Skeletal remains discovered in a cooler earlier this year were identified as those of Dionne Williams, a 35-year-old woman reported missing from Houston’s Fifth Ward in April.
Houston police said officers responded to a suspicious package call around 5 p.m. on February 12 in the 65 block of Hirsch Road. A witness informed detectives he found what appeared to be human remains inside a cooler. HPD homicide detectives and investigators from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences responded to the scene.
The remains have been positively identified as Williams, who was last seen in the Fifth Ward in April 2024. Her disappearance generated months of concern among her relatives, who said she had ceased contacting them and had missed crucial family gatherings such as Mother’s Day.
“We got very concerned when we did not see her for Mother’s Day. She would never miss Mother’s Day,” her mother, Melissa Cashaw, previously told KPRC 2.
Williams was reported missing on August 9, 2024. Family members reported that Williams mentioned meeting someone between Cavalcade and Hoffman before she lost communication with them. Flyers were distributed around the neighborhood, but as months passed without a response, the family’s anxieties grew.
“That someone has killed her,” Cashaw said in an earlier interview when asked about her greatest fear.
Detectives are urging anybody with information about Williams’ death or whereabouts between April and August 2024 to call the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
