The Murder of Garrett Phillips (Part 1)

Who was Garrett?

Garrett John Phillips was born on August 13th,1999 to Robbie Phillips and Tandy Cyrus in Potsdam, New York. At the age of two, Garrett’s father passed away from a brain aneurysm. In 2001, Tandy began dating a man named Casey Collins, and she gave birth to a second son, Aaron Collins. Collins stepped in to help with Garrett, since his biological father was dead. “I raised Garrett as my son, just as Aaron,” said Collins.

Garrett was close to his paternal grandparents, Robert and Patricia, and especially close to his uncle Brian. Brian said that he tried to be a constant male figure in his nephew’s life. Both Garrett and Aaron spent a lot of time with Brian. Garrett was a sixth grader at A.A. Kingston Middle School in Potsdam. He was a typical 12-year-old boy, who loved being outside and playing with his friends. He was very athletic and played football, soccer, hockey, basketball, and lacrosse. He also loved riding his four-wheeler and going hunting and fishing when he had the opportunity. His mother said that he was always going 110% and full of energy.

In 2006, Tandy and Collins ended their relationship. Collins said that despite no longer dating his mother, Garrett still called him dad. Tandy was working two jobs to support her boys, as a bank manager during the day and bartender at night, at a local bar called ½ Ton’s Bar and Grill. In 2007, Tandy began dating a local sheriff’s deputy named John Jones. The two seemed to be a perfect match. However, in 2010, Tandy met a young man while bartending. Oral “Nick” Hillary was born in Jamaica, coming to the United States in his teenage years. He served in the US Army and was a soccer star. He went to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, not far from Potsdam. He was on the soccer team for all four years, leading his team to the team’s first national championship. He had several other friends on the team who were also from Jamaica, and they were well known for their incredible soccer skills. After graduating, Nick took a job as the men’s head varsity soccer coach at Clarkson University, which was in Potsdam. He lived with his girlfriend, Stacia, and the couple’s three children.

Tandy and Nick connected quickly. Nick would come into the bar after work with other coaches and he and Tandy would often talk about soccer. Tandy used to play and loved discussing it with Nick. At the time, Tandy was still living with and dating John Jones. Apparently there were rumors around town and Jones and Tandy began having problems. He asked Tandy directly if she was dating Nick, to which she said no. Then, Jones said that he happened to be at the right place at the right time, and saw Tandy drive by with Nick. Soon after, Jones went to Nick’s apartment and confronted him. Jones said that he asked Nick to man up and tell him if he and Tandy were dating. Nick told him that they weren’t, but he should talk to Tandy directly. Jones texted Tandy and they ultimately broke up. Jones, the standup guy that he is, made sure that he ran into Nick’s childrens’ mother, Stacia. He asked her how she was doing regarding the Nick/Tandy situation. Stacia seemed to be completely caught off guard with no knowledge of Tandy, and was very angry. The situation ended in several encounters with law enforcement. Stacia was arrested for cutting up Nick’s clothes and throwing them onto the lawn. Nick’s car was keyed, but it was never found who did it. He suspected it was either Stacia or Jones. 

Despite their rocky start, Tandy and Nick started officially dating in late 2010. Eventually, Nick and his teenage daughter, Shanna Kay, moved into Tandy’s two bedroom apartment. Including Garrett and Aaron, there were now five people sharing the small apartment. In January of 2011, the couple found a four bedroom house and moved in with the kids.

Unfortunately, though Tandy and Nick’s relationship was thriving, Nick’s relationship with Tandy’s boys was not going as well. Tandy and Nick had very different styles of parenting, with Nick being much more strict. Garrett in particular had a strong disdain for Nick. Garrett’s stepfather recalled that Garrett asked him multiple times if he could come live with him. Garrett was in fifth grade at the time and his teacher, who described him as “funny and the class clown, but very respectful,” said that he mentioned to her a few times that he didn’t like his mom’s boyfriend. While Garrett was popular at school, he struggled with his studies. Nick used to work as an elementary school math teacher and he wanted to help Tandy with coming up with a “structured study regimen.” Nick also didn’t allow the kids to watch television on school nights. Tandy said that her boys were used to being able to watch TV after their homework was finished. Garrett’s stepfather said that Nick “had problems with Garrett’s grades and Garrett’s lack of respect for him.”

Eventually this began to have a significant strain on Tandy and Nick’s relationship. In a statement, she described how difficult things got.

