Wife robs, kills husband’s great-grandpa to fund trip with boyfriend, FL cops say

A woman recruited her boyfriend to rob and kill her husband’s 88-year-old great-grandfather in Florida so they could go on a trip to Michigan, authorities said.

Now, a jury has convicted 29-year-old Britney Andrus of second-degree murder, burglary with assault or battery, grand theft of a motor vehicle and burglary of a conveyance in connection with the 2020 death of James Little, the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office announced July 29.

McClatchy News reached out to Andrus’ attorney for comment on her conviction July 29 but did not immediately receive a response.

Her boyfriend at the time, Tyler Best, 25, pleaded guilty to charges including second-degree murder, burglary with battery, grand theft of a motor vehicle and possessing a firearm as a felon, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told McClatchy News.

His attorney declined to comment, citing the pending case.

Andrus’ husband was in jail when she moved into his great-grandfather’s mother-in-law suite in Sebring about a week before he was killed, deputies wrote in an arrest affidavit.

Andrus and Best were planning to go to Michigan, where Andrus’ grandmother lived, and they concocted a scheme to steal and sell items from the main house where Little lived to fund their trip, investigators said.

Andrus had a neighbor call 911 on Oct. 22, 2020, to report she found Little brutally beaten in his home, according to deputies.

But investigators said Andrus was the one who killed him.

Investigators said it appeared Little was sleeping when an apparent intruder woke him up and hit him 12 times with a blunt object before making off with his valuables. When first responders arrived, Little was still alive, but he died at a hospital five days later, deputies said.

Little’s sons went to his home with investigators and found items in the mother-in-law suite that belonged in the main house, including a safe that was originally hidden in the air conditioning vent of the main house, deputies said.

One son “advised only family members would have known where the victim hid his safe in the wall and that Britney would have known this,” according to the affidavit.

Best’s fingerprints were found on the vent, and Andrus’ prints were found on a clock in the mother-in-law suite that had come from Little’s house, deputies said.

Andrus and Best said they had discussed stealing Little’s car, but neither admitted to killing him, investigators said.

Surveillance footage shows Andrus driving to meet Best in the victim’s car the morning of the killing, deputies said. Best told investigators Andrus gave him Little’s wallet, and he was supposed to go burn the house down, but he didn’t, according to the report.

When Best didn’t follow through, Andrus went to the neighbor’s house and said she found Little badly injured after a break-in, and she had them call 911, deputies said.

Other witnesses told investigators they heard Best talk about hitting someone but kept changing his story, recanting and saying Andrus had done it, deputies said.

Best was arrested at a family member’s home and found with a backpack full of the victim’s belongings, including jewelry and a wallet containing cards belonging to Little and his late wife, according to law enforcement.

It wasn’t until a year after Little’s death that Andrus and Best were charged with murder, according to Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.

“Both Andrus and Best were suspects from the beginning of the investigation, which included numerous interviews, as well as collection and analysis of blood and other biological evidence,” deputies wrote in October 2021. “The analysis of biological evidence can take several months. Once detectives had all the evidence in hand, the arrest warrants were obtained.”

Court records show Andrus and her husband, the victim’s great-grandson, finalized their divorce in 2024.

Sebring is about a 100-mile drive southeast from Tampa.