JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A command center was set up and an investigation underway on Thursday afternoon.
An Action News Jax viewer snapped photos of the investigation near the Avenues Mall. We have confirmed they are NCIS investigators.
They tell us the investigation is in connection with the death of Chief Petty Officer Kevin Williams. Investigators found his body during search for 21-month-old Lonzie Barton.
"I believe someone murdered him, wholeheartedly, someone killed him," said Vanessa Williams, Kevin Williams' widow.
Just one week ago, Vanessa Williams laid her husband to rest. NCIS investigators may be able to determine if Vanessa Williams' theory about her husband's fate is correct.
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"There is a homicide detective on the case, NCIS. I definitely think they know it is a homicide," Vanessa Williams said.
NCIS won't say if they're treating this as a homicide investigation, just that it's standard to find the cause of death for any sailor.
Even Vanessa Williams said she didn't know the Naval investigators were working the case Thursday.
This all started two years ago when Chief Williams disappeared. But it wasn't until July when search crews found his remains while looking for missing toddler Lonzie Barton in a wooded area near the Avenues Mall in the Gran Park office complex.
Since then, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Williams died of natural causes.
But Vanessa Williams said there's still a cloud of suspicion over her husband's death and disappearance two years ago.
"A healthy man would not go into the woods and just die," Williams said.
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