Jessica Lloyd’s cause of death declared drowning. Charge dropped against husband
.png "Jessica Lloyd decided to become a nurse after seeing the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the health care world, family members say, and she graduated from nursing school in 2023.")
Prosecutors have decided not to move forward with a domestic violence charge filed against Jeffrey Evans, the widower of Jessica Lloyd, after the 38-year-old woman drowned in a 17-inch-deep Coral Springs canal last August.
Neighbors reported hearing Lloyd screaming the night she died that her husband was trying to kill her.
A medical examiner’s report detailing her injuries identified recent trauma to the top, back and one side of her head, scrapes and bruises covering her body, as well as partially healed older injuries.
Court records, 911 calls, body camera footage and exclusive interviews indicate Evans, a Marine veteran, former Big Bear brewmaster and Davie Fire Department dive team member, has a documented history of domestic violence allegations.
Evans’ ankle monitor has been removed, and he once again will have access to his passport and firearms. His attorney declined to comment to the Coral Springs News on his behalf. The case is now closed, according to Coral Springs Police.
“Women don’t come forward because they’re afraid, and then you have a woman who is now dead, who was severely abused, and still nothing is done because she’s not here to tell her side of the story,” Brittany Lloyd, Jessica’s sister, told the Coral Springs News on March 3. “How is that fair? How is that justice?”
“The justice system has failed my daughter, has failed her family, has failed her extended family and friends, people that worked with her, people that knew her — has failed everyone,” Rita Lloyd, Jessica’s mother, said in a separate interview.
State Attorney’s Office spokesperson Paula McMahon said in a statement to the Coral Springs News that “because the victim is deceased and prosecutors have no evidence or witnesses to rebut the defendant’s account of what occurred regarding the battery charge,” prosecutors were unable to move forward with the domestic violence battery case.
“If the investigators at the police department believed they had probable cause to make an arrest or file a charge related to the death of Jessica Lloyd, they would have formally presented it to our office for review. No homicide case has been formally presented to our office at this time,” McMahon wrote in an email. “We remain ready, willing and able to formally review anything detectives want to present now or in the future.”
McMahon encouraged those in need of resources and support to visit the State Attorney’s domestic violence website.
In a separate statement, a Coral Springs Police Department spokesperson told the Coral Springs News that the agency had “conducted a thorough, objective investigation, as we do all cases.”
Evans’ attorney, Justin Weisberg, declined to comment to the Coral Springs News on his behalf. Evans had pleaded not guilty on the domestic violence charge.
Court records detail past incidents
The medical examiner’s office noted in a post-mortem report that Jessica Lloyd’s husband had previous domestic violence cases involving two different women.
“Notably on 07/03/2020 he was arrested for battery after allegedly grabbing, punching and spitting on his ex-[girlfriend],” the examiner’s investigation report reads.
In the July 2020 incident, police responded to a disturbance at Evans’ address, one of over 50 calls for service, not including parking violation, animal, and city ordinance-related issues, made to his address from March 2017 to September 2025.
When police arrived, they reported seeing a woman “storm” out of the home while yelling for help as a man, later identified as Evans, chased after her. He eventually stopped and paced in the doorway, “screaming and cursing,” police wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Evans had blood on his forehead, and his then-girlfriend had a bruised lip, marks on her arm that appeared to show she had been grabbed with force, and saliva “running down her back,” investigators wrote.
He was arrested, but prosecutors dropped the case later that month after the woman filed a waiver of prosecution, according to the State Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors determined they weren’t likely to secure a conviction based on the evidence and without the victim’s cooperation. Records show he has never been convicted of domestic violence or related charges in Broward County.
Ahead of a hearing in October, Evans’ ex-wife Kim Anda submitted testimony lobbying for Evans to keep his ankle monitor. She alleged past physical abuse from him, saying she was afraid for herself and their two young daughters.
“On February 24, 2018, while driving home, Jeff, who had been drinking, was driving recklessly and blasting music,” she wrote. “We had an altercation about the music and I asked him to turn it down because my daughter was holding her ears to protect from the very loud music. Jeff turned the music up.”
Her sworn statement goes on to state that, when the argument continued, Evans got physical, grabbing her by her hair and pushing her out of the vehicle.
She alleged the violence continued when she got home after he put the kids to bed, including locking her in a closet, choking and kicking her.
She described other incidents in the documents as well, at least one of which wasn’t reported to police. Anda swore to the testimony under threat of perjury.
By the time police were called after a disturbance in 2024 involving Jessica Lloyd attempting to enter a neighbor’s home, an officer noted, “CSPD has an extensive history with Jeffrey.”
At the October hearing, Weisberg advocated for his client to get his ankle monitor off.
“He no longer poses a danger to this victim, the community. He wants to go to Polk County, use his RV to relax,” Weisberg said. “There’s also a camp called Operation Red Wings Foundation in Texas, he wants to be able to go there to treat his PTSD.
“Also he wants to be able to be social, to be able to move on with his life, from the tragic loss of his wife and try to regain a position in society where he can normalize and move on.”
What happened to Jessica Lloyd?
