The town of Potsdam, New York, is the kind of place where people used to leave their doors unlocked. That changed on October 24, 2011. Twelve-year-old Garrett Phillips was skateboarding home, a normal kid doing normal things, until he wasn't. Within an hour of being seen on a school surveillance camera, he was found strangled in his mother’s apartment.
It’s been over a decade. Honestly, the question of who killed Garrett Phillips is still the dark cloud hanging over the North Country. If you’re looking for a neat "update" where a new suspect is in handcuffs, I have to be the one to tell you: it hasn't happened. The case is cold, but the fallout is still very much active.
The acquittal of Oral "Nick" Hillary
For years, the legal system focused almost exclusively on Oral "Nick" Hillary. He was the ex-boyfriend of Garrett’s mother, Tandy Cyrus. He was also a successful soccer coach at Clarkson University and a Black man in a predominantly white community. The prosecution’s case was built on circumstantial bits and pieces—mostly the idea that he had the opportunity and a supposed motive because the breakup was messy.
But there was a massive problem. There was no physical evidence. No DNA. No fingerprints. Nothing placed him inside that room.
In 2016, a judge finally put an end to that specific chapter. Hillary opted for a bench trial, meaning a judge decided the verdict instead of a jury. Judge Felix Catena found him not guilty. He pointed out that the prosecution’s DNA evidence was basically "unreliable." Specifically, the use of STRmix software to analyze a tiny, degraded sample from Garrett’s fingernails was thrown out because the state lab wasn't even certified to use it that way.
Where does the investigation stand now?
You'd think after an acquittal, the police would pivot. Usually, that’s how it works—you find out you were wrong, and you look elsewhere. But in Potsdam, the wheels of justice sort of just... stopped turning in that direction.
Former District Attorney Mary Rain, who made the Garrett Phillips case the centerpiece of her career, famously said she wouldn't look for anyone else. She was convinced Hillary was the guy. Because of that tunnel vision, the trail didn't just go cold; it froze. Rain eventually lost her license to practice law for a period due to various instances of professional misconduct, some of which were tied to how she handled her office.
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There is another name that comes up constantly in local conversations: John Jones. He was another ex-boyfriend of Tandy Cyrus and, notably, a sheriff's deputy. He was caught on video walking near the apartment around the time of the murder. But the police never treated him with the same intensity they showed Hillary. In fact, Jones was seen comforting Tandy Cyrus while police were still processing the scene.
The Civil Rights Battle
The most recent who killed garrett phillips update doesn't take place in a criminal court, but in a civil one. Nick Hillary filed a massive lawsuit against the village of Potsdam and the investigators involved.
He alleges that his civil rights were trampled on. We're talking about being strip-searched without a warrant—something the former police chief admitted hadn't happened to anyone else in that department for 20 years. Hillary’s legal team has spent years fighting to prove that the investigation was fueled by racial bias rather than actual evidence.
This lawsuit has dragged on through various appeals. While it won't bring Garrett back or find his killer, it has forced a lot of the original "evidence" back into the light, showing just how thin the original case against Hillary actually was.
The Reality of the Evidence
Let’s look at the facts of the crime scene for a second. It's chilling.
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- The Window: A screen was pushed out, and blinds were messed up. Police believed the killer jumped out of a second-story window.
- The Sound: Neighbors heard a "thump" and a child's cry. They called the police immediately.
- The Timeline: The window of time for this murder was incredibly small—less than 20 minutes between Garrett entering the home and the neighbors hearing the struggle.
The "muddy footprint" found outside the window never matched Hillary's shoes. The fingerprints found on the window frame didn't match him either. When you look at it objectively, the case against him was almost entirely based on the fact that he was the "ex" and he happened to be driving a similar car in the general area.
What's next for the case?
Is there hope? Maybe.
Advances in genetic genealogy—the stuff they used to catch the Golden State Killer—could eventually be applied here if there is enough viable DNA left in evidence. The problem is that much of the original sample was used up in the failed attempts to link it to Hillary.
Potsdam is still a divided town. You have one camp that believes the "real killer" got away because of a technicality, and another camp that believes an innocent man’s life was nearly ruined while the actual murderer walked free.
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The best thing anyone interested in this case can do is keep the pressure on for a fresh set of eyes. A truly independent cold case task force, one with no ties to the local sheriff's department or the original investigators, is likely the only way Garrett Phillips will ever get actual justice.
If you want to help, you can look into the Justice for Garrett movement or support organizations that advocate for cold case reviews. It's been fourteen years. The kid deserves better than a "not guilty" verdict and a dead-end file.
Keep an eye on the civil court filings in Albany. That is where the next batch of depositions and unsealed documents will likely surface, potentially revealing names or leads that were ignored back in 2011.
Next Steps for You:
- Watch the Documentary: If you haven't seen "Who Killed Garrett Phillips?" on HBO, it’s the most thorough breakdown of the trial and the racial dynamics involved.
- Review the Deposition Summaries: Search for the publicly available documents from the Hillary v. Village of Potsdam lawsuit to see the testimony from the original lead investigators.
- Support Cold Case Legislation: Advocate for state-level "Right to a Cold Case Review" laws which can mandate that cases like Garrett's are re-examined by outside agencies after a certain period of time.