The FBI and the U.S. Marshalls Service are involved in the search of a 16-year-old Florida fugitive who deputies identified as Tahj Brewton.
Tahj’s involvement in gang activity, and not a serial killer, were to blame for the recent murders of two teenage girls and a teenage boy in Florida’s Ocklawaha, a lake-side community of about 1,500, north of Orlando, and south of Gainesville, deputies said.
“There’s no honor among thieves,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said Friday during a news conference. “At some point, these three individuals turned on our three victims and murdered them.”
Deputies announced two suspected gang members, ages 12 and 17, had been arrested. The boy was arrested at home and the teenage boy was already in the juvenile system after a school fight, deputies said.
The two slain teenage girls were Layla Silvernail and Camille Quarles, deputies said. Layla was wounded on the side of the road on March 30 before she died at the hospital.
A girl who was walking to school found the teenage boy dead on March 31 in a rural area. Deputies reported finding Camille dead on April 1, in the trunk of Layla’s 2015 Chevy Cruze.
Woods said detectives suspect the murders were related to a string of robberies and burglaries in the area — some of which involved stealing weapons.
Woods said there was a $10,000 reward for information resulting in Tahj’s arrest. He asked anyone with information about his whereabouts to avoid confronting him and call 911, or 352-732-9111, or Marion County Crime Stoppers at 352-368-7867 to remain anonymous.
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