Clearwater police say that the neighbors near where the bodies were found need not feel they are in jeopardy.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published March 24, 2004
CLEARWATER - Police believe the deaths of a couple in their apartment over the weekend were the result of a domestic situation and that neighbors should not feel they are in danger.
Police would not say Tuesday if they believe the deaths of George A. Dixon and Ruth N. Brooks were a murder-suicide or if other people were involved. They did say the couple had been having problems.
"Investigators are comfortable that no one in the neighborhood is in jeopardy of having violence visited upon them," police spokesman Wayne Shelor said.
Police were called to the couple's Homer Villas apartment, 1888 N Betty Lane, about 3 p.m. Saturday after a number of Dixon's family members went there looking for him. They were concerned because Dixon hadn't been answering his phone, police said.
Before officers arrived, family members went into the home and moved things around, making things more difficult for detectives to sort out, Shelor said.
"Family members were in there before investigators, and they contaminated the scene and removed some items, which complicated this investigation," Shelor said.
He added: "They have not defined what happened in that apartment Saturday."
Initial media reports indicated both Dixon, 28, and Brooks, 22, had been shot. Shelor on Tuesday said police have confirmed only that Brooks was shot. He said investigators have not released how Dixon died.
The couple's 8-month-old daughter was in the apartment when the couple were found. The child was unharmed and is staying with relatives, Shelor said.
At the time of his death, Dixon was serving two years' probation on a cocaine possession charge. He was arrested Jan. 7, 2003, after police officers, believing Dixon to be a suspect in a strong-arm robbery, talked to him and found cocaine stuffed in the front seat of a van in which he was sitting.
He was never charged with a robbery.
A friend who got him out of jail, bondsman Freddie Dixon, said Tuesday that George Dixon had talked to him about turning his life around. He spoke about religion and opening his own detailing business, said Freddie Dixon, who is not related to the dead man.
"He said, "I won't be needing your services anymore,"' Freddie Dixon recalled Tuesday. "As a neighborhood bondsman, I'm glad to hear things like that."
Freddie Dixon said George Dixon, who went by the name Nick, never told him of trouble with Brooks, who went by the name Nikki.
"I'm still trying to figure it out," Freddie Dixon said. "I was really shocked by this whole thing. I just never knew they ever had any domestic issues."
But police said family members and other friends told detectives there were some domestic issues between George Dixon and Brooks, who were not married.
Family members could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
"The couple was having problems, and we have that from family and friends," Shelor said.
He said detectives have recovered most of the items that family members took from the home and continue to sort out what happened.
"They're working with friends and family to define specifically what happened, but they don't see any reason for the neighborhood to feel uneasy," Shelor said.
