OCOEE, Fla. — A loyalty card from a local supermarket has helped Ocoee police solve a cold case that remained unsolved for over a decade.
Lloyd P. Williams was 89 years old when he disappeared in 2013. His son, Lancelot Williams, traveled from Jamaica to Central Florida searching for answers, but none came for years. At the time, he said, “So we just pray and keep our fingers crossed that it will end the way we want it to end.”
He described the emotional toll of not knowing his father’s fate.
“At night, you keep thinking where is he. It’s a mystery. No trace,” he said back then.
That changed in 2025 thanks to a break in the case that came from an unexpected clue: a Winn-Dixie loyalty card.
Retired Ocoee police detective Michelle Grogan had been working to identify human remains discovered along Florida’s turnpike back in 2016. At the time, there were no leads. With no identification and no match in national databases, investigators believed the person may have been homeless.
But when they took a closer look at a set of keys found with the remains, they noticed a Winn-Dixie loyalty card on the key ring.
That card would be the key to unlocking the mystery.
“After 18 months, the Winn-Dixie corporation provided a name and date of birth tied to the loyalty card member,” Grogan said. “We were able to match that information to the missing person report filed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2013.”
The remains were confirmed to be those of Lloyd Williams.
While the identification brings closure to the family, the case remains far from solved.
One theory is that Williams’ home may have been burglarized, but the exact circumstances surrounding his death remain unknown.
The medical examiner has officially labeled his death as suspicious.
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