Half-brother cleared in Tillman slayings

Paul M. Anderson

GLENDALE -- The half-brother of a former Glendale woman killed along

with her husband may have been involved in a nasty lawsuit with his

sister, but investigators don’t believe he had anything to do with her

death.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators have interviewed Craig

Elliott, the half-brother of Joan “Joni” Tillman, who on Feb. 9 was found

along with her husband, Harold “Skip” Tillman, in a shallow grave in

Yucaipa.

Elliott had sued Joan Tillman, accusing her of cheating him out of his

share of their father’s estate.

“We feel pretty confident with him that he’s OK,” San Bernardino

County sheriff’s Det. Mike Gilliam said. “We’re obviously not focusing

our investigation on him.”

Investigators are poring over the Tillmans’ records to dig up leads,

Gilliam said. Detectives have no suspects in the slayings.

The mysterious killings probably were not the result of a random home

invasion, Gilliam said.

Investigators have lifted fingerprints from the Tillmans’ Dodge

Durango, which was found abandoned in Van Nuys. But that hasn’t given

police any leads so far, Gilliam said.

The official cause of death has not been established, but detectives

are pretty sure how the Tillmans were killed, Gilliam said.

Investigators are waiting to release the cause of death for two

reasons. First, they want to wait for toxicology tests, which won’t come

back for another a few weeks.

Second, detectives believe it may hurt their case to release the cause

of death at this point since only the killers know, Gilliam said.