When police in Florida had to search through the squalor of Crystal Skiba’s home, they said the odor was so rank they had to take periodic breaks to catch their breath before they could resume probing the scene for clues about a social media hookup that ended in attempted murder charges.
Skiba, 28, was arrested on April 24 and in addition to the attempted murder charge, she was also slapped with seven felonies and four misdemeanors including shooting into an occupied vehicle, possession of a controlled substance — methamphetamines, namely — kidnapping and false imprisonment, child neglect, contributing to delinquency of a minor, marijuana possession and more, according to an arrest report from the Hardee County Sheriff’s Office.
Skiba’s victim, a fellow Floridian who opted not to be identified, told police that he began chatting with the 28-year-old woman via Facebook and the two became “flirtatious.” Skiba gave him her address and the man told police he came over around 2 p.m. Officers would show up a little more than an hour later.
Skiba allegedly invited the victim into her home and that’s when he noticed she had two young children. Skiba allegedly hurried them off to another room and shut the door, then led the man into her bedroom. Clutter, he told police, was everywhere. The man said he noticed a black handgun on the bed and thought it was a 9 mm.
Skiba started “attempting to seduce him and get him sexually aroused” and at one point, the man said Skiba performed oral sex on him, the arrest report said.
Then Skiba straddled him and according to police, she asked the man she had only just met: “You know you can’t leave without paying me, right?”
The man said he tried to “casually” leave her home but Skiba grabbed the gun. He began to flee, telling her he thought he was being “catfished” and “set-up.” As the man reached the front door, Skiba allegedly “barricaded” it off and attempted to keep it shut. Since there was no doorknob, however, it was stuck slightly ajar.
Continue reading about the shootoutThe man told police he tried to calm Skiba and told her: “I don’t want no problem with you, please don’t hold me here. I won’t call nobody, I won’t do nothing, please let me leave.”
Though he managed to squeeze past her and start walking to his car with his hands in the air, he said he heard the Florida woman cock the gun.
'Flirtatious' online date ends with attempted murder, child neglect charges and fleeing man
A woman in Florida is facing an attempted murder charge after an online date says she started shooting at him when he refused to give her money.
lawandcrime.com
The child neglect charges against her are a product of the wretched conditions Skiba’s children, ages 5 and 7, were forced to endure, according to police.
Odors of cat urine and feces, stale and rotten food and trash and mold and mildew were overpowering, according to the arrest report.
“The odor within the residence partially interfered with the investigation as law enforcement personnel had to periodically take a break. The living conditions were atrocious with mounds of trash piled into the two rooms to be occupied by the children,” one arresting officer said.
There was an “infestation of roaches” and each of the children’s rooms contained only cribs unsuitable for either child to sleep in. The mattresses were shredded and a “stench” emanated from them. The kitchen was so full of debris, police said they could not walk it in at all. Bare wires were exposed throughout the house and there was not a morsel of food that was not spoiled or laden with roaches.