‘Trail of blood’ ties suspect to woman’s murder in Warner Robins, records say

This story includes details of family violence that may be disturbing to some readers.

When police went to check on a man who reportedly sent absurd texts to his family Jan. 7, they found him unconscious with a trail of blood leading to a dead woman in his Warner Robins home, according to Warner Robins Police Department records provided to The Telegraph.

The investigation started when a family member of 31-year-old Brandon Cristian Diaz told police she was concerned about him, according to an incident report, which described officers’ account of what happened and was obtained by The Telegraph through the Georgia Open Records Act.

Diaz reportedly “texted family members ... and was saying crazy and out of the ordinary things, as well as having mentioned being suicidal,” the incident report said.

He wasn’t responding hours later, so police were dispatched to perform a welfare check on him after 7 a.m. at his home in the 100 block of Kay Drive, according to the report.

Officer Sean P. Whilden, the first officer at the scene, “noticed several odd things,” the incident report said.

Two vehicles in the driveway were left open, including one with “multiple trash bags filled with clothes,” Whilden said. A kid’s bicycle was also in the yard, which indicated others might’ve been inside the home with Diaz.

A garage door was open and the interior door was unlocked, so Whilden and officer Max Hess entered and yelled for Diaz, but heard nothing, records said.

Household items were on the kitchen floor, and police later found partially empty liquor bottles and prescription drug containers, police records say.

They searched the house and found a woman unresponsive and bleeding “lying on her back, covered in a white towel” with blood, Whilden said. She was later identified as Krystal Kandy Gilbert, a 34-year-old Byron woman, Lt. Patrick Allen told The Telegraph.

Gilbert had a “severe laceration” from a “knife/cutting instrument,” and was dead, the incident report said.

She was not the same person who requested a welfare check, according to the report.

Whilden didn’t think she was the subject of the welfare check because “in all my training and experience as a law enforcement officer, I had never seen someone covered up posthumously after (dying by) suicide,” Whilden said. “It was highly likely there was a suspect still in the residence.”

They exited the home, waited for more officers, then re-searched for possible others in the house, including “a potential murder suspect,” the incident report said.

“There was a trail of blood leading from the body of the victim to (a) bedroom” where Diaz was under a blanket in bed, breathing but unresponsive, Whilden said. There was blood on his feet and ear, but he did not appear injured, according to WRPD.

There was also “a small amount of an unidentified white residue around one of his nostrils,” the incident report said, but it was unclear whether he was under the influence at the time.

“In reference to the drugs, the investigation is still on going,” Allen told The Telegraph.

Diaz was taken to a hospital, and later booked in the Houston County Detention Center in Perry, according to Whilden.

He was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault, according to a news release from WRPD. There are no suspects at large.

The incident was described as “family violence” in the news release. It was still under investigation Monday afternoon, Allen said.

The WRPD urged anyone with tips about Gilbert’s death to call Detective Conner Milam at 478-302-5380, or Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.