Florida mother tortured and caged girl, 5, before dumping her body 500 miles from home and reporting her missing

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: The mother of a five-year-old girl who was found buried near a landfill site more than 500 miles away from where she disappeared is facing new charges in connection to her daughter’s death.

Brianna Williams, 27, was arrested on the same day her daughter Taylor Rose Williams was found dead in a wooded area in Demopolis, Alabama, on November 12, 2019. She was initially charged with three felonies, including two counts of child neglect and one count of lying to law enforcement officers, and is now facing charges of tampering with evidence and aggravated child abuse, the latter of which implies she “willfully tortured, maliciously punished, or caged a child.”

The charges likely stem from discoveries made by officers who searched her car, which “smelled of decomposition” and had been “stripped bare and cleaned with chemicals,” and her apartment on Palm Breeze Road which was “in disarray with a strong odor of feces and urine.” Officers also found soiled children’s clothes, feces and urine in a closet, and a stained piece of carpet, which had a portion of it removed.

The State Attorney’s Office claims the woman ‘transported human remains’ and ‘purposely impaired an investigation’.

Taylor was reported missing on November 6, just three days after she and her mother moved into their new apartment. Williams, a Petty Officer 1st Class with the US Navy, claimed she had put the five-year-old to bed and woke up the next morning to find her missing and the backdoor ajar.

However, Tiffani Nicole, who had been hired to help them with the move, shared she never saw Taylor the entire time she was at their old apartment, which was “messy.”

“It honestly looked like she had been recently evicted or something because it was not well lived-in if there was a child there,” she said. “There was old food all over the floor, underneath the couches. There was trash everywhere.”

After reporting Taylor missing, Williams had stopped cooperating with the authorities because they had pointed out several inconsistencies in her story. Then, on the day her daughter’s remains were found, she attempted suicide.

“The suspect has been absentee booked at a local hospital after being admitted today due to an apparent overdose of some sort,” Sheriff Mike Williams had revealed. “Only she knows that. I know there was what appears to be an overdose or she’s ingested something. We don’t know as of yet.”

Williams, who has not been charged with murder, remains behind bars in Duval County jail on a $1.1 million bond following the latest developments. She is due back in court later this month and if convicted, faces decades behind bars.