COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A mother is still searching for the unknown suspect who messaged her for months posing as her missing daughter Candice Taylor, before a pair of human legs found in a trash facility revealed Candice was dead.
Candice’s mother, Theodora Taylor, described Candice as loving, family-oriented and humorous. She said Candice was very close with her siblings and had dreams of working as a fashion designer in New York.
“Candice was real silly, she was always funny,” Theodora said. “She gets that from me.”
At the time of her disappearance, Candice was working multiple jobs and living in a southeast Columbus apartment on Chatterton Road with her boyfriend. Theodora said she reported Candice missing in March 2017, when she stopped hearing from her daughter, whom she was in regular contact with.
“I just didn’t hear from her, and that was weird because we always talked,” Theodora said. “Candice is one of those ones, that if I didn’t answer my phone, she’d be sending me voicemails like ‘Mom, I’m sending the police over to you, what’s wrong. I need to hear from you, I’m coming over.’”
Shortly after she reported Candice missing, Theodora noticed Candice’s Facebook page, with thousands of friends, was deleted. That’s when a new Facebook page popped up under Candice’s name. Theodora began receiving messages from the account on Facebook Messenger, supposedly from Candice, claiming she was pregnant and moving away.
“She had jobs, she wouldn’t just up and disappear for that reason,” Theodora said.
Theodora said the messages felt suspicious; she didn't believe her daughter would abruptly move away, and the messages read differently from how Candice normally spoke.
“I kept telling the detective, ‘This is not my child talking to me’ because of the way she’s talking, is not how Candice spoke, is not how we talked,” Theodora said.
To try to confirm the story she was told via Messenger, Theodora said she began calling local hospitals to see if Candice had been there to receive medical care relating to pregnancy. Because Candice was a legal adult, she wasn’t able to obtain any information.
Theodora said all she had to work with was the messages she was receiving, so even though she was skeptical, she kept messaging the account.
“I said … ‘If this is what you want, the only way I stop looking for you is to call me and let me hear your voice for you to tell me to back off,'” Theodora said. “I never got that, so I knew it wasn’t her.”
The concern grew when Candice’s siblings' birthdays came around and she didn’t call or show.
“Anybody that knows Candice knows she loves her sister and her brother,” Theodora said. “She would never dismiss her siblings like that.”
Theodora continued messaging the account for months, receiving the last messages in June 2017.
On March 28, 2017, days after Theodora reported Candice missing, two human legs accompanied by a brown fur boot were found in a trash facility located at 1300 S. Columbus Airport Road. Theodora said the legs weren’t connected to Candice at first, because Candice was believed to be alive due to the messages Theodora was receiving.
“Everybody is still thinking I’m communicating with Candice,” Theodora said. “And then, it was a personal friend of mine, who sent me the pictures of these boots they put all in the news. … And when I seen the boots, I knew.”
When Theodora saw the photo and the size of the boot, she was left with a horrifying realization: the dismembered legs belonged to Candice. Additionally, discovering the date the legs were found confirmed her suspicions -- the person messaging her for months was not Candice.
Although Theodora believed the calves belonged to Candice, police still needed to confirm this through DNA. Theodora said she gave police a DNA sample to test with the remains.
Nearly two years later, in February 2019, police identified the legs as Candice Taylor. Although the rest of her remains haven't been found, her presumed death has been ruled a homicide. Now, it’s been over six years since Candice was killed, and Theodora is still searching for answers.
“I don’t have no closure because I have a pair of calves,” Theodora said. “I don’t have no body to bury, I can’t take no flowers to no grave.”
A preliminary investigation into Candice’s missing persons case listed two males, including the boyfriend Candice was living with and another man she had been involved with, as persons of interest. When NBC4 spoke to the Columbus Division of Police, an investigator said there were persons of interest in the homicide case, but there was "nothing definite" in terms of suspects and they could not release names. No arrests have been made in her case.
Columbus police asked anyone with information on the homicide of Candice Taylor to call them at 614-645-4545, or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tip line at 614-461-8477.
