CONCORD, N.H. — The young woman who was murdered during a police standoff in Greenland earlier this year left behind a final message for her family members.
Police say Brittany Tibbetts, a hairdresser and former star athlete at Noble High School, composed a text message to her mother shortly before she was killed by her one-time companion, Cullen Mutrie.
Tibbetts was being sought by police on drug charges before the fatal shooting on April 12. Mutrie, her alleged accomplice, opened fire on members of the Attorney General’s Drug Task Force when they arrived to arrest Tibbetts and search his home.
After wounding four police officers, Mutrie allegedly fled to the basement, where he shot Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney through a small window. Mutrie subsequently murdered Tibbetts and shot himself.
Following a seven-month investigation into the incident, police released new details about the shooting this week, including the contents of a final text message composed by Tibbetts. It was sent to her mother at 8:08 p.m., according to records provided by State Police investigators, about 90 minutes after Maloney was fatally shot.
“I love u too so much,” the message reads. “More than I’ll ever know we didn’t do anything wrong!! I love u and dad and Linds and gram and gramps soooo much!!! Diesel [the dog] will need you!!! Ok take care of him!!!!! I’m so sorry!!! Good bye!!! 517 post rd Greenland. Take Whiskey [the cat] too bye mom I love you soooo much!!!!!!!”
Tibbetts was a four-year varsity player at Noble High School, graduating in 2004. She was the softball team’s top pitcher for three seasons, including her junior year in 2003, when the Knights enjoyed the best season in school history.
They won the Western Maine Class A title over Scarborough, and lost to Leavitt in the state final in 10 innings. Tibbetts was named Maine’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
“She was a good one,” her former coach remembered earlier this year. “She was just awesome. She worked hard at it. She didn’t walk people and she was always around the plate.”
Just a week before her death, Tibbetts had been at the Fox Run Mall, visiting former co-workers. Tibbetts had worked as a hairdresser at the mall for five years, and had been away for about a year. Friends said she dreamed of opening her own salon while renting a booth at another.
Before the April 12 police operation in Greenland was authorized, a confidential source told police that Mutrie and Tibbetts were involved in dealing upward of 500 oxycodone pills out of the home on Post Road every few days.
According to a sworn affidavit filed by Dover Detective Dev Atma Khalsa, a member of the Attorney General’s Drug Task Force, police were first notified of suspicious drug activity at Mutrie’s home in February 2011. Neighbors told Greenland police they believed Mutrie was distributing narcotics, and that cars were frequently seen coming and going from the residence after staying for a short period of time.
Then in September 2011, a postal inspector conducting a routine review of materials in Portsmouth discovered “a significant number of packages being delivered” to Mutrie’s home from a suspicious address in Florida.
In January 2012, police were approached by an informant who claimed to have knowledge that both Mutrie and his girlfriend were involved in dealing painkillers. Federal Drug Enforcement Administration officers and members of the N.H. Attorney General’s Drug Task Force coordinated with the confidential informant to purchase 10 oxycodone pills from Tibbetts.
The source communicated via text message to arrange a meeting at the Greenland home on Jan. 30. Tibbetts was accused of selling 10 prescription pain pills to the informant during the meeting for $250.
Police have consistently indicated that it was Mutrie, and not Tibbetts, who was responsible for the carnage that unfolded on April 12. Records show that Tibbetts did purchase one of the guns used in the shootings — a .357 revolver — but it’s believed that Mutrie fired the weapon.
“At no time do we have any statements or evidence to suggest that Ms. Tibbetts had either of the two firearms during the course of this entire event,” State Police Sgt. Joseph Ebert, who directed the investigation in the Greenland drug raid, said Friday.
During a press conference in Concord, Ebert revealed a new piece of information regarding the circumstances around Tibbetts’ death. Investigators discovered what Ebert described as a dog leash on her left hand. The finding lends further credence to the belief that she was murdered by Mutrie during the ensuing standoff at the home, Ebert said. Investigators have also determined that Tibbetts was shot at a downward angle, from left to right.
Toxicology testing indicated that Tibbetts had evidence of narcotics, opiates and marijuana in her system. Investigators discovered approximately $14,000 in cash in her clothing.
“Taking the totality of the evidence into consideration, we felt comfortable saying that Ms. Tibbetts death was a homicide as opposed to a suicide,” Ebert said.
Distributed by MCT Information Services
Beautiful girl made some poor choices, so sad, its too bad that no one could have gotten to her prior to these events and tried to intervene, so she could get help for the addiction, she could be following her dreams today….If you or someone you know needs help with an addiction, don’t pretend it doesn’t exist, offer help. With help addictions can be overcome and dreams can be followed.
Sad.
no matter what the girl has done in her life is not relavant,she did nothing to deserve to die for.
she was peddling deadly addictive pills. pills kills!!
Yes let us start murdering drug users – presidents and their dealers, Americans, Lawyers, Cops, kill them all? Kill that uncle, that one, that injects the H train. People want drugs and will pay for them. I wonder if booze makers during prohibition all needed to be murdered. Do we need to kill cigarette companies too? Should we have murdered Elvis’s physician? We still would have the king if we would have shot his dirty dealer physician in the face.
Empathy is a hard won battle, one that most never win and are without empathy, they take their hate filled words and consider it validation for everything they think and feel.
Christians, where is Jesus and why is he not in your heart?
Who (except for you) wrote about to, “start murdering” anyone?
