FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Florida man has been arrested in connection with the death of a 19-year-old woman he solicited online for a sexual encounter at a Tamarac hotel, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.
Tyquan Pearson, 25, was taken into custody Wednesday in Virginia. He faces one count of first-degree murder in the death of Brittney Taylor.
Taylor's mother and brother spoke to Local 10 News reporter Carlos Suarez on Friday, and said they had no idea that Taylor was soliciting sexual services on the internet.
"I can't say nothing bad about her. I can only say the good things about her," Taylor's mother, Tracy Brown, said. "I just need some answers to why. Why my baby? That's all I need is some answers."
BSO spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said Taylor got a ride to Pearson's room at the Comfort Suites on West Commercial Boulevard on the morning of May 25.
Surveillance video from the hotel showed Taylor arriving and entering room 331. About four hours later, Pearson was seen leaving the room, pushing a large stroller carrying a blue storage container and other items.
"She's 19. She was a sweet girl, bro," Taylor's brother, James Taylor, said. "She don't deserve this from nobody. I don't care if she was out there doing whatever."
Concepcion said Pearson's unsuspecting girlfriend picked him up from the hotel. Concepcion said Pearson told her that he needed to go to a storage unit to drop off some clothes and other items that he planned to give away.
When detectives interviewed Pearson, he admitted to soliciting her services, but when his girlfriend called to say that she was on her way back to the hotel, he claimed that he told Brittney Taylor to wait until he was gone and to let herself out. Pearson claimed she was gone when he got back.
James Taylor said his sister's boyfriend went back to the hotel and knocked on doors looking for her, but was kicked out by employees.
"Her boyfriend was knocking on doors, knocking on doors, and they ended up kicking the boyfriend out of the hotel after he explained to them, 'My girlfriend is here and hadn't come out,'" James Taylor said.
Detectives went to a Fort Lauderdale home where they believed Pearson could have tried to hide the evidence of his crime. It was there that Taylor's decomposing remains were found in a blue storage container buried in the backyard.
Investigators obtained a warrant for Pearson's arrest and located him in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was arrested.
"He was very upfront that he had solicited someone, but according to him, once he got a call from his girlfriend that she was returning to the hotel, he said to Brittney to stay in the room," Concepcion said.
A motive for the killing remains unknown. The cause of death hasn't been revealed.
The family has established a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses.