Anastasia’s grandmother: I knew she was in trouble

The grandmother of Anastasia Gilley knew something was horribly wrong after her granddaughter, four months pregnant, vanished.

“I knew she was in trouble, and I knew she would not run away,” Sandra Steele told WCTV, a Tallahassee television station, on Friday.

Houston County deputies found Anastasia Gilley’s body early Wednesday in a dusty field near Dothan Area Botanical Gardens almost a week after she vanished from the Florida panhandle.

Investigators believe Gilley was shot multiple times by Marquis McCloud, a 31-year-old Henry County Alabama man, described as her acquaintance.

Friends last saw the 19-year-old in Greenwood, a small Jackson County, Florida town where she moved from Tallahassee about 18 months ago.

Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza believes Gilley went with McCloud willingly but, after they crossed into Alabama, he would not allow her to return home.

After her disappearance on May 3 law enforcement in multiple states launched a massive manhunt.

“I was scared, I was angry, and I wanted to get her. I wanted to find her, and it just didn’t happen that way, but she’s been found now and we’re going to put her to rest,” Steele told WCTV.

McCloud, who is charged with a count of Capital Murder and has a history of violent crimes arrests, faces the death penalty if convicted.

Valenza believes Gilley had been dead about five days before deputies found her body, but is awaiting autopsy results to confirm the time and cause of death.

“Just the sheer nature of knowing somebody could do that to somebody that was so good, she never did anything to harm anybody,” Steele said.

Subscribe to our News 4 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning. Get instant notifications on top stories from News 4 by downloading our mobile apps.