“Nick would sit me down almost on a weekly basis, and he would tell me everything that was wrong with my kids and my parenting…He was a very structured person, and he would tell me about how I have to have a plan for this and that and everything had to be planned out…I am not like that, so that caused more stress in the house and in our relationship.”

Also, Tandy found out that some kids had been making nasty comments to Garrett about her dating a black man. Finally, Tandy decided to move out with her boys. She, Garrett, and Aaron moved into an apartment that her ex-boyfriend, Jones, helped her find. Jones said that the apartment was closer to him, but that’s not why he helped her get it. He said that his first priority was always the kids. If you look at a map of the Potsdam area where they all lived, they’re all within blocks of each other. It’s no bigger than your mom’s jack russell…

Nick and Tandy continued to try to work on their relationship, now living separately. In July of 2011, Tandy ultimately decided to end the relationship. She said that while Nick was out of town for work, she sat down and talked to her boys about the relationship. She sent a few texts to Nick explaining herself:

“I have been waiting 4 almost a yr 4 the feeling & situation between u and my kids 2 get better & its not…this is not easy 4 me either but i have 2 put my kids 1st…yes it is about the boys…”

She told Nick that she needed space and that she needed him to stay away from her, but in the first week of September, Tandy heard the door to her bedroom open. Nick was standing there. She asked him what he was doing and he said he was just going to sleep. She asked him to return the spare key she’d given him and the two were officially broken up. The family of three remained at their second floor apartment at 100 Market Street, a group of indoor apartments that looked like a large house from the outside called the North Country Manor Apartments.

Potsdam itself was a rather small town, with a population of just over 15,000. Residents describe it as homey, simple, with a small town feel. There were four surrounding colleges in Potsdam and nearby Canton, so during the school year, the population increased, but the full-time residents of Potsdam still maintained their tight-knit community.

The Day of the Murder

On Monday, October 24th, 2011, a young woman named Marisa Vogel was in her apartment in Potsdam, New York, just starting to eat dinner. Marisa and her fiancé, Sean, were eating in their bedroom, watching the television show “Dexter,” when they both heard running and a loud crash from across the hallway. Marisa then heard what sounded like a child’s voice moaning for help or saying “no”. She said that the voice sounded scared. Marisa exited her apartment and walked across the hall to apartment 4D. 4D shared walls with her apartment, but she and Sean didn’t know the family well. They knew that it was a mom and two young boys. They often heard voices and skateboards on the floor. 

Marisa knocked on the door and listened. She heard a noise coming from inside, then heard the distinct click of the door being locked. At 5:07PM, Marisa called the Potsdam police to report the concerning noises. She told the call taker about the noises she heard, specifically that they sounded like they came from a child. A police officer was dispatched and at 5:14PM, Officer Wentworth from the Potsdam PD arrived on scene. He listened at the door of apartment 4D and didn’t hear anything. He knocked and then heard what sounded like footsteps. At 5:21PM, Officer Wentworth obtained the phone number of the building supervisor, Rick Dumas. Dumas told police that he’d be there soon with a key to open the apartment. At 5:24, Officer Wentworth knocked on the door with his patrol stick and yelled for anybody inside to open up. He again heard footsteps, but the door remained closed. 

Dumas arrived shortly after 5:30 and opened the door for Officer Wentworth. At 5:34, Officer Wentworth radioed to dispatch that he needed paramedics on scene. Inside the apartment, the officer found an unresponsive male, approximately 10-years-old. He told dispatch that the child wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. Somebody said over the radio that the child’s mother was Tandy Cyrus, not sure of the child’s name. The dispatcher asked, isn’t she John Jones’ ex-girlfriend, he might have her phone number. Officer Wentworth began performing CPR until the paramedics arrived. By 5:52PM, the paramedics were about 1 minute out from Canton-Potsdam Hospital with Garrett in the back of their ambulance.

The police dispatcher called Potsdam PD’s chief, Ed Tischler to update him. She told him that it was Tandy Cyrus’ son and reminded him that Tandy was John Jones’ ex-girlfriend. At 6:08PM, Tandy called Jones, asking him to go to the hospital, and that she was on her way. Dispatch had gotten in touch with Tandy and told her that her son had been in an accident and was being rushed to the hospital. She assumed he had maybe fallen or broken a bone. She had no idea what the severity of his condition was. When she arrived, she found her 12-year-old son, Garrett, in cardiac arrest. She said that he had bruises on his face and marks on his neck. Hospital staff were able to get pulses back on Garrett, however, the doctors told Tandy that it was unlikely that he’d survive. Patricia, Garrett’s grandmother, stood in the hospital room with him as he was hooked up to a ventilator. Patricia said that she kissed Garrett’s forehead, took his hand, and said, “come on bud, for grandma.” At that moment, Garrett went into cardiac arrest and doctors were unable to revive him. At 7:18PM, 12-year-old Garrett Phillips was pronounced dead. His cause of death was asphyxia from suffocation and strangulation.  

