When Andrea did not come home and made no contact with her family, the alarm spread immediately.

For someone whose whole life revolved around her children and the people depending on her, silence was not something that happened without reason.

Now to a developing story out of Southwest Miami Dade, where police say a woman is still missing after being abducted from her job this morning.

27year-old Andrea Lloyd works as a caretaker at a home.

That’s where she was when we’re told she opened the door to a man who beat her and dragged her into his car against her will.

Here’s CBS4’s Joel Waldman with more details.

>> In news, unfortunately, we covered too many of these stories, but I can’t remember a time in recent memory when so many family members showed up in such a short amount of time, desperate for Andrea to come back home safely.

>> It’s hard.

It’s hard because, you know, I mean, she’s the type of person she she always she always calls her dad because she we got so much love in the family.

>> Comforted by all that love, Patriarch Arnold Lloyd, a modest family man, told us he only wants one thing this holiday season.

>> Everybody know me, I don’t beg for nothing, but I’m begging for my daughter to come home.

I don’t beg for nothing.

I don’t beg for nothing, but I’m begging for my daughter to come home.

The baby of his 12 children, Andrea Lloyd, never returned home from her job as a caretaker at this South Miami Dade group home where the 27year-old worked as a supervisor.

>> For her not to not to have contacted any of us, something is wrong.

>> Miami date police confirming something did in fact go drastically wrong overnight.

They say surveillance video revealed a disturbing scene after a man showed up at Andrea’s job just after midnight.

>> This male proceeded to batter her and eventually during the altercation pushed her inside of a vehicle and drove off in an unknown direction.

>> Police say she was dragged and forced into a white Honda Civic with Florida tag Y650DL.

Andrea’s family tells us they have a hunch who her attacker is, but were asked by police to keep it to themselves for now.

>> Andrea is not the type person that would leave with a stranger.

And the information and the evidence that the detectives shared with us indicates that she was very familiar with the person that abducted her.

>> The mother of two young boys herself, Andrea’s family says she would never leave them alone.

>> She works, she takes care of her kids.

She works, she takes care of her kids.

That’s her life.

>> She’s an angel.

She’s an angel.

I mean, she’s a real angel.

>> Anyone with any information is asked to call Miami Day Crimes Stoppers at 305471 TIPS.

There is a reward for anyone with information that leads to an arrest.

Reporting in Florida City, Joel Walman, CBS4 News.

>> Her father knew right away.

Her family had a strong feeling about who was responsible.

Police asked them to keep the name to themselves while the investigation moved forward, but they already knew.

And investigators later confirmed that the person who took Andrea was someone she knew very well.

Someone she had every reason to open the door for.

Miami Dade police launched a full search operation.

Aviation units, all-terrain vehicles, K-9 teams, everything they had was deployed.

The white Honda Civic and its Florida tag were named in public alerts.

The community was asked to come forward with information and a reward was put on the table.

Andrea’s family did not sit and wait.

They went looking for her themselves.

Family members, including Andrea’s uncle, were out covering ground when they spotted Xavier Johnson in a heavily wooded area near the Homestead Speedway.

So, they called the police immediately.

Officers responded and Xavier was detained on the spot.

The K-9 unit moved in.

The cadaavver dog worked through that wooded area and alerted Xavier’s black pickup truck.

Close to that truck was a large metal utility box, the kind typically used for storage in the bed of a pickup.

What investigators found inside confirmed everything Andrea’s family had feared from the moment she did not come home.

Andrea Lloyd was gone.

She was reportedly just weeks pregnant with her third child.

Her two boys, 1-year-old and 5 years old, were now without their mother.

She was 5 days away from her 28th birthday.

Her father had stood before cameras while she was still missing and said something that stayed with everyone who heard it.

>> It’s hard.

It’s hard because, you know, she’s the type of person she she always she always calls her dad because she we got so much love in the family.

Everybody know me.

I don’t beg for nothing, but I’m begging for my daughter to come home.

I don’t beg for nothing.

I don’t beg for nothing, but I’m begging for my daughter to come home.

I feel good, but you know that still won’t bring back my daughter.

You know, I still want to bring back my daughter cuz she was going to leave him.

She was tired of him messing around on her and she was like a, you know, a wife, not a girlfriend.

