Lake City, Florida — A quiet Saturday afternoon turned tragic in this North Florida community when 27-year-old Tina Farmer was shot and killed at her home, and hours later her 19-year-old cousin, Tyndale M. Mullins, was found dead after an intense search by multiple law enforcement agencies.
Just after 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 3, 2026, Columbia County sheriff’s deputies answered a 911 call from 502 SW Journey Court reporting a shooting. When they arrived within minutes, they found Farmer suffering from a fatal gunshot wound to her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses near the home helped deputies quickly identify a suspect believed to be armed and dangerous. Officials immediately sent out a shelter-in-place alert to nearby residents through the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page and county emergency services, urging everyone to stay inside while the search began.
With rain-soaked woods and limited visibility complicating efforts, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office called in help from several agencies. Deputies from the Lake City Police Department, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Corrections, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office all joined the hunt. Teams of K-9 units, SWAT officers, and drone operators combed the wooded areas near the home.
For more than three hours, law enforcement worked to locate the suspect. Finally, just after 7:00 p.m., drone surveillance and tactical teams found Mullins deceased in the woods not far from the scene. Officials later confirmed that all family members had been notified of both deaths.
Mullins, a recent graduate of Columbia High School’s Class of 2025 and a cousin of the victim, was the only suspect in the case. As of the latest updates, authorities have not released how he died, and investigators are piecing together what led to the shooting. They emphasized that there is no current threat to the public.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office says detectives will continue to work through the evidence and witness accounts in the coming days to build a full timeline of the events leading up to this tragic loss of life.
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