Stories
Ryan Skipper
Ryan Keith Skipper, 25, was brutally stabbed to death in Eloise, Florida. The suspected killers, 20 year old David Brown and 21 year old Joseph Bearden, are in custody and the investigation is proceeding as a hate crime. A witness came forward to police and said that the victim, Ryan Keith Skipper, was killed because he made an advance toward one of his attackers. The night of the attack, a witness said Skipper was riding around Eloise trying to pick up someone. Skipper met up with Bearden and shortly thereafter they went back to his home in Winter Haven. The two men smoked marijuana and then met up with Brown at another home. Brown and Bearden then robbed Skipper of his car and his computer, drove with him to a dirt road, then stabbed him more than 20 times. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said a witness Friday night told officials that Brown later said that Skipper had been "messing with him, that Ryan Skipper was a homosexual, so (he) killed him." The two men were ordered held without bond at their first appearance. Brown and Bearden are charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in the death of Ryan Keith Skipper.