If I knew anything was wrong, she wouldn’t have been there cuz I could have put in the house myself.

>> Her uncle spoke about what it meant to lose someone this way.

He said, “It hurts knowing that you loved someone like family, treated them like your own, and that same person brought this kind of pain into your home.

It hurts me for the fact that sometime you have loved ones that’s so close to you [ __ ] to get you involved in certain things when it come to them.

>> Her godmother could not stop thinking about the children.

Those two little boys who were now going to grow up without the woman who was the center of their entire world.

Xavier Johnson was taken to Miami Dade Police Department headquarters for questioning and he confessed.

He admitted to holding Andrea Lloyd against her will and hurting her.

Miami Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez publicly confirmed the charges against Xavier Johnson and addressed the community directly.

Right now at noon, authorities arresting a man who they say confessed to kidnapping and killing his pregnant girlfriend.

We were there as 32-year-old Xavier Johnson was walked into jail shortly after midnight.

Police say Andrea Lloyd was abducted as she was working at a Southwest Miami Dade group home >> and human remains were found sadly on Wednesday, but they have yet to be identified.

Johnson now facing a judge and local 10’s Anelise Garcia is live in Derell with more on this one for us.

Anelise.

>> Yeah, Janice Christie.

Today Johnson did appear in front of a judge and that judge did find probable cause and now he’s being held no bond.

>> The medical examiner confirmed the identity of the remains found near Homestead.

It was Andrea.

Xavier Johnson was charged with first-degree homicide, kidnapping, and burglary with assault.

Xavier appeared before Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer.

The judge found probable cause on all three counts.

She noted that this was the kind of case that could potentially be pursued as a capital penalty case.

>> Mr.

Johnson, good morning.

>> 33-year-old Xavier Johnson stood before a judge Thursday morning.

The judge addressed the disturbing allegations against him.

>> Morning, sir.

You were arrested for one count of first-degree murder, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed burglary with an assault or battery.

>> Johnson, arrested in connection to the disappearance of 27year-old Andrea Lloyd, spoke in court about possibly acquiring a private attorney.

>> Do you have an attorney? >> Yes.

>> Who’s your >> I don’t have one yet, but I’m I’m going to get one.

>> He asked that you own the property owner what jet skis and what else? >> Uh the value of my jet skis is um 16,000.

Family tells us Johnson was the boyfriend of Lloyd and father of her two children.

When the question of legal representation came up, Xavier brought up the value of his jet skis, reportedly around $16,000.

>> We asked that you own the property owner what jet skis and what else? >> Uh the val the value of my jet skis is um 16,000.

>> When discussing whether he could afford a private attorney, the judge assigned him a public defender.

Xavier was ordered held without bond and booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Now, the question that everyone was asking is this.

Why? Police never officially released a motive, but Andrea’s father, Arnold Lloyd, shared what he believed drove Xavier to do what he did.

>> Cuz she was going to leave him.

She was tired of him messing around on her, and she was like a, you know, a wife, not a girlfriend.

If I knew anything wrong, she wouldn’t have been there cuz I could have put in the house myself.

Andrea had been planning to leave Xavier.

She was exhausted by his repeated unfaithfulness, had made her decision that the relationship was over and was moving on.

And there was one more piece to it.

The child Andrea was reportedly carrying, Arnold Lloyd believed that the baby was not Xavier’s.

That combined with her decision to walk away is what her father believed set off everything.

That is not a finding from investigators.

No official motive was ever confirmed, but it is the assessment of a man who knew his daughter, knew the relationship, and was left standing in the wreckage trying to understand the unimaginable.

The two boys were placed in the care of their grandfather, Arnold Lloyd.

He appeared before a judge to take custody, exhausted and griefstricken, but steady, doing what needed to be done for those children.

There is no way to fully describe what that requires of a person.

He had just lost his daughter and now had to hold himself together for her children.

One week after Andrea’s passing, her community gathered for a celebration of her life.

People who had known Drea, worked with her, grew up with her, loved her, came together to honor who she was beyond the headlines.

Whoever, how many ever did this to my daughter? Just suffer.

>> Just suffer >> and never see the light.

>> An emotional night for the loved ones of Andrea Lloyd.

The mother who police say was abducted and killed last week.

