The last time I saw my dad, Dale Williams, we met on a local “hwy” between Delta, Colorado and Nucla, Colorado. My car had broken down and we were exchanging vehicles.
Two weeks later, he vanished. I can’t tell you how thankful I am now to remember that I told him I loved him on that mountain road.
On May 27, 1999 my dad and his friend were taking a lunch break visiting and playing a game of darts in his body shop. A call came in from a stranded motorist needing a jump. My dad was a do-gooder and our very small community knew he would help anyone when needed. He volunteered, he was fun, he had many friends, two daughters, a wife, 2 businesses - life seemed ok!
My dad let his friend know the basic details of the call and his friend overheard many important details, including that my dad said he’d bring his wrecker, then changed to his pickup. The caller was in paradox valley near the Bedrock Store. He said his goodbyes and headed out.
He stopped by his best buddies work place and let his wife know that he’d get to their windshield later and he was headed to help themotorist. Personally, I think he may have known something was up and stopped by to see if his friend could go with him, but he wasn’t there - and continued on.
That was the last time anyone talked or saw my father. Although there are reports that his truck was seen at his shop again in the evening, it’s not confirmed.
When my dad didn’t come home that night, my mom became worried, called my grandmother (his mom) and they went searching. After no luck all day they reported him missing to the police that evening. A day later I received a call at my school in Delta asking if I’d seen my father, I hadn’t, nor talked to him, packed up and headed to Nucla.
When I arrived, they had a search party arranged of volunteers, 100s of community member (our little community was only abt 800 people or so). We searched for many days with nothing. No clues, just... air. I will never forget the look of despair from officer mcclellen that night. The pain he felt for us.
A few weeks later, a family was swimming and fishing in a locally known swimming hole near theconfluence in Uravan, Colorado, roughly 30 minutes from Nucla. Their lure was caught on something and the son swam down to release it. He found that the lure was hooked on my dads truck, submerged under 13’ of water. Authorities were called, and they pulled the vehicle.
There were mistakes made at this point, and I believe it was primarily due to inexperienced officers in something like this. No one’s gone missing from Nucla, and many of these officers were friends of my dad! I know they did the best they could with what they knew, after all, my dad was these officer’s friend too.
The truck was pulled with a backhoe and nothing was set up to catch floating objects from the truck. This is confirmed by the kid who found the truck as he offered to swim and get it! They told him no.
The truck was not driven by my father into the river. The window was rolled down, it was walked in with the engine on wipers on and at a low crawl speed turned at a sharp angle.
At this point I guess important to tell you about the ex friend. My parents moved his wife out of state to safety without his knowledge. They never spoke of it, and didn’t tell anyone. Several weeks later my dads shop was broken into with pictures of the four of them torn up and scattered among bullets. Thegun was gone, and was Peter returned in my moms movie store drop box.
This same x-friend was caught camera removing my dads missing posters from the post office over several weeks time.
He has taken a polygraph.
And that’s my dads case. It’s been 20 years this May. No credible leads, no arrests. And like most small towns... everyone’s mouths are sealed tight.
The day my dad went missing, an unknown man went to my work asking for me. I was off. And when they told him I wasn’t there, he went across the street and talked on a pay phone for 10-15 minutes. I found this out this year! I’m 39 now. Was I to meet my fathers doom? Who was this guy and why wasn’t I told about this incident 20 years ago?
Also, my sister and I were never questioned or asked about my father, not even the last time we talked or saw him until 2013 by our current investigator. We weren’t approached by the city, county, CBI or FBI.
Also the tool box that was bolted to my dads truck was removed and missing from it when they pulled thetruck. It’s never been found, but the lid was... many years later in the same area. Many of my dads tools were discovered strewn through themountains - the complete opposite direction of where the truck was found. They still find them, my dad had engraved his initials on many and that is how they have been identified as his. I believe whoever took my dad, did this to throw authorizes off from finding thetruck.
Now for the links:
Unsolved Mysteries: The Mysterious Disappearance of Dale Williams - Unsolved Mysteries
CBI: Colorado Cold Case Files - Case Detail: Dale Williams
Pictures of where the motorist supposedly was: LEADS – WHERE IS DALE WILLIAMS?
As you will see Bedrock and Paradox are in a DEEP canyon. This is 1999. There is no way there was cell service in that area. No way.
Facebook: Missing: Dale Williams
I did an AMA on Reddit in 2018: My dad is a missing person and was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, AMA : AMA
No one is talking and when this happened the people involved were in their 40s. They are all 60 now and many people in the area have died or moved away. My grandmother died not knowing what happened to her son.
We just want answers. Everyone does, and we and the CBI need all the help we can get!
