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Night Watch: The Night North Port Will Never Forget: Robbie and Jennifer Tower
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Hi Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson. Exciting news. Conspiracy theories, cults and crimes is leveling up. Starting the week of January 12th, you'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays we unravel the conspiracy or the cult, and on Fridays we look at a corresponding crime. Every week has a theme. Tech, bioterror, power, paranoia, you name it. Follow conspiracy theories, cults and crimes now on your podcast app because you're about to dive deeper, get weirder, and go darker than ever before.
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This is Crime House in Northport. Life rarely strays from ordinary. But when a family grounded in faith, love and service gave a kid a second chance, their lives were shattered and the search for answers became a race to find a killer. In an unexpected twist, the man on trial for stabbing his adoptive parents to death in Sarasota county took the stand moments ago against the advice of his attorney. The couple that lived in the house behind me, they say that they were much more than neighbors to everyone. They say that they were friends and a very loving couple to everyone. Dima Da Gower does have a criminal record. He was arrested back in 2020 for a felony battery inside this home. Hi, welcome to Crime House Daily. I'm your host Katie Ring. Here we follow the cases making headlines now where justice is still unfolding. Follow us wherever you're listening and if you want ad free episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I'm done with subscriptions, streaming, fitness, razors, vitamins. I've got subscriptions for everything in my life. They lock you in and half the time I can't figure out how to unsubscribe. That's why I'm so excited about the new Blue Apron. Now you can get delicious meals delivered with no subscription needed, including new pre made options. Keep the flavor, ditch the subscription. Get 20% off your first two orders with code APRON20. Terms and conditions apply. Visit blueapron.com terms for more. North Port Florida isn't a place that normally ends up in the headlines. It's inland from the Gulf coast and is a relatively new city of wide roads and low key neighborhoods. To get to Northport, you have to drive through long stretches of flat landscape lined with palm trees and scrub on either side. And then Suddenly you're on residential streets where the houses are close enough to wave at people next door. The Tower family lived on Malakote Road, which was one of those quintessential streets. It's a quiet residential stretch where serious police activity was extremely rare. 49 year old Robbie James Tower and 51 year old Jennifer Christine Tower were loved in their community. They valued their faith and the importance of giving back, not as a hobby, but as a way of life. Jennifer was a paralegal turned realtor who built her own real estate services business, Pro Admin, and her friends described her as a go getter with a huge heart. Meanwhile, Robbie had that same open door spirit, but with a little mischief in it. He's remembered for his infectious laugh, love of silly socks, and his habit of turning neighbors into friends. On Malacoat Road, people even called him the mayor because he hosted block parties to bring everyone together. Friends said their beliefs weren't something they tucked away on Sundays. They carried them into everyday life and they built the identity of their marriage around service. The Towers were known as a couple who really practiced what they preached, and that's why their story has stuck with so many people. In 2016, a new calling led them to a decision that changed their family forever. During their missionary work in Ukraine, they met a teenage boy named Dima who was living in the country's orphan and foster system. Dima's early life was heavy from the start. His mother had died when he was young and his father was absent and struggling with alcoholism, which left Dima without consistent care. He cycled through relatives, homes, foster placements and an orphanage, never really landing anywhere permanent. When Robbie and Jennifer chose to adopt him, Dima was about 14 years old. He came to Florida, took their last name, and became their son legally and publicly. In early photos, you see a teenager in a new country, learning a new language, trying to fit into a culture he didn't grow up in, and being folded into a family that seemed genuinely committed to him. The Towers viewed adoption as permanent, something you don't back out of just because it gets hard. Loved ones said they were determined to give Dimo what he had never had. A stable home, parents who stayed, and a future that wasn't defined by what happened in his childhood. But adoption stories aren't always neat, and the public record makes that clear in this case. Over time, Dima struggled to adjust. He was allegedly starting fights at school, and multiple outlets described growing tensions and inside the house. By 2020, the tension in their household had reached law enforcement. That year, Dima was arrested after an incident involving a violent attack towards Robbie Tower inside of their home. According to the affidavit, Dima allegedly threw Robbie across the kitchen while he was putting groceries away. The charges were later dropped, but the arrest remained a documented part of the family's history. Family members said that after the incident, Dima stayed for a short time with relatives on Jennifer's side. But he didn't stay long, and Robbie brought him back home. Loved ones described that choice as an act of love and persistence. Robbie was still trying to hold onto his son and still believed their family could survive this if they didn't give up. A relative said. Robby and Jennifer kept forgiving him and supporting him, even buying him a car and trying to keep his life on track. So by the summer of 2023, Dima was no longer a kid being introduced to a new home. He was 21, living in the same place that had been trying to hold him steady for nearly seven years. Then late on August 31, 2023, the quiet around that house was shattered. Robbie and Jennifer's neighbor called 91 1. She said five minutes before the call, she was jolted awake by screaming and pounding on the door. A woman