HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A man was arrested Saturday in connection to a woman's death after her burned body was found last week near the Skyway Bridge, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies say Fred Williams, 55, was arrested and charged with tampering with physical evidence. He was booked into the Orient Road Jail.
According to the arrest report, Williams approached deputies on June 9 while they were investigating the report of a missing woman, identified as Alisha Winfield, 35. That's when deputies noticed he had "burn injuries to his lower legs," the affidavit says.
Williams told deputies he was injured at a gas station and that Winfield was with him at the time.
Records show she worked as a security guard at an apartment complex near Bayside Village Drive and Bay Pointe Drive in Town 'N' Country.
The arrest report adds that Williams was seen on surveillance video rolling a white Igloo cooler from his apartment and then loading it into the back seat of his car. The cooler and the interior of his car later tested presumptively positive for the presence of blood, according to the report.
Once the sheriff's office obtained a search warrant for Williams' apartment, deputies say multiple areas in the main bedroom and bathroom also tested presumptively positive for the presence of blood, specifically a pair of orange shorts they believe Williams was seen wearing in the video.
The sheriff's office says that Williams' Buick was scanned on the southbound license plate reader of the Skyway toll plaza around 7:07 p.m. on June 9, the day the body was found.
According to the sheriff's office, a family member called deputies earlier on Wednesday saying Winfield had not come home after her shift and reported her missing.
Later that evening, St. Petersburg Police Department said firefighters discovered her body after putting out a grass fire near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge's north side rest area.
Deputies are asking the public to come forward with any information they may have on this case by contacting authorities at 813-247-8200.
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