Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our motto is [you’re either someone’s last love or first murder]
I am your host Ky and our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery and suspense.
If you’re a true crime junkie and crave chilling tales of love and murder, then don’t forget to hit that subscribe button to stay updated on our weekly episodes. In today’s episode, we’ll cover the heartbreaking story of Tristyn Bailey, a 13-year-old girl who was brutally murdered and found near a retention pond, as well as the guilty verdict and sentencing of her classmate Aiden Fucci.
On the night of May 8, the Baily family came home around 11:45pm from an outing, the children were supposed to be in bed but Tristyn snuck out.
Then on May 9, 2021, Tristyn Bailey was supposed to help make breakfast for her mom. However, things took a dark turn when Tristyn’s sister, Sophia, was already preparing breakfast and realized something was wrong.
Tristyn Bailey was born to Stacy Bailey and Forrest Bailey on January 18th 2008 in Florida. When Tristan was conceived, her mother, Stacy, thought that her and her husband were done having children. They were actually in the midst of moving to Singapore and when they found out they were pregnant. At a doctor’s appointment, the doctor warned them that this baby would be born with Down syndrome and a hole in her heart; however, that wasn’t what happened. Tristyn was born a healthy and happy baby. Tristyn is described as a very bubbly individual, very happy and someone that everyone always wanted around. At 13 she tried out for the cheerleading team and got in.
Around 10am on May 9, The family reported Tristyn missing. The authorities then issued an urgent missing person’s alert. Tristyn was last seen at 1:15 am that day at the Durbin Amenity Center in northwest St Johns County.
In fact, a time line, which I go from www.msn.com discusses the events in the investigation:
Sunday, May 9
12:30 a.m.: Video shows Tristyn walking in the neighborhood.
1:14 a.m.: Two people, believed to be Tristyn and her 14 year classmate Aiden Fucci, are seen walking together.
1:45 a.m.: Video evidence from a home shows Tristyn and Aiden walking east on Saddlestone Drive.
3:30 a.m.: Video from the same home shows a person believed to be Aiden heading in opposite direction, alone, carrying white Nike shoes. Moments later, video shows Aiden entering his home carrying white Nike shoes.
10 a.m.: Tristyn’s mother calls 911 to report the teen missing. Florida Department of Law Enforcement joins the search.
4:49 p.m.: Florida Missing Child Alert is issued for Tristyn.
6:06 p.m.: A resident who had been on a run called to report a body in the woods east of the cul-de-sac on Saddlestone Drive. After identifying the body as Tristyn’s, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office calls off the search.
8 p.m.: Sheriff’s Office announces a body has been found and preliminarily identifies it as Tristyn’s.
Her body was discovered near a retention pond at the end of Saddlestone Drive, south of Jacksonville. The sheriff’s department later revealed that she had been stabbed 114 times, with 49 defensive stab wounds on her arms and right hand. The sheriff called it a horrific, brutal murder, and it was indeed our worst nightmare.
8:49 p.m.: Aiden and his parents are placed in a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office interview room.
Monday, May 10
12:44 a.m.: Investigators search Fucci home, finding a knife sheath; a pair of wet, white Nike shoes with blood on them; a T-shirt with blood on it; a white piece of paper with handwriting with possible blood on it; and a pair of wet blue jeans in a laundry basket. They also find blood and dirt on the drain in the bathroom sink next to Aiden’s bedroom.
3:30 a.m.: Aiden is arrested on charge of second-degree murder.
11:30 a.m.: Sheriff’s Office confirms the identity of the body found as that of Tristyn Bailey and announces the arrest of Aiden Fucci on charges of second-degree murder.
As he sat in the back of a cop car, he actually took a selfie and posted it on Snapchat, asking if anyone had seen Tristyn lately.
“Hey guys has inybody [sic] seen Tristyn lately.”
It’s crazy, but he even smiled and made jokes in some Snapchat videos they later released. They even found traces of blood in the drain of a sink that his mom was caught on camera using to wash his jeans, leading her to be charged with tampering with evidence. Wow! His mom was helping him! (I saw a video of the defense attorney watching this home survaillence video and he said “All we see is a mom doing her son’s laundry. Without audio we really don’t know what’s going on here”)
When questioned, Aiden said that he was with Tristyn that night at a mutual friend’s house and left there with Tristyn around 1:10am. He then said he walked around alone before going home at 3:30am.
Later, his story changed with him adding that him and Tristyn got into an argument and he pushed her to the ground and she hit her head on something.