Today would have been Andrea’s 28th birthday.

And her family wanted to use this opportunity to celebrate her life and honor her memory.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend and the father of her children remains in jail tonight accused of a murder.

That’s where CBS4’s Joel Waldman joins us from with more details.

Joel.

Elliot and Carly.

That is correct.

The man accused of killing Andre Lloyd sits in a jail cell here at TGK.

He is being held on no bond.

Uh this is Andrea’s family celebrated her birthday today, one week after her murder.

God will allow his blessings to be over us.

>> Prayers instead of wishes for Andrea Lloyd and her family on her 28th birthday.

A sea of pink balloons released into the bright blue sky.

>> And all y’all know that we are a loving family.

>> And that was my baby.

>> Yes.

>> That was my heart.

>> Andrea’s father’s heart now forever broken.

and the youngest of his 12 children found in this swampy area of Homestead.

Now, less than one week after the gruesome discovery, a celebration of life.

>> Her first wish would have been bringing our family together like we always do.

>> Andrea wants us to smile right now.

>> Hard to do whenever a young person’s life is cut so short, but especially difficult knowing the way Andrea died.

Police say Xavier Johnson, her boyfriend of 11 years, beat her up and dragged her into his car at the group home where she worked.

ultimately murdering her.

Johnson is the father of Andrea’s two children as well as the one she was pregnant with, leaving family members asking why.

>> My my thing was, why do you have to do this? You could have just walked away.

>> That fatal decision leading to a barrage of other questions from Andrea’s 5-year-old son.

>> 5-year-old is asking, “Where’s mommy? Where’s mommy? Where’s mommy?” >> An answer they say they’ve shared too difficult for most adults to process, let alone young children.

her uncle just grateful they’re all part of such a big loving family.

>> We always get together for anything that the family needed.

We be there.

Brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and all >> and they were in fact all there.

Now, the attorney for Xavier Johnson, he released a statement to us saying that Mr.

Johnson and his family have been recipients of numerous threats since he was identified as a suspect in Miss Lloyd’s case, and we ask that before the public makes a rush to judgment against Mr.

Johnson and presume him guilty, that it allow all the facts of the case to come to light.

Meanwhile, the funeral for Andrea Lloyd will be held this Saturday with details to come.

Reporting live from Northwest Miami Day, Joel Walman, CBS4 News.

Her funeral was held that Saturday.

On what would have been Andrea’s 28th birthday, her family and friends gathered near the area where she was found.

They released pink balloons, stood in that place, and chose to fill it with something that looked like her.

Bright, full of color going up.

Tonight, we’re learning more about tomorrow’s funeral service for Andrea Lloyd.

Her services begin tomorrow at 2:00 pm at the Covenant Baptist Church in Florida City.

Police say the 27-year-old, who was 6 weeks pregnant, was found dead on December 8th in Homestead after her boyfriend, 32-year-old Xavier Johnson, confessed to abducting and killing her.

He’s facing first-degree murder charges.

Years after that, December, Andrea’s mother, Alfreda, took to Facebook during DV awareness month and wrote that she had almost not survived her own first marriage and that surviving had become her badge of honor.

She then said that her daughter, Andrea Lloyd, was a victim of intimate partner violence.

She urged anyone in that situation to plan in secret, to tell their family, and to understand that love does not hurt, that love is patient and kind and does not envy or boast.

She wrote that her life would never be the same because of one selfish and evil act that took the life of her baby girl.

And she asked people to share the post with purple hearts in tribute to Andrea.

That was not just a grieving mother posting about her pain.

That was a woman trying to make sure her daughter’s story meant something going forward, that someone else somewhere would read those words and make a different decision.

On what would have been Andrea’s 31st birthday, her mother posted again.

She wrote, “Today, I’m supposed to wake up singing and screaming happy birthday to you, Andrea Lloyd.

Instead, my heart is broken because you are not here to celebrate year 31.

No matter what, December 13th will forever be Drea Day.

Happy birthday, baby girl.

I miss you.

Three years later, and that grief had not moved.

December 13th will be Drea Day every year.

The world keeps spinning and so does crime.

Stay observant, listen to your instincts, and don’t ignore the warning signs.

I’ll see you in the next case on Crime on Pulse.

Thanks for watching.

 

« Prev