PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A man has been charged with first degree murder after killing his victim with an axe then burning the body, according to court documents.
Gregory Coffey was arrested on Sept. 30 and charged with first degree murder and desecration of human remains after the remains of Gordon Randolph Tillman Jr. were found outside the home Sept. 25.
Tillman's brother, Raymond Poole, reported him missing on Sept. 2, police said in a press conference on Sept. 30. The next day, Poole came to the Elliott Avenue home looking for his brother and ended up shooting Coffey, according to court documents.
Watch the full press conference here:
Poole was arrested Sept. 11 and charged with attempted second-degree murder.
A citizen called police and told them she knew where a dead body was buried on the Elliott Avenue property, and that it was a missing person from Portsmouth, according to court documents. She said Coffey asked her son for help in hiding and burning the dead body, which he refused.
Two witnesses told police they watched Coffey murder Tillman by hitting him in the head and body with an axe. Coffey reportedly said, "I can't get him out of here like that, I'll go to jail for life."
Coffey told witnesses that Tillman had been stealing from him, and after hitting him with the axe, said "He won't steal none of my s*** anymore."
One witness told detectives Coffey burned Tillman's body in his backyard and placed a bed over blood in the garage to try and conceal it. The witness said Coffey asked him to put chemicals on Tillman's body to stop it from decomposing and smelling.
Watch previous coverage: Investigators back at Portsmouth home after murder arrest, neighbors question what comes next
The witness said he also moved the axe to the left side of the garage so Coffey could not use it on them. Police found the axe in that location while searching the property.
Police also discovered blood spatter around the garage and burned bone fragments in the backyard. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the bone fragments were human remains, according to court documents.
An FBI agent found a "heavily decomposed human body" that had been burned in a ditch near the Elliott Avenue property. The OCME positively identified the remains as Tillman through fingerprints.
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