Report names man found dead in New Tampa and presents evidence in murder case

Last week, police found a body riddled with bullet holes hidden in the woods next to a storage facility in New Tampa.

The body was badly decomposed and parts of the skull lay shattered nearby, Tampa police noted in an arrest report. A Florida driver’s license was found on a lanyard around the man’s neck. This helped investigators identify him as 35-year-old Andre Dyke.

Investigators found that Dyke had been living in his red Dodge Charger and, using license plate readers, discovered that someone else had been driving the car after his death, the report said. They tracked the Dodge to an apartment complex a few hundred yards north of where his body was found — where Andre Aris had recently dumped his car, according to police. It.

Police have not released Dyke’s name, but an arrest report released this week identifies him and presents the evidence that investigators say links Aris to the murder: According to the report, police found bloodstained shoes, bullet casings and Dyke’s identification cards among Aris’ belongings.

Dyke’s killing is one of several shootings that have raised concerns among New Tampa residents recently. At a town hall meeting Monday night, Police Chief Lee Bercaw answered questions from some of the more than 150 people gathered at New Tampa Center and assured residents that the killings were not random and that their community was safe.

On Saturday morning, a patrol officer spotted Dykes Dodge parked in front of the Morgan Creek apartment complex in the 17000 block of Madison Green Drive. Officers in unmarked vehicles waited there until Aris, 29, walked to the Dodge, unlocked it and got in.

When officers ordered Aris to get out of the car and lie on the ground, he refused. According to the police report, officers used a taser on him.

He was arrested for resisting an officer without using violence. As of Monday, police had charged him with premeditated murder with a firearm, car theft and possession of marijuana with intent to sell.

During an interview with police, Aris told investigators that Dyke had given him the Dodge Charger to sell about a week earlier.

Police searched the car and found what appeared to be blood splatter on the ceiling and a bullet hole in the driver’s seat. Inside a black backpack, police found several jars of marijuana, an empty 9mm cartridge case and a bloody Ruger 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

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There was one cartridge in the chamber and an empty magazine with a capacity for seven bullets.

Aris told investigators that he rented a storage unit at Metro Self Storage at 17231 Dona Michelle Drive, where Dyke was discovered, as well as a hotel room at the nearby LaQuinta Inn.

The police searched the apartment and found a box of ammunition. Seven bullets were missing.

Surveillance video from the camp showed Aris walking to his unit shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday. Less than 10 minutes later, the video shows Aris leaving the house with the black backpack that police found in the Dodge Charger and which contained the gun and marijuana, the report said.

Police also found in the storage unit U.S. Postal Service ID cards in Dyke’s name and bloody socks and shoes.

When investigators searched Aris’ hotel room, they found a white paper bag containing an empty 9mm cartridge case and a fired bullet, both covered in blood.

Aris told investigators he found the backpack containing the gun and marijuana in the Dodge when Dyke gave it to him. He said he hasn’t had a gun since a Glock pistol was stolen from him two years ago.

When investigators asked him why he would buy two boxes of ammunition if he didn’t own a gun, Aris replied, “He knows a lot of people who own firearms,” ​​according to the police report.

Aris also denied knowing Dyke’s IDs were in his storage unit, telling police that Dyke may have left them there when he dropped off a toolbox for the car. When police asked Aris about the bloody shoes, he said he found them outside the storage building. He did not see the blood, Aris told investigators.

“The stains on the shoes were very noticeable,” the report says.

Hillsborough prosecutors have filed a motion to keep Aris in jail while his case is heard, saying he poses a danger to the community. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Monday.

Nicole Dyke, Andre Dyke’s sister-in-law, said she first met him in the Navy, around the same time she met her husband, Dyke’s younger brother.

“He was outgoing, funny and friendly,” she said of Andre Dyke.

Andre Dyke left the military in 2018, his sister-in-law said. They lost touch soon after and she hasn’t spoken to him in recent years, she said.