After nearly two years, the search for Lori Paige ended in the woods of south Georgia.
All that remained of the missing 12-year-old were two small bones.
The discovery became the crucial piece of evidence that led to the arrest of her father after months of growing suspicion by the Tallahassee Police Department.
Detectives traced her disappearance to the underbrush of a wooded area in Thomas County, Georgia, and found her remains on April 5.
The close of a case that has drawn intense community interest and even volunteer search parties was “a mixed bag of emotions” for police.
Investigators were glad to bring closure to the family, but TPD Chief Lawrence Revell said in a Tuesday interview with the Tallahassee Democrat that it’s always excruciating to confirm the murder of a child.
“There’s sadness, certainly, in proving what we thought to be true,” Revell said. “Anytime a 12-year-old is killed there’s great sadness, but there’s pride in the work that was done.”
Lori’s father, Andrew Wiley, 36, was arrested Friday and is facing a charge of second-degree murder. Revell said as the State Attorney’s Office prepares for Wiley’s trial, detectives have pretty much pursued every avenue and don’t anticipate any more arrests at this time.
Revell said this case and Wiley’s arrest sends the message to the community that TPD won’t give up until justice is rendered.
Lori Paige
Recently released court records shine new light on the 22-month investigation, which detail a troubled home life for the child involving “likely abuse.”
An unredacted report inadvertently uploaded to the Clerk of Court’s site noted that “there was likely abuse of Paige occurring, which may have been of a sexual nature.” A version released later redacted that detail. A TPD spokesperson said it was done in accordance to Florida law that protects the identities of sexual assault victims.
In a court appearance Saturday, Wiley was assigned a public defender. He has not yet issued a plea but an online fundraiser on his behalf, since taken down from GoFundMe, alluded to unspecified “untruth coming from Tallahassee Police.”
The platform has said administrators “prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes.” But the one on his behalf aimed to raise $100,000 for his defense “not only to free Andrew but to find the person who really murder(ed) Lori and get her real justice.”
Cracks in the case lead back to Wiley
Putting handcuffs on Wiley was a moment months in the making for TPD investigators. Her father reported Lori, who lived with him at the time, missing in June 2023.
Law enforcement exhausted numerous options over the months trying to locate her, including posting billboards in multiple states and conducting grid searches in areas of west Tallahassee where she was last seen.
While the case saw intermittent lulls with no new leads, multiple detectives keyed in on Wiley’s behavior during interviews. They made note in his probable cause affidavit that he “did not appear to be sad or concerned; his demeanor remained the same” on any occasion he discussed Lori’s disappearance with them.
Revell said detectives checked and rechecked hundreds of leads, including multiple potential sightings of Lori in various cities and states that all turned up to be dead-ends. It was following up on old leads that started to crack the case, he said.
“Evidence starts to point in one direction, then you certainly start honing in on those inconsistencies that (Wiley’s) story certainly had,” Revell said.
According to the affidavit, Wiley began to mix up his story, contradicting information he’d previously provided in regard to various dates, his whereabouts and with whom he discussed Lori’s disappearance.
Tallahassee Police Department Chief Lawrence Revell announces Friday, April 11, 2025, that the remains of 12-year-old Lori Paige had been discovered and her father has been arrested in her murder.
“People that are telling the truth typically don’t have problems retelling the truth,” he added. “People who are telling lies really have a hard time keeping all of those straight.”
And as TPD acquired more warrants to search Wiley’s phones, car, and home, more evidence came to light that Wiley was a likely suspect.
A one-way ticket to Puerto Rico, bioluminescent traces of blood
In a February 2024 search of Wiley’s car, police found a loaded gun, car cleaning fluid, a cleaning brush, passenger seat upholstery, a cut out from the carpet and more, according to the affidavit. The cleaner’s description mentions it’s capable of cleaning blood.
Detectives used a bioluminescent spray that positively detected Lori’s blood in various spots in the car that police say he used “to travel to Thomas County to dispose of her remains.”
Credit card transactions revealed that the day before he reported Lori’s disappearance, Wiley purchased a one-way ticket to Puerto Rico out of the Jacksonville International Airport. For unknown reasons, he never boarded the flight and returned to Tallahassee.
Members of the Tallahassee Police and Fire departments participate in a grid search at Mission San Luis in an effort to find any clues to Lori Paige, 12, who has been missing for months Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024.
Searches of his phone also rounded up queries of internet searches like, “where do police look to find missing kids,” and phone pings tracked his entire journey to Georgia where he ultimately dumped Lori’s body, according to the affidavit.
The cell phone led detectives to the spot in the Georgia woods where Lori’s remains were found. Revell said officers had searched there before, but it wasn’t until a coincidental controlled burn cleared some of the underbrush that they were able to recover anything.
Up until that point, circumstantially, TPD had everything they needed to make an arrest, he said. But they wanted to make sure a trial would end in a conviction. Police say the discovery of the bones that matched her DNA was the final piece to the puzzle.
“I say all the time, God’s got a plan,” Revell said, adding that investigators would be returning to the woods to search for more remains.
Lessons learned from a hard case
While each of the officers close to the case had their own hunches and personal beliefs from the beginning, a hunch can’t affect how the case is investigated, Revell said: “If you rely too heavily on that, you’re going to miss something.”
The department received negative feedback on how Lori’s case was handled from some in the community and Lori’s mother, but Revell said “any criticism of this case is unwarranted.”
Revell pointed to the review of the case by multiple agencies, including the FBI who checked TPD’s operation to ensure they hadn’t missed anything. The FBI was impressed with TPD’s efforts, he said, and they didn’t have any other recommendations for paths Tallahassee police should take.
In the process of the investigation, however, Revell said the agency learned a few lessons — a major one being the labeling of missing children.
In the past, TPD occasionally classified children as “runaways.” Lori, a Griffin Middle School student, also had a history of running away, but it wasn’t habitual, and she was found the next day, according to court records.
Revell said using this language proved to be problematic because the wording could cause people — including detectives and the community — to dismiss a missing child case under the false pretense that it’s less serious.
“We don’t classify children as ‘runaway’ anymore,” he said.
Local government watchdog reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
Local government watchdog reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lori Paige murder: How Tallahassee police cracked the case