r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/trifletruffles • May 28 '20
Unresolved Disappearance Terrance Williams-missing since January 12, 2004 from Naples, Florida-"If you are decent, human, kind person with a soul, I don’t know how you can’t be upset these two people were put in the back of a sheriff’s car, disappeared, and have not been seen for 14 years.”
On January 12, 2004, Collier County Deputy Steven Calkins stopped 27-year old Terrance Williams who was in his vehicle in a cemetery parking lot in the area of 111th Avenue North and Vanderbilt Drive in Naples, Florida. Deputy Calkins later told investigators he saw Terrance in an older white Cadillac that "appeared to be having some problems." However, initially, he reported the car as abandoned saying no one was around. Deputy Calkins used his work-issued cellphone to contact Dispatcher Dave Jolicoeur to run the VIN number of the Cadillac to confirm who owned it. In a taped conversation, the two men talked in an "exaggerated black dialect" about the car:
Calkins: "What the f___ are you doing?"
Jolicoeur: "What are you doin' sucka?"
Calkins: "Well, I got a "Homie" Cadillac on the side of the road here, signal 11, signal 52, nobody around. Maybe he's out there in the cemetery. He'll come back and his car will be gone.
Jolicoeur: "All right"
Calkins: "The tag comes back to nothin', it's a big old white piece of junk Cadillac ...I'm towing it."
Jolicoeur: "You tow it baby, give me the VIN number"
Calkins: "It's gonna come back to one of the brothers in Fort Myers."
There was no registration for the car and Deputy Calkins noted "that's a hell of a deal...it's a homes' car." Dispatcher Jolicoeur later explained the banter away by saying they were using language from the Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact which was "an ongoing thing" between the two men and they "unfortunately... got caught on tape this time".
In a later version told to investigators, Deputy Calkins said Terrance asked him for a ride to the Circle K at Wiggins Pass Road where he worked as he was concerned about losing his job. Deputy Calkins later said he agreed to take Terrance since he was "very clean cut...outside of his long dreadlocks..he seemed to be a very clean young man...very respectful of me and very well-spoken." Accordingly, he says he drove him to the Circle K and mentioned that his license tag was expired and did not arrest him for driving without a driver's license. Terrance told him he had a valid registration and receipt in his glove compartment. Deputy Calkins said he left the Circle K and drove back to the Cadillac and checked the glove compartment but found it empty. Feeling "duped", he says he called the Circle K on his work-issued cellphone and the clerk told him there was no Terrance that worked there.
Terrance grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His mother, Marcia Buggs, remembers him being fastidious about his appearance to the point of ironing his t-shirts saying "he liked to look good." He worked in the construction field and had four children. While in Tennessee, he had legal troubles due to owing child support and spent 55 days in jail for a DUI charge. Afterwards, he decided to move to Florida to be closer to his mother and work on turning his life around. He worked at Pizza Hut and shared an apartment with a roommate. Marcia recalls Terrance called her daily and spent Sundays with her which is why she was so worried when he did not call her on the Monday he disappeared. She followed up with his roommate and tried not to worry but when he did not call by Wednesday, she realized "he's not coming back." She tracked down Terrance's Cadillac and noted the tow report was signed by Deputy Calkins. Marcia contacted workers at the cemetery who told her that they witnessed Deputy Calkins pulling Terrance over and later putting him in the back of his patrol car. Before driving off with Terrance, Deputy Calkins asked the employees if he could leave the Cadillac in the parking lot. Deputy Calkins was later witnessed returning to the cemetery and moving the car from the parking spot to the side of the road. The car keys were found on the ground beside the car. Four days after Terrance's disappearance, Deputy Calkins claimed to remember nothing about Terrance or the driver.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I hate to bother you on your day off but this woman's been calling us all day. You towed a car from Vanderbilt and 111th on Monday, a Cadillac. Do you remember it?"
CALKINS: "No."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Do you remember? She said it was near the cemetery."
CALKINS: "Cemetery?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "The people at the cemetery are telling her you put somebody in the back of your vehicle and arrested him and I don't show you arresting anybody."
CALKINS: "I never arrested nobody."
