Name: Terrance Deon Williams
Age: 27 years old
Last seen: January 12, 2004
Location: Naples, Florida
Status: Still Missing
Disappeared: Season 5 Episode 3 “Crime and Punishment”
Case Information
27-year-old Terrance Williams was last seen in Naples, Florida on January 12, 2004.
He disappeared on his way home after being taken into custody by a Collier County sheriff’s deputy near the Naples Memorial Cemetery following a traffic stop.
Background
Terrance Deon Williams was born on January 17, 1976 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to parents Marcia Williams and a father who left when he was three.
In 1995, Williams pleaded guilty in a robbery and was sentenced to eleven months in prison, part of which was probation. He also spent fifty days in jail after a DUI charge and driving on a revoked license.
Williams later moved to Florida from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to be closer to his mother. They would speak on the phone daily and spent Sundays driving to the mall, browsing stores, and eating dinner together. He shared an apartment with a roommate at Randall Circle in East Naples.
A few weeks before his disappearance, Williams started work as a cook at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Bonita Springs, Florida. He had previously worked construction jobs in Tennessee.
Disappearance
Around midnight on January 11, 2004, Williams attended a party at a home in Bonita Springs with some of his Pizza Hut coworkers. The group drank beer and partied all night until Williams left at about 6 am.
On January 12, 2004, Williams was reportedly pulled over on the side of the road between 9 and 10 am near the Naples Memorial Cemetery, located in the area of 111th Avenue North and Vanderbilt Drive, north of Naples, by Collier County sheriff’s deputy Corporal Steven Henry Calkins.
When Calkins ran the VIN number of the Cadillac Williams was driving he found the license plate had expired and that it was registered to someone else. Williams was also driving without a valid driver’s license and insurance.
Calkins patted down Williams and placed him in the back of his patrol car without handcuffs before driving away. Terrance Williams never returned home and has not been heard from since.
On January 13, 2004, Williams’ roommate contacted his mother when he did not return and failed to show up at work. His mother filed a missing persons report to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigation
Deputy Calkins told investigators that Williams asked him for a ride to the nearby Circle K convenience store where he claimed to work. The store was located in the vicinity of Wiggins Pass Road and Route 41 in Naples, but Williams was employed at a Pizza Hut about two miles further north in Bonita Springs.
Calkins also told investigators he later returned to the cemetery to check on the Cadillac because Williams said he had a valid registration in his glove compartment. When he returned and found nothing he says he called the Circle K store but was told by an employee that Williams wasn’t employed there.
He then moved Williams’ Cadillac outside the Naples Memorial Cemetery, parking it on the shoulder of the road before calling dispatch about finding an “abandoned” car. The vehicle was towed for obstructing traffic, but no arrest or traffic stop was reported.
On January 28, 2004, Williams’s mother filed a misconduct complaint with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office against Calkins after her son’s disappearance.
Steven Henry Calkins
Calkins, a former Illinois farmer, was a seventeen-year veteran road deputy with a clean disciplinary record who had worked for the Sheriff’s Office since 1987. He is married and has three children.
He received commendations for helping to lift an overturned pickup off a man who was suffocating underneath. In 1997 he helped give CPR to a 78-year-old man suffering a heart attack.
Authorities found conflicting statements and inconsistencies in his account of the events on the day Williams disappeared. He was submitted to three polygraph tests which showed evidence of deception.
Phone records show Calkins never used his cell phone to call the Circle K store, and no employee remembers getting a call from a deputy that day. Upon reviewing the surveillance footage from the store, investigators could not find a sign of Williams nor Calkins.
Calkins previously said he told a dispatcher he was investigating an abandoned car which was blocking the road. He later recanted his statement and said Williams was driving the vehicle when he stopped him.
In August 2004, Calkins was fired by Collier County Sheriff’s Office for lying in the disappearance case of Terrance Williams, deception on a lie detector test, conduct unbecoming of an officer by using derogatory language, and for being negligent in not following agency rules and procedures.
Calkins appealed the ruling, but it was upheld and his dismissal stood. He refused to appear before a grand jury, was not charged with a crime, and subsequently moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with his family.
Felipe Santos
On October 14, 2003, 23-year-old Felipe Santos, a Mexican laborer, disappeared after being taken into custody with the same deputy, Steven Calkins, following a minor traffic accident.
Santos was driven off in the back of his patrol car and has not been heard from again.
Calkins claimed he dropped Santos off at a Circle K convenience store on Immokalee Road in north Naples, just four miles away from the store where he would drop Williams off three months later.
Aftermath
Calkins wasn’t charged with any criminal wrongdoing in the disappearances of Terrance Williams or Felipe Santos, and he maintains his innocence in both cases.
