Accused serial squatter allegedly strikes again on $4.3 million property in Iredell County

DAVIDSON, N.C. – It was a moment Tamara Mcilwain has been waiting for for months. She finally got to cut the locks on her own gate to her own land. She says she’s been locked out of her sprawling 58 acre equestrian property in Davidson since a woman named Jessica Springs moved in. Springs was arrested Thursday for trespassing on the property.

You might remember Springs. WCCB covered her back in 2024, when two other property owners told us she wasn’t paying them, either. One of them was former Carolina Panther Austin Duke. He told us then, “She’s causing financial harm and damage to people using, at this point, fraudulent information that’s not hers. That’s criminal.”

For months, Mcilwain has had to stand by and watch strangers pass through her gates. She tells us, “They should have never been on the property.”

Mcilwain says it all started when she listed the property for sale for $4.3 million in September. A few days later, she had a buyer and agreed to a seller-financed deal. Mcilwain says Springs sent multiple wires that never cleared, and always had an excuse. “‘Oh, it’s a bank error, I really want the property, I’m trying to close,'” Mcilwain says Springs told her.

Mcilwain says she ignored her feeling that something wasn’t right, and trusted her real estate agents. She says, “They made me believe I was overreacting.”

Since the fall, Mcilwain says she’s been trying to get her property back. She says now that a final deadline for payment passed this month, with no money from Springs, she can finally kick her out and change the locks. She says after all this, she’s thankful. “She’s gonna be exposed, because she’s been doing this for a long time and she’s done it to a lot of people,” says Mcilwain.

WCCB contacted both real estate agents Mcilwain says worked with her on this deal. They haven’t replied. Springs bonded out of jail Friday afternoon. We contacted her but she has not replied to us yet. Mcilwain hopes to have the locks changed Saturday morning.