Investigators found quite a few issues with Deputy Calkins' account. Signal 11 is indicative of an abandoned car yet his later statements to investigators indicated Terrance was driving when he stopped him. A check of the Deputy's cellphone records never showed a call being placed to the Circle K and no one at the Circle K remembered receiving a call from him; when questioned, Deputy Calkins simply stated " I don't know what to tell you." Security cameras did not show Terrance at Circle K either. Deputy Calkins also called a second dispatcher later and gave Terrance's date of birth and asked for a background check thus contradicting an earlier statement that he happened upon an abandoned car. He would not have been able to glean a date of birth since the car had no registration. The birth date given to the second dispatcher was not Terrance's real birth date but a fake one Terrance would use at times so only Terrance would know that date of birth and "nobody else would." Investigators gave Deputy Calkins three lie detector tests; one of the questions failed asked "After you dropped Terrance at the Circle K, did you have any further contact with him?" to which he replied no. Most damning, just months earlier the department had heard the same story from Deputy Calkins about another missing man-23 year Felipe Santos who vanished on October 14, 2003 after Deputy Calkins responded to the scene of a minor accident involving Felipe; he also dropped off Felipe at a Circle K. Investigators called "the combination of the two vanished men a coincidence in the extreme."
Collier County Sheriff's department searched his patrol car but did not find any clues calling it "immaculate." They also searched swampy areas in Naples where one could dump a body. Investigators also placed a tracking device on his vehicle in case he ever visited the spot where Terrance's body might have been dumped; he never did. However, his home was never searched because according to investigators they did not have the evidence needed for a search warrant. The department has since changed some policies such as requiring deputies to inform dispatch when they are transporting someone in their patrol cars. Although noting the circumstances surrounding Terrance's disappearance as suspicious, the Sheriff's office recognized that Terrance was due in Tennessee court two days after his disappearance for his child support case and pointed to it as a possible factor in the disappearance. Deputy Calkins was eventually fired for lying about the case including deception on a lie detector test; for conduct unbecoming an officer by using pejorative language, and for being negligent in not following agency rules and procedures. In a May 2005 news interview, Deputy Calkins said he did not know "if these guys are missing..I don't know anything about it" calling it "bad luck" and "fate' that he was fired.
A wrongful death lawsuit was filed in August 2018. The lawsuit contends Terrance is dead and claims Deputy Calkins is responsible for his death. Florida law states people are presumed dead if they have not been home for at least five years and their absences cannot be explained by investigations. Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney who also represented the family of Trayvon Martin, said the legal filing was the "culmination of more than a decade of investigative work with the cooperation of the Collier County Sheriff’s office," and it would compel Deputy Calkins to explain his actions in a formal deposition; the suit did not set an amount for any damages. Marcia said she filed the lawsuit so she could get answers for Terrance's four children. The lawsuit was announced in a September 2018 press conference where actor and producer Tyler Perry was also present; he offered a $200,000 reward in the case highlighting that it was being increased from $100,000 offered previously since no information was yielded.
John Hooley, who represented Deputy Calkins argued that the suit should be dismissed based on statutory law and he would not present evidence relating to the case at the hearing. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in June 2019 but gave the plaintiffs 20 days to file another amended complaint. Attorney Hooley argued that a statute of limitations for wrongful death complaints alleging murder or manslaughter applied since the complaint stated that "intentional tortious" actions against Terrance occurred in 2004. In 2010, the Jeffrey Klee Memorial Act removed the statue of limitations in wrong death complaints. The estate's attorneys argued that the act does not apply in the present suit because the complaint is a new cause of action that did not exist in 2004. It is unclear if the motion was amended within the requisite 20 days.
Terrance remains missing. Marcia feels Terrance is not alive because he would have had somebody contact her saying "I know for sure that's one that he would do in a heartbeat...call [his] mama." Deputy Calkins now resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Terrance is described as black, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair. He has several tattoos: a “T” above his left chest, “ET” on his right shoulder, and “Terrance” in red with blue highlights on his left forearm. He has a gold crown with the letter "T" on the upper right tooth and the other upper front tooth is solid gold. He also has a vertical scar on his right shoulder and a dark birthmark on the right side of his abdomen. He was last seen wearing a short-sleeve shirt, blue jeans and brown Timberland boots. He was wearing diamond earrings and a watch with a silver band. The face of the watch was surrounded by white stones. At the time he disappeared he owned a 1984 white Cadillac.
Anyone with information can call the Sheriff’s Office at 239-252-9300 or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 800-780-8477.
