FL - Manhunt in Tampa after 4 slayings in 5 weeks, Oct-Nov 2017 #2 *Arrest*

[indianwin2001]

JMO
This is interesting to me. If the school was pretty close to the shootings I wonder if the gym may have been open to play pickup basketball anytime he wanted. Or maybe it required a pass key of some sort that he may have had. Thinking along the lines of him maybe going right to the gym and shooting hoops as a cover. Especially if he had his car parked at the school maybe and could just leave when things settled down.

I guess I am still leaning toward the property house they allegedly owned that was boarded up. I could really see that as maybe being his personal hangout and hideout area. He got away so quickly and disappeared so it had to have been close IMO.

The bus is another consideration since he was so intent on looking at his phone. We found the real time bus lookup app yesterday so I do think there was a way for him to know exactly where the busses were at any given moment.

I saw the news last night regarding the school. The school sent out a letter to the parents of students saying he coached the students OFF CAMPUS and never coached them or had interaction with them inside the school grounds.

 

[indianwin2001]

steroid abuse?

No--he is not that big

 

[ReggieHammond]

The above link mentions that TD purchased the gun and 20 rounds of ammunition at the same time. Five live rounds were contained in the gun's magazine when handed to the McD employee. Do we have a count of how many total shots were fired in the four murders? I'm sure LE is looking into this, but I wonder if those were the only bullets he had available, or if he's purchased more since buying the gun?

In Florida, can anyone buy rounds of ammo with just a regular photo id, or do you need an FID card or similar "licenses" ?

Thanks!

You can purchase ammo at Walmart

 

[cnmccarthy]

I meant that fathers of loving families aren't abusers.

Like I asked before, do you have a link for this info? TIA

 

[gtg427s]

I don't believe he made it up more like he fudged it. Many of us are guilty of doing that on our own resume's. I never did it because it was never necessary, but being boostful as a young person just graduating college would be easily explainable with no neferious meaning behind it...

No, you misunderstood I think. I was saying he may have made up what his major was. He listed it as computer science, but going by what the media and the school staff have said, his major was sports management. I believe he earned a degree but for some reason listed a different area of study on his Facebook profile.

 

[cnmccarthy]

JMO, I don't think sports management is a large or growing field. It sounds like one of those degrees colleges offer just to attract students. He probably did the right thing to have another major in IT. It's a struggle for most new college grads these days.

Thanks for the info on sports management. So true. [emoji17]the amount of debt too is incredibly depressing.

 

[x_files]

Israel Keyes and Bundy traveled long distances to do their crimes.

This killer did not go that far, but the fact that there are connections is not that astounding.

I don’t have a clue why he went there. Maybe easy ways to disappear quickly. I think the people he shot were in the wrong place. Random.

Black, white, young, old, male, female.

Are there any other criminals that match the random up close like this?

Did he do stuff in NY?

So strange to me.

I imagine there was a lot of pressure on him to succeed all of his life. The family seems imcredbily hard working and focused on providing quality education for the children.

Even if he felt he was not living up to goals, would that make a serial killer?

We are moving in new uncharted territory. Don't forget since the term serial killer was first coined, it was a pre-internet world. A whole generation has grown up online. There's pressure to become internet famous. Everyone wants to be famous internet/reality tv star.
Hopefully, we'll have answers soon.

For example the Miami cannibal wanted to be known.
"What I want to be is to become more confident, and social," Harrouff wrote. "I also want to be more well known because right now I feel as though I am unknown."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-austin-harrouff-past-20161129-story.html

 

[Flowercb]

Is he wearing a blanket at his bail hearing. Weird outfit. http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/suspected-seminole-heights-killer-to-be-held-without-bail

 

[gtg427s]

Like I asked before, do you have a link for this info? TIA

It's public record. The county in which they reside has extremely accessible records.

 

[DatelineFan]

(Inserting sarcasm:

"Trigga_trai"?! No way...)

(Eta: this is the kind of vibe I was feeling as far as "wannabe gangsta")



(When I was in college, there were some fellow students who were there to basically "play ball"...strictly jocks so to speak...they often had people help them with their assignments/homework to keep up...just sayin...)

Really? In my experience, guys are always calling each other by nicknames. My brothers' friends have so many nicknames between them, as well as my so. I'm practically the only person who calls my SO by his given name, and he's a successful man with no kind of criminal activity in his life. He doesn't even curse. I think those nicknames are just that.

