A Florida person has been charged with murder after authorities , discovered people remains , they believe relate to a lost family — among them 5- and 6- year- older children — in his fire pit.
Phillip Zilliot II, Rain Mancini and their two children, 6- year- ancient Karma Zilliot, and 5- yr- old Phillip Zilliot III,  , were last seen alive , on June 12 in Hudson County, according to a declaration from the Pasco Sheriff’s Office.
The following morning, a lady requested authorities , take out a security check at their house, telling them her nephew received a disturbing video call from Rory Atwood, who’d been living with the family at the time, according to a legal complaint affidavit, obtained by WFLA on Wednesday. During his video call with Atwood, who claimed she needed help burning some trash, he claimed to see what appeared to be bodies and a pool of blood.
When officers arrived at Atwood’s residence in Hudson, they did not uncover anything suspicious— but a firepit in his backyard was  , “actively smoldering and smoking”  , at the time. After being called by another person who claimed Atwood had confessed to killing the family of four, they returned to the home once more on Friday.
This time, Atwood admitted to the authorities that he had kicked the family out of their home because of their inability to pay rent and that they had taken up to two weeks of belongings with them when they left earlier in the week, according to the affidavit. According to documents obtained by Tampa Bay 10, authorities searched the property and looked at the fire pit, where a cadaver dog found” small skeletal remains,” “human long bone fragments,” and “apparent human vertebrae”
During subsequent interviews with law enforcement, Atwood initially denied harming the family before , he allegedly confessed , to killing Zilliot and Mancini, both of whom he had known since high school. He claimed that Zilliot first attacked him with a knife before they engaged in a fight over a handgun, which went off and fatally struck Mancini. He claimed to have shot Zilliot twice in the head before telling police.
However, Atwood did not compel the killing of the children. He claimed the couple had killed them, but he later admitted that he was the one who brought them to the fire pit, according to the affidavit.
As of Wednesday, the remains found in the firepit have not yet been formally identified, though authorities do believe they belong to the missing family.
Atwood entered a not-guilty plea on Monday for the murder of a John Doe. He is currently being held without bail and is behind bars.
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