BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (WALB) - More than a year after their daughter vanished, Sheila and Johnny C. Alexander Sr. are still waiting for answers about who killed Kiearra Alexander.

Kiearra was last seen in December 2024 after leaving her grandmother’s home in the country to head into town. Her body was found weeks later. Law enforcement has classified the case as a homicide, but no arrests have been made.

The family was forced to cremate Kierra in October due to the condition of her body after it remained missing for months.

“You have nothing to put your eyes on and nothing to put your hands on,” Sheila Alexander said. “So you’re just living and it’s alive. Just, this is not real. This cannot be happening.”

Mother reported daughter missing after two weeks

Sheila Alexander last saw her daughter at her mother’s funeral on Dec. 1, 2024. When Kiearra left her grandmother’s house to come into town, the family never heard from her again.

“It was about two weeks before I started feeling like something was wrong,” Sheila Alexander said. “She always reached out to her kids. Christmas was coming up. We had not heard from her.”

She called Kiearra’s father, who thought she was hanging out with friends.

“I told him that I don’t, something’s not set right in my heart,” Sheila Alexander said. “This is different.”

She called police and asked them to put out a be-on-the-lookout alert for her daughter.

Body found in 2025, cremation delayed until October

When a body was found, police contacted Kiearra’s father first. He then told Sheila.

Three days before the discovery, Sheila Alexander said she had prayed for her daughter to come home.

“I said, Lord, whichever way it may be. I said, please send my child home because I don’t want to live in this world not knowing where my daughter was at,” she said.

The family had to wait months before they could cremate Kiearra’s remains.

“It was devastating,” Sheila Alexander said. “When I’m driving and I see someone that’s, that sort of got her same body built, I’m looking and if, if someone’s walking, I’m running to windows because you just don’t believe.”

Kiearra left behind three children.

Parents plead for information as killer remains free

Johnny C. Alexander Sr. said the lack of closure has been devastating.

“The process to me, you know, is they really doing, you know, on the case like they say they are,” he said. “We know we’ll still be without a loss, but we will feel better knowing what happened, who did it and all that.”

He said he stays busy at work to avoid being alone with his thoughts. The couple has lost two other daughters in the past.

“I feel like justice needs to be done,” Johnny Alexander said.

Sheila Alexander said an investigator has stayed in contact with the family and sat with her for 30 to 45 minutes on the anniversary of when Kierra’s body was found.

Both parents expressed concern that a killer remains in the community.

“I pray that no one else has to go through what we have been through,” Sheila Alexander said. “So yeah, it really is a safety concern.”

She said she believes someone knows what happened to her daughter.

“Someone knows what happened and they just will not speak,” she said.

The family is asking anyone with information to come forward.

“If anybody know anything, just come up, you know, and share, you know, and so it would be a relief on us,” Johnny Alexander said.

This investigation is active and ongoing. The Decatur County Sheriff’s Office is offering up to a $1,000 reward from the “Decatur County Citizens Against Crime Fund” to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Burney’s death.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office via Lt. Gabe Cofer at 229-400-8014 or Lt. Charles King at 229-400-8016, or the GBI regional investigative office in Thomasville at 229-225-4090. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online athttps://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.

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