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Action News Jax Investigates timeline of Brittany Palmer missing-person case

Woman's remains identified over a year after she went missing

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax has been working to get answers for a local mother whose daughter’s remains were found in a cemetery just weeks after her disappearance in the summer of 2020.

But Brittany Palmer’s mother, Vontria Mobley, didn’t learn about this discovery until almost two years later.

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23-year-old Palmer was last seen in August 2020, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office started investigating her disappearance that September.

Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole spent the day diving deeper into this investigation and found what appears to be a disconnect on this case between the sheriff’s office and the Medical Examiner’s Office

“The body was found October 8th, 2020 — about a month and a half after she went missing,” Mobley told Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole in an interview on Tuesday.

But Mobley said she did not receive a positive identification of her daughter’s remains from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office until Monday, February 14th, 2022.

“I was distraught. I was hurt because my DNA had been on file since the very beginning of this case. And for you to find remains and not put it through the database to find out who those remains belong to, if they wasn’t Brittany, anybody else that it could have been, too… and for it to take this long, it was very devastating to me,” Mobley said.

Brittany’s mother went down to the Medical Examiner’s Office today to learn more about her daughter’s remains.

She said she spoke to the medical examiner about the specific part of the cemetery, off Edgewood Avenue and Moncrief Road, where Brittany’s bones were found. She was told a sock and a hair bow were found, but no clothes or shoes.

“Who did this to my baby? I want to know who did it, who placed her there, what was your motive?” Ms. Mobley asked.

The medical examiner told Brittany’s mom that a sketch was created of Brittany’s features from the skull that was found. That sketch was sent to the sheriff’s office.

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However, the detective on the case told Ms. Mobley she never received the sketch.

Cole reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office directly to learn what goes into the process of identifying remains.

The sheriff’s office told Action News Jax they did not wait a year to contact Ms. Mobley. They only recently identified the remains.

When Cole asked how long it normally takes to identify remains, a representative of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said “there’s no normal length of time” and that it’s “the responsibility of the medical examiner’s office.”

In “certain situations” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said they rely on private laboratories to help them get this done.

Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole took this case to Pat Diaz, a former Miami-Dade homicide detective. He has more than 30 years in law enforcement.

“The Medical Examiner’s Office, they send the DNA samples. I’m sure it’s not that big — I’m not that familiar with it. But they probably sent it out. It could be 2 months, 3 months, but I’ve never heard... a year is extremely long to come back for DNA match,” said Diaz.

He went on to mention something else to consider when it comes to the time span.

“Unless originally they didn’t match anybody and then they start going through cases and submitting DNA. Now, it’s on the Medical Examiner’s Office, if they have a dedicated investigator to find out who the unknowns are,” Diaz explained.

Diaz said it’s totally understandable that Cole’s mom still has a lot of questions about her daughter’s case.

“In this case, where they located the remains, you look the cases up in Duval County that were missing, that possibly would match this person and then you would run DNA,” Diaz explained.

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The sheriff’s office told Mobley an autopsy will take 2-3 weeks.

JSO also told Action News Jax the Medical Examiner’s Office is still investigating.

But Diaz said that shouldn’t be the case.

“An autopsy is done immediately when the remains are found.”

“I just want justice. I really want justice,” said Mobley.

Right now, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is not investigating this ‘missing persons’ case as a homicide.

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