After his arrest, Aiden was held at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
All of the evidence that helped in the investigation of this case was:
- wet shoes and clothing with blood on them in his room
- blood and dirt on the drain by the bathroom sink and wet jeans in a laundry basket
- an empty knife sheath that was found in his room
- a notebook with violent drawings
- Cellphone records and emails
- Snapchats
- recorded phone calls and texts from jail
- interviews with friends, family, teachers and fellow inmates
On May 11, 2021 Aiden made his first court apparence via Zoom – because remember we were going through COVID at that time. You can see the zoom court preceedings in our Patreon www.patreon.com/loveandmurder In this video, Aiden doesn’t even look remorseful.
On May 20, Aiden’s parents went to court to requesting a team of court appointed attornies. This is because his private attorney to Anwar Snowbar, requested to be released from the case. I wonder if it was due to his morals or due to the fact that he knew he couldn’t win this case. I’m going to lean towards morals, because, call me crazy and naive. The parents requested court appointed attornys because of their finances – they requested to be declared indigent which means they can’t afford an attorney.
On May 28, Aiden made his first court appearance since being charged as an adult. This is where the judge discussed that he stabbed Tristyn 114 times and that he’d told his friends earlier that he had been planning to stab someone.
He was now charged with first degree murder, and facing up to live in prison – with no death penalty – and held without bond. There was no death penalty in the case because the Supreme Court ruled that no juvenile can be handed the death penalty. He was then remanded to Duval County Jail – the juvenile section.
On June 4, 2021 Aiden’s mom was arrested (like I siad briefly before) for tampering with evidence. This is a 3rd degree felony and holds a possible sentence of up to 5 years in prison.
There was a report that came out from the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office in July 2021 that revealed that Aiden had been telling his friends that he had fantasies of killing and mutilation. His then girlfriend told investigators that he specifically said he planned on dragging a random person into the woods to stab them. One friend told the police that Aiden had said he wanted to slit someone’s throat and that it would be satisfying. Apparently, Aiden had been talking about killing and fighting people for a while. He even practiced stabbing motions with a knife.
It turns out that Aiden’s home life was also very violent and neglectful. His “best friend” said that these violent obsessions were a way of coping.
During his 20-month stay in Duval County Jail, Aiden got into several fights, threatened to stab a fellow teen inmate, got in trouble for having contraband, bullying inmates out of their commissary, being combative with guards and threatening them, telling an inmate he was “real” because he stabbed a girl face to face as opposed to those who shot someone and even got pepper-sprayed by corrections officers.
When Aiden’s murder trial began on 6 February 2023, he pled guilty to first-degree murder. He addressed the court and apologized to the Bailey family with tears in his eyes. But this guilty plea wasn’t negotiated with the prosecutors. In fact, several plea deals had previously been made by the defence, but prosecutors had rejected them.
During the trial, Tristyn’s family spoke.
First her mom talked about life with Tristyn and how wonderful of a daughter she was. Then she discussed how it’s been since her precious daughter was taken away:
“I have watched the depression, the PTSD, the anxiety take over so many. … I carry the weight of this on my shoulders every single day. Visions flood my head how terrified she must have been, he continues to strike, over and over and over … These visions are embedded in my mind. … I pray she passed out, but honestly with the amount of defense wounds, I know she did not. She fought, and our beautiful daughter suffered for so long as he took no mercy in the 114 times he stabbed her.
I beg and plead with myself to just stop thinking for five minutes… This is my new normal, every day, all day, my new life sentenced to the torture of my child being murdered.
I can’t control my anxiety. … God, please make this stop, wake me up from this nightmare. … This is my sleep pattern every night. … I do not recognize the person that’s looking at me in the mirror. … I live in constant brain fog….and I now have a general fear of being outside in the dark. … My home which was once where we all gathered in comfort is now a place of hurt. … I do not know if we will ever have comfort in our home again.
Aiden Fucci, you have destroyed me, you have destroyed my family, you have destroyed Tristyn’s friends, you have destroyed the community we live in.
Please do not think for one second he can be rehabilitated. He is beyond saving.”
Then her father, Forrest Baily, spoke:
“I want to be clear, your insincere apology is not accepted. At no point in time have I seen any remorse.
Just breathe… but this will not pass.
I just don’t know about so many things, I lost a sense of myself.
When you lose a child, there’s ongoing questions of doubt,” he said. “The pain and triggers happen every day.
No event in the world was as dear to me as our family dinners and everyone would make it there. … It hurts us to the core to sit in my chair at the head of the table and have our baby not in her chair but in an urn sitting on a shelf in front of me.
