Crime Archive

An Okaloosa County Grand Jury has indicted three Crestview Police officers in the Oct. 14, 2021, death of Calvin Wilks, Jr. after law enforcement interaction. Brandon Hardaway, William Johns and Evan Reynolds have been indicted for manslaughter.

A statement issued by the Crestview Police Department says they are aware of the results of the Grand Jury review. “As a law enforcement agency, we must trust the justice system we are charged to enforce,” Police Chief McCosker said. “We will continue to cooperate with all parties involved as we await the outcome of the upcoming trial.”

Sunday night, June 5, Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Baker fire chief Brian Keith Easterling at his home in Holt. Easterling is charged with premeditated homicide for the murder of Mike Evers, a 63-year-old Pensacola businessman, at Evers’s shop on Creighton Road on June 2.

Easterling’s arrest report sheds light on the details of the crime. The Pensacola Police Department was called for a welfare check on Evers who hadn’t been seen or heard from since Thursday, June 2. Police went to his La Jolla Drive property but didn’t find him there. One of the police officers, who is a friend of Evers, went to check the Creighton Road business with a family member of Evers.

The body of a man found tangled in trees along the Shoal River off Highway 393 near Dorcas has been identified as 27-year-old Colby Wilcher.

Wilcher was reported missing out of Holt by a family member in January. According to the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office, the last known social media post on Wilcher’s Facebook page was Feb. 9.

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office investigators had been searching for 47-year old Chad Ankenbrand since discovering the bodies of his estranged girlfriend, 52-year old Annastacia Merrell, and Merrell’s co-worker, 51-year old Patrick Tymoch, inside Merrell’s Bentwood Lane home Tuesday afternoon.

Craig Golden, who is 36 and has no defined address, was pulled over on South Avenue near Fort Walton Beach and told the deputy he didn’t have a valid drivers license, according to his Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

Three people were arrested on various charges Wednesday after Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputies responding to a call of shots being fired near Fort Walton Beach were led on a high speed chase north to Crestview.

Two Crestview men were arrested and charged with possession of child pornography following the execution of a search warrant at their residence.

Four bloodhound puppies born to Santa Rosa County’s tracking dog audition for the job at Okaloosa County. No. 11 tracks down the position.

The body was found Sunday, Jan. 9, about a week after a prominent LGBTQ advocate in Tallahassee was reported missing.

Reports started coming in at about 5 a.m. on Sunday, according to information from the OCSO. Most of the vehicles were in the area off Live Oak Church Road and Shoffner Boulevard.