ONLY ON 13: Family grieves after woman's body found in trash
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The tears stream down the little faces of the Witherspoon children. One youngster buries his face in his mom's arms. Another suppresses sniffles as he talks about the grandmother they will never see again.
"She loved me and I loved her," he says simply.
The entire Witherspoon family is devastated. Lillian Ann Brooks, a grandmother to the five kids and mom to Nakisha Witherspoon, was found dead Thursday morning at a Waste Management Transfer Facility along the Beltway.
"All I know is someone put my mom in a dumpster, and they found her in a landfill," said Witherspoon.
Investigators believe Brooks was killed and put into a commercial dumpster, which was then hauled to the transfer facility, where her body was discovered by workers sorting trash.
Nakisha Witherspoon spent Wednesday night with her mom. The two went out to dinner, and then talked late into the evening. Her mother's car was damaged during the recent floods, so Witherspoon drove her mom to a relative's home in the White Oakes Springs subdivision in Cypress. For some reason, her mother never made it inside the house.
"I dropped her off at her sister's and she must have walked to the gas station, Raceway, a block away."
Family members believe Brooks was last seen at the Raceway off Huffmeister and 290 late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. They speculate she may have walked there to buy a soda, and was somehow attacked on her way home to her sister's house.
WATCH: Woman's body found in trash in west Houston
Then, around 8:45am Thursday, workers at this trash transfer facility found her body. Police initially had no idea who she was, because she had no ID on her. However, the Witherspoon family saw the description on the ABC13 Facebook page, and immediately knew it was their mother.
"She was a free spirit, adventurous, would go and do anything. No fear. Taught me a lot," said son-in-law Jose Witherspoon.
For this heartbroken family, the only thing they want for Mother's Day is to find the person who killed their Lillian Brooks.
"I want people to come forward, let me have closure," said Nakisha Witherspoon.
