![]() |
Source: ABC 27 Tallahassee |
Sharon Crawford disappeared at the age of 43 on November 8th, 2018. She was last seen alive in Donalsonville, Georgia. When weeks went by without any word from Sharon, her concerned family reported her missing on November 27th, 2018.
On February 16th, 2019 - exactly 100 days after Sharon vanished - her shirt and bicycle were found inside a vacant building in Donalsonville. The discovery of these items intensified the police investigation, as detectives announced that they were chasing several leads at the time. Unfortunately, it seems that those leads never panned out, as the months continued to tick by without any further sign of Sharon.
Fifteen months after Sharon's disappearance, on February 11th, 2020, human skeletal remains were found in a field near the Donalsonville city limits. It took several months to identify the deceased, but in September 2020, it was announced that the remains were that of Sharon Crawford. Police confirmed that Sharon's remains were found dismembered, but at the time, they were still waiting on autopsy results to confirm an exact cause of death.
Years have passed, and there does not appear to be any reporting about the autopsy results or any additional information about Sharon's cause or manner of death. Though it seems likely her death was a homicide, this has never been confirmed by investigators. However, there are several details surrounding Sharon's disappearance and death that support the theory that she was murdered.
-
More on about Sharon's disappearance.
As noted above, Sharon was last seen alive on November 8th, 2018. It's known that she was last seen in Donalsonville, but the circumstances of her disappearance are otherwise mostly unclear. There has not been any publicly shared information about who saw Sharon last or any other events leading up to her going missing.
Sharon's disappearance was both baffling and worrisome to her loved ones. Her family reported her missing after nobody had seen or heard from her for approximately three weeks. Once the local news began to cover Sharon's disappearance, her child Jazmine Williams told reporters, "we reported her missing because it was weeks that we haven’t seen or heard from and normally we will get a call or stop by or something."
By all accounts, it was not like Sharon to just vanish. She had four children and was close with her other relatives. Other initial reports about Sharon's disappearance said that both family and police were concerned for her welfare. Those concerns intensified as the weeks stretched into months without any sign of Sharon.
The search for Sharon.
The news about Sharon's disappearance seemingly spurred worries amongst the Donalsonville locals as well. Donalsonville is small city with less than 3,000 residents. Locals expressed that disappearances from their small community were largely unheard of. As the word spread about Sharon being missing, some residents expressed their desire to help find her.
In February 2019, a search for Sharon was organized to take place in Donalsonville. The search included several people, including investigators, family members, and volunteers. As noted above, the search took place on February 16th, 2019 - exactly 100 days after Sharon vanished. At some point, searchers went inside a vacant building and found Sharon's shirt and bicycle.
Messages to the family.
The discovery of Sharon's items created even more mystery surrounding her disappearance. Many commented that the discovery of these items was worrisome, especially if she was riding her bicycle and/or wearing that shirt when she was last seen. Even more questions arose, such as: how did Sharon become separated from those items? Who placed them in the vacant building? And what happened after that?
Around the same time the items were found, Sharon's aunt Rosie Brown told reporters that her family had received alarming messages about Sharon's fate. Rosie stated that, "a lot of [the messages] say she is dead, she’s been killed, she’s been thrown in the river, but the recent one we have gotten says she dead and been buried."
At the time of that reporting, it appears that Sharon's family did not know who was responsible for the messages. It is unclear if investigators ever looked into them. To this day, it is unknown if those messages were from cruel trolls or from someone with actual knowledge about Sharon's death.
Information from police.
Shortly after the search for Sharon, police also spoke out about their investigation. Donalsonville Police Chief Woodrow Blue Jr. confirmed that Sharon's bicycle and shirt were found in the vacant building during the search. Blue told reporters, "we were able to develop a couple of leads from [Sharon's bicycle and shirt], and we are following up on that."
In that same report, dated from February 20th, 2019, Blue mentioned that they were also "working with officials in Jackson County out in Florida" on the case as well. Jackson County is less than 40 miles away from Donalsonville - an approximate 45 to 60-minute drive. It's unknown how Sharon is connected to Jackson County, and investigators did not elaborate on how they ended up connecting with officials in that area.
February 11th, 2020: human remains are found.
On February 11th, 2020, human skeletal remains were found in a field near the Donalsonville city limits, specifically off Burl Lane Road and Robbie Forrest Road.
![]() |
Source: Google maps |
It is unclear who found the remains, as there does not appear to be news about that at this time. It could have been a passerby who found them, or it could have been the result of a search - but this has never been elaborated upon.
September 2020: remains identified as Sharon; more unknowns arise.
In September 2020, it was announced that the remains were that of Sharon Crawford. At that time, Donalsonville Police Chief Blue told reporters that "The remains of Sharon Crawford has been found dismembered in a field just out of city limits off Burlane (sic) Road." He was also quoted stating that they were still waiting on autopsy results to confirm an exact cause/manner of death.
The fact that Chief Blue specifically mentioned that Sharon's remains were found dismembered is interesting, as it suggests that someone might have dismembered her body before disposing of her in the field. However, due to the fact that Sharon was found 15 months after she vanished, it's possible that wildlife or other environmental factors are responsible for the dismemberment. Police have yet to elaborate on their opinion of why they believe Sharon was found in such a state.
As previously noted, there does not appear to be any further news about Sharon's autopsy results. Whether or not it has been completed, or whether or not it was conclusive, has not been shared with the public. Now several years have passed, and the mystery of what happened to Sharon is still very much just that - a mystery.
Potential theories.
As also previously stated there are many suspicious aspects of Sharon's disappearance and death that suggest she was murdered:
- Sharon abruptly stopped contacting her family members/loved ones, which was uncharacteristic of her behavior. There are no reports to indicate she had a habit of dropping out of touch.
- Sharon's shirt and bicycle were found in a vacant building. This is suspicious for several reasons; most of them mentioned earlier in this write-up. It does not seem likely that one would simply abandon their personal items in a vacant building, especially an item that was seemingly used for transportation. This could suggest that Sharon encountered foul play while riding her bicycle.
- Sharon's family reportedly received messages stating she was dead and had been buried. While it appears that she was not actually found buried, the messages were correct about Sharon being deceased. If those messages were legitimate, it indicates that at the very least, someone knew that she was dead long before her remains were found.
- Sharon's remains were found in the Donalsonville city limits. She was found in the same city from which she vanished. Due to Donalsonville's small size, it's likely that her body was not far from the area she was last seen. While investigators stated that they looked into areas Sharon was known to frequent, nothing seemed to pan out from that. Investigators also stated they were working with authorities in Jackson County, Florida while Sharon was missing - but it appears that Sharon never actually left Donalsonville.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment