The Tallahassee Police Department on Friday revealed that Lori Paige, the subject of a missing child case police have been working for nearly two years, was found dead.
The Griffin Middle schooler went missing in June 2023; she was 12 at the time. Police, the FBI, community volunteers and her family have been searching for answers ever since.
TPD Chief Lawrence Revell announced at a press conference that they "recovered the remains of Lori Paige" after a prescribed burn revealed her remains in a “remote, brush-covered area of Thomas County, Georgia, known locally as a plantation.”
"I told you two years ago we would find Lori and we would bring her home," Revell said, adding it was a "sad day."
"I told you two years ago that we'd find who did this, and we would arrest them and bring them to justice. And today, I stand before you to tell you we have done just that."
Tallahassee Police: Missing girl's father charged in her death
Revell said they arrested Lori's father, 36-year-old, Andrew Wiley, who originally reported her missing, after investigators pursued hundreds of leads across multiple states in an "exhaustive" investigation. He was arrested on a second-degree murder charge.
When Lori first disappeared, her mother frequently took to social media to share all that she knew about the case and her dissatisfaction with TPD's investigation.
“When I told you all, when I said to them ‘This is where you need to check, this is where you need to do,’ you all are pulling out dogs and helicopters and all this [explicative] weeks later,” she said. “TPD fumbled the bag.”
And she pointed out that Lori was last in her father's custody: “If I had Lori, I would know where she’s at."
Wiley originally claimed that she left home with a backpack in the night while he was at work. Within the first year, detectives never found Lori, and Wiley's story started to show inconsistencies, Revell said.
"The case evolved significantly over time with key developments ultimately leading to Wiley's arrest," Revell said.
Police: Father's phone had evidence of 'questionable internet searches'
Last February, Wiley's phone was seized and analyzed which showed "questionable internet searches," including searches about remote areas with bodies of water in Alabama and Georgia.
Investigators switched their focus to Wiley and began searching a remote, brush-covered area of Thomas County, Georgia, known locally as a plantation. Several searches yielded no results until a search April 5, after a prescribed burn cleared some of the underbrush, allowed a dog from the North Florida Search Team, Kairos, to locate her remains.
First responders conducted a grid search back in the first eight months of her disappearance at San Luis Mission Park — the last place she was seen. Back then, TPD said they were exhausting all their options to learn anything that might help them find Lori.
Revell previously told the Tallahassee Democrat that detectives were relentlessly trying to dig anything up that could point them to Lori's whereabouts.
And on Friday, Revell stood by that statement, saying all law enforcement partners worked on this nonstop: "Nobody gave up on this case."
Detectives had said Lori's case was much more complicated than other missing children cases because she lacked a digital footprint without a social phone or social media.
Moreover, her family dynamic complicated the case: Family members are spread out across three different states — Florida, Tennessee and Georgia.
Rudy Ferguson, a Griffin Heights pastor and neighborhood advocate, was among community members and law enforcement who packed the TPD rotunda for the press conference. He and others took part in numerous searches for Lori, who lived in the neighborhood.
“While this was the grim news we were hoping we didn’t get, on the other side of that, we’re grateful that we do have this information,” he said. “It brings some sense of closure. But it also reminds us that there’s work to be done in the community to safeguard our children, to protect them, to love on them.”
Griffin instructor mourns a 'really nice kid'
Margie Summers, a paraprofessional at Griffin Middle School, said Lori was a “really nice kid” who seemed to pour much of her energy into school because of her troubled life at home. Smart and attentive, she took copious notes in civics and science class, even while other kids were goofing off.
After a number of students failed a civics test, they were given a chance to improve their grade by doing a poster board assignment on the Bill of Rights. Lori had gotten an ‘A’ on the test, but still threw herself into the extra school work.
“Lori comes in with a tri-fold cardboard masterpiece,” Summers said. “She had little soldiers glued to the board. She had little American flags all across the top of it. It was like this work of art and it was all so she could improve her ‘A.’ I’m like, Lori, you actually can’t improve an ‘A.’ ”
Summers said Lori had been in the custody of the Department of Children and Families when she was very young. About a month before she disappeared, she ran away from home. She apparently stayed by a pool at an apartment complex, where friends brought her food.
“She didn’t want to miss school, so she left where she’d been hiding,” Summers said. “She showed up at school barefoot. Her dad came and got her. I should say her murderer came and got her.”
Summers said Lori never confided in her about what was going on at home.
“We just knew that there was some conflict at home,” she said. “She told other kids she wasn’t happy.”
On the 12th day of Lori’s disappearance, Summers reached out to Ferguson, who helped publicize Lori’s disappearance. She, Ferguson and Patty Wilson, co-host of Patty’s Playhouse radio show, spent months trying to locate Lori and get the word out about her disappearance.
Summers was struggling to process the news after learning about her death Friday.
“I still think she’s alive, and I just want to go find her,” she said. “The words 'Lori' and ‘remains’ just don’t go together at all. I can’t pair those two words yet.”
This is a developing news story. Check back later for more.
