Remains of Trukita Scott Found 12 Years After Disappearance -Press Conference

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]All you guys are all here today to talk about a missing person's case that we had from 2014 involving Shakira Scott.

[00:00:07]She was uh reported missing on June 26th of 2014.

[00:00:11]She was 24 years old at the time of her disappearance. Which she was last seen at her place of employment, which was in Fort Lauderdale.

[00:00:18]Uh throughout the years, um the case has constantly been worked. It was worked um >> [snorts] >> by Sergeant Steve Novak, who has retired from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and is now with the Broward Sheriff's Office.

[00:00:31]And uh he's Deputy Detective Novak now. Kept the case and uh worked it continuously. It never never never fell through on it. And as of last week, we were um pleased to announce that Shakira's remains have been found uh in Miami.

[00:00:49]Uh I want to bring up before we bring up Detective Novak, I want to bring up now Lieutenant Robert Smith, who was a patrol officer at the time and he handled the initial call for service for the missing person report. So, I'm going to let uh Lieutenant Smith come up and speak to you guys.

[00:01:07]Good afternoon. Uh Lieutenant Robert Smith, S M I T H. Um seeing the family for the first time is going to uh bring back this story for me just a little bit, so uh if you'd bear with me. So, about 12 years ago now, uh I was responding as a patrol officer and new uh 1-year officer here at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department uh to a call of a missing person.

[00:01:28]Uh once there, I met with family members uh at the residence, who just started uh describing to me the um that their family member was missing.

[00:01:36]Something at that time just felt off. Uh the passion, the love, the things coming from uh from mom and other family were just the things they said about Shakira at the time just felt off. Now, I had some experience from being an officer for a few years prior up in I another another state here in um up in Ohio.

[00:01:57]So, I had a police experience.

[00:02:01]This case felt like it was going to be off that night.

[00:02:04]Took the information, talked to mom.

[00:02:07]Began contacting the other agencies down in Miami to do some follow-up and ran the case throughout the night.

[00:02:13]The next morning, having the same gut feeling.

[00:02:17]>> [clears throat] >> I reached out to Sergeant Novak, who I didn't really know at the time, being a new person here.

[00:02:24]And explained to him kind of the feeling I had overnight. I don't know what it was.

[00:02:28]For the last 12 years, Sergeant Novak and I have stayed in contact repeatedly about this case. He's kept me up to date, kind of back in the shadows of this one, just wanting to know when Sergeant Novak left Fort Lauderdale Police Department and went over to Broward Sheriff's Office, one of the first conversations I had was with the new Sergeant Geiger, who took over our homicide unit.

[00:02:50]I explained to him, with this case ever closing with Traquita, I need to know.

[00:02:55]So, a few weeks ago, I was contacted by Sergeant Novak and Sergeant Geiger.

[00:02:59]And they informed me that we were hopefully coming to a closure on um recovering Traquita.

[00:03:07]So, I responded down within to Miami last week and took part in bringing her back home.

[00:03:14]So, thank you all very much. And I'll turn it over to back to Sergeant Geiger.

[00:03:20]All right, thank you, Lieutenant Smith.

[00:03:21]And now I want to bring up retired Fort Lauderdale Police Sergeant, now the Deputy Detective for the Homicide Unit, Broward Sheriff's Office, Steve Novak.

[00:03:32]Hey, good afternoon, everybody.

[00:03:35]I want to start just by extending my continued sympathies to Traquita's parents, Kendrall and Charles, her children, and the rest of the family for a almost 12-year ordeal to get some answers to um the most tragic thing they're ever going to experience. I'm going to go over the timeline of the case with you um before any questions. Just let me get through this and we can um deal with questions later. So, it was June 25th, 2014, Traquita Scott, who was 24 years old at the time, was reported missing by her family. She failed to pick her kids up from daycare that day and immediately the family suspected foul play.

[00:04:20]Uh and pretty quickly thereafter we and law enforcement uh agreed with them that something wasn't right, that Traquita didn't just leave on her own. So, the investigation started. In the early stages of the investigation, um our attention was focused on Carl Watts, who is the father of uh one of her children.

