Boyfriend of abducted pregnant mom arrested and confessed to killing her, police say

For most of Wednesday, long after a family member of a missing abducted woman led police to him and several hours after human remains were found, Xavier Johnson denied having anything to do with Andreae Lloyd’s disappearance.

An uncle who found Johnson near his parked truck along a canal in deep South Miami-Dade said when he approached Johnson he was pacing back and forth saying he was searching for her.

Late Wednesday night, police said, Johnson, 32, finally cracked and admitted to killing the woman he lived with, shared two children with and who was six weeks pregnant.

Why he did so, police — if they know — wouldn’t say. Human remains recovered Wednesday were positively identified as Lloyd’s early Thursday afternoon.

“They questioned him for several hours at headquarters while the search was ongoing,” said Miami-Dade Detective Angel Rodriguez. “We know he confessed. As to the reason why, I’m not sure.”

Late Wednesday night, more than 10 hours after police found him, Johnson was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated battery with a firearm and burglary. He was transferred to the Turner Guilford Knight correction facility. A law enforcement source said he beat and stabbed Lloyd, who had been missing since early Tuesday morning. There is no bond in Florida for first-degree murder.

Lloyd, 27, was kidnapped from a group home for the elderly where she worked early Tuesday morning. Police said Johnson showed up at the facility in the 13000 block of Southwest 285th Terrace in a furious state, grabbed, dragged and carried her to a white Honda, then drove off.

The alleged kidnapping sparked a vast manhunt by law enforcement in the thicket of South Miami-Dade that involved all terrain vehicles, cadaver dogs and helicopters. Worried family members, who called Lloyd the bedrock of the family, helped in the search.

Police, who were caring for her two children during the manhunt, questioned Johnson, but let him go a day before his arrest because they lacked enough evidence to charge him, police said.

Then Wednesday morning police got a 911 call from a family member who said they found Johnson’s truck on the roadside along a canal at Southwest 130th Avenue and 328th Street, just a few hundred yards from Homestead-Miami Speedway and not far from where Lloyd was abducted. The site is near dunes popular with ATV enthusiasts.

Police detained Johnson and followed the K9s the best they could through the muck and thick brush of the wetland area. Family and friends waited patiently just off the roadway. Lloyd’s father was occasionally summoned by police into the forested area.

Early Wednesday night a cadaver dog signaled his handler. Human remains were recovered. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner retrieved them and took them to the lab, where they were matched to Lloyd through forensics.

Manuel Lloyd, Andreae Lloyd’s uncle, called his niece the “foundation of the family.” He described her as a woman who pulled the clan together through all circumstances and loved to cook for people. As the prospects of finding Andreae Lloyd alive dimmed late Wednesday, her uncle said the family had a strong faith in God and continued to hope for the best.

“At this moment, we have to step back, lean back and hope and pray that God hears us through this, sees us through this and allows us to go through,” he said.

Manuel Lloyd said when found his niece’s boyfriend Wednesday in South Dade, Johnson was pacing almost incoherently on the roadway, repeating “I’m looking for my old lady.”

“We have charged the person responsible for her abduction and murder,” tweeted Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddie” Ramirez. “Family, friends & our community are hurting since her tragic disappearance. We are committed to Andreae & her family as the investigation continues.”