Go ahead and knock out a whole wall of your house

During Garrett’s autopsy, the medical examiner noted that he had significant rug burns on his knees, scratches on his face, a black eye, and cauliflower ear. Cauliflower ear is a deformity to the ear as a result of trauma. It’s often seen as a result of a fight, particularly boxing or wrestling. The scratches on his face appeared to be consistent with the injuries one might get from fingernails, which could’ve been from his murderer or from Garrett himself during the struggle. DNA evidence was collected from underneath the boy’s fingernails.

The entire town of Potsdam was collectively letting out an enormous, “WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?” A 12-year-old child was dead and nobody had any idea why. Police began their investigation by speaking to neighbors and looking through Tandy’s apartment for any clue as to what happened.

The second story apartment that Garrett lived in had only one door, which meant there was only one way in or out. The door had obviously been locked from the inside. Police said the apartment was relatively clean. It appeared that Garrett had come home, taken his shoes off and set them by the closet, and set his rip stick against the wall. (Rip stick is a two-wheeled board, kind of similar to a skateboard, but it moves differently) His sweatshirt was laying on the floor in the hallway. The blinds in the third bedroom were pushed outwards and the screen of the window had a corner that was bent outwards, large enough for a person to fit through. The window was about 20ish feet from the ground, and there was a brick storage building attached to the main building that stood about six feet off the ground, just underneath Garrett’s apartment window. There was a large crack in the tile on the roof of the storage area. On the muddy grass area below the window, there was a skid mark that appeared to be from a shoe.

Another neighbor came back to the apartment building later that evening, saw police and crime scene tape, and she realized something must’ve happened. She told police that around 5PM that evening, she and her boyfriend had been outside of the apartment building changing a tire. He was under the car working on it and she was standing around, texting a friend. While they were out there, she heard several noises from the building, specifically from the window in question. They both looked up and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She believed that they were outside, with a complete view of Garrett’s apartment window, from 4:50-5:20PM based on texts she was sending during the time. This gave a very tight timeline for when the mystery person jumped out of the window.

When Officer Wentworth first notified dispatch that he was performing CPR on a child, Lieutenant Mark Murray was notified shortly after. He’d been at the high school, helping coach his younger brother’s soccer game. Murray left immediately and headed to the scene. The day following the murder, at 7:32AM, Murray received a phone call from Dan Manor, an investigator for the District Attorney. Manor offered his help and asked if they had any suspects. Murray, who was now the lead investigator on the case, had already spoken to Gary Snell, an investigator from the New York State Police, who’d be assisting in the investigation. He told Manor that they had some strong suspicions about one person in particular. That person was Tandy’s ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary.

Nick

You may be wondering, how did police already have a strong suspect less than 24 hours after Garrett’s murder when there were no witnesses and no significant evidence found on scene. Initially there were rumors that Garrett had been playing a game called knockout with his friends and his death had been an accident. Knockout, also known as the choking game, is a game where people intentionally choke themselves or others to get a brief high. The goal is usually to stop before a full loss of consciousness. If Garrett had died accidentally during this game, the other kids, scared, could’ve jumped out of the window and ran. Another immediate theory was that it was an accidental death as a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation, brought on by the fact that one of Tandy’s bras was found lying on the floor. There was no further evidence to support that theory.

In that same phone conversation that Lt. Murray had with DA investigator Manor the morning following Garrett’s death, Murray told him about the rumors. He said that they’d conducted several interviews the night before to squash these rumors.

“You know, there was a theory that the kids were in there, horsing around, fucking around, and then they freaked out and left,” said Murray. 

Manor asked if the child’s mother had a boyfriend. He said that his granddaughter heard a rumor that Tandy’s boyfriend had murdered Garrett. Murray agreed that he had also heard that rumor circulating. 

Manor said, “…at the time, I just dismissed it, thinking I doubt anything like that happened. I don’t know where that’s coming from, if it’s coming from the Phillips side of the family.”

Murray told him that it was coming from the family, and that that’s what they were looking at. 

