A 65-year old Terry Hillard just watched a SpaceX Falcon launch in a motel at Cocoa, Florida; but after next day, he was dead.
According to a Cocoa police report, the SpaceX fan checked in the Dixie Motel with the suspect on late night Tuesday. A day later in the morning, an employee of the motel called 911 after discovering the rocket lover’s body in his room.
The cause of Terry’s death and even the identity of the perpetrator behind the murder case were both unknown; however, police have already released a CCTV footage of the rocket fan’s killing, where a man clothed in a black polo, jeans, and black sneakers walked up to a door, gave it a twitch, and walked off.
The suspect reportedly took Hillard’s black Chevy Cruz and left it behind at Hialeahm, Florida.
The force claimed that it is not clear yet whether the suspect was an acquaintance of the victim or just “a drifter.”
“We don’t know if it was someone that the victim knew or someone they had just met," Ron McCarron of the Cocoa Police Department remarked. Even the relatives of the victim have said that they haven’t seen the suspect before.
"Everything is showing us that they were hanging out together at the hotel and during the time just before the hotel,” he added.
Yvonne Martinez, a public information officer of the police department revealed that the suspect was last spotted on a gas station security camera on early morning, Thursday, and concluded that it “could be anywhere”. He further continued that a nationwide manhunt is on the go.
“He could have hitchhiked to the other side of Florida, or he could have headed north, he could be anywhere,” the police spokesperson said grounding his observations on the place where the suspect left the Terry’s car.
Local authorities are warning that “due to the nature of the homicide,” the suspect may be armed.
A reward of $5,000 is waiting for individuals who can tell at least any information regarding the assailant.