After a two-year long search, the Tallahassee Police Department has found the remains of 12-year-old Lori Paige.
A news conference was held Friday afternoon during which TPD announced that it had arrested Paige’s father, 36-year-old Andrew Wiley, on charges of second-degree murder.
Paige was reported missing by her father in June 2023. According to TPD’s press release, Wiley claimed that she had left home over night with her backpack while he was at work.
In February 2024, TPD seized a phone from Wiley’s residence and found “questionable internet searches about remote areas with bodies of water in Alabama and Georgia,” according to TPD Chief Lawrence Revell.
Detectives noticed inconsistencies in Wiley’s statements as they continued to uncover and identify new information about his relationship with Paige, which led them to shift their focus more heavily toward Wiley, Revell said.
“I told you two years ago that we would find out who did this,” Revell said at the news conference. “…Today I stand before you to tell you we have done just that.”
TPD also said that they found Paige’s remains at the Merrily Plantation in Thomas County , Georgia, on April 5. During the news conference, it was stated that detectives visited Thomas County earlier this year but did not find any results. They returned on April 5, where they located Paige’s remains, which the Florida Department of Law Enforcement identified, according to Revell.
Rudy Ferguson, Sr., the pastor at the New Birth Tabernacle of Praise in Griffin Heights, was among the community members looking for Paige alongside her father and school teacher.
Ferguson received the news at the press conference and said he was devastated.
“This case meant everything to me,” Ferguson said. “I have daughters and granddaughters. This is not the measure of hope that we wanted but it is the closure that we needed.”
Revell did not take questions after the news conference, but he left the community with a message.
“While today’s arrest will never bring her back, it does bring us one step closer to justice,” Revell said.