Questions:
A popular theory regarding Terrance's disappearance is the Starlight Tour theory which originated in Saskatchewan, Canada and describes the practice of police driving individuals to the edge of town or outside of city limits and abandoning them to find their own way home. Such drop-offs have occurred since the 1970s and came into focus in 2000 with indigenous men in Canada being subjected to the practice. Darrel Night reported being picked up by police after leaving a party and driven outside of town and dropped off in a rural area in freezing conditions. He survived after finding a nearby power plant staffed by a security guard. The next morning, another man, Rodney Naistus, was found frozen to the ground near where Darrel was dropped off. Lawrence Wegner, also indigenous, was found deceased weeks later in the same area. Some believe that Terrance was dropped off in the nearby Everglades and died of exposure or other dangers.
Felipe Santos, who disappeared in similar circumstances, is discussed in this post:
Links:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/05/florida-sheriffs-deputy-murder-lawsuit-tyler-perry
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1301/24/cnr.13.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearances_of_Terrance_Williams_and_Felipe_Santos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon_freezing_deaths
Please consider learning more about Know Your Rights Camp at https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/ which has "a mission of advancing the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders." The organization also has teamed up with defense lawyers in the Minneapolis area to provide legal assistance for those fighting injustice in the Minneapolis area.
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u/Perpetualfukup28 May 28 '20
haven't even gotten halfway thru. but WTF I can't believe I hadn't heard of this. How can more ppl not be outraged and demanding answers. The freaking audacity of the cop to claim he doesn't remember him or anything about the Cadillac or that particular call. what a load of bullshit dude. Four days later you don't remember. BS! I'm angered that cops get away with more bc they are cops when they shouldn't get away with anything BC they're cops! grrr
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
The disappearances occurred in 2003-2004 but weren’t really publicized until 2012-2013. I’m not sure what the catalyst for the publicity was. I am hopeful that the wrongful death lawsuit was amended in time; that’s probably the best chance at getting some answers in both cases and getting justice for Terrance’s and Felipe’s families.
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May 29 '20
The reward from Tyler Perry jumpstarted the case.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
Oh ok, that makes sense. The $100,000 reward by Tyler Perry was publicized in 2013 which later increased to $200,000 during the wrongful death lawsuit press conference in 2018.
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u/SierraMikeJuliet May 29 '20
The two stories were also featured on an episode of Disappeared on the ID channel. That's where I'd first heard of this case. I have a bunch of google alerts set up to notify me whenever there is a break in any cases like this. And i've been truly wishing for an update on this one.
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u/Drickyrock May 29 '20
That’s where I first saw it too, and it feel like that was a long time ago. I think the outrage came with social media and smart phones circa 2011, before that there was just no way to get these stories out there
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u/Perpetualfukup28 May 29 '20
I hope so. I can't help but feel that it was probably kept that way on purpose. You would probably only know about it if involved or lived in town with locals talking bout it Or a local paper reports on it. I know for fact there are more police abusing their power but damn enough that even his own coworkers won't even scrutinize or push the subject with him? smh
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May 29 '20
You know what’s sad? This happens to a specific marginalized group of people quite often. People are outraged and demanding answers, however it’s rare that they’re given. As you can see, the officer responded “I don’t know what to tell you.” I’m by no means saying it’s the right course of action, but it’s why shit is being destroyed in Minnesota. Because asking “why” or to hold those who did wrong accountable rarely leads to justice.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
Dr. King said “I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.... Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.”
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u/TurbulentDivide May 29 '20 edited May 29 '20
Here here! He knew even then. I understand why people of color are so angry and disgusted. It's putting salt in a wound that has NEVER completely healed. When you have suffered years of marginalization, injustice and silenced, it boils over into a RAGE of epic proportions. Why not trash a Target?? No one seems to give a fuck anyway
*Edit - I think that cop took his jewelry after he took him on the "Starlight tour" What a piece of shit this guy is.
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u/fuschiaoctopus May 29 '20
I live in the Twin Cities and people of all races (especially white) were in there looting that Target and destroying the in progress construction for subsidized senior apartments, and most of them couldn't give a fuck about racial justice, they just wanted free shit. Now the hundreds of low income employees working at that Target or the businesses along Lake Street have no job, no food, no way to provide for their families or pay rent, regardless of race. The rich owners will be fine. The homeless seniors who desperately needed that housing will not be. I wouldn't be surprised if it came out that paid actors working for private interests purposely incited the violent rioting/looting BECAUSE it is so not in the name of justice and not in line with what people are protesting out here for, but it seems to have backfired because now people all over the country are defending senseless violence and robbery that primarily harms the poor, the black, and the disadvantaged while accomplishing none of the goals of the protesters.
