Target 11: The case of the missing man and the milk carton

ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — It’s been more than a decade since Kenneth Williams seemingly vanished.

“He’s a very special individual. The most intelligent person I’ve ever met. I miss conversations with him,” said Aishia Fisher, his sister.

The last time she spoke with her brother was in May 2011 at her home in Aliquippa late one evening.

He was agitated about something and someone.

“He was like, ‘How could somebody who owes you something, be upset that you are asking for what you’re owed?’” said Fisher.

She eventually managed to calm him down.

Williams, who was on medication for bipolar disorder, then left and briefly stopped at his mom’s house in Monaca, and told her he had just lost his job.

He left in a black Ford 500 sedan, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

And there’s been no activity on his cell phone or bank cards.

“It’s just really weird that a person like Mr. Williams would totally vanish,” said Beaver County Detective Timmie Patrick, who reopened the case file for Target 11.

“This happened in the city of Ambridge. This is a 2011 case. Mr. Williams went missing in May,” said Patrick.

His car was found unlocked off a logging road in a remote wooded area near Morgantown, West Virginia, about 80 miles south of where he lived in Ambridge.

Det. Patrick: If you were driving there, you had to drive there with a purpose. You just don’t drive there.

Earle: You wouldn’t have gone there?

Det. Patrick: No, no you are like smack dab in the middle of the woods.

Investigators using cadaver dogs conducted an exhaustive three-day search of the area, but there was no sign of Williams.

While there was nothing to indicate foul play at the time, investigators did discover some things in the car that are now raising serious questions about what happened to Williams and who else may have been with him.

For instance, the driver’s seat in his car was moved too far forward for a man of Williams’ height.

The radio was tuned to a hip-hop station, and he listened to classical. But perhaps the most startling evidence in the car, a small milk carton found on the floorboard.

Fisher: He’s lactose intolerant. He doesn’t drink milk.

Earle: So why was there a milk carton in the car?

Fisher: That’s a good question.

Earle: He shouldn’t have had a milk carton?

Det. Patrick: At all.

Earle: Did that raise your concern? Did it raise suspicions?

Det. Patrick: Well, the piece of evidence should not have been there, and if it was there, it wasn’t by Mr. Williams’ doing. It had to be someone else.

Earle: So you are thinking there’s someone else involved.

Patrick: Yes, someone had to be in the vehicle.

So who else could have been in that vehicle?

While looking into Williams’ background, investigators discovered something else, something his sister didn’t even know.

“The gambling is something I was not aware of until I was told about it from [the] detective. Once he told me, to be honest, I wasn’t surprised because he’s very intelligent and he’s good at math,” said Fisher.

Investigators said he played poker at homes and in back rooms.

Detectives eventually tracked down people who gambled with him, and discovered he owed a small amount of money.

“Out of that gambling circuit no one could give us a name of anyone that would want to do him harm,” said Fisher.

But during our interview, his sister offered one more startling twist.

“I do know a situation that could have led to his harm and I’ve discussed that with Detective Patrick,” said Fisher.

“Yes, yes, someone has to know. I mean for this long period of time to pass, and Mr. Williams not to resurface,” Det. Patrick said. “Someone knows what happened to him, someone knows where he’s located at and somebody knows everyone that was involved in the disappearance of Kenny Williams.”

“I just want to lay my eyes on my brother, hold his hand, no matter what condition he’s in, no matter what condition he’s in, I think we deserve that, so that we can have closure,” said Fisher.

Initially investigators did not treat his disappearance as suspicious, but as time passed that changed.

Unfortunately, investigators released the car to his family and discarded the milk carton before it was tested for DNA.

A $5,000 reward is being offered for information that leads police to Kenneth Williams.

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