On July 15, 2020, Wanda Ashford Floyd was transported to Decatur General Hospital for an unknown medical issue. She was released from the hospital later the same day. Approximately a week later, police were notified by friends of Floyd that they had not heard from her.
On July 31, a fisherman reported to the Decatur Police Department that they believed they found human remains in Flint Creek of Morgan County. DNA was collected and sent for analysis with no matching reports in the database.
In December 2021, the Lawrence County Alabama Sheriff's Office updated its Facebook page with request for information concerning the disappearance of Floyd.
In late 2021, an investigator with the Mobile County Cold Case Unit contacted Decatur Police to help with investigative genetic genealogy on the unidentified Jane Doe. Due to some similarities between the Jane Doe and Floyd, a close family member of Floyd provided a DNA sample.
The Mobile County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit—working with Moxxy Forensic Investigations, Hudson-Alpha Discovery, Saber Investigations, GEDMatch, and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences—were able to determine the identity of Jane Doe as Wanda Ashford Floyd.
The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank their partners who volunteered their services, Carla Davis, who fully funded the lab cost, the Decatur Police Department, and genealogy analyst Olivia McCarter of the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.
Republished courtesy of Lawrence County Alabama Sheriff's Office.