Wilmington native Tyler Wilkin, 35, was found shot in the head on a beach earlier this month, his friends tell FOX19 NOW.
An investigation is underway after a man from southwestern Ohio was killed execution-style during a camping trip in Puerto Rico.
Wilkin, 35, was found shot in the head on a beach, and his last text message to friends was sent just before 2 a.m. on July 10, with his body found hours later.
Wilkin, 35, who was living in Puerto Rico after moving from Ohio in 2024, was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the back of his head, and friends and family say he was camping at Playa La Selva, a remote beach near Luquillo, before he was killed.
Police say Tyler Wilkin was executed at close range — a single gunshot to the back of the head.
“He had texted to one of our friends saying, ‘The howler is back!’ And then, at two in the morning, like two hours later, he said something like, ‘This guy is getting rowdy, LOL.'”
That was Wilkin’s last known communication before his death.
“Like six in the morning he consistently, always, texts me, ‘Good morning, love.’ And I didn’t get a text message from him,” his girlfriend Iva Mo recalled.
Mo said his absence was immediately alarming.
Mo said she had dropped off Wilkin at his campsite on Wednesday, July 8.
Friends say Wilkin organized a group camping trip to Playa La Selva — a remote but popular spot with designated campsites where families camp regularly, and he had been there before and always felt safe.
Mo told FOX 19 Cincinnati that Wilkin had been texting friends from the campsite about hearing eerie howling outside his tent and what sounded like fireworks, and the following night, he texted another unsettling message, saying “the howler is back,” Mo said.
Charles Bucher, one of Wilkin’s good friends, said “The police had been at the beach this morning,” and “They said that morning there was a murder. Right then and there, I sort of presumed the worst, and I headed straight to the Luquillo police station,” Bucher said.
Police told him and Mo that Wilkin had been found on the beach shot to death.
“Good people surrounded Tyler because he really was so magnetic and he drew out the best in people. He made people better. So it really is incomprehensible that someone would do this,” Bucher said.
“To have his entire future just taken away like that in just a split second for what? Like over a wallet or over, I don’t know, for whatever reason, like, it’s just really hard to accept,” said Wilkin’s girlfriend, Iva Mo.
“He was the love of my life. My best friend. Tyler deserved to come home. And he deserves some answers and our entire community deserves justice,” Mo said.
Wilkin’s family and friends have launched a GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $23,000 to help fund a private investigation, saying they are frustrated by what they believe has been limited progress in the official case.
“In any murder, if you don’t find out some stuff soon, there’s a good chance it’ll never get solved,” said Trey Reinhart, one of Wilkin’s closest friends, adding “We just want to figure something out for him.”
Reinhart described Wilkin as “kind, incredibly intelligent, thoughtful” and someone who always looked for ways to help others, saying “He would help people, especially those who would help themselves. He was a really funny guy, too.”
A Facebook user named Trigger Ray, who said he was Wilkin’s friend, created a post linking to the fundraiser that said in part, “Tyler was an awesome guy and a great friend, incredibly intelligent with more opportunities ahead of him than most folks I’ve ever met.”
In the viral moment that sparked renewed attention and led friends to organize the private investigation,
Wilkin moved to Puerto Rico in January 2024, and Mo described him as an outdoorsman who loved swimming, hiking, fishing, and camping.
In the days leading up to his death, Wilkin had been sharing photos and videos of his trip with friends and family, showing off fish he had caught and cooked over the campfire.
According to Mo, Wilkin told friends that a man nearby had been setting off fireworks and “howling like a wolf” around the campsite.
Mo recalled the heartbreaking final exchange, saying Wilkin had seemed more amused than frightened by the strange man’s behaviour, making what happened next even harder to process.
Wilkin’s father in Hillsboro is a cousin of Ohio State Sen. Shane Wilkin, who asked Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson to check in on the investigation, and Wilson told the senator that police “weren’t super helpful in any way, shape or form. I think it’s a cultural difference as far as how law enforcement is done.”
Telemundo Puerto Rico reported that police said they have no suspects and that the investigation remains open.