KEY LARGO (MH) — A man confessed to hitting the woman whose body was found stuffed in a closet at a Key Largo resort after she tried to leave the room without having sex with him, according to his arrest report.
The body of the victim, 43-year-old Nadyne Marie Tillman, was found wedged underneath a water heater in a closet at the Amoray Dive Resort in Key Largo on Monday, two days after she was killed, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s
In between the time Tillman was killed and her body was discovered, the resort rented the room to guests who did not know the body was in the closet, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told the Miami Herald.
Tuesday, detectives arrested the man they say killed Tillman, Dylan Lamb, a 33-year-old Key Largo kayak tour guide, on a second-degree murder charge. He had Tillman’s credit card in his wallet when detectives searched him, the report states. He has been on probation in a car-theft case.
Detectives believe Tillman was beaten to death.
ACCUSED: Dylan Lamb, 33, of Key Largo, Florida
Met through an escort service
After his arrest, Lamb told detectives he contacted Tillman through an escort service website, and met her at the resort room on Saturday morning. He said he paid her $200 “in exchange for sexual services,” detectives wrote in their report.
Lamb said after he paid Tillman, she tried leaving “without engaging in the agreed activity,” Detective J. Hernandez wrote in his report.
Lamb told detectives he blocked the door, and Tillman began hitting him. He then hit her once in the face, the report states.
“He claimed she fell to the floor, struck her head, and became unconscious,” Hernandez wrote.
Lamb told detectives he went to the bathroom to collect himself and when he returned to where Tillman was lying on the floor, she wasn’t breathing.
“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,” Hernandez wrote.
He told detectives he didn’t call 911 because he “freaked out.”
Detectives said it appeared Tillman was hit multiple times. She had “two black eyes, swollen and lacerated lips, and other facial trauma consistent with blunt force impact,” Hernandez stated.
VICTIM: Nadyne Marie Tillman, 43, of Key Largo, Florida
Bags full of bloody linens
After Lamb checked out of the room Sunday, a housekeeper found three large trash bags filled with linens and towels, heavily stained with “substances consistent with blood, urine, and feces,” Hernandez wrote.
But, the housekeeper threw the bags in the resort’s dumpster and did not notify resort management, according to the report.
“The dumpster had already been emptied by the contracted waste company, rendering the items unrecoverable,” Hernandez stated.
Concerned family and friends
Calls to the Sheriff’s Office by Tillman’s friends and family Monday led detectives to finding her body — and tracking down Lamb. Her daughter and daughter’s boyfriend told detectives that Tillman’s Chevy SUV was parked at the resort for two or three days.
When deputies checked it out, they found the car backed into a space near Unit 2A with a windshield sunshade in place, the driver’s side window partially down and a duffle bag visible in the back of the vehicle, Hernandez wrote.
Tillman’s daughter told detectives that she last spoke with her mother Friday when she asked her if she would be available to meet her if she rented a hotel room. The daughter said she couldn’t because of work, Hernandez wrote.
Tillman’s other daughter received a Facebook message from a friend of their mother’s who said he had not heard from her since Saturday and he was concerned. The friend told the daughter that Tillman’s last communication with him was her saying she was meeting a date at the resort, Hernandez wrote.
Detectives spoke with the man, who told them Tillman arranged the date “with someone she met through a non-dating website,” Hernandez wrote.
“He described the meeting as a hookup scheduled for the morning of April 5. [The friend] stated that his final communication with Nadyne occurred at 8:57 a.m. that morning, when she texted him saying she was at the hotel but the person wasn’t answering the door. A second message followed shortly after, reading, ‘I’m in.’ He advised he had not heard from her since,” Hernandez wrote.
Resort manager suspicious
When detectives were investigating Tillman’s disappearance on Monday at the resort, the general manager approached them and “wished to report suspicious behavior involving a former guest, identified as Dylan Lamb,” wrote Hernandez.
The manager told detectives she knocked on his door, room W1A, on Saturday, but he refused to open it. She wanted to move him to another room, but he refused to open the door, talking to her while he kept the door closed. She told him he could stay in the room for one more night. On Sunday, he moved to Room 2A, near where detectives found Tillman’s parked SUV, according to the report.
Detectives reviewed Tillman’s cell phone data and found multiple communications between her and Lamb, according to the report.
Body found
When detectives searched the first room he had been staying in — W1A — they found Tillman’s body underneath the water heater in the closet lying “in a fetal position,” Hernandez wrote.
“The female was partially clothed, wearing only a red shirt that covered her from the chest to her midsection. She was nude from the waist down. A tattoo was visible on her lower back. The Medical Examiner responded to the scene. I assisted in moving the body and observed tattoos on the victim’s neck that matched those visible in Nadyne Tillman’s Facebook profile picture,” the detective stated.
On Tuesday, detectives contacted Lamb’s probation officer, who told them he met with Lamb on Monday. Lamb is serving two years probation for an October 2024 grand theft auto charge. He pleaded no contest in that case, according to court records.
Detectives tracked him down at Florida Bay Outfitters, where he worked, which is less than a mile from the resort, and arrested him.
As of Wednesday, Lamb was being held in Monroe County jail on a $250,000 bond on the murder charge and on charges of altering and concealing evidence and soliciting prostitution, according to jail records. His arraignment is scheduled for May 13.
In addition to the grand theft auto case, Lamb also pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in May 2023, court records show.
By DAVID GOODHUE/Miami Herald
