Cold case homicides: Does the name Thomas “The Yardman” Altman sound familiar? Tyler Etue? Woodley Erilas?

“Not every article [by Scott McCabe] resulted in a closed case, but each one gave voice to those who had only known silence for years.”
—Learn more about this quote and a reporter named Scott McCabe below.


Last month, on January 26th, the murder of Andrew Leonard Dixon was news in The Palm Beach Post:

About two years after his slaying, authorities Friday again put out a plea for information about the killer of Andrew Leonard Dixon.
     Dixon, 20, who lived in the Lake Worth area, was found shot to death late about 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2015, on the 700 block of Washington Avenue, west of Dixie Highway [emphasis added] in Lake Worth, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.

A short time later NBC5/WPTV released this YouTube video to the public of their news segment about this unsolved homicide:

Other “cold case” homicides in the City of Lake Worth you may be familiar with are a young man named Woodley Erilas (see below). Another was a struggling addict from a sober home named Tyler Etue, there was “The Yard Man” Thomas Altman, and another man named Jose Aguilar Juarez whose murder last year has become just another cold case.

Learn more about Tyler Etue, Thomas Altman,
and Jose Aguilar Juarez below.

Below is a way for The Palm Beach Post — their beat and crime reporters — to aid families and communities like our City of Lake Worth. They can help solve cold homicide cases. How? By making these cases ‘hot’ once again for the public to possibly bring forward that one small tip: “No tip is too small”.

Do you have any information about any homicide?

Do you fear providing tips because of retribution in your neighborhood or community? There is a way to help solve these terrible crimes, remain anonymous, and claim a reward.

Click on image to enlarge:

Call 800-458-8477. To learn more about CrimeStoppers use this link.

Do you recall the brutal murder of Thomas Altman in March 2016? That murder case in the City of Lake Worth received multiple articles in The Palm Beach Post and from several TV news stations for well over a week. News about that murder was well-publicized by social media as well.

But that case is still unsolved. It’s possible another article featured in the Post could bring forward that one tip to solve this crime, because “No tip is too small”. Just one tip to CrimeStoppers at 800-458-8477, even one little piece of information, could bring some solace and closure to the families and friends of murder victims.

Does the name Scott McCabe sound familiar?

“Not every article resulted in a closed case, but each one gave voice to those who had only known silence for years.”

Our current beat reporter and crime reporters from the Post could begin a series of articles about cold case homicides like what a former City of Lake Worth beat reporter did at another newspaper. Mr. Scott McCabe worked as a reporter for the Post from 1998–2005 and for many years now has been a crime reporter for the Washington Examiner in Washington, D.C.

Here is an excerpt from an article datelined January 13th by reporter Leigh Giangreco:

Scott McCabe, the Examiner’s crime reporter, did yeoman’s work with his cold case series, which tried to revive the hopes of many D.C. area families who lost their loved ones to homicides. In one instance, McCabe’s column and the television show “America’s Most Wanted” assisted in a tip that led to the capture of a suspect in a 15-year-old murder case. Not every article resulted in a closed case, but each one gave voice to those who had only known silence for years.


Has reporter Kevin Thompson, the City’s current beat reporter from the Post, ever tried to give voice to the families of homicide victims “who had only known silence for years” such as the family of Woodley Erilas who was murdered in early 2015?

Later in 2015 was another murder in the City of Lake Worth. Do you remember Tyler Etue? He was a young man, a recovering drug addict, sent to a ‘sober home’ for help with his addiction. But Etue was later dumped into a trash can and left to die. When was the last time you read any updates in the Post about that horrendous crime?

See below for more information about one homicide in particular here in the City of Lake Worth: the murder of Woodley Erilas.

And a question: Why do some murders get the overwhelming attention of the press and news media here in this City of Lake Worth — selling newspapers and blaring headlines for a week or even longer — but other families suffering news of a loved one being murdered can’t get the press and news media to tell their story for more than a day or two, if their story is told at all?

Does it really all come down to what sells
newspapers and what doesn’t?

In August of last year Juan Javier Cruz was murdered and the suspect was quickly apprehended. Reporter Elliott Wenzler at the Post wrote that this incident happened, “in an area in which residents would not expect a shooting to occur, neighbors said.” Would that be why this murder was news in the Post for an entire week but the murder of Jose Aguilar Juarez the previous June barely received any news coverage at all? The murder of Juarez is now another cold case.

The murder of Woodley Erilas also received scant attention from the news media. He was murdered on January 9th, 2015, in the early morning here in Lake Worth. The case remains unsolved and the family continues looking for leads.

This crime occurred on the 900 block of
North ‘H’ Street. Somebody saw something.

Woodley Erilas was only 27 years old when he was murdered in 2015. Maybe an update in The Palm Beach Post could bring forward a tip. Call beat reporter Kevin Thompson at 561-820-4573 or send an email to: kthompson@pbpost.com