A North Carolina family is demanding answers after a 25-year-old woman was found dead in the woods.
Heather Williams was last seen on Ring doorbell footage leaving her home in Fayetteville and getting into a light-colored sedan with a sunroof just before 10pm on January 4, according to the Fayetteville Observer.
Her sister, Mary Williams, told WRAL the family did not know the person who was driving the vehicle – and suspected it may have been someone Heather met online.
By January 7, a statewide missing, endangered person alert was issued, with authorities noting that Heather suffered cognitive impairment and had limited speech after she was struck by a car in 2015, CBS 17 reports.
The accident also left her with limited use of her right arm and right leg, causing her to walk with a limp, the family said.
Heather’s body was ultimately located in a wooded area of the city on Friday – leaving the family baffled.
‘I just ask that people out there, if they hear anything or if they see something, you know, somebody knows something, somebody’s talked to somebody, somebody has, you know, they slip up along the way,’ Mary told WRAL.
‘So somebody’s got to know something.’
Fayetteville police located the remains of Heather Williams on Friday
Her sister, Mary Williams, said she and her family had been holding out hope that Heather would still come home after she disappeared on January 4
‘And you know, I just pray that whoever does know anything comes forward and that we’re able to get justice for Heather.’
The Fayetteville police are now investigating Heather’s death as a homicide.
Officers located the suspect vehicle on Friday, the same day Heather’s body was found, and the Williams’ say police have identified a person of interest in the case.
But no arrests had been made by Monday.
‘What happened to Heather is awful and I wouldn’t want it to happen to anybody else, and so with that person still out there, still able to harm other people, it’s horrific to think about,’ Mary told CBS 17.
She noted that Heather was already in ‘a dangerous situation’ leaving suddenly in the middle of the night, which she said she thought was ‘eerie.’
Yet the family held out hope that Mary would return home safely in the days before her body was found.
Now, Mary said her family is just trying to focus on better times.
Heather was last seen leaving her house just before 10pm on January 4
She approached a sedan, whose driver the family said they did not know
She said she hopes the public will remember her sister ‘as somebody who has, you know, persevered and somebody who always wore a smile and can make people laugh and didn’t care what anybody thought about her.’
She added in a Facebook post announcing Heather’s death that, ‘Our family finds comfort in the love that Heather had for God and through all her trials and tribulations, she has never lost her faith, and I know we won’t lose ours either.
‘I thank God for the years we had with her,’ Mary said.
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