Nathan D. "Danny" Williams, a convicted child rapist, is a suspect in the 1979 disappearance of a 12-year-old runaway from St. Charles, police sources say.
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Williams, 36, of St. Louis, was convicted twice of brutally raping young girls. He is serving a 30-year sentence. Authorities believe he also may be a serial killer with victims as far away as Arizona and Utah.
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Recently Williams' name has been linked to Tammy's disappearance. St. Charles police investigating the case say they cannot comment. Privately some officers say that Williams is a suspect.
St. Louis Homicide Detective Chris Pappas and FBI Agent Bill Francis are the lead investigators into Williams' past. Pappas said he has spoken with two people who, on separate occasions, said Williams told them that he had snatched a 12-year-old girl off Jefferson Street in St. Charles in the late 1970s. One of the witnesses said Williams put the incident near a college.
Both sources said Williams raped the girl, stabbed her and then buried her body in a rural area of St. Charles County.
Pappas asked St. Charles police whether they had any girls reported missing in the 1970s. Tammy's case surfaced. Her disappearance had received no publicity because Tammy was a chronic runaway.
The feisty, blond girl vanished just two days after she had been placed in the Youth in Need shelter, at 529 Jefferson Street. The shelter, a large, white house, is four blocks from Lindenwood College.