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Convinced Son Was Slain, Pasco Family Ups Reward

Tribune photo by ANDY JONES

A sign erected on Prospect Road and Clinton Avenue in Dade City announces a reward for information about the death of Timothy Lindsey, who was killed by a motor vehicle on Prospect four years ago. The Florida Highway Patrol ruled the death a hit and run, but family members maintain the death was a murder.

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - After Timothy Lindsey's body was found more than four years ago, his mother vowed to find the killers.

Even after the Florida Highway Patrol ruled it a hit-and-run, Etta Lindsey maintained it was much more than that. She still says her 36-year-old son's death was no accident.

So for a second time, she and her family are upping the reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. The reward, originally $5,000 and doubled to $10,000, now is $25,000.

"We just saved for it, and it's come to the time now we could raise it and maybe get some answers," Etta Lindsey said.

She has set up a hot line at her home for tips, anonymous or otherwise. Tipsters can call (813) 997-7610.

On Aug. 7, 2004, a motorist found Timothy Lindsey's shirtless and shoeless body on the shoulder of Prospect Road near Williams Cemetery Road outside Dade City. A 1986 Zephyrhills High graduate, Lindsey was born with spina bifida, a congenital deformation of the spinal column. He wore leg braces.

His mother says the braces were found about 50 feet from each other, not with her son's body.

A woman who described herself as a friend of Lindsey's told highway patrol troopers she had been in the woods with him looking for Indian arrowheads about 3 a.m. the day he died.

Etta Lindsey wonders how you can find arrowheads in the dark.

There are other reasons she doesn't accept the highway patrol's ruling.

She said her son used crystal methamphetamine to ease the pain of his contorted body, and she thinks he was at a drug house the evening before he was found dead. She thinks some of the people he was with knocked him unconscious and dumped him on the side of the road before running over him with a truck.

A private investigator hired by the family a few months afterward interviewed dozens of people and came to the same conclusion as Etta Lindsey: The death was not an accident.

Like the highway patrol, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office says Lindsey died in a hit-and-run, sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll said.

Etta Lindsey said she has faced another obstacle: Someone keeps stealing the sign -- asking for help -- that her family places at Prospect Road and Clinton Avenue, most recently a couple of weeks ago. She thinks her son's killers are doing it.

"We feel this is bothering them enough that they keep tearing it down," she said.

She will continue reminding people about her son until someone is arrested.

"We just need some help on this."

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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