Police Search for Suspected Killer Who May Be on the Run in South Florida

A suspected killer could be on the run in South Florida and police need your help to find him.

“Somebody knows him, somebody has seen him, somebody has gone past him,” said Ron McCarron of Cocoa Police.

Investigators believe the man they are searching for is connected to this week’s death of 65-year-old Terry Scott Hillard from Ocala.

“It’s a while male, average build, dark hair. Possibly 5’7” to 5’10” between 18 and 28 years of age,” said McCarron.

An employee at the Dixie Motel in the city of Cocoa, which is about an hour from Orlando, first alerted police to the homicide on Wednesday morning. Cocoa police said Hillard checked into the Dixie Motel around 5 p.m. Tuesday with the same man that’s now on the run.

“We don’t know if it was someone that the victim knew or someone they had just met. Everything is showing us that they were hanging out together at the hotel and during the time just before the hotel,” said McCarron.

Detectives tracked down the victim’s abandoned vehicle, which was used as the suspect’s getaway car, at a strip mall in Hialeah Gardens on Northwest 138^th Street. He was last seen on security video at a gas station on West Okeechobee Road in Hialeah Gardens at around 4:30 Thursday morning.

“He should be considered armed and dangerous,” said McCarron.

The victim’s wife said he was in Cocoa Wednesday watching the Falcon Heavy rocket launch. Relatives tell police they have never seen the suspect.

“As far as I know, he’s a suspect,” said David Walker, a relative of the victim. “I don’t know what happened. We’re clueless as to what happened, why it happened. That’s basically what my sister is trying to understand.”

Anyone with information on this crime is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.