Once the medical team left, Brittany was taken downstairs and seated away from Jordan. The dogs remained secured in the closed room. Deputies stayed with both witnesses to make sure they did not speak to each other while detectives organized the investigation outside.
The separation of the witnesses was deliberate. Deputies did not want Brittany hearing Jordan's answers or Jordan hearing hers, because if either account changed later, detectives needed to know the change came from the witness and not from a conversation between the two. Brittany protested when she was moved away from Tyler and again when she was told she could not simply return upstairs, but officers explained that medical personnel needed room and that the house now had to be preserved.
Jordan, who was accustomed to long periods of waiting at sea, gradually became calmer as morning approached. Brittany also became quieter, but officers observed that her emotional state moved between distress, confusion, frustration, and questions about what was going to happen next. Detectives used that time to gather scene information before conducting the more formal interviews.
Morning slowly began to break over the Florida Keys. Roosters could be heard in the distance while Jordan and Brittany waited separately. A mobile command area gave detectives a place to coordinate information coming from the house, the hospital, and the deputies who had first arrived.
Then the news came from the hospital. Tyler Nulish had died from his injuries.
The case immediately changed. What had begun as an emergency medical response and possible domestic assault was now a homicide investigation. Detectives returned to the two witnesses, this time conducting fuller interviews with the knowledge that Tyler could no longer tell them what had happened.
Jordan was told first. A detective from the sheriff’s office approached and asked whether anyone had updated him about his friend. Jordan said no.
“I’m sorry to tell you,” the detective said. “He passed away.”
Jordan was stunned. He had been asking for information and now finally understood why no one had been able to reassure him. Away from Brittany, he began reconstructing the evening in much greater detail.
Jordan said he had returned home around 7:00 p.m. The three roommates spent much of the evening downstairs on the patio. He estimated Tyler drank five or six beers, while Jordan himself had somewhat more, though he believed it was fewer than nine.
Tyler did not drink heavily very often, according to Jordan. Tyler had also been sick with a bad cold and had not been drinking much for at least a couple of weeks. Jordan had been away at sea for about ten days before returning, so he could not account for every recent day in the relationship.
When detectives asked about Tyler and Brittany, Jordan described the relationship as usually good but acknowledged that they sometimes had problems. He had seen perhaps three arguments that involved yelling, although he said he never personally saw them become physically violent.
One earlier incident stood out. Brittany had awakened Jordan in the middle of the night in a way that reminded him of what happened on June 17, although no one had been seriously injured that time. Jordan remembered a dispute involving a broken cellphone and said Brittany seemed extremely intoxicated and was not making much sense.
The earlier cellphone incident also became part of the background detectives wanted Jordan to explain. He remembered being awakened after an argument between Tyler and Brittany in which a phone had been broken or thrown, although he was not certain who had done it. By the following day, the roommates had treated it as something they could talk about and move past. Jordan therefore had not viewed it as a warning that one of them might eventually be killed.
What he did remember was Brittany's level of intoxication. During those rare bad nights, her speech and behavior stopped making sense to him. She might become emotionally unpredictable after drinking for hours, particularly following a day in the sun or on the water. Jordan was careful not to claim that alcohol explained the shooting, but he told detectives it was the clearest pattern he had personally observed in the couple's arguments.
When the detective asked what he meant by “out of her mind,” Jordan explained that some people did not handle alcohol well. He believed Brittany’s behavior during those episodes was largely related to drinking, especially after long days on the water followed by more alcohol at home.
On the night Tyler was shot, however, Jordan remembered the mood being good when he arrived. Brittany was already drinking, while Tyler had not yet started. Everyone got along, and nothing about the early part of the night warned Jordan that violence was coming.
Jordan estimated he went upstairs around 10:30 p.m. to watch television. After a couple of episodes he fell asleep. The next thing he clearly remembered was Brittany screaming for him.
He came out and saw Tyler down on the floor. Brittany was behind Tyler, cradling and supporting him. Jordan saw the pistol nearby but said he had not heard it fire.
Then detectives asked Jordan to concentrate on the few seconds when Tyler was still able to speak. Jordan said Tyler was barely conscious. He tried to move, but his head would fall back and his eyes struggled to remain open.
“What did he say?” the detective asked.
Jordan recalled two statements. The first was a request: “Please call 911.” The second, according to Jordan, was that Brittany had shot him in the back.