Case Details
- Photo URLs:
-
- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 06/08/2001
- Missing From:
- Missing From Tampa, Florida
- Classification:
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Gender:
- Male
- Race:
- Race White
- Date of Birth:
- Date of Birth 10/31/1969 (55)
- Age:
- Age 31 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 6’2, 170 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes.
- Details of Disappearance:
- Richard Williams disappeared from Tampa, Florida on June 8, 2001. He didn’t go to work at the post office and nobody heard from him again. His coworkers thought he quit, and his family didn’t notice until Father’s Day.
His apartment was found undisturbed: his belongings, wallet, phone, and even his pets were there, but the animals were starving. His car was missing, later found abandoned near a gay nightclub. He had over $4,000 in his bank accounts, untouched since his disappearance.
Williams’s disappearance is linked by some to other unsolved cases: several gay men disappeared or were murdered in the same area around the same time. These include the murders of Michael Wachholtz and Jason Galehouse (Wachholtz’s body was found), and the disappearances of Barry Block, David Rhodes, Mark Jackson, James Shumaker, and Mark Thompson. Block, Rhodes, and Jackson all lived in the same apartment building in Fort Lauderdale.
Steven Lorenzo and Scott Schweikert were convicted of drugging and murdering Galehouse and Wachholtz. Schweikert confessed they targeted single gay men, turning them into “sex slaves” before killing or selling them. He implicated Lorenzo, but Lorenzo hasn’t been charged with the murders.
Despite similarities in the victims, police haven’t connected the cases officially. All remain unsolved. Williams’s family declared him legally dead in 2010.
- Agency:
- Tampa Police Department 813-276-3503
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 06/08/2001