Jacksonville family finds muddy stranger hiding in their attic

A Northside Jacksonville family woke up on Thursday morning to find a mud-covered stranger had barricaded himself in their laundry room and crawled into their attic.

Leaving a muddy smear on the side of the house, the intruder appeared to have climbed the Bryan family’s fence and barricaded himself in their laundry room.

Samuel Bryan made the discovery when he went to take his laundry out of the dryer on Thursday morning.

“This vacuum cleaner was over here, like this, behind the door, and then this broom was propped up against the door,” he said.

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He noticed mud and blood stains on the washing machine and then saw someone had ripped off a wood panel on the ceiling that covered a hole leading to the attic.

Worried that someone might have squeezed through the opening, he called 911.

Officers came in with guns drawn and ordered anyone inside to come out and a mud-covered man shimmied out.

“I followed him around to the car because I wanted to see what kind of monster this was that would come into someone’s home,” said homeowner Leon Bryan.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office identified the intruder as 28-year-old Marcus Hull.

“He looked at me, and he apologized. He goes, ‘Sir, I’m sorry for everything.’ And I asked him what he was doing. He said he was running for his life, that there were people after him trying to kill him. And he just chose my place for a hideout,” said Leon Bryan. “I did let him know that it’s a good thing the police got him first, because if I would have seen him first, it would have been bad.”

The JSO report said Hull told a detective he’d been out doing drugs.

Hull was arrested in 2012 on drug charges in Duval County. He pleaded guilty, but was able to participate in a pre-trial intervention program instead of facing a sentence.

“You need to get your life straight. Find Jesus,” said Samuel Bryan.

Hull faces a burglary charge.

Cox Media Group