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[Jax49]

Is he wearing a blanket at his bail hearing. Weird outfit. http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/suspected-seminole-heights-killer-to-be-held-without-bail

Looks to be a suicide prevention vest. moo

 

[Bootsctr]

Could he have been living out of his car?

That thought ran through my head when we saw all the stuff he had in the Mustang. A couple of backpacks or luggage bags? Had he been kicked out of the family home for behavior?

We have not heard from the family that he was living in the family home. There is something about the home that was boarded up on Wood street. What history lies there? Why not fix it up and rent it?

Also, the car is distinctive. LE says that Trai was not on their watch list, but maybe the car was. A description given by a witness that LE had chose not to release. Or maybe it was a tip that was not yet investigated.

Just odd that an officer was in "The McDonalds" he happened to work at be it just regular security detail or coincidental that she happened to be at that McDonalds doing paperwork.

Odd that he hands off his gun to a coworker. Odd that he said he would text her what to do with the gun, but obviously LE caught him before he could text or leave the area. I think he handed the gun off because he felt LE was watching him.

Surely his coworkers telling him he looked like the killer made him uneasy! If I worked with someone who looked like a killer in recent murders, I sure wouldn't tell him that. I would, however, phone in a tip to the tip line. Or, I would tell an officer who happened to be in the building that Trai was the guy I suspected to be the serial killer.

Coworkers stated he was different than them. There must have been an awkward silence when the one person accused him of being the serial killer. :desert:

 

[RiceCasparr]

I vote he did not finish collage if he went at all just moo

It's very troublesome to me so many doubt he got his education...there are actual pictures of him in the university bball uniform.

This kind of talk reeks of inherent racism and has turned me off to this thread entirely, I hate to say.

Why is it that an intelligent person can't also suffer from mental illness or have pathological issues? Why do we have to doubt his intelligence or education and make out like he was lying on his accounts?

It's oftentimes the most intelligent among us who have the most trouble adapting to society/the current economy and job market, esp if they come from a marginalized background. Many of us are currently not "living up to our potential" but it has nothing to do with lying about that potential.

Moo.

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[moonlessnight]

he had a major and a minor.

No, you misunderstood I think. I was saying he may have made up what his major was. He listed it as computer science, but going by what the media and the school staff have said, his major was sports management. I believe he earned a degree but for some reason listed a different area of study on his Facebook profile.

 

[Hatfield]

Just speculating.

Something made him turn into a serial killing monster. I am beginning to think maybe a combination of things affected him.

Things like the family dynamics along with his recent graduation and settling for a regular job rather than a job in what he went to school for may have contributed. Along with the moves from NYC to Florida where the culture in those two places are very different.

I wonder if he despised being in Florida where his family had the business and maybe he wanted to be back in NY and at the same time prove to his family that Florida can be just as dangerous as big city NY.

We do not know if there were any heated discussions with him and his family but I have to think maybe there were and maybe he was acting out against them to an extent.

Not that his name matters but it did strike me his name was the 3rd which makes me wonder if he grew up trying to live up to certain expectations and as he got older he may have felt or even may have been told he was not cutting it.

Post graduation can be a trying time on families as kids try to go out to pursue a career of their own and he may have found his major was not helping as much as he thought it could or as quick as he thought. Maybe becoming too impatient and thinking things would all fall in their place right away and when that didnt happen he may have started to think it never would.

If any of that sort of thing happened then it is actually sad because it can take years to have a career kicked off the ground even with a degree. I know lots of people that ended up in careers that really had nothing to do with their degree but the degree helped them get their foot in the door. He had a lot going for him if he would have been patient and keep trying.

All speculation of course. It could have been a serious mental illness that was taking hold on him as well. We just dont know enough yet what caused him to do what he did.

 

[indianwin2001]

Just speculating.

Something made him turn into a serial killing monster. I am beginning to think maybe a combination of things affected him.

Things like the family dynamics along with his recent graduation and settling for a regular job rather than a job in what he went to school for may have contributed. Along with the moves from NYC to Florida where the culture in those two places are very different.

I wonder if he despised being in Florida where his family had the business and maybe he wanted to be back in NY and at the same time prove to his family that Florida can be just as dangerous as big city NY.

We do not know if there were any heated discussions with him and his family but I have to think maybe there were and maybe he was acting out against them to an extent.

Not that his name matters but it did strike me his name was the 3rd which makes me wonder if he grew up trying to live up to certain expectations and as he got older he may have felt or even may have been told he was not cutting it.

Post graduation can be a trying time on families as kids try to go out to pursue a career of their own and he may have found his major was not helping as much as he thought it could or as quick as he thought. Maybe becoming too impatient and thinking things would all fall in their place right away and when that didnt happen he may have started to think it never would.

