Rory Atwood, left, is facing four murder charges after human remains were found on his Pasco County, Florida, property. They are believed to belong to a missing family of four: Phillip Mancini, right, and Rain Mancini and their children 6-year-old Karma Zilliot and 5-year-old Phillip Zilliot III, middle. (Pasco County Sheriff’s Office)
The Florida man who allegedly slaughtered a family of four and burned their bodies in a pit told a friend he killed the 5-year-old boy because he “felt bad” after seeing him “convulsing” in the laundry room.
Rory Atwood, 25, is facing four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Rain Mancini, 26, and Phillip Zilliot II, 25, and their children Karma Zilliot, 6 and Phillip Zilliot III, 5. Deputies with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office believe Atwood killed the family at his home on his 10-acre property in Hudson in the early morning hours of June 13 following an argument with the elder Phillip Zilliot.
A newly-filed probable cause arrest affidavit reveals a June 17 interview with one of Atwood’s friends who allegedly told deputies Atwood asked him to come to his place with a bottle of bleach. The friend said he arrived at the home around 10:30 a.m. June 13 with the bleach. He said Atwood’s front porch had apparently been washed and went inside to find Atwood sleeping in a recliner. Atwood reportedly told the friend that he killed Mancini and Phillip Zilliot II when they attacked him after they killed their children. Atwood claimed he was able to disarm Mancini and the elder Zilliot of a 9 mm and then shot them in self-defense.
The friend walked out to the backyard where he saw Mancini’s body near the firepit wrapped up in a rug with her legs sticking out, according to the affidavit.
“The witness looked at the fire pit and observed a juvenile’s foot sticking out of the debris with pink and purple nail polish on the toe nails,” the affidavit said.
According to cops, the friend provided new information in another interview on June 20. He said Atwood allegedly told him he found the two children about two hours after he shot their parents.
“The witness stated while he spoke with the defendant he admitted to locating the children lying in the laundry room with the male juvenile convulsing and the female juvenile lying still,” detectives wrote. “The defendant admitted, to the witness, he shot the male juvenile in the head because he ‘felt bad.””
As Law&Crime previously reported, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office shortly before 2:30 p.m. June 13 conducted a welfare check on the family after a woman told deputies her brother received a FaceTime call from Atwood that appeared to show the bodies of adults and kids. While deputies noticed a smoldering burn pit on Atwood’s property in western Pasco County, they did not find anything suspicious during their search and Atwood denied any knowledge of the family’s whereabouts.
He reportedly said he had last seen Mancini and the Zilliots on June 12. Atwood allegedly said the family had been living with him for a couple of months but he evicted them on June 1 for failure to pay the rent.
Deputies got ahold of Mancini’s mother who said she didn’t know where her daughter was, last spoke to her on June 12 and hadn’t heard from her since. The family was reported missing, deputies said.
Then on June 14, Pasco deputies received another call from one of Atwood’s friends who said Atwood admitted to killing Mancini and the Zilliots, the affidavit said. Deputies returned to the property with a cadaver dog. Detectives estimated the pit was 10 feet in diameter and had burned steel threads from tires, suggesting the fire gained intense heat, the affidavit said.
The dog sifted through the burn pit and pulled out what appeared to be a child’s foot, according detectives. Crime scene investigators also pulled out “long bone fragments,” along with two apparent human vertebrae, cops said. They also determined the porch area had been cleaned with chlorine.
Deputies believe the family was at Atwood’s home the night of June 12 and into June 13. Atwood’s daughter and a friend of Mancini’s were there as well, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said. The adults were drinking when an argument ensued, Nocco said.
“Those two poor little children,” Nocco said at a June 15 press conference. “We believe that they may be on the property deceased, but we do not know that definitively.”
Detectives also spoke to the mother of Atwood’s daughter who said she received a “panicked” call from him around 2:30 a.m. June 13. He dropped the daughter off around 5:30 a.m. Atwood was “not acting like himself,” the girl’s mother reportedly told deputies.
In an interview with investigators, Atwood at first denied killing or burning Mancini, her husband and the kids. But Atwood changed his story and claimed that he killed Mancini and Zilliot in self-defense during a fight in which the victims pointed a gun and knife at him, the affidavit said. He allegedly said Zilliot started the fire and after killing him and Mancini he threw them in the already-burning pit. However, Atwood did not have any injuries that suggested he was in a fight, deputies noted.
As for the children, Atwood claimed their parents killed them. Eventually, he admitted all four family members were burned in his firepit, police said.
Atwood is at the Pasco County Jail without bond.
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