Internal investigators found no obvious motive for Calkins to harm Santos or Williams, nor any criminal evidence linking him to either disappearance. They acknowledged the disappearance of the two men as “a coincidence in the extreme.”
Authorities also added that Williams and Santos were wanted by police, either just before their disappearances or just after, and they may have been purposely avoiding being found by law enforcement.
Williams was to appear in court in Hamilton County, Tennessee, on a child support case on January 14, 2004. He would have had to serve sixty days in jail and pay a $5,000 fine if he failed to appear in court.
In 2022, Terrance’s disappearance was featured in the new docuseries “Never Seen Again.”
The 8 episode series featuring missing person cases premiered on Paramount+ on Tuesday, May 10, and was made available for streaming the same day.
Former Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputy faces civil lawsuit in the disappearances of two Collier men
On August 30, 2018, Terrance Williams’s mother, with the help of celebrity filmmaker Tyler Perry, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Collier Circuit Court on behalf of his estate and his four children against Steven Calkins.
On December 30, 2020, the court-appointed arbitrator cited a lack of evidence to establish excusable neglect from Calkins into Williams’ death. The Williams family will not receive monetary damages, and the non-binding arbitration is now final as their attorney missed a deadline to file the motion to take the case to trial.
Whereabouts
Police found no evidence, means or motive for foul play in Terrance Williams’ disappearance. No body was found, nor any evidence that he is still alive. He was legally declared dead by his family in 2009.
A $100,000 reward was offered by actor and producer Tyler Perry for critical tips that would lead to the remains of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos or an arrest in their disappearances. The reward was subsequently doubled to $200,000 on September 4, 2018.
Terrance Williams is presumed dead under Florida law, but the investigation into his disappearance is still open and active. The circumstances of Terrance Williams disappearance remain unclear, and his case is currently classified as a missing person. His case remains unsolved.
Appearance
Physical Description:
Black African-American male. He has sandy brown hair in long dreadlocks with brown eyes. He is 5′ 8” – 6′ 0” tall and weighs 160 – 175 pounds.
Distinctive Physical Features:
His ears are pierced. He has a vertical surgical scar on his right shoulder, and a dark birthmark on the side of his abdomen.
He has a tattoo of the letter “T” in italics above the left side of his chest, a tattoo of the letters “ET” in square block style on his outer right shoulder, and a tattoo of his name, “Terrance,” in red ink with blue highlights on his left forearm.
Williams’s front upper right tooth has a gold crown with the letter “T” on it, and a solid gold cap on the tooth right next to the one with the letter “T.”
Clothing and accessories:
Williams was last seen wearing a short sleeve button-up shirt, blue jeans, brown Timberland boots, diamond earrings, and a watch with white stones surrounding the face and a silver metal band.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Terrance Williams please contact the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at (800) 780-8477 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477) or email a tip or call the Cue Center 24-hour tip line at (910) 232-1687.
Resources & Further Information
Disappearances of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos – Wikipedia
Terrance Williams/Felipe Santos Investigations – Collier County, Florida Sheriff’s Office
Disappearance of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos – Facebook
Terrance Williams – CUE Center for Missing Persons
Terrance Deon Williams #MP4276 – NamUS
News & Media Links
Without a trace, but strangely similar – St Petersburg Times 05/05
Still no answers about men last seen deputy – Naples News 01/06
Warm memories thaw cold cases – Naples News 06/07
Missing answer? Monday marks 5 years since man with Collier deputy disappeared – Naples News 02/12
Two vanish, spur searches – News press 04/12
Search teams hunt for men missing in cold case – ABC 7 News 04/12
Tyler Perry Brings Attention To Case Of Missing Florida Man – News one 06/12
Filmmaker gives $100K to thaw Florida cold cases – USA Today 01/13
Florida sheriff’s deputy murdered two men 15 years ago, lawsuit alleges – The Guardian 09/18
Former CCSO deputy faces civil lawsuit in decade-old disappearances of 2 Collier men – Naples News 09/18
Former Collier deputy sued over black man’s disappearance – Fox 4 News 09/18
Terrance Williams, Felipe Santos: What to know about missing men – Naples News 06/20
Tyler Perry posts about Collier disappearances of minority men last seen with ex-deputy – Naples News 06/20
Judge denies motion to dismiss lawsuit against former Collier County deputy – Wink News 06/20
Ex-deputy tied to missing Collier men Terrance Williams, Felipe Santos to face questions – Naples News 06/20
Family of missing man in Collier County ruled against in wrongful death lawsuit – Wink News 12/20
Florida wrongful death lawsuit envelops Cedar Rapids man, a former deputy – The Gazette 01/21
Ex-deputy tied to Collier missing men Terrance Williams, Felipe Santos prevails in lawsuit – Naples News 02/21
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