Dima James Tower murdered his adoptive parents, Robbie James Tower and Jennifer Christine Tower, on Aug. 31, 2023, police said. The couple appears at right in a picture Jennifer Tower posted to Facebook on Oct. 5, 2016, announcing her and her husband’s trip to Ukraine. She announced the following Christmas season that they adopted Dima Tower. (Mug shot: Sarasota County Jail; images of the couple: Jennifer Tower’s Facebook account)
When Jennifer Christine Tower and Robbie James Tower first met the Ukrainian boy who would eventually become Dima James Tower in Ukraine, they were Christian missionaries visiting the Eastern European nation, and he was — according to a member of the Towers’ family — a local teenager with a dead mother and an absent, alcoholic father. The couple took him in as their son.
Now, years later, Dima Tower, 22, stands accused of brutally murdering the couple at their home in North Port, Florida.
He had allegedly lashed out throughout the years, starting fights at school and even giving Robbie Tower a black eye. And yet the couple took him back in after briefly sending him to live with relatives on Jennifer Tower’s side of the family, said Robbie Towers’ uncle, Warren Rines.
“That’s how much he loved him,” Rines told the New York Post. “They forgave him for everything. They bought him a car, whatever he wanted or needed.”
According to cops, a neighbor contacted 911 on the night of Aug. 31. She said that a woman knocked on her door five minutes before the call and screamed, “I need help, I need help.”
But when the caller opened the door, she did not see the woman — only a large amount of blood on the front steps.
Deputies arrived a few minutes later, just before midnight, and found Dima Tower “with visible blood,” shutting the trunk of his black 2012 Chevy Sonic sedan, according to authorities.
He allegedly ignored their commands to stop and he instead fled in the vehicle. Officers chased him as he entered the oncoming southbound lanes of Toledo Blade Boulevard before swinging back to northbound lanes, authorities said.
The chase continued onto the interstate before deputies stopped him with spike strips. Forced to stop, Tower fled on foot into the woods, according to documents. This sparked a brief manhunt that ended later on Friday.
UPDATE: Dima Tower has been booked into the Sarasota County Jail on two counts of Murder. pic.twitter.com/lAT9fvD6N4
— North Port Police (@NorthPortPolice) September 1, 2023
Investigators made their way into the home through the side garage door, and found Jennifer Tower, 51, and Robbie Tower, 49, lying dead, head to head, face down in the living room, covered in blood.
Authorities discovered what seemed to be a puncture wound in Robbie Tower’s upper back.
Jennifer Tower’s head, covered in blood, displayed “unknown injuries,” according to documents.
Large amounts of blood reportedly covered the living room couches, the bed in the master bedroom, the inside of the front door, the kitchen, and a “towel or rag” near the kitchen sink. Investigators determined that there had been a struggle in multiple rooms of the home.
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Defendant Tower is charged with two counts of murder in the second degree and one count of fleeing law enforcement during an active siren or lights. He is scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 3 and is being held at the Sarasota County Jail.
The couple, unable to have kids on their own, adopted defendant Towers when he was 14.
“He would have bruises on him in the orphanage,” Rines said. “When they went out to eat, he would have like six hot dogs. He wasn’t getting a lot to eat. These orphanages are like prison for kids.”
The couple worked hard to show unconditional love to their new son, but Rines described a troubled history. For example, the uncle said, Dima Tower got into fights at school.
“When I first met him, he was interested in boxing,” said the uncle, who the Post described as a martial arts enthusiast. “But he didn’t want to box. He wanted to hit. He wanted to hurt.”
Dima, Jennifer, and Robbie Tower appear in a picture that Jennifer posted to Facebook on March 25, 2017. Authorities Police said he murdered them on Aug. 31, 2023. (Image: Jennifer Tower on Facebook)
A classmate, who spoke to local CBS affiliate WINK on condition the station hide her face, told a similar story: Dima Tower picked fights with students on the bus.
“I just went to school with him, high school with him, and like he was just like a creep. He would hang out in the woods,” she said. “And then they brought him over here, and then he started abusing his parents, doing crazy stuff.”
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Neighbors described the couple in glowing terms.
“Really nice, sweet, good people. The kind of people you really don’t see anymore in this day and age,” Jason Mcrae told WINK.
Rines told the Post their lives weren’t all bad.
“But I think the boy just had a lot of hate in him already before he came here, and I guess you take it out on the ones closest to you,” he said.
There is a GoFundMe to pay for the couple’s funeral.
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