Zelig Williams

Case background and investigation

Zelig Williams, 28, was a professional dancer whose Broadway credits included Hamilton and MJ: The Musical, in which he portrayed Marlon Jackson; he had also toured with Hugh Jackman in 2019. In the summer of 2024 he returned from New York to his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, where he lived with his mother and taught dance workshops. On the morning of Thursday, October 3, 2024, he left his mother's home in the Longwood Road area shortly before 10 a.m. According to family members, he took a portfolio with him when he left.

Roughly fifteen to twenty minutes later, a friend in New York City received an automated SOS alert from Williams' phone indicating it had detected a car crash. A private investigator hired by the family later said the ping traced to the 1100 block of Old Garners Ferry Road, though the Richland County Sheriff's Department has not confirmed that location, and investigators found no evidence that any crash occurred. That afternoon, witnesses reported a vehicle matching Williams' near the Palmetto Trail trailhead at U.S. 601 and Bluff Road near Eastover, southeast of Columbia in the vicinity of the Congaree and Wateree rivers. Williams was reported missing on October 4, and around 11 p.m. that night a sheriff's deputy located his SUV abandoned at the trailhead parking lot. The vehicle was undamaged, and his belongings were found inside.

The Richland County Sheriff's Department searched the heavily wooded, waterlogged terrain with K9 units, aircraft, drones, boats and ground teams, joined by family members, local volunteers and the national search organization We Are The Essentials. No trace of Williams was found. Search conditions were complicated by severe flooding in the days around his disappearance, when the Wateree River crested at nearly 106 feet, which family members and searchers said may have obscured or swept away physical evidence. The family organized a community search on October 10, hired private investigator Chandra Cleveland on October 15, and announced a reward of up to $10,000 on October 21, 2024. Sheriff Leon Lott held a press conference on October 16 and has not ruled out foul play, though authorities have disclosed no definitive evidence.

Williams' family has publicly rejected the theory that he died accidentally in the woods or water. In a January 2025 update, family spokesperson Mieoki Corbett-Jacobs said the family did not believe Zelig was in the water and absolutely believed foul play was involved, and pledged to search new areas and investigate the people and groups he communicated with before he vanished. Hugh Jackman amplified the case on social media, urging the public to help bring Williams home. Family members also voiced frustration that Williams was not listed in the NamUs national database and was not designated an endangered missing person despite what they described as his dependence on prescription medication.

At the one-year mark in October 2025, the sheriff's department had released no new information since its initial October 2024 briefings, and no confirmed trace of Williams had been found. In March 2026, the Black and Missing Foundation featured his case in season three of its podcast Untold Stories: Black and Missing, an effort covered by NBC News' Dateline to renew national attention. The investigation remains open and unsolved; tips can be directed to the Richland County Sheriff's Department at (803) 576-3000 or South Carolina Crime Stoppers at 888-CRIME-SC.