You can only begin to imagine how the pain he put her through stays with us.”
Tristyn sister:
“Did she see you coming at her with the knife or did you stab her while she wasn’t paying attention? … Did she beg you to stop? … What were her last words? Did you stay to watch her die?
In my dreams I try to reach out and grab her, beg her to spend the night, anything to prevent what happened just hours later. Yet every time the door closes before I can get to her. … To know I was awake and only 11 minutes away from my sister as she was being brutally murdered, could I have saved her?
Our family broke that day, and I don’t recognize any of us anymore. I have watched my parents going from believing they were good parents to believing they were failures.
I’ve had to become the safe place for my parents to hold space for their feelings.
Aiden Fucci didn’t just take Tristyn’s life that day, He took everything from us: our family, sense of security, laughs, health and potential. For us, justice does not exist in this case, and closure does not exist. … The only justifiable sentence in this case is a full life sentence. Anything short of that would be an insult.”
Tristyn Bailey’s brother:
“Every single day I can’t help to wonder had I slept on that couch instead or I had stayed up later … there’s a possibility my little sister could still be alive today. I have lived with that question, that weight, that guilt since I went to wake up Trisytin on Mother’s Day and found her room empty.
Mentally I put this all into a box and I run to it… The depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder is real. … The nights where sleep is replaced with the heinous details of what Tristyn suffered are real. … But no matter how much I may try to run or distract myself, this is my reality.
I have convinced myself you are something other than human.”
Tristyn Bailey’s oldest sister:
“I could even go into great detail about the blood-curdling and excruciating screams that ejected from my father’s lungs, the bottom of his lungs, while my husband and I sat on the other end of that Facetime call… If the court really wants to hear the most graphic of it all, I could tell you about the days that follow when I heard the fatal wail that bursted from my mom in the other room when Detective Hannon delivered the news to just my parents on how Tristyn died that Mother’s Day. … But the crippling sound that my mom let out, I knew it was something unimaginable.
I look at myself in the mirror and don’t recognize the person I am anymore. … My love for life, all gone.”
On March 24, 2023, Aiden’s sentencing hearing began. Aiden wrote a letter to the judge beforehand which read:
Dear Judge Smith
My name is Aiden Fucci, I am 16 years old.
First off I want to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the pain I caused to the Baily family. I sorry to the friends, brothers, sisters, mom, dad and any other family relatives. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to know her that long. You did not have any long relationships with Tristen and for that I’m sorry.
For the community I’m sorry I brought all this pain on everybody and I’m sorry and I know my apawlogy will not fix anything or bring her back but I hope it help in some way.
And for my dad I’m sorry that he had a bad spot in his work because of me. I miss being out door’s with my dad and brothers. I miss the fun we had like fourwheeling, paintballing, going on the long car trips. Dad your made things fun like the tarp to the fourwheeler so we could slide on the tarp behind. Dad your special because you made fun out of nothing. Love you.
To my mom I want to send my apawlogy’s as well. I’m sorry that she had to move her house because people were sending threats to the house and my family. And that my little brother and sister had to chage school’s because of me. Mom now I miss your lemon peper chicken. I miss your hug’s. I miss you. The longer I’m in her the more I forget the more memories I lose. I’ll never forget you love me.
His mother also wrote a letter which read:
Honorable Judge Smith,
Upon recommendation from my attorney, it is with deepest regret that I am not present to speak on behalf of my son Aiden today, the day my child is to be sentenced for the murder of another child.
As a mother, the love you have for your child is difficult to articulate to others, unless they’re a mother themself. To be helpless to protect your child is a mother’s worst living nightmare. To cope with such a loss is unimaginable.
I grieve for the devastating loss of Tristyn, I grieve for the subsequent arrest of my son, and I grieve for the irreparable agony inflicted on the Bailey family, as well as all other friends and families effected. Most of all, however, I grieve for Stacy Bailey as a mother.
Your Honor, nothing can measure the depth of despair caused by Aiden’s crime and the inability to help your child when they need you most. From a mother pleading on behalf of the life of her adolescent son, please show my Aiden mercy, he is not beyond saving. Thank you.
The Bailey Family:
Although we have never met, I am writing you to express my deepest condolences for the tragic loss of your daughter. I have thought of Tristyn every day since her death. I know I will think of her every day for the rest of my life. I know my words cannot undo anything and I know you will experience the grief you are suffering for the rest of your lives.