[00:04:40]Um and that was based on statements made by family members, friends, and other information that was developed in initial early investigation.

[00:04:49]On July 1st of 2014, we located Well, the city of Miami Police Department located Traquita's car uh abandoned on the side road down along I-95.

[00:05:01]Uh the car was towed to their impound and when we went to recover it, we found that the car had been set on fire um by the culprits in an attempt to um hide evidence or destroy evidence inside the car. However, only a small portion of the vehicle um had been damaged by the fire. And that was information that we never released publicly uh up until uh recently.

[00:05:26]The case did get a lot of media attention, especially early on with uh tips coming in from all over, people claiming to have seen Traquita, as well as other information that came in about um possible involvements. Uh we ran down just about every one of those leads we could and none of them panned out to actually have been Trikita.

[00:05:49]Um about 6 months after Trikita disappeared, a credible witness came forward for us and they provided us with information uh including details known at the time were only to law enforcement and to the people involved in the crime.

[00:06:03]Um some of that information included the fact that Trikita's car had been set on fire. Um that it occurred at a Budget Inn and that um her body was possibly buried in the uh Little Haiti area of the City of Miami.

[00:06:19]Based on that information, multiple law enforcement agencies uh the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, City of Miami Police Department, Miami-Dade Police Department Miami-Dade Fire Rescue all participated in scouring Little Haiti looking for any sign of where she may be, but um she was not located.

[00:06:39]As the investigation progressed, we used cellular records, witness statements, and other investigative resources to reconstruct Trikita's final day um that she was seen.

[00:06:51]We were able to determine that Trikita met with Carl Watts at the Budget Inn located at 1317 South Federal Highway here in the Fort Lauderdale.

[00:07:01]And then approximately 3:45 all activity on her phone stopped.

[00:07:06]Over the years, we continued to investigate her disappearance and pursue all available leads. Carl Watts was interviewed multiple times throughout the course of the investigation and consistently maintained that he had nothing to do with it and did not know where she was.

[00:07:21]On April 3rd of 2022 uh nearly 8 years later, Carl Watts was arrested for the murder of Shandell Harris, who was killed in the swimming pool area of the Jewish Community Center in Northeast Miami-Dade County.

[00:07:36]His incarceration ensured that he remained in custody while we continued with investigation.

[00:07:42]During recent court proceedings, Carl Watts made admissions regarding his involvement in Traci Kees disappearance and ultimately provided us with information that led to the location where she had been buried.

[00:07:53]On Tuesday, May 12th of 2026, just a week ago, um the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, the Broward Sheriff's Office, uh the Broward Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Unit, the Miami Police Department, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office, and the Forensic Anthropology Team from Florida Gulf Coast University, as well as the Pembroke Pines Police Crime Scene Unit, and the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecutions all conducted an all-day recovery operation in the 7500 block of Northeast First Court in the city of Miami.

[00:08:29]During that operation, human remains were discovered.

[00:08:34]Through forensic dental comparison using Traci Kees dental records, the remains were positively identified as her by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office.

[00:08:45]While nothing can undo the pain her family has endured over nearly 12 years, today we finally have answers, and more importantly, they can bring Traci Kee home properly, lay her to rest, and begin closing this chapter of this story.

[00:09:10]Now, I want to bring up Dr. Heather Walsh Haney. She's Florida Gulf Coast, um part of the Anthropology Team, and she'll talk about some of the job functions that they did that day. So, Dr. Walsh.

[00:09:24]Uh before I begin, I just want to acknowledge your strength and your your courage for the Scott family, and how you've been able to persevere in ways that no family should have to. And indeed, that is the reason why I am a forensic anthropologist. And so, the work that I did was at the behest of the Miami-Dade Office of the Medical Examiner and all of the law enforcement agencies that are here today, as well as the judicial authority.

[00:09:54]As a board certified forensic anthropologist and working with Florida Gulf Coast University, it was my job to integrate these two staff members that I had, as well as graduate students who are specifically trained to help us in these outdoor contexts. And it was with that that you can see from some of the pictures that are here, that we used the science of analyzing soil, analyzing how grounds change in response to crime, in response to human remains. And it was through that long dole process where we basically chased the sun, starting when the sun rose and ending just before it set, that we were able to carefully excavate and tease apart all the science that was necessary to document evidence that was in the grave, the grave itself, and then Trikita's remains that of course were inside.

