Police solved the month-old alleged murder by using a combination of colored paper clips, cell phone records, statements from the victim’s mother and relatives and mud found on the mother’s clothes and her car.
A homicide detective with the Allegheny County Police Department wrote in an affidavit filed Tuesday afternoon, that Adriene Williams, 26, of Pittsburgh, killed her child, Adrionna shortly after 6:30 p.m., after the child ran behind Williams saying that, “she forgot to give her mom a hug and kiss,” thinking she was leaving for work as a security guard.
An Allegheny County medical examiner listed Adrionna’s cause of death as asphyxiation.
Williams had brought the child to her mother’s house, as she typically did, an hour or two before she was scheduled to work her 7 p.m. to midnight shift at a senior citizen high rise. Police allege that Williams told investigators she left her mother’s house shortly before 6:30 p.m. and made sure her mother, Lucille, knew she was leaving.
“Okay, I’m leaving,” Williams told investigators she yelled to her mother who was in the bathroom at the time.
Investigators say that Williams was unable to give them an exact time when she left or the route she took to work that evening. However, Lucille had a different version of events that occurred saying that she immediately upon coming out of the bathroom asked her son where the child was.
“Adriene repeatedly told her that [Williams] informed her that she was leaving the residence for work. Lucille stated that it seemed as if Adriene kept telling her that to make it seem true, indicating that it was her (Lucille’s) fault, but in hindsight that did not fit her recollection,” the affidavit says.
Williams’ nephew, Jason Harris who was sitting in the living room at the time Adrionna ran to tell her mom goodbye told detectives, “Jason stated that he didn’t hear Adriene tell Lucille that she was leaving for work.’
Realizing that Adrionna was no longer in the house, Jason texted Williams at 6:33 p.m. asking, “Is the baby with you?” Ten minutes later Williams texted back, “Naw she downstairs with mommy.”
A forensic examination of Williams’ phone showed that between 6:33 through 7:13 she received 10 unanswered text messages and 22 unanswered calls inquiring about Adrionna’s whereabouts. Williams finally returned one call at 7:01 p.m.
Police and emergency workers initiated a search for the missing three-year-old who was found shortly before 8 p.m. by a woman who was walking her dog.
While processing the scene where Adrionna was found, police say they recovered a number of colored paper clips under her body as well as a receipt. Adrionna was also not wearing her socks and shoes, family members told authorities that she had removed them earlier at her grandmother’s house. The affidavit also said that there was no indication that the child had walked the two miles to the location where she was found.
During the investigation police were able to match the paper clips found under Adrionna’s body to paper clips found in William’s car. Also found in her car was a note that Williams wrote complaining about the stress of being a single mom, “This single parent [expletive] is stressful hard as [expletive]. I hate that I’m doing this on my own. I been struggling hard.”
Just prior to Williams leaving for work Adrionna called for her to help her in the bathroom and Williams who appeared to “be annoyed” said, ‘”’I want to change my name’ in a loud and angry voice,” the affidavit alleges.
Police were also able to match the mud found on William’s uniform, which she changed out of as soon as she returned to her mother’s house to search for Adrionna, as well as on her car, to the mud in the area where Adrionna was found.
A review of Williams’ cell phone records revealed that between the time she left her mother’s house saying she was going to work until the time she arrived back to help with the search for Adrionna, her cell phone did not ping any towers near the route she said she traveled to work that evening.
In fact, investigators allege that according to Williams’ cell phone records she was near the location where Adrionna was found during the time she left the residence and returned.
According to the affidavit, video obtained from several businesses and private residences show a car “that “was characteristically similar to Adriene’s traveling” in the area between her mother’s house as well as the area where Adrionna’s body was found, at the same time Williams claimed she was driving to work.
Williams has no past criminal history except for a November, 2013 arrest for burglary for allegedly stealing a PlayStation from an ex-boyfriend’s house which was withdrawn according to court records and reporting from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Williams is being held in the mental health unit of the Allegheny County Jail on suicide watch faces a July 17 preliminary hearing. She faces charges of criminal homicide, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse and child endangerment.
