Authorities in Alabama are now treating the case of a missing young mother as a homicide — although it may be weeks before human remains found last week in a submerged car are positively identified.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, investigators in Mobile found human remains inside a vehicle belonging to missing 24-year-old Danniella Vian, who had not been seen since July 2018. Members of law enforcement conducting diving drills discovered the blue Chevy Cruz in Bayou Sara, a remote part of Mobile County.
Though authorities have not yet identified the remains found in the car, a Fox 10 News reporter said on Twitter Monday that authorities are not treating Vian’s disappearance as a homicide.
The @MobileALPolice Department says treating case of #missing mother Danniella Vian as a #homicide after her car was found in Bayou Sara -> says could take a few weeks for Medical Examiner’s Office to determine identity of remains found in car. @FOX10News pic.twitter.com/pSpF447Jgk
— Sarah Wall (@SarahWallFox10) May 6, 2019
The 24-year-old mother of one daughter was last seen at a gas station in West Mobile in July 2018. She had reportedly been out with a friend at a bar in Mobile, and realized on the way to another location that she was missing her phone. After stopping at the gas station with her friend, who was in another vehicle, she drove away with plans to return to the bar for her phone.
She was never seen alive again.
Julie Thomas, the grandmother of Vian’s daughter Cora, spoke to WPMI about the discovery of the missing woman’s vehicle and the likelihood that she is dead.
“There was just a numbing realization that she is really gone,” Thomas said.
Authorities have not released any information on how or why Vian may have been killed.
CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that authorities were not treating the investigation as a homicide; that was a typographical error.
