Police: Alabama woman found dead days after going inside jail transport van

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF/Gray News) - Investigators said an Alabama woman’s body was found in a police transport van days after security video captured the moment she went inside the vehicle.

WAFF reported Christina Nance’s body was discovered earlier this month in a parking lot that belongs to the Huntsville Police Department.

The department released the surveillance video and said it’s clear Nance, 29, entered the vehicle without any help.

“We used that van to transport prisoners,” Deputy Chief Dwayne McCarver said. “Once you’re in that van, you can’t get out of that van. Somebody has to let you out of the van.”

After reviewing hours of footage, investigators also saw Nance pushing open a window three days after entering the vehicle.

“It was open plenty to hear outside the van or to yell outside the van,” McCarver said. “Certainly, there was access to the outside world through those windows.”

Nance wasn’t discovered until Oct. 7, five days after her family reported her missing.

An officer discovered a pair of shoes outside the van, and that’s what led authorities to her body.

“We certainly have no idea of knowing what her state of mind was. It was just a tragedy, and we wish it would’ve turned out differently,” McCarver said.

Police said Nance had previously received assistance from the department’s Crisis Intervention Team, which helps people who are in an altered mental state.

Nance’s family reviewed the security footage on Friday, but relatives said they have yet to find closure after seeing the video.

“That was just very heartbreaking to know that we didn’t get the clarification that we needed, that we wanted, which was just very sad,” Christina’s sister Whitney Nance said.

When asked why the van was unlocked, McCarver said it was a mistake the police department takes seriously.

“Sometimes you just have to say that was something that shouldn’t have happened. It did,” McCarver said. “Our policies are such that that should not have happened, and now we have to look at that and make sure we have things in place so that does not happen again.”

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