JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Human remains found earlier this month in a wooded area of western Alabama were identified as those of 5-year-old Taylor Rose Williams, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.
JSO Chief of Detectives T.K. Waters said at a news conference Monday afternoon that DNA analysis confirmed the identity of the remains, and no cause of death has been determined yet.
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Waters said Brianna Williams, Taylor’s mother, will be told “very soon." He said she remains uncooperative.
Waters stressed that the Sheriff’s Office is committed to getting justice for Taylor, but said the agency is not ready to say how investigators were led to the remains.
Williams, who’s now considered a person of interest in the case, reported her daughter missing Nov. 6. The disappearance triggered an Amber Alert and a massive search throughout the city. Two days later, the sheriff said Williams was no longer cooperating with police.
The search later expanded to rural Alabama, where investigators focused on a 25-mile radius stretching from Demopolis, where Williams has friends, to her hometown of Linden. Crews were combing a wooded area Nov. 12 when they uncovered the remains.
Later the same day, the sheriff disclosed that Williams had been hospitalized after ingesting an unknown substance and was being charged with child neglect and giving false information to law enforcement.
Williams remains in the Duval County jail on $1.1 million bond. She is due in court Dec. 4 for arraignment.
The Amber Alert has been canceled.