Family including children ages six and five are found burned to death in backyard fire pit after they went missing – as suspect reveals what led to their grim end

Rain Mancini, 26, Phillip Zilliot II, 25, and their children Karma, 6, and Phillip III, 5, went missing on June 12 in Pasco County, Florida

Burned human remains found in a backyard fire pit are believed to be a young family-of-four who were allegedly killed by their landlord

Florida police charged 25-year-old Rory Atwood with first-degree murder after they found remains at his home

Police performed a welfare check on the missing family on June 14, and found after a woman told officers her brother had seen bodies during a FaceTime call with Atwood

The next police received a call from a man who claimed Atwood had ‘admitted to killing his roommates and their children

Florida couple Rain Mancini, 26, Phillip Zilliot II, 25, and their children Karma, 6, and Phillip, 5 went missing on June 12. Burned human remains found in a backyard fire pit are believed to be a young family-of-four

Burned human remains found in a backyard fire pit are believed to be a young family-of-four who were allegedly killed by their landlord. 
Rain Mancini, 26, Phillip Zilliot II, 25, and their children Karma, 6, and Phillip III, 5, went missing on June 12 in Pasco County, Florida. 
Rory Atwood, 25, has since been charged with one count of first-degree murder after they found the remains at his home which were charred beyond recognition. 
The family were last seen in the Nottingham Trl area of Hudson on June 12 around 12.30am.
On June 14, police performed a welfare check on the family after a woman told officers her brother had seen bodies during a FaceTime call with Atwood, ABC Action News reported. 

Florida police charged the missing family’s landlord Rory Atwood, [photo], 25, with first-degree murder after they found remains at his home

Atwood had reportedly called the brother asking for help to burn what he claimed was garbage. 
But during the call the man reportedly saw ‘adult and child bodies’.
Deputies followed up on the call and spoke with Atwood who said the family had not returned, adding that the family had taken their belongings out of the home two weeks earlier after Atwood said, he kicked them out for not paying their rent.
When police first went to Atwood’s home in Hudson he allowed them to search the property and they did not find anything suspicious. 
The next day, police received a call from a man who claimed Atwood had ‘admitted to killing his roommates and their children,’ an affidavit stated. 
It was only when officers returned to carry out a second search with cadaver dogs that they discovered the remains. 

Rain Mancini, her children Karma and Phillip III, along with her partner- the children’s dad 26, Phillip Zilliot II, who went missing on June 12, arre presumed dead after charred remains were found at the home of their former roommate

According to the affidavit, investigators searched the home and found items belonging to the family which Atwood tried to explain, telling officers the family did not have time to take those items with them. However, interviewed by another detective, the suspect said Mancini told him she was going to stay at a women’s shelter with her children while their father was going to stay in a tent at a nearby park.
Deputies also searched the property and inspected the fire pit, which appeared to be 10 feet in diameter and had “various unburned items on the top and ash and various burned debris at the base.”
A dog found what ‘appeared to be a small skeletal remains’ with soft tissue in a fire pit. They also reportedly found human bone fragments and vertebrae.
‘We believe it may be this family, but at the same time, I can’t give a definitive until…the [medical examiner] gives us final confirmation that it is,’ Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said Saturday.
Atwood allegedly told police he had got into a fight with the couple over a gun in the lead up to their deaths, according to a criminal complaint. He is alleged to have said that he had used ‘adrenaline’ to drag their bodies to the fire pit.  

Police officers conducting a second round of searches on Rory Atwood’s property with cadaver dogs discovered the remains. A dog allegedly found what ‘appeared to be a small skeletal remains’ with soft tissue in a fire pit

Atwood also told officers that he had evicted the family on June 1 when they failed to pay rent, and then they had come back unexpectedly on June 12. Atwood had been renting his place to the family and claimed the father had come into his bedroom with a knife and the two fought before all three of the adults struggled over a knife and a gun. 
During the fight, he said the parents were shot multiple times. 
The remains have not yet been formally identified, so Atwood has only been charged with one murder of a ‘John Doe’ at the time of publishing. 
He has pled not guilty and is being held without bond.