Eerie Ring doorbell camera footage has captured the last movements of 25-year-old North Carolina found dead in the woods in a horrifying murder mystery.
Heather Williams was last seen on January 4 leaving her home in Fayetteville sometime after 10pm entering a gray four-door sedan with an unknown person.
Heather lost the ability to speak after a car accident put her in a coma. Her family say she was extremely vulnerable, and fear a cruel predator took advantage of her.
Much of her final moments remains unclear.
On Friday, nearly a week after she went missing, detectives with the Fayetteville Police Department were led to a wooded area near Newark and State Avenue where her body was discovered.
It is unclear if the person who led police to the site was involved in Williams murder, and police are yet to reveal how she died.
Mary Williams, 27, Heather’s older sister told DailyMail.com that she is ‘praying that someone comes forward.’
‘The person is still out there,’ she said. ‘Somebody has seen something, heard something or knows something and we hope they go to the police.’
Her heartbroken sister shared that her sister, who was a talented softball player, was a junior in high school when she was hit by a car when she was walking on a road in October 2015 and nearly died.
The accident put her in a coma for months and she had to have part of her skull removed. After intense recovery she was starting to learn how to walk and talk again.
‘If you looked at her you wouldn’t know anything was wrong with her,’ Mary said.
‘A lot of people didn’t unless they had a conversation with her or saw her walk – you can definitely see her limp. Her speech was limited but she was making progress.’
Despite her sister’s cognitive disabilities she said her sister just wanted to be a ‘normal 25-year-old.’
‘Her disabilities made her naïve and trusting and she just thought everyone wanted to be her friend,’ Mary said.
‘We tried to protect her and keep her safe but at the end of the day she was 25 and wanted to do what 25-year-olds were doing.’
She explained to DailyMail.com: ‘It was really trying to find a fine line between protecting her and not making her life miserable.’
Weeks before her murder, Mary said that she and her parents filed for guardianship or get her somewhere to continue rehabilitation and meet other young people with similar needs.
The night she left the house it was after her parents went to sleep.
‘She goes out the door. She is on the phone with somebody. She is standing outside the house. She looks like she is waiting for someone to pick her up. She sees the car and starts walking towards the car to get in,’ Mary explained.
Around 12.10 am a text message was sent the last reported activity on her phone. Police have not revealed what was in the message, or who she sent it to.
Police have ruled Williams death a homicide but would not share any further information about the case only calling it an ‘active investigation.’
Mary said that she has ‘no idea’ what her sister’s final text message said. ‘I really wish I knew.’
She said the police are not sharing very much information with her and her family.
‘They haven’t told us much but my mom said that they haven’t ruled out the possibility of a sexual assault – my understanding is that she was nude or partially nude as awful as that is,’ Mary said.
When asked if she knew if the person who led detectives to her sister’s body was the same person involved in her death, she said the detectives have not told them yet.
‘I know they don’t want us to hinder the investigation we are waiting on pins and needles – we have not been told who led them to her body.’
Mary said the autopsy has not been released which she said has been ‘really tough for us.’
‘I feel like I am all cried out at this point thinking about what her final moments were like and what she went through,’ she said.
‘We have no idea what happened. They told us they believe someone killed her.
Mary said for the seven days her sister was missing she and her family ‘were playing detective.’
‘We were trying to piece together her phone records, her call records, her Facebook posts trying to piece together where in the world she could be without her medication. She has never been gone that long.’
Her voice cracked, ‘I knew something was wrong but you never would think that would be the outcome you always want to think best case.
‘We thought she would be walking through the door laughing and giggling and everything would be fine. We don’t even know what day she died. My parents are torn up and devastated.’
Mary explained that her sister ‘didn’t have the capacity to make safe decisions and know when a situation was dangerous.’
She told DailyMail.com that ‘our main thing was let’s get her somewhere where she can wake up and be with like-minded people, people trying to learn to talk again – go to the movies, go bowling, trying to find her people in a similar state of mind as hers.
She said her parents are relying on their Christian faith to get them through this horrific ordeal.
They want to see justice for their daughter but also said that they ‘forgive’ the person who murdered their daughter.
‘As hard as this is they are relying on their faith and they forgive whoever did this in the same way that their sins have been forgiven,’ she said.
‘We just ask whoever it is to please come forward and to do the right thing.’
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.