[prepare for my wall of text, sorry about that, yes, yes my ego and what not, but also information]
Who (Except for Me) wrote about Murder: expressive statements validating her death, is not akin to saying her murder was justified? Forgive me, I must have misunderstood comments. People suggesting she is scum, that is horrible and evil, is suggesting that she deserved her death. I am not believing that everyone here wants to murder, just that they rather hate everything that is against their views. Grabbing at every “fact” that makes them right, but disregarding any facts that prove them wrong. When people say “filthy person” they are usually suggesting that the person deserves every horrible act that was acted upon them.
The Murder bit: Suggesting that she is a filthy person, that her murder must in some way be a good thing, hence a line “she got what was coming to her” and other kind words. So if she “deserved” what she got – then would it not reason to say that all people like her deserve what they get?
Relative Argument: Crimes against homeless, Crimes against the poor, crimes around drug use — most people say kill them or, lock them up and throw away the key. So when I say murder ‘flat out,’ tends to put people off, such as yourself, denying it ever existed. Minimal glossing of seething hate makes people still feel good. Pointing it out, tends to upset them, as I said before.
I must ask – Where have you been, do you not see? If not, please ply me with more questions. I have this on my phone, helps pass the time.
I see – since the 1950s – dope and guns and death.
Same old, same old.
Look for the good, it is there, and never perfectly by itself, always surrounded by those dark clouds — murder, hate, rage, violence, misery. Love, compassion, understand, empathy, and patience are hard won. Your previous comments [BDN Profile] – that you practice the “good” — I dig that. Cheers.
Preaching should be done at YOUR place of worship.
Good christians don’t try to ram their beliefs down
another’s throat or anywhere else.
I am not a christian. It is just funny how people who love Christ also love torture and superiority over others. I do enjoy how you believe that whole statement was from a Christian perspective, it was not, I assure you. A good Christian is not opposite of your views, is it, Rocky? A good Christian knows how to bark to your tune, right bro?
More of the good that guns do. Thanks NRA, your efforts to make certain everyone has easy access to guns so that you can profit had the inevitable result. You are just as big slime balls as the guy who pulled the trigger.
Ignorant is no way to go through life.
Of what? That the gun industry bankrolls the NRA to intimidate or bribe our elected leaders to maintain the money train? Despite the resulting carnage? Are you ignorant of that? Or are dead women and children just irrelevant collateral damage in your eyes?
yes, and since they certainly would never buy anything illegal… I am sure a ban on guns would have stopped them… I bet they got all those pills legally, and didn’t know they were doing anything wrong
ok gun hater we get it you take every chance to barf your puke on all of us.the NRA is a non profit group.the members are what funds it so at least get your facts right.but people kill with what ever ways they can,be gun or knife or a rock on the ground.and its againest bdn policy to insult other posters. have a nice day.
It is not just your message, but your delivery: you are abrasive, rude [yes others are as well], a little childish and you ask the wrong questions. My assessment: You are not skilled in debate. You are damaging your own cause.
How about psychos turning young women into drug addicts and accomplices? Does that bother you chummy? Ah…probably too much to comprehend.
They are about on the same moral level as Wayne LaPierre.
Is there a” Mom and Dad Made Me a Psychotic Killer ” association, chummy? There’s the object of wrath for ya. Have a safe day!
Let’s not degrade Ms. Tibbetts by denying that her own free will determined her outcome.
Gee, there are millions of law abiding gunowners who don’t deal drugs/ use drugs who never have these issues. Thanks for the reminder to renew my NRA membership
I guess that’ll have to do it for you until they perfect the male enhancement thing.
You and Rocky4 must be brothers.
neither of you can post without being rude.
That is so nice
She chose the lifestyle, she chose to be with the scum of the earth,
she was dealing, she was smart enough to comprehend the probable
outcome of her lifestyle. And I’m supposed to feel sorry for her?
Not a chance.
She enjoyed all the toys purchaced with drug money
She was a dirtbag, good riddance.
Judgments and cruelty, and you are without sin, so keep your stones by your side — there is much for you to throw them at. Thank you Rocky. Stay strong – so when some one else dies by a bullet to the dome, you can talk about them being trash. Hell why stop there – hunt down the garbage. Look at the woman’s face and tell her family what you just posted here. If you are that kinda guy, you have a lot more problems and should seek help.
We look at reasons for people to die and be happy about it – super twisted.
Drug dealers
howdy friend. Isn’t it amazing how many people come on here and defend these peddlers of misery?
It is amazing, isn’t it, how people defend hate and how those defend compassion are always at odds with each other. I see it as a negative pattern, one that damages the self and makes the person blind regardless of view point composed of the two poles.
More victims of the war on drugs. Legalize all drugs and make prescription drugs available without a prescription now.
How many times do we have to witness this same sad story. The script is always the same, and the end is always just as tragic.
ARMED, large-volume trafficking of (high potency) drugs >> as a way of life << is a poor relationship/career CHOICE.
Nice stories about a sweety-pie high school athlete and "dreams" of having her own beauty salon – do NOT jive with pursing a relationship with HIGHLY dangerous (socially threatening/damaging) criminal activity.
How she came up with the (wildly delusional) statement:
"More than I’ll ever know we didn’t do anything wrong!!" …
in and of itself … is beyond tangible, realistic comprehension (at least to humans who are AWAKE).
Something ELSE was going on in this poor girl's upbringing and emotional journey than has been revealed thus far (or maybe ever). These things don't – just happen- by coincidence or casual misfortune.
Sympathy and Best Wishes extended to all family, friends and other mourners.