Airman confesses to murder
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on May 26, 2016 1:46 PM
An airman stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base has confessed to murdering his ex-wife in front of their 2-year-old child and then disposing of her body.
Staff Sgt. Steven Isaiah Williams, 30, confessed to murdering his ex-wife, Tricia Williams Todd, 30, after being visited in Goldsboro Monday by detectives from the Martin County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
Williams is charged with second-degree murder and child neglect. He is being held at the Martin County Jail in Florida without bond.
Ms. Todd's remains have not been found.
"Detectives went to see him this week, and he willingly came back to Florida with them," said Martin County Sheriff's Office public information officer Christine Christofek Weiss. "He was not arrested. He willingly came back with them on Tuesday night after they visited him on Monday, and he was charged when he got here on Tuesday night."
Mrs. Weiss said video evidence from local businesses in Hobe Sound, Florida, where Ms. Todd was living at the time of her disappearance, helped detectives connect Williams to the murder.
"In addition to his confession, detectives had hundreds of hours of videotape collected from mounted video cameras at local businesses and homes that helped them form him as a suspect," Mrs. Weiss said.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said the Florida State Attorney's Office asked him not to reveal how Williams killed Ms. Todd. Snyder also said Williams was "not as cooperative as we thought he could have been" in telling the sheriff's office where he disposed of the body, but that it was not unusual for people that confess to murders to stop short of giving up the location of the body.
Snyder also could not give a clear motive for the murder.
"Other than to say that these two people were divorced, there were known issues about money, but I want to be very careful," Snyder said.
"I want to be respectful of the state attorney's office, you know, it's one thing for us to finish a case and close it by arrest. It's another thing for our partners in the state attorney's office. Now they have to face putting an enormously complex case together, one that has jury appeal, one that makes sense to the community, and if I say anything today that might prejudice a possible jury, then I could threaten that."
Ms. Todd was last seen the night of April 25 at her home in Florida and texted her family on the afternoon of April 26.
She was supposed to pick up her 2-year-old child at 10 a.m. on April 27, but did not arrive at the arranged time and location.
Ms. Todd disappeared sometime between the night of April 26 and the morning of April 27.
Ms. Todd, a hospice nurse, was scheduled to work a shift on April 30, but did not report to work.
Williams is stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, but assigned to the 82nd Training Wing, which has its headquarters at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base said in a statement that the Air Force is doing what it can to aid the investigation.
"The Air Force is cooperating fully with civil authorities in this case. Questions about the ongoing investigation should be directed to the Martin County, Florida, sheriff's office," the statement read.
The 82nd Training Wing gave a similar statement, saying that their role was to support civilian authorities until the wing could conduct its own investigation.
Stephanie Saunders, who lives in Goldsboro, was a close friend of Ms. Todd's.
She last spoke to her at the beginning of April and last saw Ms. Todd in February 2015.
"I don't even really know what to say. I've been keeping busy with my kids, so that's helped, but every silent moment is just heartbreaking," Ms. Saunders said.
"I feel like when I first learned the news she was missing, my heart broke, and I feel like it just broke all over again today. All I can think about is her little girl and how she'll never know her mom, and how Tricia will never see her little girl grow up. To think the father of her child could do something so horrible is unreal. I keep saying it feels like this stuff doesn't happen, like it's out of an unsolved mysteries television show or movie."