FDLE: Human remains may be missing Mount Dora girl

Family members of a missing 16-year-old Mount Dora girl said Friday they hope she will soon come home as state investigators continue trying to identify the remains of a woman found in DeLand last month and whether they are those of Justis Garrett.

“Justis is my baby. She’s a good girl,” said her grandmother, Beth Hammond of Edgewater. “She is very caring and very giving.”

Justis was last seen by her family on April 13 as she was dropped off at Mount Dora High School. She enrolled there as a sophomore in February, according to Lake school district spokeswoman Sherri Owens.

The teen previously attended a Volusia County high school and Mount Dora Middle School from January 2014 to June 2014.

Just before 8 p.m. on April 18, a group of runners found human remains in a wooded area off a dirt trail near Gasline Road after noticing a foul smell, according to the DeLand Police Department. The partially clothed body had been at that site for some time, DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger said at a press conference in April.

“I don’t know how long the body has been there,” he said. “Weather plays a large role when you have a body that’s been there for some time. … Certainly, we want to learn who she was, and we want to learn how she died.”

Investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have since taken over the case and are working with several agencies to learn more about how the woman died.

“FDLE is conducting an investigation to determine if there is a link between the missing teen Justis Garrett and the body found in DeLand,” agency spokeswoman Angela Starke said Friday.

It’s likely Justis may be in the New Smyrna Beach area, according to the Mount Dora Police Department. Family members said she has friends in that area.

She is 5-foot-1, weighs about 125 pounds and has brown curly hair and brown eyes.