Petty Officer Mom of Missing Fla. Girl Arrested, Hospitalized After Possible Overdose
The 27-year-old mother of Taylor Rose Williams, a five-year-old missing Florida girl, has been arrested.
At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said that Brianna Williams has been arrested on charges of child neglect and giving false information to investigators during the search for her daughter.
Sheriff Williams said the petty officer with the U.S. Navy was absentee booked at a local hospital where she was admitted earlier today due to an apparent overdose.
“She is in serious condition,” Williams said.
Asked if she attempted suicide, Williams responded: “Only she knows that. I know it appears to be an overdose where she has ingested something. We don’t know as of yet. It will be something we will dig in in the next couple of hours.”
Earlier today, the sheriff’s office announced that searchers had uncovered the remains of a child in a “wooded area” of Alabama, but identification of the remains are still pending.
“While indications are this may be Taylor Williams, the exact identification of the victim will be made pending some detailed forensic analysis” Williams said.
Search teams uncovered the remains between Demopolis and Linden, Alabama.
Police had said that Brianna Williams had stopped working with investigators soon after she reported her daughter missing the morning of Nov. 6.
Williams had called Brianna Williams, who is assigned to the Tactical Operations Center at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, a “person of interest” in Taylor’s disappearance. “We still need her cooperation in our efforts,” he said, at an earlier press conference.
The search and investigation into the girl’s disappearance had expanded from Jacksonville, Florida to Alabama, where Williams is originally from.
“The search has expanded to Linden and Demopolis,” Officer Christian Hancock with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office tells PEOPLE. “We are searching in an area between the two of those two cities. That is a lot of ground to cover and multiple different ways to get there.”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
The case came to light the morning of Nov. 6 when Brianna Williams reported her daughter missing from their Jacksonville home.
Williams told police that she had last seen her daughter Tuesday evening and when she awoke the next morning, Taylor was not in her room and the back door of the home was unlocked.
Police issued an Amber Alert later on Wednesday morning.
If you have any information about the whereabouts of Taylor Willliams, please contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500 or 911.
