Wednesday, July 21, 1999
Family has questions after body found
BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rodney Williams
|
Ellis Williams had just celebrated his 38th birthday April 5 when his older brother disappeared.
Rodney Williams, 40, suffered from mental illness and had left his medication behind. By June 1, his family filed a missing-person report with police.
He was found dead last week in the bed of a truck in the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store near Brooksville, Fla., in the west-central part of the state.
The Hernando County, Fla., sheriff's office identified him this week by his fingerprints.
Raised in Evanston, he had been a star football player for Hughes High.
But by age 30, he was a convicted felon. He was released from prison last year after serving 10 years for carrying concealed weapons.
He had been staying at a halfway house and was close to his relatives, said his mother, Pecola Williams of Evanston.
The family doesn't understand why he left, she said.
A postcard to his sister said he was staying at a shelter in Florida, his brother said.
His family suspects he got scared because police were looking for him on a theft charge.
“He was running from the police and hid in the truck trying to run from the police,” his mother said. “He suffocated to death in that old truck.”
“He's the best thing that ever happened to me,” said his brother, who also lives in Evanston. “I'm hurt. He didn't have to go like that. He wasn't mentally stable.”
The family is trying to find money for a funeral. Mr. Williams had no insurance.
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