few of us know the agony of burying a child, and even fewer if that child is murdered," Sheriff Grady Judd said. "It is abhorrent that this criminal made the Tillman family a victim yet again."