Body found by search dog in South Dade wetlands. It may be remains of abducted woman
A frantic day of searching for an abducted pregnant woman in dense wetlands with police helicopters, all terrain vehicles and dogs appears to have reached a tragic end late Wednesday afternoon with the discovery of human remains.
Officially, police said they don’t know if the body found by a search dog in thick woods near Homestead Air Reserve Base belonged to 27-year-old Andreae Lloyd, who has been missing since she was dragged against her will just after midnight Monday from a home where she works as a caretaker. Police said early Wednesday evening that they were still waiting for the body to be identified.
“A cadaver K9 alerted us to an area,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Angel Rodriguez. “We believe they are human remains and we’re waiting on the medical examiner.”
But two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation said the body was female and believed to be Lloyd. Lloyd is six weeks pregnant and has two children, ages 1 and 5.
Early Thursday morning Miami-Dade police announced her boyfriend, 32-year-old Xavier Johnson, was arrested on charges including first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated battery and burglary. In the arrest report, detectives said that Johnson, who lives in Florida City, confessed to kidnapping and killing Lloyd.
The desperate search near the corner of Southwest 130th Avenue and 328th Street came after a tip from a family member who police say had spotted Lloyd’s boyfriend’s truck in the area. Police detained Johnson Wednesday, and he remained in custody after the body had been discovered.
It was early Tuesday, just past midnight, police said, when a man knocked on the door of the home where Lloyd works in the 13000 block of Southwest 285th Terrace, dragged her outside and “beat her repeatedly.” Then, according to police, he drove off with the woman in a white Honda Civic, its license tag Y650DL.
The abduction of the young woman frightened her family and sparked a vast manhunt by law enforcement. The wetland spot along a canal where police were searching Wednesday, not far from Lloyd’s home, was also near sandpits popular with ATV riders.
While police updated the media near the search area Wednesday, dozens of the missing woman’s friends, family members and others who knew her gathered near a canal that runs along the road that borders palm tree farms. Their conversations stopped briefly as F-16 fighter jets zoomed overhead on a path to nearby Homestead Air Reserve Base.
Lloyd’s uncle Manuel Lloyd called his niece the foundation of the family. He also described her as a woman who pulled the clan together through all circumstances and loved to cook for people. As the prospects of finding Andreae Lloyd dimmed Wednesday, her uncle said the family had a strong faith in God and continued to hope for the best.
“At this moment, we have to step back, lean back and hope and pray that God hears us through this, sees us through this and allows us to go through,” he said.
Andreae Lloyd’s family spent most of Wednesday near the search site. The missing woman’s father was seen accompanying police into the wooded area where the dogs were searching repeatedly throughout the day.
Her uncle said he drove around the area Wednesday before spotting his niece’s boyfriend, who, he said, seemed unusually stressed out.
“He was walking up and down the road saying, ‘I’m looking for my old lady.’ Wasn’t anybody there except for him,” Lloyd noted.
