KEY LARGO, Fla. – A 43-year-old Key Largo woman’s badly-beaten body was left concealed under a water heater in a resort hotel room on the island for two days before authorities discovered her Monday, according to a newly-released arrest report from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
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Deputies said in the report that Nadyne Marie Tillman had met her accused killer, convicted Key Largo felon Dylan Lamb, after arranging a date off of a prostitution website.
Lamb, 33, is now facing a murder charge.
A disturbing discovery
Deputies made the gruesome discovery at the Amoray Beach Resort at 104250 Overseas Highway after Tillman’s friends and loved ones reported her missing, noting her “highly uncharacteristic” lack of a response to text messages.
The report states that Tillman had told a man ― described as a “known associate” ― that she had “arranged a date with someone she met through a non-dating website” at the resort.
Her last text messages to the man came just before 9 a.m. Saturday, “when she texted him saying she was at the hotel but the person wasn’t answering the door,” the report states.
Deputies said her final message came shortly after, reading, “I’m in.”
According to the report, deputies went to the resort, where its assistant general manager said she was “aware of the missing person investigation and wished to report suspicious behavior involving a former guest, identified as Dylan Lamb.”
Lamb, she said, had booked hotel room W1A through Expedia using his mother’s phone number, deputies said. According to the report, the assistant general manager “attempted to have Lamb move to another room during his stay” but he refused, communicating through the closed door. Deputies said he was allowed to stay in room W1A until Sunday morning, when staff moved him to another room.
According to the report, after Lamb checked out, “a housekeeper discovered three large trash bags” in room W1A that “were filled with soiled towels and bed linens, and were described as heavily stained with substances consistent with blood, urine and feces.”
The towels were thrown away before staff members recognized the nature of the contents, deputies said.
“The dumpster had already been emptied by the contracted waste company, rendering the items unrecoverable,” the report states.
Deputies pulled data from Tillman’s cellphone which showed contact between her and Lamb, they said. They then searched the room.
A detective “opened a closet housing the unit’s water heater and observed a deceased white female concealed underneath,” the report states. Tillman’s partially-clothed body was placed in a fetal position.
She suffered “two black eyes, swollen and lacerated lips and other facial trauma consistent with blunt force impact,” deputies said.
‘Freaked out’
Deputies said they contacted Lamb’s probation officer, who said that he had met with him in person Monday ― after he allegedly committed the murder. The probation officer told investigators that Lamb, on probation following a grand theft auto conviction, worked at Florida Bay Outfitters, about a five-minute walk from the resort.
Deputies went to the kayak and clothing store and took Lamb into custody. They said he had Tillman’s credit card in his wallet.
The report states that Lamb told detectives he met Tillman off escort website ListCrawler and agreed to pay her $200 for sex.
Deputies said he claimed that Tillman took the money “but attempted to leave without engaging in the agreed activity,” leading him to block the door.
“He stated that she began striking him and, in response, he struck her once in the face,” investigators wrote. “He claimed she fell to the floor, struck her head and became unconscious.”
But deputies said Tillman’s injuries were not consistent with a single strike.
Lamb told detectives he went into the bathroom to “calm down” and came out to see Tillman not breathing.
“He reported that he placed her on the bed, checked for signs of life, and did not find a pulse,” the report states. “He admitted that he panicked, cleaned the scene using towels and linens from the room and concealed the victim’s body inside the closet underneath the water heater.”
Deputies said he went on to tell investigators that he “packed the soiled linens, towels, the victim’s cell phone and other belongings into three separate trash bags and left them in the room when he checked out.”
“When asked why he didn’t call 911, Lamb stated that he ‘freaked out’ and did not want to get in trouble,” the report states.
Lamb is now facing a second-degree murder charge, in addition to counts of false imprisonment, destroying evidence and soliciting prostitution.
A past case
It’s not Lamb’s first time being accused of beating a woman. He pleaded no contest to battery in May 2023 stemming from a November 2022 incident.
According to an arrest warrant, on Nov. 14, 2022, someone had arranged for Lamb to give a woman a ride home from a Florida City hotel.
The woman, who described Lamb as “the white guy,” passed out in his pickup truck and awoke ― still in Florida City ― outside the Country Lodge Motel at 651 N. Krome Ave.
She had asked him to take her home and said she awoke at Lamb’s home in the Florida Keys, according to the warrant.
Deputies said the woman again asked to be taken home but couldn’t find her cellphone. Authorities said when she took Lamb’s cellphone, he pulled over on Morris Avenue, near the Manatee Bay Marina, got out of his pickup, opened the door and “began punching her in the back of the head.”
“He pulled her from the truck by her hair and continued punching her while she was on the ground,” the warrant states. “(Lamb) then stomped on her head with his feet. He grabbed all of her belongings from the truck and threw them on the road. He tried to run her over with the truck, but she was able to get out of the way.”
She would later be treated at Mariners Hospital in Tavernier. Deputies said she was only able to give them a description of Lamb, not his name, but said she managed to identify him through Facebook in February 2023.
She shared text messages between her and Lamb. Deputies said after sending Lamb photos of her injuries, she asked, “How could u beat me how u did.”
“I went to merners (sic) hospital,” deputies said she texted him, saying she was “traumatized” before telling Lamb that she now had a “huge” $16,000 medical bill to contend with.
Deputies said Lamb responded, “How can I make it right by you I’m broke and jobless.”
They would later arrest Lamb.
What’s next in murder case
Lamb is scheduled to appear in front of a Monroe County judge at around 1 p.m. Wednesday.
He has an arraignment hearing scheduled for May 13.
As of Wednesday morning, Lamb was being held without bond in MCSO’s Key West jail facility.