Investigation stretching to Mobile identifies body found in 2020 at Decatur as Courtland woman

Dec. 20—A 2 1/2 -year-old mystery about the identity of a body found floating in a tributary of Flint Creek on Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge at Decatur has been resolved by an investigation that stretched from Lawrence County to Mobile and depended on DNA samples.

The Lawrence County Sheriff's Office said Monday that the body found in the summer of 2020 was identified as Wanda Ashford Floyd, 60, of Courtland, through DNA tests conducted by the Mobile County Cold Case Unit.

Floyd had been missing since being released from Decatur Morgan Hospital about noon on July 15, 2020, which was a few hours after she checked in, Lawrence Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Brian Covington said. It is unknown why she was in the hospital, he said. Friends of Floyd reported her disappearance about a week after she left the hospital.

Two weeks after Floyd left the hospital, Decatur police responded to a call that a fisherman had found a woman's body in the Crabtree Slough portion of the Flint River west of the refuge administration building north of Alabama 67.

But authorities had few clues for identifying the body and said at the time its condition had deteriorated. Initial DNA samples from the body were sent for analysis, but there were no matching reports in the database, Covington said.

Dental records were inconclusive, and the FBI listed the estimated height of the body as 5-foot-9, which didn't seem to correspond to the 6-2 Floyd.

In October of 2020, a relative of Floyd's from Virginia filed a missing persons report on her, Covington said, and the department worked to locate her. Covington said leads from the public led his department to conduct searches in Meridian, Mississippi, and Memphis.

"In December 2021, we updated our Facebook page continuing to seek information from the public," Covington said.

That led the Mobile unit to contact the Decatur Police Department in late 2021 to assist with identifying the body.

"Because of some similarities between the Jane Doe and Ms. Wanda Ashford Floyd, a close family member of Ms. Wanda Ashford Floyd provided a DNA sample," Covington said.

He said the Mobile County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit, working through its partnerships with Moxxy Forensic Investigations, Hudson-Alpha Discovery, Saber Investigations, GEDMatch and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, was able to determine the body was Floyd.

On Monday, Jeff Chunn, Morgan County coroner, said an autopsy report concluded the cause of death was "undetermined" and homicide was ruled out.

Decatur Police spokeswoman Irene Cardenas-Martinez said Monday "no foul play was suspected."

In a news release Monday, the Mobile County Sheriff's Office thanked philanthropist Carla Davis, who fully funded the lab cost needed to identify Floyd, sheriff genealogy analyst Olivia McCarter and Decatur Police for their partnership in resolving the case.

Lawrence County Sheriff Max Sanders said, "This is not the outcome we had hoped for concerning her disappearance. (But) her family now has closure."

Cardenas-Martinez said the investigation into Floyd's death is ongoing.

It remains unclear what happened to Floyd from the time she left the Decatur Morgan Hospital until the body was discovered more than two weeks later, Covington said.

— mike.wetzel@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.