Two hours after Garrett’s death, Murray had paid a visit to Nick Hillary. In later depositions, Murray said that he was only going to Nick’s home to inform him of Garrett’s death. Now- this may seem suspicious- Nick’s friend who we will talk about more later says this doesn’t happen- but if you’re beginning from the inner circle and working your way out, and everyone is a suspect at this point, it’s ideal to get the reaction of anyone you believe could be involved to see if they seem to already know the person is deceased. You can’t always gauge reactions and know whether or not they’re genuine, but this is also a chance to see if the person you’re talking to has any injuries- cuts or scratches, blood on them that they’ve missed in a cleanup, etc. We have seen police do this in many cases- let someone know that the victim did not survive in an interview type environment. 

When Murray told Nick that Garrett had died, he seemed upset according to Police notes from the visit. With Nick at his apartment was Ian Fairlie, Nick’s assistant soccer coach at Clarkson. Fairlie agreed with police that Nick was genuinely upset. After the police left, Nick began trying to reach Tandy or someone in the family to find out what happened, but couldn’t. Afterwards he called his friend Mani Tafari. Tafari had known Nick since high school and they played soccer together in college. Most importantly, Tafari was an attorney. Nick told him that the police had just left, that they’d told him Garrett was dead. Tafari was immediately suspicious as to why police notified Nick, who currently had no connection to the family.

The following day, Tandy was brought in for her first interview at 8:30AM. John Jones came to the interview with her and was allowed to stay in the room during the interview. He sat beside Tandy, holding her hand. Later, Murray said that if he had to do it over again, he would’ve done it differently (not let Jones in), but that it DEFINITELY didn’t affect the investigation. Jones had stayed with Tandy the night before. He’d even called his current girlfriend to let her know he’d be with Tandy. This is when police officially told Tandy that they were investigating her son’s death as a homicide. They asked Tandy about Garrett’s movements before his death, trying to establish a timeline. After Garrett was dismissed from school, he stopped at Potsdam High School to play basketball in the gym with some friends. At 4:30PM, Tandy called him and told him that he needed to get home to do his homework. At 4:52PM, surveillance video footage from the high school showed Garrett riding down the sidewalk near the parking lot on his rip stick. Less than a minute later, another surveillance video caught Garrett riding past the hospital. (Less than an hour later, he would be on his way to the same hospital in the back of an ambulance) At 5:07PM, Marisa Vogel called 911 to report the strange noises in apartment 4D. We don’t know Garrett’s exact route home, but it was only about 2.5 blocks from the high school to his apartment. From here on, we know what investigators found and what neighbors heard and saw. Investigators believed that the murderer had left through the window after 5:20PM, based on the interviews with neighbors. 

During Tandy’s interview, she played a voicemail for investigators that Nick had left for her the previous night, where he told her to call him if she needed anything. Jones later said that he trusted the men investigating and he had no doubt in his mind that Nick killed Garrett. 

Murray said that on the 25th, he saw Nick, who was coaching a soccer game, and that he displayed a significant limp. He said that it appeared sometimes that Nick was walking fine, and that other times he looked like he was favoring one of his legs, but trying to hide it. Later, video footage from the game showed Nick walking normally with his players, even moving faster than the athletes. No limp or injury was noticeable. 

On October 26th, two days after Garrett was found dead, investigators came to Nick’s apartment and asked him if he could come down to the station. They said that they needed his help going over a roster of Garrett’s class. Nick told them that wasn’t a problem, that he’d come to the station shortly. He called his friend, Tafari, and told him that they’d asked him to come in and that he was headed down there.

When Nick arrived at the police station, he went into Murray’s office, along with Snell, the investigators from NY State Police. Nick seemed open and told the officers that Garrett was a part of his story and that he wanted to help. The interview started just before 8:30AM. One of the first things that Snell said was, “why don’t you just advise him of his information, his rights and all that.” Nick was immediately like, hold up, wait a minute. He was obviously confused as to why he would need to be read his rights. Murray assured him that he wasn’t under arrest. 

Murray and Snell proceeded to question Nick, in what appeared to be a pretty casual setting. They asked about his relationship with Tandy and their living situation. They asked him if other men had ever expressed interest in Tandy because she was good looking. Snell said he’d heard of other men being interested in her while she was dating Nick, but Nick denied knowing anything about it. Murray begins asking questions about Nick’s daughter, Shanna Kay, and if she’d heard any rumors or anything about Garrett’s death. At this point, Nick began to get a little annoyed. He told the officers that he didn’t mind answering questions, but they’d asked him to come down to look at a list and they still hadn’t looked at it. He said that he wanted to know what the questions were pertaining to. Snell told Nick that they just wanted to eliminate him as a suspect. Nick asked him if he was currently a suspect. Snell said that everyone is a suspect right now, and told him he was free to leave.

