The Day Zelig Vanished

New York City has always had a magnetic pull for young, bright eyed performers looking for their big break, that part in a Broadway show that takes you from obscurity to stardom. Like the song says, "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere." The line missing from that anthem of hope is that most of those would be stars. You not make it there. Those are dreams that a lot of people have, but very few people achieve. You're right, you're definitely right. Zellig Williams was one of those rare success stories. I literally looked at him while he was dancing, I was like, "You're going to be a star." I just knew it. Zellig was just 19 and attending college when he landed a role in the ensemble of a little musical you may have heard of. I am not thrown away, my shot. He handled it. What was that like seeing him on stage? Amazing. A legit triple threat. He wanted to perfect his craft, whether it was dance, acting, singing, he truly studied it and wanted to just be the best version of himself. By the time he was 28, Zellig was a Broadway veteran and ready to share what he had learned with the next generation. What's up, y'all? I've been planning on doing a two-day workshop/boot camp for dancers on how to audition for a Broadway show. He would never get the chance to impart all that wisdom. That's because on October 3rd, 2024, Zellig Williams disappeared. I'm Josh Manquets, and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Dateline. This episode is The Day Zellig Vanished. Please listen closely, because you or someone you know may have information that could help Zellig's family find the answers they're looking for. Zellig Williams was born in the Palmetto State, South Carolina. He had two older sisters and was raised by his mother, Kathy Williams. He was an awesome little boy. Zellig's aunt, Christine Barber, saw her nephew blossom. He was very energetic, loving, caring. He called to his mom, he loved his family dearly, his cousins, his grandma. He just loved everybody. Family was an anchor in his life, so was the church. Here's his cousin, Miyoka Corbett Jacobs. He was full of faith and he was full of belief for his life. Zellig spoke about that nexus between faith and career. On the podcast, a time to live with Amanda Jane Cooper. I grew up in the church and I grew up having a, I felt like I had a connection with God. My sister is saying a church and so I just followed their lead. Looking back, that was probably the start of something. I started to get the feeling he was a performer from very young. Yes, at the probably at the age of two or three, my baby girl used to step and she come home and she just stepped in front of him. He just said and looked and he just picked up just like that. A born dancer. Yes. In 2004, the Williams family faced a brutal tragedy. Both of Zellig's sisters were killed in a car accident. Zellig was just seven years old. My daughters had passed on, I had to find something to keep them focused. That's how Zellig met Caroline Lewis Jones at a dance studio in Irmo, South Carolina. She would become his friend and mentor. I'll never forget the day you walked in a dance class. Some people are just naturally born with it and some people have to work really hard to achieve what they want. He did both. Zellig graduated high school in 2014. He took a deep breath and made a big leap. He moved to New York City to attend Pace University where he studied dance. In the battle between Broadway and going to school, sounds like maybe school lost. Did he finish or how did he balance that? He got to him a little bit and he set out for the while. With Amanda Jing Cooper's podcast, he talked about the pressures he'd been facing. So there was a phase where I got to a breaking point of doing school in the show at the same time. I wasn't like failing or anything, but it wasn't my best because I was trying to do everything. I was stretching myself to clean. But he went back and got his degree. Which made you very happy? Yes, of course. Did you go see him on Broadway? I did. I would do them all the time. Zellig's big break did not end with Hamilton. After two years in that cast, he went on tour with Hugh Jackman. In his 2019 global concert tour, the man, the music, the show. Then in 2022, came a featured part in another Broadway hit, MJ THE MUSICAL. Here's Zellig introducing himself on the show's TikTok feed. My name is Zellig Williams and I'm on Sambo/Marlin Jackson and MJ THE MUSICAL. On Instagram, he posted a clip from a curtain call and a moment of celebration after he took on an even bigger role, playing Michael Jackson. Zellig spent nearly a decade building his career in New York. By 2024, Zellig had left the cast of MJ THE MUSICAL and was looking for his next gig. Since he no longer had to be in New York to perform in eight shows a week, Zellig found himself visiting home more and more. He came back to visit me. And he loved to come home and see my mom. You go in the room with her, sing to her, read the barbed wire to her and stuff like that. Zellig's grandma passed away in April of that year. His cousin Mioka says, after that loss, Zellig decided to come back to South Carolina for a longer stay. He definitely wanted to spend a little bit more time with his mother. He of course went back to New York initially, but then decided to come back to suspend some time. That did not mean he was giving up on returning to the stage. He kept his apartment in New York and continued to audition remotely. He had his family or friends help him with the scripts and the auditions. So I mean this was going to be a temporary thing back home. Right, absolutely. In between his auditions, Zellig wanted to share tips with other kids, also hoping to make it to Broadway one day. I've auditioned for a lot of other Broadway shows. So he came up with the idea for a workshop, posting about it on Instagram. So I wanted to give my knowledge back to the students out here in Columbia and nearby areas on how to audition for a Broadway show because there is skills that you need to have before even getting into the room. This is somebody who once they had achieved their dream, like still wanted to help other people achieve theirs. That kind of tells you a lot about who he was, doesn't it? Yes. Hello, everybody. Save the date September 27th and September 28th. Those will be the days we will be doing this