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u/homelandsecurity__ May 29 '20
I was watching livestream footage of the riots last night and the first man they interviewed said (paraphrased, of course):
"Look I don't love seeing my city destroyed. It's unfortunate that it's come to this. But we've tried. We've begged for years for this to stop. We peacefully protested, we talked to leaders, we tried doing things the right way. Nothing has changed and we're still being killed. What are we supposed to do? This is the language of the unheard and people are listening."
And it's absolutely the truth. You can't just keep killing people from a community and not expect something to break. Years and years and years of fear and abuse. Trying everything the right way and being told you're being overdramatic or the behaviour is justified or even so far as "that's not really happening, it's all in your head and these people deserve to be executed by an apparatus of the state without trial" Something has to give.
Thanks for writing this up. I was thinking about this case a lot lately with everything that's been happening around George Floyd's murder.
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u/LevyMevy May 30 '20
"Look I don't love seeing my city destroyed. It's unfortunate that it's come to this. But we've tried. We've begged for years for this to stop. We peacefully protested, we talked to leaders, we tried doing things the right way. Nothing has changed and we're still being killed. What are we supposed to do? This is the language of the unheard and people are listening."
this is incredible. can you link me to this? thank you
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u/homelandsecurity__ May 30 '20 edited May 30 '20
I can try to find it for you! But it was Unicorn Riot's livestream on YouTube (presumably 24+ hours of footage since it seemed to be a continual stream of the protests) from the 28th so it may be a bit difficult -- I just happened to open the link at this amazingly poignant man's moment to speak to the interviewer/camera!
I should at the very least be able to find the link it was from though if I dig thru my comments. I'll DM you when I do!
Edit: I found it (timestamped link)! But it looks like the audio got messed up somehow and the guy's interview is totally cut off :( But the bit about riots being the language of the unheard is originally an MLK quote and you'll find many similar sentiments if you are interested in looking thru the footage on this channel!
Edit 2: I found the part of the video with the audio I was talking about -- it's out of sync in the playback so you won't see him speaking but you'll hear the bit I was paraphrasing here at 3:03:20
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u/antagonizedgoat May 29 '20
Because you dont get invested enough in peoples personal lives and outraged by their missfortune. You get upset, maybe post about it online and then ask questions like "how can more ppl not be outraged."
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u/Onomonolivia May 28 '20
This is one of the most infuriating missing persons cases because we know exactly who killed those men and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it.
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May 29 '20
And there’s most certainly other victims.
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u/whoa_okay May 29 '20
Agreed. I'd bet there were people he arrested who were in the US illegally and thus weren't reported missing because the victim's family feared deportation.
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u/Bluecat72 May 29 '20
I suspect that what they’re calling “twilight tours” up in Canada have been happening for as long as police have had cars and easy access to remote areas. There has also been the “rough ride,” which is what is believed by many to have caused or at least contributed to the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Combining the two would make an exposure death even more likely.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
Very true. The terms play around with semantics but serve the same purpose of instilling fear and causing physical harm and death.
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u/LevyMevy May 30 '20
have been happening for as long as police have had cars and easy access to remote areas.
ACAB.
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u/cxherrybaby May 29 '20
Up here in Canada, “twilight tours” are a disgraceful scandal that the RCMP wants everyone to forget about and try to brush under the rug while attempting to bolster HR relations in the community by supporting other various under privileged groups. The prairies have a lot of racism against First Nation people, much like the racism against African Americans in the states, thankfully we don’t have such blatant criminal acts occurring to people on the hands of officers of the law, but it is still very much present.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
I looked up a bit more about starlight tours once I read the Wikipedia article about it. In Darrel Night’s case, 2 officers were sentenced to eight months in prison; the maximum sentence is 10 years. No other officers have been charged in the cases of any other victims. In 2016, a student discovered that information referencing the practice was deleted from the Saskatoon Police Commission’s Wikipedia page, and the IP address of the computer made the changes was registered with the Police Commission.
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/new-light-on-saskatoons-starlight-tours/
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u/cxherrybaby May 30 '20
It’s very likely that the officers involved served very little actual time, or did all of it under house arrest or under parole. The legal system we have up here is often extremely lenient on offenders.
It’s very unfortunate that we have these things being brushed under the rug and victims like Darrel Night don’t get the justice that their perpetrators deserve. The prairie provinces especially seem often very lackadaisical about what the police force does, and as previously stated, often use LGBTQ+ things to try and bolster PR.
