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New Details On How Black Lives Matter Activist, 75-Year-Old Woman Were Found Slain In Florida
Suspect Aaron Glee Jr.'s mother said he confessed in a jailhouse phone call to killing 19-year-old Oluwatoyin Salau and 75-year-old Victoria Sims – in separate incidents – after becoming enraged about things they allegedly said.
The mother of a Florida man accused of killing a 19-year-old Black Lives Matter protester and a 75-year-old AARP volunteer has said her son confessed to the crimes in a jailhouse phone call, as new details about the case emerge.
The bodies of Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, 19, and Victoria “Vicki” Sims, 75, were found by authorities Saturday night in a home where suspect Aaron Glee Jr. had been staying after they used GPS data from Sims’ cell phone to track her to the area, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Police broke into the home after getting no answer at the house and discovered Sims dead in a bedroom with her wrists and ankles bound behind her back, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the news outlet. She had been covered with a white blanket that was soaked in blood.
Salua’s body was found in a wooded area outside the home with the help of a police dog. She had been covered in leaves.
Glee—a man with an extensive criminal record—had fled the area but was later apprehended by Orlando Police at a bus stop in Orlando, according to a statement from the Tallahassee Police Department.
Glee allegedly confessed to killing both women in a jailhouse call to his mom, Sandra Cutliff, according the Daily Mail.
Cutliff said her son told her that he'd met Salau on a bus and invited her to his home so that she could take a shower.
He allegedly told his mom he flew into a rage and strangled the 19-year-old to death after she asked for “molly”—a term used for ecstasy—and he refused. Cutliff claimed her son told her that Salau had called him a “n----r,” which prompted his rage.
Cutliff also revealed her son had been struggling recently with mental health issues, so it's unclear how reliable his version of events is.
Police have said Salau reached out to them on June 6—the same day she disappeared—to report “a possible sexual battery” that had occurred that day after a man had offered to give her a ride to a church where she had been staying.
Officers were following up on that report when Salau’s family reported her missing. Police began talking with those who knew the Black Lives Matter activist and others she may have reached out to, while also searching areas she may have frequented.
“A team of more than a dozen TPD investigators worked tirelessly to find Salau,” police said.
Authorities do not believe Glee is the same man who was involved in the earlier sexual battery complaint and noted that the “information and description Salau provided to police and posted to social media prior to her disappearance does not match the person ultimately found to be responsible for her murder.”
At some point after Salau was killed, Cutliff said Glee told her that Sims, a long-time volunteer for AARP, stopped by the home to visit but Glee got angry after she allegedly called him a “slob” and he killed her.
He had been friends with Sims, even referring to her as his “white grandmother,” Cutliff said.
Cutliff said her son had been struggling with his mental health in the months before the killings and was on the verge of a breakdown at the time of the slayings.
She told The Daily Mail he had been hearing loud music outside his home that wasn’t there.
“He told me he would go outside and yell to see where the music was, and there wasn’t any music” Cutliff said. “He did that a few times, and he told me ‘Momma, I think I’m losing my mind.”
Glee, 49, had also allegedly been taken to a mental health clinic in Tallahassee in February after he had been picked up by police, but he refused to stay at the center.
Shortly before the slayings, on May 29, Glee was arrested after a police officer allegedly saw him kicking another woman in the stomach. The woman told authorities Glee had gotten angry after she rejected his sexual advances, according to police reports obtained by The Tallahassee Democrat.
Glee was charged with aggravated battery in that incident. According to the Daily Mail, he has a long criminal history dating back to 1989 that also includes convictions for grand theft auto, credit card fraud, robbery and throwing a “deadly missile” at a building.
Sims, a grandmother and retired state worker, was last seen alive on June 11. She was reported missing on June 13 after a neighbor had gone to check on her and found the front door of her apartment open, the local paper reports.
Police said officers arrived at the residence to find it “had been ransacked and burglarized and her vehicle was missing,” according to the police statement.
They used GPS data from her phone to track her to Glee’s home, where they discovered the bodies.
Other witnesses had also mentioned that Sims occasionally gave rides to a man named Aaron.
Police found Sims' white Toyota stuck in the mud at Glee’s house.
“It appeared as though the driver was attempting to drive north of the stopping location, but was unsuccessful,” court documents obtained by the local paper said. “There was a white sheet covering the rear of the vehicle, including the license plate. The license plate was bent upward, as though attempting to conceal the vehicle’s identity.”
Police said both women had been devoted to working toward positive change when their lives were taken.
“Each woman has passionate about improving the lives of others,” they said. “With Salau protesting for justice and policy change with Movement 850 and Sims serving the elderly with AARP, TPD is committed to upholding the legacies of their service on behalf of others by bringing the person responsible for their murders to justice.”
