On the morning of December 6, 2018, a mother’s routine of waking her child for school turned into a devastating discovery. Sixteen-year-old Shiloh Britton was found in her bedroom in her family's second-floor unit at the Maison Garden apartments on the east side of Indianapolis, the victim of a single gunshot wound to the head. A student at Lawrence North High School, her life was abruptly cut short in what would become a harrowing homicide investigation.
Detectives pieced together the
events leading to Shiloh's death, focusing on the night before she was found. They learned that Shiloh had arranged to meet with 19-year-old Tighe Bibbs at her apartment. Bibbs and Shiloh had been romantically involved in the past but were just friends at the time of her death. Surveillance footage from the apartment complex became a crucial piece of evidence, showing Bibbs entering and leaving Shiloh's apartment twice on the night of the murder. Further solidifying his presence at the scene, cell phone records placed him inside the apartment at the time the fatal shot was fired.
In the initial stages of the investigation, Bibbs provided multiple conflicting stories to the police, including claims that Shiloh had taken her own life and that he had shot her in self-defense. However, the evidence mounted against him. An anonymous tip in April 2019 led to his arrest. At his trial, Bibbs's story changed again; he claimed the shooting was accidental, a result of them 'being goofy' with the gun he carried for protection. He testified that he pointed the gun at Shiloh, who then walked up to it until it was touching her head and said, 'You do it.' He stated that he pulled the trigger, not expecting the gun to fire.
A jury convicted Tighe Bibbs of murder and carrying a handgun without a license after a three-day trial in April 2021. The court sentenced him to 55 years in the Indiana Department of Correction for his crimes. Bibbs later appealed his conviction, but the Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed the trial court's decision in December 2021.
