DECATUR, Ga. – As police continue their search efforts for missing grandmother, Millicent “Millie” Williams, following her grandson’s arrest, family is reserving their accusations until they have more information. Neighbors, however, said they saw his public outbursts.
Millie, 78, was last seen Sunday, but after family hadn’t heard from her, police went to check on her at her Decatur, Ga., home. That’s when they found blood, but no Williams.
“She is missing under suspicious circumstances. Her house was in disarray; there was blood in the home, so they do believe that harm has come to her,” DeKalb County Police spokeswoman, Shiera Campbell, said.
Her car, a 2014 Toyota Corolla, was missing and later found at a nearby Kroger with her grandson, Gregory Williams, behind the wheel. The 37-year-old was arrested at that time for theft by taking vehicle. Later in the evening, he was charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping and taken to the DeKalb County Jail.
DeKalb County Police, including the K-9 unit and cadaver dogs, continued their search on foot and with ATVs at Narcie Harris Elementary school and at Chapel Hill Park on Lehigh Boulevard, near the lake, in Decatur—where family is helping in any way that they can.
They are searching the park, its trails and deep into the thick brush. The K-9 unit has gotten a scent from some of her belongings in the house and they are out tracking her scent in the area.
And several are involved in the search.
“We have the police academy with the recruits out here as well as our CID unit,” Campbell said. “There's a helicopter up over the walking trails and they're going to have the ATVs out as well 21 but right now it's a search for Millicent Williams either her remains or alive.”
Because the circumstances surrounding her disappearance are unique, she said, it justifies bringing out the equipment and the people to look for her. But the hope she is alive might be dwindling.
“Our hope is to find her alive, but right now we're just trying to find Millicent,” Campbell said. “I believe that they would be out here for probably another day looking for her. She has been missing now for almost a week, so we would have to determine eventually that she may not be alive.”
PHOTOS | Search continues for missing grandmother
Donna Williams, Millie's daughter-in-law, said their family isn’t sure that Gregory had anything to do with her disappearance.
Police searched Millicent's home, on Brookgreen Point, where they believe she was the victim of foul play.
"We saw signs of a struggle at the scene, so, that raised our suspicions--and that forced us to act," Capt. J.A. Lewis, of the major crimes unit, said.
Police spent Thursday morning and afternoon on the scene of her home with K-9 units searching for her, as well as in Flat Shoals Park, at 4522 Flat Shoals Pkwy.
PHOTOS | Police search for missing elderly woman
Gregory has not told police where his grandmother is located and was moved from the police department to the DeKalb County Jail just before 4:30 p.m., in hand cuffs, ankle restraints and an orange, paper-thin jumpsuit.
Neighbors told 11Alive that Gregory was a military veteran who was never the same once he got out. Over the years, they said, he had several outbursts in front of the home and in the street.
"He's like in the driveway yelling, on his knees, praying, laying out flat. Things of that nature," neighbor, Louis Weller, said.
DeKalb County court records indicate that there may have been a tumultuous past between Gregory and his grandmother. Family violence orders of protection were filed in 2011 and 2014, restricting him from her Brookhaven Point residence.
He was charged with violating those orders, as well as aggravated stalking.
The investigation and search for Millie is ongoing.
If you have any information about her whereabouts, call 911 or the DeKalb County Police at (678) 406-7929.