[00:10:42]It's my job now, working with the medical examiner, that I continue with analysis of the of her remains, documenting any signs that may still be available there. And of course, that is what a forensic anthropologist does. And so, today it's all about honoring Trikita, a daughter, mother, a young woman whose life was taken far too soon.

[00:11:05]And my commitment, and the commitment of my students and staff and the human identity and trauma analysis laboratory is to make sure that we have scientific findings that contribute to truth and justice.

[00:11:19]Thank you.

[00:11:25]Now, I want to invite up Trikita's aunt and father, Benet Finney and Charles Scott.

[00:11:33]Paul.

[00:11:35]And if the Russell family wants to stand behind them, I'm Charles Scott.

[00:11:52]I'm Jaquita's father.

[00:11:54]I have four kids, two boys, two girls.

[00:11:57]Jaquita was my third. She was a twin.

[00:12:00]Um my daughter can talk to me about anything. My kids can come to me with having a problem or problem. Anything was going on.

[00:12:08]She always come in the house and say, "Daddy, hey Daddy." She leave, go to work.

[00:12:13]Where I am.

[00:12:15]On the day she went missing, I had to go to work that night. She came in and she spoke to me.

[00:12:21]Um she left.

[00:12:23]The day before I met she'd been picking the kids up.

[00:12:26]Um it's been a long 12 years.

[00:12:29]Every day trying to keep thinking about her, trying to put this together, what it really means. Um a tour a week ago when they told us there is in the body.

[00:12:38]You know, it's not going to give us 100% closure, but now we know what happened. Um where the body at and everything was going on with her. So we can move forward a little bit. Everything is is getting better. Just tell parents, don't let your kids don't get out of their life. If you feel something's not right with somebody, stay on it. You know, get in their business cuz I don't let nobody ever have to go through what I've been going through with my daughter. It's really really hard. Just stay in your kids' life and, you know, just always be a part of it.

[00:13:13]So you see something's not right, then you can do something about it. So you never have to go through what I've been going through.

[00:13:20]Thank you.

[00:13:25]Hello.

[00:13:26]I'm the aunt, Lynette Feeney, of Trakiya Scott.

[00:13:30]On behalf of my sister, her mother, from 11 years, 10 months, and 44 days, my daughter was someone's lawn fertilizer.

[00:13:43]And you tell me no one seen anything.

[00:13:48]There will never be closure until all those involved are convinced.

[00:13:54]My grandson have lived questioning his mother's love, asking if his mom loves him.

[00:14:03]>> [snorts] >> He asked, "Why don't she come and see me?"

[00:14:07]My grandkids will never feel their mother hugs.

[00:14:12]My daughter deserve better.

[00:14:14]She had dreams of becoming a police officer.

[00:14:18]She was just so damn trusting.

[00:14:26]This one is from me and my family.

[00:14:34]We continue to mourn the heartbreaking loss of a woman who was deeply loved as a mother, daughter, niece, cousin, and beautiful soul whose presence touched so many lives.

[00:14:50]While no outcome can ever heal the pain of losing Trakiya, our family is grateful that her recovery has brought some measure of closure during this incredibly difficult journey.

[00:15:06]We want to extend our sincere appreciation to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the Broward Sheriff's Office for their dedication, professionalism, and commitment throughout the investigation.

[00:15:20]In particular, sorry, in particular, we would like to thank Detective Steve Novac for the compassion, persistence, and support shown to our family during this painful process.

[00:15:33]His efforts and determination will never be forgotten.

[00:15:37]At the same time, our family is heartbroken and deeply disappointed.

[00:16:01]Today and always, we choose to remember Takieta Scott for the love she gave, the lives she touched, and the light she brought into this world.

[00:16:12]Her memory will continue to live on through her family, friends, and her children.

[00:16:18]We ask for the continued prayers, privacy, and support as our family continues to heal.