TAMARAC, FLA. (WSVN) - Authorities discovered a body buried in the backyard of a South Florida home and have connected the discovery to a man in Virginia who allegedly had sexual relations with the victim.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, 25-year-old Tyquan Pearson was placed in police custody Wednesday for murdering a 19-year-old girl he solicited online for sex at a Tamarac hotel.
That victim, identified by family as Brittney Taylor, was driven by a man described as her boyfriend to the Comfort Suites located at 8301 W. Commercial Blvd., May 25, at around 11 a.m.
She never came out.
When Taylor’s boyfriend got worried, he called her brother, James, who then contacted BSO to put out a missing person’s report.
Investigators then showed James a prostitution website with Taylor’s picture on it.
“They said, ‘Is this your sister?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s her.’ I didn’t know she was doing that. I didn’t want to believe that,” James said.
Pearson, who is a fiancé and a father, got a hold of Taylor through the website.
James said he had no idea that she was involved in prostitution. “It was crazy, shocking, heartbreaking,” he said. “What big brother wants to believe that their sister out here doing that?”
According to BSO detectives, surveillance video showed Taylor arriving at the hotel that morning and later showed Pearson leaving the room four hours later, pushing a stroller that carried a storage container.
Officials believe her remains were inside the container and that Pearson later buried the body in the back of a home in Fort Lauderdale.
The victim’s mother, Tracy Brown, is devastated over the news. “Why you do this to my baby? She never hurt nobody. That’s my baby. She’s 19,” she said. “Everything you hear about my baby is good, not bad.”
The pain was even worse when the family discovered Taylor’s online listing and the cost as $280.
“My baby didn’t need nothing from nobody. She got family that would give to her,” the victim’s mother said.
James said they would look out for each other, even through foster care. “I was homeless for a little amount of time. This girl paid for hotels for me. She was telling me it was from her boyfriend, but turns out, in the end, she was making the money herself to keep me off the streets, to keep me from being out here homeless,” he said. “I always looked after her. I always looked after her.”
Pearson was located in Virginia and taken into custody. He faces one count of first-degree murder.
The victim’s family is figuring out how to afford a burial service. They said they just want justice.
The motive for the murder remains unclear at this time.
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