PHOTOS SUBMITTED La’Datra Williams

A body believed to be a missing Kansas woman was found Monday night in a shallow grave in southeast Lawrence County.

Sheriff Ryan Everett made the announcement Tuesday.

“For nearly two months, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, have been conducting a search for a missing person, La’Datra Williams,” he said. “Yesterday, after approximately eight hours of interviewing, Charles Matthew Sims, of Hooker Road, sent word to me through sheriff’s office personnel that we would never find L. Williams where we were searching and he would take me to her.”

Everett said Sims led him and a deputy sheriff into the woods around 2 p.m. and gave them step-by-step instructions to locate the area where he claimed to have buried Williams.

At 11:30 p.m., the LCSO, Lawrence County Coroner’s Office, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, MBI’s Crime Scene Unit, the Mississippi State University Police Department Forensic Recovery Unit and the MSU Department of Anthropology exhumed the shallow grave and recovered a deceased female.  

Williams, 26, had been missing since May 20, and was reportedly last seen in Silver Creek. 

According to family members, La’Datra Williams was on her way from her home in Kansas City, Kansas, to visit Sims, her long-term partner and owner of Sims Construction in Lawrence County.

Williams sent a text to her aunt that she was approximately 30 minutes away from his home in Silver Creek, they said.

Williams’ father, Eddie Williams, said she called him on her drive to Mississippi, and asked if she could stay with him a while when she returned to Kansas, because of an altercation she allegedly had with Sims. These were the final contacts her family had with Williams. Her phone has since been off, they said.

Sims reportedly told authorities Williams left his home on foot following an argument, and also said he took her in her car from his home and dropped her off about one mile from his property in the area of Hooker Road.

Everett said DNA testing will be used to make a positive identification.

It is not clear at this time what charges Sims is facing.

“Thank you to each and every agency already mentioned and to the Lawrence County EMA, and the Lawrence County Fire Service for providing extra support such as drinks, lighting, and assisting with equipment,” Everett said. “Please remember the Williams family in your prayers as they deal with this senseless tragedy.”