Tyrique Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after Annie Lock vanished from Fayetteville and was found months later in a Robeson County pond.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina soldier who was originally charged with first-degree murder after his girlfriend vanished in 2024 has been sentenced to 15 to 19 years in state prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and a charge involving the concealment of her remains. Tyrique Zavier Leroy Williams will also receive credit for 468 days he had already spent in custody, according to court records reviewed in reporting on the case.

The sentence closes the central criminal case against Williams more than two years after Annie Lock was last seen in Fayetteville on Aug. 17, 2024. Fayetteville police said Lock was not officially reported missing until Oct. 10 of that year. The delay became one of the most closely examined parts of the case after relatives said they had believed Williams would contact authorities. Months later, on April 13, 2025, deputies in Robeson County recovered human remains from a body of water near N.C. 72 West and Buie Philadelphus Road. The state medical examiner identified the remains as Lock’s, and Williams was arrested three days later while undergoing Army training in Missouri.

Williams initially faced first-degree murder and a charge of concealing a death. A North Carolina court calendar later listed him in connection with first-degree murder and a charge described as desecration of a body or remains to conceal an unnatural death. Earlier in August 2026, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and the concealment-related offense. The plea resolved the case without a trial on the original first-degree murder accusation. The available reporting does not disclose the full factual basis presented in court for the plea or provide a detailed account of how Lock was killed, so those circumstances remain outside the verified public record examined for this report.

The disappearance first drew concern inside Lock’s family. Relatives said Lock had been living with Williams in Fayetteville and that the couple shared a young child. Her family told local television stations that Lock was about five weeks pregnant when she disappeared. After relatives stopped hearing from her, they asked about her whereabouts and sought a welfare check. Family members said Williams indicated he would make a missing-person report, leading them to believe law enforcement had already been notified. That assumption lasted for weeks. When relatives later questioned him about the investigation, they said he acknowledged that he had not filed the report.

That discovery changed the family’s understanding of the situation. Lock’s sister told local reporters that she asked Williams in October 2024 whether detectives had contacted him and learned that he had never reported Lock missing. The family then contacted authorities. Fayetteville police records show Lock was formally reported missing on Oct. 10, nearly two months after she had last been seen near Kiana Lane. Police publicly requested help finding her several days later and described an active effort to develop leads. A search warrant cited by ABC11 said investigators believed Lock had been involved in an argument with her former boyfriend before leaving their apartment on the day she disappeared.

Relatives also became concerned about communications that appeared to come from Lock’s phone after they had stopped seeing her. Her sister said she received messages in the weeks following the disappearance and noticed that the spelling and writing did not seem normal. She continued responding because she could not be certain who was using the phone. According to later reporting about a civil custody filing, some of the messages suggested Lock wanted a break from her life and did not want anyone to report her missing. The available public material does not establish in detail who sent those messages, and authorities have not publicly released a complete forensic account of the phone communications.

At the same time, Williams’ personal circumstances added to the family’s suspicions. Relatives told local reporters that he married another woman within roughly two months of Lock’s disappearance. Reporting on the case said that woman had recently given birth to another child. Family members said learning about the marriage, along with discovering that no missing-person report had been made by Williams, increased their concern that something serious had happened to Lock. Those developments formed part of the public timeline surrounding the search, although the available sentencing record does not establish the marriage itself as evidence of the homicide or explain what role, if any, prosecutors assigned to it in securing the guilty plea.

The search lasted through the winter and into spring 2025. In March, Lock’s sister spoke publicly about the family’s continuing effort to find her, describing the close relationship between the sisters and asking for information. Police said investigators had been actively searching since receiving the missing-person report. Then, on April 13, Robeson County sheriff’s deputies located human remains in a body of water roughly 30 miles from the area where Lock had last been known to be. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the identity shortly afterward, transforming the missing-person investigation into a homicide case and prompting coordinated work among Fayetteville police, Robeson County authorities and military investigators.

Williams was arrested April 16, 2025, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division. Fayetteville police said he was 26 at the time and had been charged with first-degree murder and concealment of death. Army officials told local media that Williams was attending basic combat training with the 35th Engineer Battalion and had arrived at the installation the previous month. He was taken to the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office in Waynesville, Missouri, while arrangements were made to return him to North Carolina. His arrest ended an eight-month period that began with Lock’s disappearance and had left her relatives publicly seeking answers about what had happened.

Public records and news reports contain a discrepancy about Lock’s age. Fayetteville police identified her as 27 in their official missing-person and homicide releases, while some later coverage listed a younger age. This report relies on the age provided by the police department in its contemporaneous public records. The family’s statements consistently described Lock as a mother who was pregnant again when she disappeared. Friends and relatives interviewed after her remains were found remembered her as outgoing and creative and spoke about the future she had expected to have with her children.

The guilty plea represents a significant change from the accusation Williams faced when he was arrested. First-degree murder was the charge announced publicly in April 2025, but his conviction is for second-degree murder, reflecting the offense to which he ultimately admitted guilt. The public reporting reviewed for this story does not disclose whether prosecutors reduced the charge as part of a negotiated plea agreement or detail the evidence and legal considerations that led to the final resolution. It does establish that Williams was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 19 years in a North Carolina correctional facility, with 468 days credited toward that term.

For Lock’s family, the sentencing follows a case defined as much by the long period of uncertainty as by the eventual prosecution. Their search began with unanswered calls and questions about why they had not heard from her, expanded after they learned no missing-person report had been filed as expected, and continued for months before her remains were recovered. Williams is now serving the state prison sentence imposed after his guilty pleas. No additional criminal defendant has been identified in the verified records reviewed for this report, and the publicly available sentencing information does not announce further proceedings in the homicide case.

Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.