{"id":277355,"date":"2026-05-19T23:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277355\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:42:16","slug":"remains-of-fort-lauderdale-woman-missing-since-2014-found-buried-in-miami-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277355\/","title":{"rendered":"Remains of Fort Lauderdale woman missing since 2014 found buried in Miami yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

The remains of a Fort Lauderdale woman who disappeared more than a decade ago have been found buried in a Miami neighborhood, police confirmed Tuesday, bringing a long-running missing persons case to a grim conclusion.<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale police and the Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office announced that the remains of Trukita Scott were discovered in early May in the yard of a home in Little Haiti. Scott was last seen on June 25, 2014, after leaving her job at a U-Haul location in Fort Lauderdale and never returning home.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Scott, a mother of two who was 24 at the time of her disappearance, failed to pick up her children from daycare, prompting an immediate search when she could not be reached.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPretty quickly thereafter, we in law enforcement agreed\u2026 that something wasn\u2019t right, that Trukita didn\u2019t leave on her own,\u201d said Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office Deputy Detective Steve Novak during a news conference.<\/p>\n

Her car was later found abandoned and partially burned in Miami\u2019s Liberty City neighborhood in July 2014, an act investigators believe was intended to destroy evidence.<\/p>\n

Despite early investigative efforts and multiple tips, the case went cold for years as no trace of Scott was found.<\/p>\n

\"Palooza<\/a><\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s news conference, investigators said a breakthrough came after a witness provided information that included details previously known only to law enforcement, leading detectives to focus on a possible burial site in the Little Haiti area.<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s remains were eventually recovered from the yard of a residential property, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Family members, who have spent nearly 12 years searching for answers, were present at the announcement.<\/p>\n

– Advertisement –<\/p>\n

\"Uber<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long 12 years, every day thinking about her\u2026 until a week ago when they told us they exhumed the body,\u201d said her father, Charles Scott. \u201cIt\u2019s not gonna give us 100% closure, but now we know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother, in a statement read by a relative, expressed anguish over the long wait for answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 11 years, 10 months and 44 days, my daughter was someone\u2019s lawn fertilizer and you tell me nobody saw anything?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Scott\u2019s disappearance has long been treated as a homicide investigation. Her family had previously suspected her ex-boyfriend, Carl Monty Watts, who is also the father of one of her children.<\/p>\n

Watts was interviewed multiple times during the initial investigation but denied involvement, according to police.<\/p>\n

Investigators later linked Watts to a series of violent incidents. Months before Scott disappeared, he was captured on surveillance video attempting to abduct a teenager from a bus stop, police said. He later surrendered but was released on bond.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Watts was arrested and later convicted in an unrelated case for the shooting death of his then-wife at a Miami-Dade community center while she watched her child\u2019s swimming lesson. He is currently serving a 45-year prison sentence for that killing.<\/p>\n

Police said that while incarcerated, Watts recently made admissions about Scott\u2019s disappearance and directed investigators to the location where her remains were found.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring recent court proceedings, Watts made admissions regarding his involvement in Trukita\u2019s disappearance and ultimately provided us with information that led to the location where she had been buried,\u201d Novak said.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, Watts has not been charged in connection with Scott\u2019s death. Authorities said the investigation remains ongoing, and they are working with the Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office of Statewide Prosecution to determine whether additional charges will be filed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The remains of a Fort Lauderdale woman who disappeared more than a decade ago have been found buried…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-277355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}