Man arrested for evidence tampering after hiding girlfriend’s body, Jacksonville police say
A man was arrested Monday and is facing a charge of evidence tampering after police say he concealed his girlfriend’s body.
Earlier this month, patrol officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to Cassat Avenue where Bradley Chambers told officers where to find his girlfriend’s dead body.
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He had left her inside a Dodge Pickup truck located in the parking lot of an apartment complex on King Street, according to a JSO arrest report.
JSO and the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department found her body in the back seat of the truck, covered with a large car tarp.
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In a police interview, Chambers told authorities that he and his girlfriend had traveled to Jacksonville from Fort Lauderdale for the weekend. After dropping his truck off at his mother’s home, he and his girlfriend got a hotel room.
The following day, September 3, the couple switched hotels and went to get alcohol. Sometime later, Chambers stated that he and the victim had gotten into a verbal argument.
The two began driving, and the argument continued, at which point the victim began telling Chambers that she would jump out of the truck, the report said.
According to Chambers, the victim jumped out of the front passenger door of the moving vehicle. Chambers turned around and found the victim unresponsive. He put her in the back seat and began driving towards Baptist Hospital.
While on the way he began to fear that he would get into trouble for the victim’s death because he was on parole, according to the report.
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After driving around and leaving the car on King Street. He walked around Jacksonville’s Westside for hours, he told police. He wandered to Cassat Avenue where he eventually called the police. He told police he waited so long to call because he did not want to be tracked.
JSO’s dive team found Chamber’s truck keys along the embankment of McCoy’s Creek. Additionally, surveillance footage inside the liquor store shows Chambers entering and purchasing alcohol earlier that day.
JSO states that Chambers tampered with evidence, “in a lawful investigation to avoid detection.”
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