MD MD - Pamela Conyers, 16, Glen Burnie, 16 Oct 1970

[Aegon_the_Conqueror]

New to Websleuths and I'm probably an amateur compared to many here.

I had never heard of this case until January of this year, and stumbled across it by accident. I was getting new photo hint suggestions on Ancestry for a relative that was little more than a name in my tree. Normally, I might've glossed over them, but these photos caught my attention.

They were mugshots. Forrest Clyde Williams III was the 2nd cousin of my grandmother.

Discovering the case was a gut-punch, both because of the evil brutality of the murder and the fact that it was a fairly close relative, one that I didn't know. I'm pretty sure my grandmother knew his mother, Doris Hipes (who would've been 1st cousins with my great-grandmother); she spoke of an "Aunt Dot", which would've made sense because the age difference was more that of an Aunt and niece. My grandmother died in April of last year, one month after Williams was announced as a suspect. Luckily, the case didn't make headlines in WV, because she would've been devastated.

Since discovering the case, I've tried finding out as much as possible about it, with minimal success. I do suspect that not everything that AA County said about the other suspect, Donald Willard, was accurate (I detailed why in a reply in this thread), which could make it more difficult for them to get more information about him. I don't think he was 12-13 years older than Williams, I think he was 10 months younger. The information they gave about Williams was more accurate, but not entirely. He wasn't REALLY a carpenter, more of a secretary for the local union. For a few years before the murder, he would post a short condolence in the paper any time one of them died, probably a few every month; the last one with his name was on July 4th, 1969, 15 months before the murder of Pamela Conyers but 3 months before Joyce Malecki was abducted from the same mall. Malecki was exhumed for evidence this past December, and I think the parallels between these two cases are closer than the ones between Malecki and/or Sister Cesnik and/or Grace Montanye. I also think it would be easier for a serial killer to live life without ever feeling a shred of remorse than someone who committed one murder, especially one as horrific as this one. I would think that Williams (and/or Willard) would've had loose lips at least once. We'll see, though.

Update:

While one or both (Williams/Willard) are just as likely as anyone to have been involved in the Joyce Malecki murder, i no longer think they're more likely.

Using Google Earth, I marked where Pam Conyers was last seen/heard from, where she ended up, where they found her car, and where she was originally headed; I did the same for Malecki.

Whereas Pam was taken at the same place she was last seen and heard from, this wasn't the case for Joyce.

1) Last seen: Glen Burnie Mall. Several sources said she was last seen at Harundale Mall, where Pam went missing. This is what led to my suspicion that the same perpetrator(s) was/were responsible for both. Turns out this is not the case.

2) Headed: Fort Meade, where she was eventually found. Most of the time when I read about Joyce being exhumed, it was speculated that the catalyst was the positive ID of Pam's killer, due to them being taken at the same mall. This part never made sense to me; if being taken from the same mall was the connection, how did Joyce get to where she was going anyway?

3) Last heard: Pay phone at a gas station just outside of Fort Meade. This makes it even more likely that, even if they had been taken from the same mall, it was just a coincidence. The pay phone was about a 10 mile drive from the Glen Burnie Mall, and even if she were followed, there's a good chance she would've noticed (and not felt safe enough to stop at the pay phone).

Again, this doesn't rule Williams and/or Willard out, but without the mall as the common denominator, they're no more likely than anyone else.