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A daughter mourns the mother found brutally murdered inside a car trunk in Tampa

 
Samantha Dicastro, left, hugs her mother, Tina Ryan, in an undated family photo. Ryan was found dead Tuesday night in the trunk of her roommate’s car, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. [Courtesy of Samantha Dicastro]
Samantha Dicastro, left, hugs her mother, Tina Ryan, in an undated family photo. Ryan was found dead Tuesday night in the trunk of her roommate’s car, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. [Courtesy of Samantha Dicastro]
Published May 28, 2016

TAMPA — Kydel Weldon left behind a bloody scene throughout his home on Thrasher Drive, deputies said. When they found him Tuesday night at a day labor business, deputies said he had blood on his hands and shorts — and a body in his trunk.

It was the woman he'd been living with, Tina Ryan, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. A woman who had struggled for years, but whose family said loved her children and tried to better herself.

She was also trying to find a new job and a new place to live. That's because Ryan, 45, wanted to get away from Weldon, her daughter said Friday.

After news of Ryan's death spread, friends she made after living in Florida for two years reached out to her family in Massachusetts.

Samantha Dicastro, 21, said her mother's Florida friends told her how fearful Ryan had become of Weldon, the 44-year-old man who investigators said beat and stabbed her.

"He's a monster," Dicastro said. "An animal."

Hillsborough deputies were first contacted Tuesday evening after the home's landlord found blood throughout the house at 6801 Thrasher Dr. The tenants, Weldon and Ryan, were both missing.

It was three hours later that deputies found Weldon in a vehicle about a 15-minute drive away on Columbia Drive. A deputy reported seeing Weldon covered in blood, found a knife in the vehicle and then discovered Ryan's body in the trunk.

Ryan had suffered blunt trauma to the head and was stabbed multiple times in the upper body, said sheriff's Col. Donna Lusczynski.

"He was parked there, sitting and talking, so I don't know that at that moment he was actively trying to get away," Lusczynski said. "But it does appear as if he was trying to hide the crime."

Dicastro said her mother had a history of "rough patches." Ryan leaves behind seven children.

"I hope he realizes he caused pain and grief on me and my siblings for the rest of our lives," Dicastro said of Weldon. "This man took our mother from this world. He is no human. A human could never do that."

Investigators haven't said what circumstances led to Ryan's death.

There are questions, Dicastro said, that she and her siblings have about their mother that they fear will never be answered. The daughter said she hopes that someday she'll have the courage to write Weldon a letter and ask him why he took her mother's life.

"I hope at least one day he has remorse for what he did," Dicastro said.

Weldon was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder. On Thursday, sheriff's officials said that charge was raised to first-degree murder.

An arrest report notes that after the crime happened, Weldon told a witness that he had "messed up his life." When he was arrested, he told deputies "I am the worst person in the world.''

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"I don't care what y'all do to me," he said, according to the report.

Weldon is being held in the Hillsborough County jail without bail.

Times staff writer Dan Sullivan contributed to this report. Contact Sara DiNatale at sdinatale@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3400. Follow @sara_dinatale.