Search For Missing Florida Girl; Mother Not Cooperating: Sheriff

JACKSONVILLE, FL. — Nearly 300 law enforcement officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI have visited more than 600 homes looking for a 5-year-old girl who was reported missing from her Florida home early Wednesday morning.

The search for Taylor Rose Williams entered its second day Thursday in what has become a Florida statewide amber alert. In addition to going door to door, police also searched a nearby retention pond and dumpster while a tow truck hauled away a vehicle.

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the child's mother, Brianna Taylor, stopped cooperating with authorities on Thursday even as hundreds of tips poured into the sheriff's office.

"We know that Brianna Williams was the last person to see Taylor and we need for her to cooperate with us in this investigation," he said. "We are asking that anyone who has seen Taylor and Brianna Williams together in Jacksonville within the last six months to reach out to us and let us know."

Chief of Investigations Thomas Waters with the sheriff's office on Wednesday described the search as "very thorough" and said officials had tried to incorporate the thought process of a 5-year-old.

"In my experience children unfortunately are drawn toward water and we want to rule that out," Waters told reporters. "We want to make sure that she didn’t crawl into a dumpster. We want to make sure that nothing’s in there that somebody might have put there."

The sheriff said the child's mother stopped cooperating when investigators questioned her about inconsistencies in her account.

He stopped short of calling Brianna Williams a suspect but confirmed police had not been able to find anyone who saw the mother and child together in recent months.

"We won't take the steps to say she's a suspect in the case," the sheriff said of the girl's mother. "We do know that her daughter is missing. She was the last person to see her. We do not believe that she (the child) walked away ... We need her to cooperate with this investigation to help us find her daughter."

Police were initially called to the child's home in the 600 block of Ivy Street on Wednesday morning at 7:22 a.m. after Brianna Williams said she noticed that her back door was unlocked.

"When she checked her daughter’s bedroom looking for little Taylor, Taylor was actually gone," Waters said of the mother's account. She told investigators that the child had been been last seen around midnight.

Waters said the initial search around the child's home was expanded to a previous address "in the event that somehow Taylor founder her way back in that direction."

The child's father lives in another state but the entire family had initially been cooperating with authorities, Waters said.

Police were using drones, mounted patrols, K-9 units and at least one air unit in the search. Waters said investigators were not ruling anything out.

"We're going to check all angles," he said. "We approach these investigations in a manner that would help us to be able to determine whether it is foul play in the long run."

The child is described as black, 3 feet tall, 50 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. She was wearing a purple shirt and pink pajama pants when she went to bed, according to her mother's account.

To report a tip, call the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or dial 9-1-1.