As parents, when we hold our newborns for the first time, we begin to understand unconditional love and we begin to dream of our child’s future. I understand that Aiden robbed you of that future. He also robbed himself of his future. As his mother, I cannot and have never stopped loving Aiden, but I understand that my love for him cannot change what has happened.
I understand your family is forever scarred, but I also wanted you to know that we grieve with you. My prayers go out to you and your family.
His father also wrote a letter which was signed by his wife, Yasmin Fucci:
There are so many things we want to say, and it’s not that we don’t have enough words, but we are struggling to find the right ones. There are no words to right this wrong. Those words don’t exist in this situation. All we can do is express the absolute sorrow we feel within ourselves as parents and for everyone impacted by what occurred. No words can ever convey the utter heartbreak and pain we all have been enduring, each of us processing in our own ways. It is a different kind of pain to grieve the living while mourning the child of another. Pieces of ourselves remain broken as we struggle to move forward, trying to understand the circumstances of what happened.
Aiden truly is a kind and caring boy who has the love and support of an entire community of family — his parents, grandparents, stepparents, brothers, sisters, cousins, teachers, coaches, and even his Boy Scout troop. He is our baby of the family — only 14 at the time, not even old enough to drive. This tragedy blindsided all of us.
We have so many positive and happy memories with Aiden, his 2 brothers, and 2 sisters, upholding and creating traditions that we carried on as a family. After school and doctors’ appointments, we would stop by Sweet Frog or Jeremiah’s Italian Ice and if you rode “shotgun,” you got to pick the playlist on the drive home. Aiden liked sitting up front and his taste in music was so diverse and included anything from 90’s hip hop to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — a song that was sure to get the whole truck howling out of tune. If it was our weekend, every first Saturday of the month, we would all go to Cars and Coffee. Aiden enjoys building cars with us just as much as he loves baking with his cousins. We remember waking up Christmas morning and deciding in that moment to drive north because Aiden had never seen snow. We ended up on Blue Ridge Mountain, where Aiden made his first snow angel and had his first snowball fight.
Like most teenagers, he also loves video games and his phone. He especially likes mobile games where we could all download the game and play together, but he also respected that dinner with family was sacred and would often remind his siblings, “No phones at the table!”. We had some of our best conversations over homemade chicken n’ dumplings, which is his favorite. Aiden has always been such a thoughtful boy. He has what most would consider traditional manners. He is the first to hold the door open for a stranger, he still says “please” and “thank you,” addresses people as “ma’am” or “sir” …
On our last family adventure, May 1st, 2021, we took the kids tubing, had lunch at Whitey’s Fish Camp, and then picked up some bait at their tackle shop. Aiden even learned how to drive the boat that day. He loves anything with an engine and spent a lot of time riding ATVs, mudding, and racing go-carts. He loves paintballing and we remember he would ask to borrow the green flight suit because it was lucky and made him feel invincible, like Superman.
Aiden Fucci was sentenced to life in prison with a review of the sentence in 25 years. Even though they would review the case in 25 years, 40 years in prison would still be the minimum. The judge read out details on the case such as the aforementioned amount of stab wounds and how they were dispersed:
114 stab wounds
49 defensive wounds
35 wounds to the head and neck
29 to the back and shoulder
6 fatal wounds
I know that this adds up to 119, but some of the fatal wounds overlapped the counted stab wounds
“The 49 defensive wounds indicate that Tristyn was concious, aware, and doing everything to fend off the attack. She suffered a painful, horrifying death from someone that she trusted.”
He disposed of the murder weapon by throwing it in a lake – which by the way he nicknamed the knife poker.
Some of Bailey’s family members were even seen walking out of the courtroom in tears.
Aiden is currently appealing his sentence.
Aiden’s attorney, Rosemarie Peoples, says the judge shouldn’t have allowed a psychologist to testify about Aiden’s behavior in jail.
They also filed a motion to prevent the psychiatrist from providing testimony.
Judge Lee Smith denied the motion and allowed the psychiatrist, Pritchard, to testify.
He said that Aiden had a “poor prognosis for rehabilitation.”
Overall, it’s a pretty sad and disturbing story. The evidence against Aiden was overwhelming, and his violent fantasies became her horrific reality.
No one in this case won – a child is dead and another is in prison for life. I feel horrible for Tristyn’s family.
So what do you all think, is this a harsh sentence for Aiden? I was speaking with someone about the case and they didn’t think he should have been charged as an adult. Do you agree?
Join our Fanpage at https://bit.ly/39qUG3t