Murray then asked Nick what time he was coaching his practice on Monday. He responded, no comment. The investigators were practically arguing with Nick, telling him they didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just answer the question. Nick repeated that he was here to look at a list, where is the list. Murray left the office to go get the so-called “list”.

Snell said to Nick, “I know you’ve heard this before, but these are your Miranda warnings.” He added again that Nick was not under arrest, then said that he had a question that’s been confusing him for three days. Nick picked up his cell phone, called Tafari and told him that they just read him his Miranda rights. Murray and Snell continued to talk over each other at Nick. Nick told them that he was going to evoke his sixth amendment, which guarantees the accused to a speedy trial.

 Nick was still on his cell phone while Snell, standing in front of him, says, aren’t you curious as to what Garrett said in his last moments? He told Nick that he’s got some problems and that this charade has gone on long enough. Murray said that he didn’t think Nick went in there with any intention to harm Garrett. He told him that he wasn’t a bad person, that he was a quality person and Murray had respect for him. Snell reminded him that Garrett was only 12 and that accidents happen. He said that he knew what happened in there.

Nick said, if you know what happened, then why am I here? Clearly fed up with the questioning, Nick asked if he could leave. He said that he needed to go to work and offered to speak to them later when he had more time. He continued to repeat, “permission to leave?” Murray told him to go ahead, but the investigators continued to argue with him. Nick stood up to walk out of the room, but the investigators physically blocked him. He later said that at this point, he knew that his only way to leave was to physically move the officers, and he felt that they WANTED him to do that. Instead, he stood at the door of the room, continuing to ask for permission to leave. Snell told him that he was going to be held and that they could either do it the easy or the hard way. He told Nick to go ahead and call his attorney, that they were going to go get a search warrant to photograph his body. 

Murray checked a clock and said, “I’ve got a press conference at 10 o’clock, it’s a quarter til 10. Do I tell the press we’re still working on this as pending or do I tell them we’ve got somebody in custody?”

Both officers left the room and another walked up to Nick and asked him for his cell phone. Nick asked him why. He responded, “because we’re going to end up taking it, so you’re done with the phone calls, you talked to your lawyer, everything’s good. We need your phone…you’ve got to give it to me. I don’t want to take it from you, just give it to me.”

Not feeling like he had much of an option, Nick handed his cell phone to the officer. It continued to ring and Nick asked if he could answer it multiple times, saying “allow me the opportunity please”.

Tafari was on his way to Potsdam. Nick had been able to contact a local lawyer as well. Meanwhile, Murray had written a search warrant. At 3:46PM, a judge signed the warrant that allowed investigators to search Nick’s body for “abrasions, scrapes, scratches, bruises, or injuries” that could implicate him in Garrett’s murder. Back in the office, Murray and Snell gave Nick the warrant and made him completely undress. He was photographed in all stages and every part of his body, including his genitals, were photographed. They confiscated all of his clothing, giving him a white hazmat suit to wear. Murray felt the search was a success, as they found an injury on Nick’s ankle that he believed had come from jumping out of Garrett’s window. On the outside of one of Nick’s ankles was an approximately 2mm sized abrasion. Murray said that Nick had lied to him about not having an ankle injury. Nick told him that it was from moving furniture, but couldn’t elaborate more. Murray said that was extremely suspicious to him, since whenever he’d injured himself on furniture, he always knew exactly which piece of furniture it was. During a later interview for a documentary on the case, Murray said that he didn’t normally strip search people, but he wanted to document the injuries. He also said that other people were photographed nude as well. When the interviewer asked who else had been, Murray responded, “Garrett Phillips was.”

Eight hours after he’d come into the station, Nick was allowed to leave. He was not arrested. The judge had signed another search warrant for his apartment, which was subsequently searched. Murray and Snell noted something else during Nick’s interview that struck them as suspicious. Nick had smoked several cigarettes while in the office. He kept each cigarette butt and even put one down the drain in the bathroom. They assumed this was done so they couldn’t obtain Nick’s DNA. The biggest question was, where the hell was Nick during the hour that Garrett Phillips was suffocated and strangled to death?

FOR PART TWO, CLICK HERE!