Terrance Williams

On January 12, 2004, twenty-seven-year-old Terrance Williams was reported missing in Naples, Collier County, Florida, after he failed to show up for work at a local cemetery. Investigation revealed that Collier County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Calkins had conducted a traffic stop on Williams that day and was the last known person to see him.

Calkins initially denied any contact with Williams but later admitted to stopping him and claimed he had driven Williams to a nearby Circle K convenience store and dropped him off. However, surveillance footage from the store showed no sign of Williams being dropped off. Williams' car was found impounded on Calkins' orders.

The case took on added significance because it closely paralleled the disappearance of Felipe Santos, a 24-year-old Mexican immigrant who had vanished in October 2003 under nearly identical circumstances—also after a traffic stop by Deputy Calkins. In that case too, Calkins claimed to have given Santos a ride and dropped him off, and Santos was never seen again.

Calkins was fired from the Sheriff's Office in 2004 for lying about his contact with Williams, but he was never criminally charged in either disappearance. In 2018, the NAACP filed a federal lawsuit seeking to compel further investigation. The cases remain unsolved and have raised serious questions about accountability in law enforcement.