JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Just after 7 a.m. on November 6, 2019, Brianna Williams called 911 to report her 5-year-old daughter, Taylor, missing.
"I do not know where my daughter is," she told the operator.
Over the nearly 13-minute call, Williams calmly answers questions at first, and then she spends several minutes crying on the phone until officers arrive at her house on Ivy Street in Jacksonville.
First Coast News Crime analyst Mark Baughman says once investigators arrived at her house, they grew suspicious when her story didn’t match up.
In the police report, when officers first arrived, they describe Williams as crying, but "not overly emotional." Another officer a couple hours later says she’s calm and relaxed. They report the smell of “decomposing flesh” coming from her vehicle.
Baughman says investigators thought Taylor’s bedroom and the bathroom looked like it was staged.
Pictures released as part of evidence in the case show the shower curtain in the bathroom is missing. Later reports say when Taylor's remains were discovered, they were partly found in a shower curtain.
Taylor’s remains were discovered in her mom’s hometown of Demopolis, Alabama, one week after she was reported missing. That same day Williams’ suicide attempt landed her in the hospital in critical condition and in police custody.
A police report reveals she ingested Arm and Hammer laundry detergent, which rendered her unconscious.
She wouldn’t be brought back in for more questioning at JSO headquarters for another week.
Before 5-year-old Taylor’s death, officials say she was tortured, maliciously punished or caged by her mother. Investigators believe Taylor was kept in a closet and fed soup cans with holes in the can lid.
Williams is now facing charges of lying to police, tampering with evidence and child abuse. She has pleaded not guilty. She has not been charged in her daughter's death.
Baughman says in order to file murder charges the state must definitively be able to show the cause and manner of Taylor’s death.