In the last days of her life, Jessica Lloyd started to open up about her relationship, family and friends said.
Since 2024, when her relationship with Evans began, they had noticed her changing. She became withdrawn, disappearing for weeks on end, and never leaving his sight, according to those who knew her. They reportedly married in secret after a few months of dating.
During the rare moments that Lloyd was able to speak on the phone, loved ones said they often heard Evans screaming at her in the background. The conversations wouldn’t last more than five minutes.
“Jessica’s goodbye always sounded like she was cupping her hand around her mouth and the phone and would say, ‘Mom, I gotta go. I’ll call you back,’” her mother, Rita Lloyd, testified during the October hearing in Evans’ case. “She never did.”
By August 2025, Jessica was trying to find a way out, according to her best friend, Kayla Varian.
“She said, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do,’” Varian told the Coral Springs News. “That was her attitude the morning she passed was, ‘I need to find a way out.’”
But the morning before she died, she told Varian over the phone that she couldn’t leave her dog and two cats at the house alone.
“I don’t know what she was afraid [Evans] would do,” Varian said. “She was afraid to leave them there.”
The last known time Brittany Lloyd heard from her sister was just before 6 p.m. on Aug. 25, the day she died. Jessica reportedly told her sister that it had been a long day and that she was going to go to bed. The couple had been fighting since the previous evening, Jessica said, but things seemed to have settled for the night.
What happened in the following hours is partly unknown. Evans told police that the two had gotten into an argument over suspected infidelity, and it turned into a physical altercation when he tried to get his laptop back from her.
The incident was captured on surveillance footage. Prosecutors later said Evans’ actions to get his laptop back, including punching Lloyd, were protected because she had wrongfully interfered with his personal property.
“If a person uses non-deadly force in defense of property they are immune from prosecution unless the State can meet the burden of proof to show that the defendant is not entitled to statutory immunity,” according to a memorandum declining prosecution of Evans.
Jessica Lloyd was last seen unclothed, running from the house she shared with Evans, according to police records and footage obtained by WSVN. A neighbor’s security camera captured a woman believed to be Lloyd scaling a fence, then disappearing into the dark.
At 8:51 p.m., Evans called police to report that his wife was having a “mental break.” A 911 caller several minutes later reported hearing her screaming for help, and that her husband was trying to kill her.
At 9:22 p.m., EMS arrived. Law enforcement had found Lloyd face-down and unresponsive in a shallow part of a canal that connects the neighborhood’s backyards — later determined to be 17 inches of water, according to the medical examiner’s investigative report. Her sister said her iPad was discovered on the other side, which she believes indicates that Jessica was attempting to cross without damaging her only form of communication.
“She was trying to get away from him,” Brittany Lloyd said. “She wanted to live.”
Evans was arrested shortly afterwards and taken to Broward County jail. After being bailed out, he spoke briefly with Channel 7 News but did not answer reporters’ questions about the case.
“Can I please not speculate about things I don’t know about? Can we please move past that?” Evans said. “I love my wife.”
Jessica Lloyd’s autopsy
Jessica Lloyd was declared deceased at Broward Health Coral Springs just after 10 p.m. on Aug. 25.
Her autopsy, which her family shared with the Coral Springs News, details extensive fractures, bruises and lacerations all over her body that don’t appear to have been caused by resuscitative efforts. This includes injuries “in different stages of healing,” indicating repeated traumatic incidents over time.
Recent injuries included two black eyes, a fractured upper jaw bone and right pinkie finger. She had scrapes on her face, shoulder, legs, feet, hips and across her back, as well as bruises on her buttocks, shoulders, arms, hands, legs and feet.
Investigators also noted four previously broken ribs that had since healed, as well as the more recent combination of blunt force head trauma — including bleeding in multiple places under Lloyd’s scalp.
First responders also reported finding blood in her nose and mouth. Lloyd’s toxicology report indicated recent cocaine use and antidepressants, the latter of which she had a prescription for, according to family and friends.
What happens now?
Jessica Lloyd’s death has been ruled as a drowning, consistent with damage to her internal organs and the circumstances surrounding it, per the medical examiner’s report.
The manner of her death is “undetermined,” indicating that investigators were unable to come to an evidence-based conclusion on whether her death was a homicide or an accident.
Broward court records show prosecutors filed “no information” on Feb. 24, declaring they weren’t moving forward with the case.
“Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor and our team express our very sincere condolences to Ms. Lloyd’s family and friends,” McMahon said in an email. “State Attorney Pryor, our Chief Assistant State Attorney, the head of our Domestic Violence Unit, and a victim advocate from our office, met with her family and a close friend on (Feb. 27) to discuss the misdemeanor battery case decision.”
Lloyd would have been 39 on March 9. She is survived by her parents, Rita and John, and her sister, Brittany.
Family and friends say they want to remember the former nurse for the person they say she was before her relationship with Evans — intelligent, adventurous and driven.
The Lloyd family has also set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral and legal costs.
Anyone with additional information on Jessica Lloyd’s case is encouraged to contact the Coral Springs Police Department’s non-emergency line at 954-344-1800 to file a report.
Know someone who needs help?
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This story was originally published March 6, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
