Remains Found During Search for Missing Fla. Girl, 5, as Navy Officer Mom Becomes a Person of Interest

Human remains were found Tuesday during the search for missing five-year-old Taylor Rose Williams. Search teams uncovered the remains in a “wooded area” of Alabama, but identification is still pending, according to an alert from the Jacksonville, Fla., Sheriff’s Office.

Search teams uncovered the remains between Demopolis and Linden, Alabama.

Florida police are also now considering Williams’ mother a person of interest in the child’s disappearance.

Police say Taylor’s mother, Brianna Williams, stopped working with investigators soon after she reported her daughter missing the morning of Nov. 6.

“As of today, Taylor’s mother Brianna Williams, 27, remains uncooperative with this investigation,” Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said at a press conference Monday. “She has not spoken to us since Wednesday and was the last person to see Taylor.”

Williams called the petty officer with the U.S. Navy a “person of interest” in Taylor’s disappearance. “We still need her cooperation in our efforts,” he said.

The search and investigation into the girl’s disappearance had expanded 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.”

Jacksonville authorities are asking anyone who may have seen Brianna and her daughter Taylor traveling between Florida and Alabama in a black 2017 Honda Accord to contact them. | Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
Jacksonville authorities are asking anyone who may have seen Brianna and her daughter Taylor traveling between Florida and Alabama in a black 2017 Honda Accord to contact them. | Jacksonville Sheriff's Office

Thirty-eight members of Jacksonville’s Fire and Rescue Department have been aiding in the Alabama search.

Hancock says authorities are asking the public to contact them if they have seen the mother and daughter over the past two weeks between Florida and Alabama.

“We are still working on a timeline when the child was last seen with the mother,” he says.

At the press conference, Sheriff Williams said Taylor’s mother, who is assigned to the Tactical Operations Center at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, is not under arrest or naval confinement. “She works on the base,” he says. “She can stay on the base.”

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The case came to light the morning of Nov. 6 when Brianna Williams reported her daughter missing from their Ivy Street 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.