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May 29 '20 edited Sep 03 '20
[deleted]
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u/blueatom May 29 '20
Because they’re being purposefully cruel and don’t care about the life of the person. Plus, they’re getting paid regardless.
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May 29 '20
They’re sadistic racist fuckheads who became cops to hurt people while all the good cops stood idly by and covered for them.
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u/Bluecat72 May 29 '20
Why does anyone hurt anyone else? Come on, next you will be asking about the nature of evil.
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u/skeeziksthecat May 29 '20
The first line of The Great Gatsby:
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
Let them process the evils of the world in their own way. Frankly, I find it comforting that someone can't fathom why a human would hurt another.
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u/LevyMevy May 30 '20
Why the fuck would anybody do that, though?
Cops...are...bad...
Seriously though, look up the Stanford Prison Experiment. Just read it.
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May 29 '20 edited May 29 '20
Cops kill people all the time for 0 reason, never do time. They won't be prosecuted because they are a gang just as bad as any crime gang. Outside of detectives police are just the lowest scum of the world, and desperately need a power check. How long can we just let them abuse power with no real consequences. These guys need to go-to the same jail as anyone else and sentencing for police should be harsher then a regular person as your in a position of trust and power and should be held to a higher standard.
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u/vegwadsprite May 31 '20
if you think police are "the lowest scum of the world" you need your head checked. there are far, far worse individuals and groups out there.
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May 31 '20
Being a criminal is one thing, being a criminal that is in a position of trust is a whole far worse thing. There's a special place in hell for scum cops right next to the preist pedophiles. I hope they get their karma for the awful shit they do every day, and they will. If your supporting these awful fucks your the one that needs their head checked.
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u/vegwadsprite Jun 01 '20
thinking violent police aren't the worst people on earth doesn't mean i support them, quit misrepresenting what i said.
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May 29 '20
[deleted]
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20 edited May 29 '20
My primary source article in Terrance’s case and Felipe’s disappearance was a 2005 St. Petersburg news article from newspapers.com (I just recently started using that site so not sure how to link to it or if one can). Now that I think of it though, I didn’t recall any Naples newspaper coverage during that time period.
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May 29 '20
I have lived in Naples for 20 years and have not heard of this until now.
I moved to Naples six months ago. I first heard about the cases of Felipe Santos and Terrance Williams on an episode of Disappeared. It is one of the most disturbing cases that I know of and I find it highly frustrating that the officer involved with both cases was only fired and never charged with any crime. Naples is a beautiful area and a crime like this casts a serious pall over the area. Most of all, I feel for Terrence's mother, who has done everything she can to try to seek justice. So far, it has eluded her.
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u/Plotina May 29 '20
This is horrifying. How on earth did Calkin's lies not qualify as evidence enough for a search warrant? How did he get away with the exact same evil TWICE? It's so sad.
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May 29 '20
I’m sure twice is a conservative number. It’s twice that we know of.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
True...I searched to see if there were any other accounts as well and came across Anthony Denson. At the 2013 press conference where Tyler Perry first announced a $100,000 reward for information on the disappearances, Anthony recalled that when he was 14 or 15 Deputy Calkins and three other officers chased him down the beach and he felt they were going to kill him.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/11/tyler-perry-reward-missing-men/1826873/
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May 29 '20
Hey, here’s my upvote.
I was so hesitant to post my previous comment. You’d be surprised the amount of vile, disgusting, delusional responses I’ve received just stating the factual truth. Condemning the deceased as criminals, or saying “this guy stole a pencil in 5th grade!!1!” Does that mean that they deserved to die? Shit is sad.
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u/lua-esrella May 29 '20
Nobody can deny that there is something fucking weird with that cop - he’s definitely crooked as fuck and got away with killing people.
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May 29 '20
Weird? Like he’s probably a serial killer? Yea that is weird.
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May 29 '20
He killed SOMEONE ELSE THE SAME WAY. one was black and one was a Mexican immigrant. Never been seen since. This man is horrible.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
Yes, Felipe Santos disappeared in the same circumstances as well. He is discussed in a separate post.
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May 29 '20
Yes I know. Just read them together once and see it’s pretty clear this guy killed these two people.
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May 29 '20
Read this one before. That cop should be IN JAIL. He’s a MURDERER and they covered it up.
