Phillup Alan Partin was born on June 29, 1965, in Sacramento, California. 

On July 31, 2002, Phillup Alan Partin picked up 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook while she was hitchhiking along U.S. Highway 19 in Florida. They spent the day fishing and swimming together with Partin's 6-year-old daughter. Later that evening, they returned to the home in New Port Richey where Partin and his daughter were living. Prosecutors believe that Ashbrook was killed sometime between 9 p.m. and midnight that night.

The following morning, workers discovered Ashbrook's body in the woods off Shady Hills Road. She had been strangled, her throat was cut, and her neck was broken. After the murder, Partin dropped his daughter off at the home of a foster mother named Jean Prestridge in Wauchula and left the state. His daughter’s two sisters were also in Jean's care. Jean kept Partin's daughter for five days before giving her up to foster care.

Partin managed to evade capture for more than a year. Investigators eventually tracked him down to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was arrested on October 28, 2003.