Developing: Incident Draw Okaloosa Sheriff’s Deputies to Houe on 47th and Fir

Christopher Saul
April 16, 2023
8:51 pm
Crime, Government, Niceville, Public Safety

Neighbors claim this is the third call out this week for Okaloosa County Sheriff's Deputies.

This is a developing story. Check back here for updates.

Update April 17th: The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed they were investigating a death. There were “no initial indications of foul play,” according to Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Michele Nicholson.

April 16th

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the familiar scene on 47th and Fir in Unincorporated Niceville after the five or six Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Deputies was the cleared ground on the property that has had hundreds of law enforcement callouts over the last five years. This is the same house the county decided to foreclose on at their meeting in February.

Stuff has been moved off the land, including a shed in the backyard, for a long time. A resident who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity told me the people he describes as “squatters and meth heads” have been selling the possessions off the property as quickly as possible.” That includes stolen property. “All hours of the night, bikes are coming and going. On more than one occasion – and I’ve reported it – I spotted a brand-new, expensive $1,000 mountain bike with what I thought was a young boy. Turned out it was a female. She hid [the bike] in a shed on the back of the property. And a few days later, one of the squatters or methheads sold the entire shed out of the backyard. It wasn’t even their property – they are just selling things.”

The second thing I noticed was the sheer number of people out at night on bikes. I spent about 45 minutes in the area after receiving a tip from a Mid Bay News read (thank you!). During that time – I saw at least four adults on bikes after dark within a quarter-mile radius of the home on 47th and Fir.

Thirdly, neighbors told me this is the third call out for law enforcement to the home in the last week alone.

Deputies at the scene could not comment on the nature of their investigation – and I’ve called the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer about the incident. No EMS ambulances were spotted at the scene by neighbors, and my guess is that we will have more information on Monday.

Who are the People Who Live in the house on 47th and Fir in Niceville?

According to neighbors at the scene – the home is “Like a vacation house at the beach.” That means lots of people moving in and out and not a lot of accountability. “You have vehicles rolling up at all hours of the day dropping people off and picking people up,” a resident told me. Those people include women with children – a resident told me. “It hurts my heart to see that because I worked in law enforcement before retiring.” Residents also mentioned the number of children that regularly have nothing to do with the house but are close to it. Several homes with children are adjacent to or near the home. Additionally, a childcare center opens its doors Monday through Friday just a few doors away.