Close quarters and tight finances may have finally boiled over for an intoxicated woman who was arrested after allegedly attacking her mother-in-law at the PepperTree Apartments in Wildwood.
Kyle Lynn Tripp, 48, called 911 at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to report that her mother-in-law was withholding the keys to her vehicle.
When officers with the Wildwood Police Department arrived at the apartment complex, the mother-in-law explained the vehicle actually belonged to her son, who is Tripp’s husband. When an officer clarified that the vehicle was considered marital property and Tripp had a legal right to access it, the older woman asked, “Even though she hits me and everything?”
According to the arrest report, Tripp told officers she and her husband moved to Florida from Michigan about three years ago and had been living with his mother the entire time. Between sharing the apartment, going through a divorce, and arguing over money, the living arrangement had apparently gotten too close for comfort.
The mother-in-law told police that after an argument over finances, Tripp “went after” her, pushing and striking her in the face with an open hand before searching the older woman’s bedroom for the key fob. The victim took off her glasses to show officers a bruise and visible indentation on the bridge of her nose, consistent with her claim of being slapped while wearing her glasses.
The victim noted this was the third time Tripp had struck her in the three years they had lived together. She told officers that her daughter-in-law has an alcohol problem and becomes violent when she drinks.
Officers noted that Tripp smelled strongly of alcohol, had glassy eyes, and was slurring her speech. She denied hitting her mother-in-law, initially blaming the facial mark on the woman’s glasses.
As officers placed her in handcuffs, Tripp muttered, “She’s gonna pay for this cause I didn’t do it.” Later, while being transported to jail, Tripp spontaneously changed her story and claimed the injury on her mother-in-law’s face was actually a mosquito bite from the night before.
Tripp was arrested on a felony charge of battery on a person 65 years of age or older. She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $3,000 bond.