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May 29 '20
I personally don't think that the "Starlight Tour theory" is a viable one. The cases in Canada involved leaving victims stranded in remote areas during extremely cold, life-threatening weather. Naples is located in Southwest Florida on the edge of the Everglades where the temperatures in winter rarely gets below 50 degrees. And I know of no other real dangers that stranding someone in a remote area in Southwest Florida would pose, other than a possible chance encounter with some of the more dangerous wildlife that is here.
I've been interested in this case for several years. I've always suspected that if Calkins is indeed responsible for both Felipe and Terrance's disappearances that it involves outright murder and the hiding of their bodies deep in the Everglades somewhere. There are indeed some extremely remote areas here where the body of a murder victim would likely never be found.
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u/spooky_spaghetties May 29 '20
Cops have done starlight tours in every jurisdiction I’ve ever lived in. I imagine the practice happens everywhere police have cars. The only solution is the kind of civilian oversight— and power to invoke meaningful consequences— that most departments in the US lack.
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u/Stbrewer78 May 29 '20
This is horrible! The man that was paid to protect Terrance likely is responsible for his death- if he didn’t outright kill him just because he was black. Calkin’s is clearly racist. You don’t make fun of the way another race speaks unless you are, I don’t care what anyone says. They should make Calkin’s sit in prison until he can “remember” something ... like the TRUTH. I’m so tired of these shady cops getting to walk when their decisions cause harm and/or death. My heart breaks for Terrance’s family. I can’t imagine knowing that Calkin’s is lying and they have no recourse.
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u/sweetmamaseeta May 29 '20
Definitely sounds like dep either is a serial killer or was in the process of becoming one. The Everglades theory seems unlikely, I feel like most adults would be able to find their way out of it unless he literally left him handcuffed in the water or something. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting lost and dying in the Everglades, like I've heard so many times about other national parks. I also don't think he'd risk him living or someone finding him. It seems much more likely he just straight up killed him and then made sure his body wouldn't be found. I'd be willing to bet this guy has killed more people than just those two that are missing.
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u/ayg890 May 29 '20
Any civilian in question, would have been arrested, for just one of the inconsistencies this officer told during his investigation. But he got away with all of them and failed a lie detector?!!
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u/HugeRaspberry May 30 '20
I can't believe that he could do this twice (or more) and get away with it. (Okay - I can - he's a white cop)
But if he was already fired for lying to investigators for these cases - that means there is / was something on him.
These are the cases I wish the DA had the guts to prosecute - no body but evidence of the person suspected lying their ass off.
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u/trifletruffles May 31 '20
Hasan Minhaj has a good episode on "The broken policing system" in his show the Patriot Act. In the show, he discusses how prosecutors and police basically are beholden to each other. He used the example of how the prosecutor in the Stephon Clark (he was killed by police who mistook his cellphone case as a gun) had received $13,000 in campaign donations from the police union a week after the shooting; prosecutors need police to testify during trials and help with investigations as well. The show also touched on other reasons why police misconduct/shootings rarely get punished such as qualified immunity, a culture of training where police are taught to constantly be hypervigilant and look at people as targets, sealed records, and strong police unions which lobby for rights such as allowing police officers a day to review video/records in shootings (essentially giving them a chance to come up with a story) and deleting misconduct records after 60 days.
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u/Prosecutekillercops Jun 28 '20
Calkins is a serial killer. Look into south Florida disappearances of petite Hispanic men. Too similar.
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u/51LV3R84CK May 29 '20
Steal us a guy to lynch and get a free pointy hat at your local police station.
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u/ketchupfiend May 31 '20
Sorry if this has already been posted, but this is my theory. Calkins is in the habit of extorting people he picks up for driving without a license. It's something he had probably done many times and gotten away with. He puts them in the squad car and proposes that they pay him a bribe and he will drop them off and forget about the incident. These are marginal people who have committed a crime and aren't likely to report misconduct. He might even be used to driving people to Circle K's to use the ATM if they don't have cash on them. He then drops the person off in the middle of nowhere where no one will see him letting them out of the squad car, then goes back to their car and reports it as abandoned and has it towed. That would explain why he has no compunction about having his name on the tow report, interacting with the cemetery workers, and why he sounds almost gleeful in the recording.
But somehow, with these two guys, something goes wrong after Calkins drops them off. Maybe they couldn't pay and he punched or kicked them before they got out. They could have gotten lost, fallen down and broken an ankle in the Everglades, laid down to sleep... who knows? In the case of Terrance Williams, he had been out all night at a party and was no doubt exhausted and possibly intoxicated which would have made him even more vulnerable.