yelling I need help over and over. When the neighbor opened up, the woman was gone, but there was blood on the steps, enough to make it clear this wasn't a misunderstanding, a scam, or a bad dream. In a neighborhood that's not used to commotion after dark, that kind of sound and that kind of sight flips your whole body into panic mode. Officers arrived shortly before midnight, minutes after the neighbor's frantic call, and saw a man covered in blood outside of the Tower's residence. It was Dima. According to reports, it looked like he was closing the trunk of a black car and when police tried to stop him, he got in the vehicle and fled the scene. In a matter of seconds. Officers went from responding to a neighbor's distress call to to a full on pursuit. But no one was prepared for what they were about to see inside the house. While the chase moved out of the subdivision and onto larger main roads, patrol cars stayed close on him. At the same time, another group of officers went inside the Tower's house to find out what sparked the neighbor's call. When officers were inside, they immediately understood this wasn't a routine call. They found blood in the master bedroom, the entryway and the kitchen, where they found a rag that appeared to have been used to wipe up blood. Prosecutors said that this kind of cleanup isn't what you see in A blind, uncontrolled frenzy. It's what you see when someone understands what they've done. When officers stepped into the living room, they found Robbie and Jennifer Towers on the floor, close together. Their bodies were positioned head to head. Robbie had visible puncture wounds to his upper back and Jennifer's head was covered in blood. There was also blood on the living room couch. They were quickly pronounced dead at the scene and a medical examiner confirmed they had both suffered multiple stab wounds in a sustained sharp force attack. Between the two, they were stabbed 147 times. Jennifer was stabbed 79 times, and Robbie was stabbed 68 times. The state later emphasized the number of wounds, not to sensationalize but to underline what it said. The wounds clearly showed. This wasn't one impulsive blow and it wasn't a quick struggle that got out of hand. It was prolonged violence that didn't stop until both victims were dead. While detectives secured the home and confirmed the deaths, the manhunt for Dima continued outside. At this point, the police were in a full on high speed chase with Dima. He had driven out of North Port into the surrounding areas and the police were hot on his tail. Other teams cleared the scene and deployed tire deflation strips which disabled his car on the highway. He jumped out immediately, abandoned the vehicle and then ran into the nearby woods. Agencies brought in K9 units and aviation support and the search stretched into the early morning hours. Dima was missing for roughly eight hours. Then as dawn approached, police located him at a Shell gas station on Knights Trail Road in North Venice and arrested him there. Dima Tower was charged with two counts of first degree premeditated murder and fleeing and eluding law enforcement. Prosecutors in Florida chose not to seek the death penalty under state law. That meant if the jury convicted him of first degree murder, the mandatory sentence would be life in prison without the possibility of parole. It was clear that Dima had murdered his adoptive parents. But the challenge for prosecutors was that in order to get a first degree murder conviction, they had to prove that the attack was premeditated. The case took more than two years to reach trial, but by November of 2025, Dima, who is now 24 years old, was sitting at the defense table in Sarasota County, Florida. Reporters described the courtroom as packed, but the people in the room weren't just there to cover the story. They were there for Robbie and Jennifer Tower, two people remembered for their compassion, faith and service to their community. From the start, both sides were clear about what this trial was and wasn't. The Defense didn't argue that Dimo wasn't the attacker. Defense attorney Mark Gilman told jurors in his opening statement that if they expected him to say his client did nothing wrong, they were mistaken. What he wanted them to consider, he said, was whether the attack met the standard for premeditated first degree murder or whether it should be convicted as a lesser form of homicide like manslaughter. Prosecutors laid out a straight, linear timeline. They argued that the attacks began in the master bedroom, where, while Rodney Tower was asleep, Dima had grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen, snuck into their room while the couple was asleep in bed, and started stabbing Robbie. After a few initial blows, he lost his first knife. So he went in the kitchen to grab a second knife and continued the attack. The prosecution focused on the second knife to prove premeditation. They argued that losing one weapon, meaning then going back to grab a second one, proved this wasn't just a crime of passion. After losing the first knife, he had time to stop and assess what had happened and what he was doing, but he made the conscious decision to grab a second knife and continue carrying out the attack. They told the jurors that Jennifer woke up to the violence and tried to protect her husband, but quickly realized that she couldn't stop what was happening, so she ran to a neighbor's home screaming for help. According to the state, Dima chased her, forced her back inside, made her sit on the living room couch and stabbed her repeatedly. The blood found on the couch and the room's patterning was used to support that sequence. Forensic evidence backed up the timeline. A DNA analyst testified that blood recovered from the knives tied to the scene had DNA mixtures matching both victims and Dema Tower. Prosecutors said those results placed Dema in physical contact with the murder weapons and matched what the crime scene patterns already indicated. The state also emphasized Dima's behavior afterward. They reminded jurors he was seen outside of the home with blood on him that he fled when police arrived, led officers on a chase through multiple counties, ran into the woods after the tire deflation strips, disabled his car, and stayed on the run for hours until he was finally caught at a gas station. Prosecutors argued these choices showed consciousness of guilt and a clear, deliberate