...And to think they charge us extra to live by the pond...

By Josh Poltilove of The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 4, 2008

TAMPA - Authorities confirmed today that Timothy "Chip" Chipley, whose body was found floating in a Carrollwood pond, is a homicide victim.



Timothy Chipley

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is working with medical examiners on the cause of death, according to a written statement from the sheriff's office released today.

When told today of the sheriff's office release, Matthew Sheer, a friend of Chipley, said he wasn't shocked that the death is considered a homicide.

"He was a great guy. That sums it up, pretty much," Sheer said. "And he didn't deserve to die at all."

The sheriff's office revealed Saturday afternoon that the body recovered 24 hours earlier had been identified as Chipley, 34.

Identification was based on a tattoo on Chipley's right arm, waterlogged identification and clothing matching the jeans, blue button-down striped shirt and boots Chipley was wearing when seen at O'Brien's Irish Pub before disappearing, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Divers scoured the pond again Saturday but found no evidence, Carter said.

The pond at Countrywood Apartments is less than a mile from the pub, at 11744 N. Dale Mabry Highway. Chipley lived at 10225 N. Oakleaf Ave., also in Carrollwood.

Sheer, 24, who worked with Chipley at Nuccio Heating & Air Conditioning for four years, said a sheriff's deputy he knows told him Friday that the body divers pulled from the pond was Chipley's.

Sheer and others are at a loss to understand how the martial arts enthusiast ended up dead after riding to the bar Jan. 26 with friends and opting to remain behind when they left.

"There's so many different scenarios, you can't pin it down," Sheer said. He speculated that Chipley, walking home in the dark, might have attempted a shortcut that led to the pond or he might have been mugged and drugged.

"You never know," Sheer said.

Chipley's friends printed fliers, organized a search and had planned a vigil for Friday that they canceled when they learned a body of a white man had been found close to the pub.

The Countrywood Apartments resident who discovered the body just before 5 p.m. Friday said it appeared to match the description of Chipley given in news reports of his disappearance.

Chipley studied martial arts and had trained for his "trip of a lifetime" to Thailand for further study, friends said. He obtained a passport and airline ticket months earlier and packed a week in advance for the flight that left without him Wednesday morning.

Chipley was a regular at O'Brien's, but bar patrons and friends had neither seen nor heard from him since about 3 a.m. Jan. 27, when he is said to have paid his tab and walked out the door.

Chipley, soft-spoken and easygoing, attended Chamberlain High School and remained close with several childhood friends, said those who knew him.

"All he did was fish and fight - martial arts," Sheer said.

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