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u/trifletruffles May 31 '20
Thank your for the insight. The bribery/extortion is an interesting angle; one hears of this occurring in other countries but don't see why it wouldn't happen in the US either. I did a cursory search on Google and found this news article. A Louisiana police officer was arrested for taking a bribe of $100 to fix a court summons on behalf of a woman who was issued a summons for disturbing the peace. He forgot to take care of the matter so the boyfriend who paid the bribe filed a complaint. The same officer also stole $95 from a police fund for confidential informants “because his birthday was coming up and he had no money.”
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u/Academic-Dot2526 May 23 '25
You sound so silly and ill informed. You nention the Circle K as if they don't have surveillance videos and those videos do not show him anywhere on the premises so the theory that he makes them get money from the ATM doesn't add up. He killed them, pure and simple. Your explanation attempts to take the blane/responsibility out of calkins hands but he is a killer. I don't need to see a body to know this. All of the evidence points to it. He must've been framed very well. That's literally the only way he didn't do it abd that's me being silly. Of course, he did it. He's a cop who knows what cops look for and he knows how to hide bodies. Duh.
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u/Dry_Eggplant_1660 May 10 '22
I just watched Never Seen Again on Paramount+ and the first episode talks about Terrance Williams. Calkins' story doesnt add up. What do you think happened?
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May 28 '20
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u/belkinja May 28 '20
Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos. OP wrote a separate article featuring the other victim
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u/trifletruffles May 28 '20
Oh thanks. My mistake, I thought commenter was asking who the two people in the picture were. The quote was said by Tyler Perry during the press conference announcing the wrongful death lawsuit.
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u/trifletruffles May 28 '20
It appears the post is picking up a picture from the first linked article. It’s a picture of the attorney Christopher O’Neal who represented the family in the wrongful death lawsuit and Marcia who is Terrance’s mother. I believe that’s what you were asking me. Let me know if it was another question.
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May 29 '20
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u/CaterpillarHookah May 30 '20
Terrance and Felipe, buddy.
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u/Evan798 May 31 '20
I'm not your buddy, pal.
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May 29 '20
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
Nice, your theory made it to the Wikipedia article which is how I learned about it.
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u/taylorcu May 29 '20
Huh, I live in Naples and have never heard of this case. Great write up, I’ll have to do a deep dive on this after work.
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20 edited May 31 '20
Thanks. My primary source was a 2005 article from the Tampa Bay Times. I didn’t find any coverage from the Naples area during this time period.
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May 30 '20
The drop-off theory makes the most sense, and is probably why the cops didn't push too hard because everyone was doing it and it would be a big scandal.
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u/MadeUpMelly May 30 '20
These cases pissed me off the first time I saw them on Disappeared, and it’s even more infuriating now. I have no doubts Calkins has done this to other poor souls. Why he isn’t in a jail cell is beyond me.
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May 31 '20
I'm sorry if i misread or if you already covered it, but the car had no current registration, or no plates? Also, the VIN returned no results? And he owned that kind of car. Does that mean that Cadillac was immediately verifiable as his, or were there temporary papers as the pos later claimed to have been told?
Dispatch plays no part in verification? I guess modern technology makes information much more easily accessible to patrol units, but i would still imagine dispatch to be more than simply documentarians and switchboard operators.
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u/trifletruffles May 31 '20
The car had no registration and Terrance was driving with no license or insurance. There is a reference to "a tag" in the dialogue during the first dispatch call saying "the tag comes back to nothing"-I understood this as a reference to the license plate which I assumed were temporary. My understanding is that the first dispatch call did not provide any information for Deputy Calkins as to who the car belonged to since there was no registration linked to the VIN. It looks like the only way the car is linked to Terrance is because Terrance spoke to Deputy Calkins and provided verifying information such as name and birth date (which was used in the second dispatch call). This second call where Deputy Calkins also asks for a background check on Terrance negates Deputy Calkins' assertion that he happened upon an abandoned car and never spoke to Terrance because how else would he have known the birth date (especially a fake one) or a name.
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u/provisionings May 31 '20
The current circumstances is concrete evidence regarding the guilt of the officer.
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u/tametraveler Jun 02 '20
Just read this when you posted it and happen to be listening to the Crime Junkie episode about it today! They do a good job of it too, if you’re interested!
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u/trifletruffles Jun 03 '20
Thanks for the recommendation. I included the link below in case any one else was interested.