mind at work. The defense asked jurors to widen their lens beyond that night. They spent time on Dima's upbringing in Ukraine, his mother's death, years of instability, cycling through foster care and orphanage life, and then the whiplash of moving countries as a teenager. They argued that trauma like that doesn't Just vanish because a family tries to love you through it. They suggested that whatever happened on August 31st was the violent product of a mind that had never been stable in the first place. Then came a decision that shifted the entire trial. Dema chose to testify. It's rare and heavily advised against by most lawyers to testify in a first degree murder case where the penalty is life without parole. But Dema Tower took the stand anyways. On both direct and cross examinations, he admitted that he had stabbed both Robby and Jennifer Tower, that he went into their bedroom with a knife and attacked Robbie while he was asleep, that Jennifer ran to a neighbor's door and he chased her down and forced her back inside. In other words, he confirmed the core of the state's timeline in his own voice. But even more importantly for prosecutors, he made another admission on the stand. He said he planned the attack. That single statement carried enormous legal weight. Florida law does not require that premeditation be plotted for days or weeks. Premeditation can form in a short window, seconds or minutes, as long as the intent comes before action. Dima's acknowledgment that the intent existed beforehand gave prosecutors direct evidence of premeditation from the defendant himself. Dima tried to explain the confession by describing his mental state as fractured. He told jurors he was temporarily insane and that the rage had taken over. He wasn't presenting a formal insanity defense that would remove responsibility. He was trying to persuade jurors that he was too mentally unstable to truly premeditate. The defense echoed that theme, urging jurors to think about trauma and emotional collapse rather than calculation. But prosecutors weren't willing to let that framing stand without scrutiny. On cross examination, they walked Dima through his actions step by step. If he was out of control, why retrieve a second knife and keep stabbing? If he was unaware of what he was doing, why chase Jennifer when she ran for help? Why force her back inside instead of leaving the house? Those choices, prosecutors argued, required awareness and decision making. Courtroom coverage described Dima as emotional and sometimes disruptive during trial. On the first day of opening statements, his crying became so loud that the judge excused the jury and warned him to compose himself. At other points, he got combative, interrupting questioning or arguing with prosecutors and and had to be reined back in by the court. Those moments showed instability, but they did not erase what he admitted about planning or what the physical evidence showed about the sequence of the killings. In closing arguments, the state told jurors that premeditation was proven in multiple ways in the timeline itself. In acts of choosing to continue in the defendant's own words. The state never established a confirmed motive that answers why this happened. And prosecutors were clear that the verdict did not depend on providing one. When it was the defense's turn for closing arguments, they repeated that Demas history mattered and that childhood trauma didn't disappear because of a plane ride to America. They claimed the trauma settled into him and shaped how he reacted to conflict, authority and family. The defense asked the jury to convict on a lesser homicide charge, but there was no way around his admissions and no dispute about the brutality of the attack. The jury deliberated for less than two hours, and on November 14, 2025, they returned unanimous guilty verdicts on two counts of first degree premeditated murder and one count of fleeing and deluding. Right afterward, the court heard victim impact statements. Family members said the Towers never stopped thinking of Dima as their son, even after the earlier violence and the family turmoil, and that they kept believing in him because forgiveness and persistence were part of who they were. Judge Krug imposed a sentence that same afternoon. Two consecutive life without parole terms, plus a five year fleeing eluding sentence concurrent with the second life term. As of now, Dema Tower is serving those consecutive life sentences in a Florida state prison with no parole eligibility. His legal future may include appeals, but for now, the trial verdict stands. There's no ending here that makes the story feel neat. Robbie and Jennifer Tower met Dima as a teenager already shaped by loss. They adopted him, believing that permanence might change the path of a life that had been unstable from the beginning. They kept trying to return to normalcy after the 2020 arrests and through years of conflict that didn't resolve easily. Their loved ones say they believed family meant not giving up when things got hard. But on August 31, 2023, inside the home they had built around that belief, the family collapsed in violence. For the Towers family, the verdict doesn't soften the loss. It doesn't restore the life they knew, and it doesn't rewind years of love and effort they poured into building a family across continents. What it does do is confirm the truth of what happened that night on Malacoat Road. A couple remembered for compassion is gone. Their son will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing them. And a neighborhood that used to measure time and forechlights and routines will always remember the night everything went dark. What did you think of tonight's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. See you next time if you haven't already. Subscribe to our YouTube channel Rimehouse Daily and follow us on social media crimehouse247 for real time updates. Because the pursuit of justice never stops. Foreign.
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Looking for your next listen? Hi, it's Vanessa Richardson and I have exciting news. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is leveling up starting the week of January 12th. You'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays we unravel the conspiracy or the cult, and on Fridays we look at a corner. Corresponding crime Follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen.