'Spiritual' Traveler Arrives At Final Destination

Some stories just beg to be snarked on, and while this one is tragic, this one is just so full of all of those time hippie concepts that it is just asking for it.

But, said Amber Desilet, 25, of Tampa, who met him six years ago when she was a community college student in Tallahassee, Thornton didn't really have a home.

"He was a wandering gypsy," she said. "And over the years he just grew into this amazing spiritual being. I've never met anyone like him."

The first clue was her name was Amber. The object of her affection was found dead this week on somebodies patio after falling from an upper story while attending a party which had liberal amounts of alcohol and cocaine present.

The occupant of the 18th floor apartment, Jimmy Velez, told investigators that he had a party that night "where they drank and did cocaine," according to a police report obtained Wednesday.

Jimmy sounds like a winner doesn't he. Admitting to police that you had cocaine in your premises. Well stupid is, as stupid does. Remember kids, this is your brain on drugs.

The dearly departed, Zachary Thornton or Jay Tree or whatever name he was going by was a drifter. He would wander around the country, snagging the occasional airheaded chick and getting money from who knows where to fuel his fun and frolic before blowing town and heading somewhere else.

He traveled lightly, carrying a few changes of clothes and a beloved red accordion on which he played a variety of music, including reggae, Desilet said. Recently, he called her from New Mexico to tell her he'd gotten married and changed his name to Jay Tree, she said, adding that he had an abiding interest in Native American history and culture.

Desilet said Thornton brought his bride for a visit to Tampa and called her his "soulmate" but that she didn't believe the marriage was a formal one. "It was more of a spiritual union I came to find out," she said.

I haven't seen this much reference to spiritual, mystical, wandering lifestyle since the death of hippie movement in the early 70's. The bottom line is he was drifter sponging off of the good will and money of others, partying hard and when he felt he was wearing out his welcome he would board a bus or start hitchhiking is way out of town.