‘We saw signs of a struggle at the scene’: Man charged with murder after grandmother goes missing

Authorities believe that a Georgia man who has a history of abusing his 78-year-old grandmother also killed her.

Prosecutors on Saturday night charged Gregory Williams, 37, with murdering the woman, Millicent Williams, WGCL-TV reports.

Gregory Williams had already been in custody on charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault and theft by taking a vehicle in connection with his grandmother’s disappearance, which police had called suspicious.

On Thursday afternoon, officers arrested Gregory Williams at a Kroger grocery store inside his grandmother’s vehicle.

Police searching the grandmother’s home, near Decatur, Georgia, found blood inside and evidence that points to foul play. The woman’s body has not been located.

“We saw signs of a struggle at the scene, so that raised our suspicions and forced us to act,” said DeKalb County police Capt. J.A. Lewis.

Family members of the woman called authorities Wednesday after they could not reach her. She had last been heard from on Sunday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Court records show the grandmother in 2011 and 2014 had sought and received court-ordered protection from the grandson, who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from service in the military, according to the newspaper.

Gregory Williams, who at one time was living with his grandmother, is “ex-military, has PTSD, and does not take his medication,” one protective order request from 2014 states.

The grandmother said in court documents that Gregory “has a history of verbal and physical abuse” in which he would make her “feel afraid by rushing up on her, breaking objects in the home, and once slamm[ing] a door shut on her hand.”

The last protection order expired in December 2015.

Millicent Williams’ body has not been recovered. As of Sunday morning, authorities continued the search efforts in locating her.

CBS46 News

[Feature Photo: Handout/Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office]