JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A missing man who disappeared late last year was found buried in a field inside a trash bag in the Brooklyn neighborhood, and an arrest has been made in his murder, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
Officers first learned about the missing man, 44-year-old Philip M. Curtiss, in November 2022, after reports that he had not been seen in several weeks.
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A witness told police she’d heard that Curtiss was shot and killed and his body dragged into the woods behind a property on Starratt Road in the Oceanway area. Curtiss was living in a boat on the property at the time, according to a report.
JSO talked to several neighbors that day, Reginald Dwayne House, and was told that he’d moved. A search of the property and woods turned up nothing. In May, House was arrested on unrelated charges of attempted murder and was questioned again about Curtiss’ disappearance. JSO also spoke to a jail informant about what Curtiss said to him. Detectives questioned House, 45, a third time, and after that interview, police went to a vacant lot and found Curtiss’ remains.
House, who was already in jail on unrelated charges, was arrested Monday on charges of murder and abuse of a dead human body.