Pregnant teen died five days before officers found her body, sheriff estimates

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) - Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza estimates that a missing pregnant woman died five days before deputies found her body.

Those officers located 19-year-old Anastasia Gilley’s remains Wednesday morning, a week after she disappeared from Greenwood, her small hometown 30 miles south of Dothan.

They charged Marquis McCloud, a 33-year-old notorious criminal, with the sheriff describing him and Gilley as acquaintances.

He believes they consensually met last week, but four months pregnant, Gilley wanted to escape him after they crossed into Alabama.

“We realized in Houston County she was being held against her will,” Valenza said the investigation revealed.

According to Florida media reports, Anastasia Gilley moved from Tallahassee to Jackson County about 18 months ago.

Her friends and family last saw her there on May 3, and by Sunday, information suggested McCloud had brought her to Houston County.

Quietly, deputies spent 660 hours over three days looking for her body, Valenza estimated, as he praised their efforts.

“We’ve been in the area the last few days, but we weren’t as close as we could have been,” he said.

But early Wednesday, they located Gilley’s body in a dusty field down the road from Dothan Area Botanical Gardens.

Valenza said preliminary indications are McCloud shot her, though reluctant to disclose that as the cause of death until autopsy results are available.

With a history of violent charges, McCloud is held without bond on one Capital Murder charge and could face a second count for Gilley’s fetus, a decision that will be made in consultation with Houston County District Attorney Russ Goodman.

Amid a social media flurry, Valenza is irritated by what he calls insensitive and incorrect posts.

“Do not just keep adding false stories to social media,” he told reporters during a news conference Thursday, the first time he spoke publicly about the investigation.

During a brief court hearing, also on Thursday, a Houston County judge appointed Aimee Cobb Smith and Clay Wadsworth as McCloud’s attorneys.

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