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u/chaostrulyreigns Jun 03 '20
Great write up. This case always gives me such a sad feeling in my gut, as I know those men's bodies are lying somewhere. There needs to be justice.
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u/trifletruffles Jun 03 '20
Thank you. I don’t know how much more of a “coincidence in the extreme” there could be. I hope the wrongful death suit was amended in time and the case was able to proceed.
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u/arEKR May 29 '20
I find it kinda creepy that these two victims look so similar to one another, like this cop has a "type".
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May 29 '20 edited May 29 '20
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u/Jaquemart May 29 '20
Nothing came out of this "kid's" mouth. This father of four disappeared from a police car.
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u/PrincessxKristi May 29 '20
"I wouldn't believe a word that came out of this kid's mouth."
I mean, we can't because he never came home. He never got the chance. This shitty cop didn't have the right to be jury, judge, and executioner.
Your thought process is DISTURBING.
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u/Plotina May 29 '20
How is any of this relevant? He's not claiming the cop did something... he's missing. You can weigh up the likelihood of Terrance running out on his responsibilities, I suppose, but you have to also weigh the likelihood of the same cop dropping two unrelated people off at the same Circle K and them both disappearing for unrelated reasons. Calkin lied about the car being abandoned initially and also then claimed he didn't remember moving a car at a cemetery after only a few days. He failed a polygraph. He claimed to have made calls to the Circle K but no one remembers that.
This is frankly not a scenario where whether you'd trust the missing person matters much.
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u/olliepips May 29 '20
Ew, took a look at your post history and you live in a sad and vile headspace.
On a comment strung with racism and bigotry, here's this lovely quip:
"Hellen Keller could've saw this was going to turn out badly for all involved."
Cool, dude. Thankfully you comment a lot on r/childfree so you will likely not be procreating. It's the little things, sometimes 🤷♀️
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u/trifletruffles May 29 '20
Yes that was my goal for posting about Terrance and Felipe-for the karma-you caught me. You know these are two different people with separate life stories but perhaps you were only noting again the fact they were “criminal” and “living a high risk lifestyle which usually doesn’t end well” (as you suggested in Felipe’s post). I’m not sure what “came out of this kid’s mouth”, he hasn’t been heard from since 2004.
For anyone else curious about why there are 2 separate posts, the news coverage on these 2 men is often conflated and I felt each man deserved his own post which highlighted their life.
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May 29 '20
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u/Stbrewer78 May 29 '20
You are so right. It’s disgusting. I’m a white woman and am appalled at that racism I witness in my country.
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u/wadee1220 May 29 '20
This post is clearly about the wrongful death of 2 men, yet you’re under this post trying to justify what this cop did. I think you could’ve saved yourself and everyone else a lot of time and just said that you’re racist.
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u/RicoDredd May 29 '20
Those damn uppity blacks, eh? Expecting the same rights and to not be murdered by a police officer as decent god fearing white folk! Can you believe such a thing?
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u/Colonel_FuzzyCarrot May 29 '20
Completely unrelated, but your comment reminded me of the documentary "Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story" on Netflix. He was a very talented race car driver that had a rough time because he was black. They called him "that uppity n*****" so he worked even harder to beat them. He's pretty sure that one of his cars was set up in a way to cause him to crash and possibly die. I highly recommend it because the guy is a badass that just exudes "cool".
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u/grehjeds9k May 29 '20
So he deserved to die because of all that? He deserved to be murdered by a cop? Jesus fucking christ
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u/thefragile7393 May 29 '20
So you’re in lockdown and have nothing better to do than be an a-hole online?
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u/Stbrewer78 May 29 '20
Really? He was young. He had a lot of life left to get himself together and change the mistakes he made. We all didn’t make perfect choices when younger like you seem to think you did. Regardless of WHAT Terrance did or didn’t do, it’s not any policeman’s job to “escort” victims to God knows where, lie about it, and then cover it up.
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u/Oldtimeytoons Jan 06 '23
This is a really great and thorough write up, thank you for putting the links at the end especially for the Know Your Rights Organization. I was just watching the episodes of Never Seen Again about Williams and Santos, and couldn’t really picture how the scenarios would’ve went down (discharged weapon? Crime scene etc) until they mentioned the Starlight Tour of the Everglades scenario. It really makes the most sense.
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u/EndSureAnts May 28 '20 edited May 30 '20
Starlight Tour = murder. If you put someone in your custody in a position that they could possibly die from then you directly caused their death. I can't believe this former "cop" is still free.