If any of that sort of thing happened then it is actually sad because it can take years to have a career kicked off the ground even with a degree. I know lots of people that ended up in careers that really had nothing to do with their degree but the degree helped them get their foot in the door. He had a lot going for him if he would have been patient and keep trying.

All speculation of course. It could have been a serious mental illness that was taking hold on him as well. We just dont know enough yet what caused him to do what he did.

BBM---Great post and I might add we may never know what caused him to do what he did

 

[DisneyFan]

The boarded up house is still owned by the family and it was where he had grown up.

FWIW Code Enforcement (Neighborhood Enhancement) had been issued a complaint on the lot for overgrowth on 8/24/17 and they performed an inspection on 9/28/17 confirming the lot had been cleaned up... Possibly the killer began using this house as a hideout while preparing for the killings and to avoid alerting any family or friends.

I agree he may have been using the boarded up home as a hideout. Even sleeping in car. If he had clothing, toiletries in trunk it would be easy to do so. That familiarity with the neighborhood is how he knew his way around.

 

[Bootsctr]

Just speculating.

Something made him turn into a serial killing monster. I am beginning to think maybe a combination of things affected him.

Things like the family dynamics along with his recent graduation and settling for a regular job rather than a job in what he went to school for may have contributed. Along with the moves from NYC to Florida where the culture in those two places are very different.

I wonder if he despised being in Florida where his family had the business and maybe he wanted to be back in NY and at the same time prove to his family that Florida can be just as dangerous as big city NY.

We do not know if there were any heated discussions with him and his family but I have to think maybe there were and maybe he was acting out against them to an extent.

Not that his name matters but it did strike me his name was the 3rd which makes me wonder if he grew up trying to live up to certain expectations and as he got older he may have felt or even may have been told he was not cutting it.

Post graduation can be a trying time on families as kids try to go out to pursue a career of their own and he may have found his major was not helping as much as he thought it could or as quick as he thought. Maybe becoming too impatient and thinking things would all fall in their place right away and when that didnt happen he may have started to think it never would.

If any of that sort of thing happened then it is actually sad because it can take years to have a career kicked off the ground even with a degree. I know lots of people that ended up in careers that really had nothing to do with their degree but the degree helped them get their foot in the door. He had a lot going for him if he would have been patient and keep trying.

All speculation of course. It could have been a serious mental illness that was taking hold on him as well. We just dont know enough yet what caused him to do what he did.

Great post Hatfield and I agree! We just don't have enough information yet to make an informed conclusion.

With him being the eldest son and coming from a successful family, I believe he had a great deal of pressure on him to succeed. Living up to being the 3rd was not easy.

I agree with CARIIS too. Maybe he did come out in New York because he was free of his family. He lost his job there due to absenteism, so what was he doing during his absent time from work? I think he preferred New York to Florida. He was resentful of having to move back to Florida and maybe shooting and killing random people made him feel better?

Mental illness, maybe. Could be bipolar (undiagnosed) and thrill killings were part of his manic moods. What we are seeing now is him in a depressed mood. I've recently been diagnosed as bipolar. Not sure how I got to age 50 and just diagnosed as bipolar. I must say when I am low that my affect is quite blunted. Really noticed it when I was taken off of lithium because of heart issues.

As far as the death penalty, I would like to hear what the families want as the penalty. If they are okay with life, then I would be okay with life too. If the families think death would be justice for their loved ones, then death would be okay with me too. Life in prison will suck, and if it was my loved one that had been murdered, I would want the murderer to suffer as long as possible. I do think death as a penalty option is always handy when parents or relatives of a murdered loved one want their body recovered. I have seen the death penalty work positively in being able to recover missing loved ones.

 

[human]

There still has been nothing, to me, that gives any hints to how a seemingly well liked young man could turn into a serial killer.

Bundy grew up in incedibly horrid circumstances. No surprises there.

Jesse Matthews had bad circumstances and people revealed that he had plenty of issues they saw.

This killer seems to have it all. And most of all, he has a bunch of friends who think he is the best,

He had a six year life in New York that there is just about zero information released yet.Roommates? Buddies?

 

[Bootsctr]

I agree he may have been using the boarded up home as a hideout. Even sleeping in car. If he had clothing, toiletries in trunk it would be easy to do so. That familiarity with the neighborhood is how he knew his way around.

Did anyone in the family ever live in that home? Was it always vacant since the Donaldson family owned it? I think your assessment of the home being a hideout is correct.