bootcamp. Unfortunately, when late September 2024 arrived, Mother Nature had other plans in the form of Hurricane Helene. Hundreds of thousands of residents in South Carolina still without power after Hurricane Helene's devastating winds and heavy rain caused widespread damage throughout the state. The studio that he was having it out, they had to cancel it because all the electricity was out. Caroline says Zellig was working on rescheduling the workshop for October. Then came Thursday, October 3rd, 2024. Zellig's mom Kathy remembers that morning as routine, at first. I went outside on the front porch, and you saw I was sitting right there. And then he came back in the house. And the next thing I knew, he came back with a pair of shorts on his top and little flip flops and a picture of him, headshot. Like a headshot? A headshot. And he said, "Mama, how you slept last night?" I said, "I slept good last night." I said, "I slept good last night too." And then he walked down, got in the vehicle, and then he drove off. Did he say where he was going? No. Kathy says Zellig left their home around 9.50 a.m. She thought he was going to the local staples to make copies of his headshot, because that was something Zellig would routinely do. two. After he left, she was getting ready for the day when her phone rang. It was one of Zellig's friends from New York. And she said, "Good morning Miss Kathy." I said, "What's up?" She said that SOS came to my phone and I said, "What's going on?" The friend received that alert from Zellig's phone at 108 AM. An SOS alert can be set up on your phone. If your phone detects a severe car crash, it will notify your emergency contacts or contact emergency services. I said, "Zellig just left home. I can be an accident that fast." I said, "Well, I'm gonna go ride out and see where the accident went." Zellig had only been gone around 20 minutes, so Kathy drove to that staples. No sign of Zellig or any accident. Then the friend from New York told Kathy where they saw the SOS alert was activated. It was near a place called Angel's Diner, in the opposite direction of the staples. I said, "I never heard of that before, so they gave me an address." I know that this had to be terribly stressful for you. Yes, it was. Because you had already lost your daughter's in a traffic accident. Yes. She kept searching and drove to Angel's Diner herself. The GPS directed her to a strip of asphalt called Highway 378, known locally as Garner's Ferry Road. There was nothing in the street outside, nothing is suggesting no car parts, no broken glass, nothing. Kathy is not the only one who went out to investigate. The Richland County Sheriff's Department got Zellig's SOS alert as well. When that came in, our deputies did respond to that area. That is investigator JP Smith. He has spent four decades working in law enforcement. On one side of the road is a diner. The other side of the road is a trailer business. That's a heavily traveled area. We would like to think that if an accident did occur, we would have gotten a call. But when the deputies arrived in that area, there was no sign of accident. Smith is familiar with the SOS alert. It's advantages and it's flaws. For the years I've been in law enforcement, I have seen the SOS alert get activated both when somebody's in accident and when they accidentally dropped their phone. They could be driving a car. They slam on brakes, the phone slides forward, hits the floor. I have seen it where somebody is talking on the phone and the phone drops out their hand and it activates the SOS. The only thing that we can say is activated because the phone had an impact with something. Regardless, his department checked with the highway patrol. And they had no record of an accident taking place or anything like that. They also searched the area near that diner, hoping to find the phone that had initiated the alert. They did not find it or anything else. Unsure what else she could do, Kathy decided to head home and describes the waiting as "agemy." I just wait on it. I just wait on it. But he never gave a phone. All of this felt downright weird to Kathy. I tried to call and I couldn't get in contact with him. I keep calling his phone, keep calling his phone, he never answered the phone. Late that night, Kathy called 911. She says two young deputies from the Richland County Sheriff's Department responded to her home. I was telling him that my son is missing and I don't know where he's at. And they said, "Well, your son had a birthday." I said, "Yes, he did have a birthday in September." And they say, "Well, he probably still had their party and gone places and do some that. I said, "No, my son don't party like that." On October 4th, after 24 hours with no word from Zellik, Kathy called her sister Christine. I was at work and she called me. She said, "Chris, he didn't come home last night. I think he's missing. So I got off work. I left and I came down here right away." Christine believed something was wrong. So she called 911 and told the operator about Zellik. The Richland County Sheriff's Department came back later that day. Investigators asked more questions this time and took an official missing persons report. When investigators Smith was assigned Zellik's case, he quickly agreed this was not someone just out partying. He has not contacted family. His normal operations have not taken place. So we're looking at it as a missing person in any missing person case is serious. The team of investigators began the search for Zellik Williams. We had numerous people apart of the search. Our air team, the drone operators, the canines, it was a large number of people involved in the search. They ruled out that theory about Zellik going to staples. That was what she thought because of him having his photograph and a headshot with him. There's found no evidence he had been there that day. We have nothing to say that he went to staples. And after a few days of searching, law enforcement received a mysterious eyewitness tip. They saw someone fitting Zellik's description down into the park. Could that point them in the right direction? When someone goes missing, loved ones left behind often go back over every conversation, every interaction, every moment before that person disappeared. Kathy Williams has done all of that, trying to figure out what her son Zellik's thoughts were in the days before he vanished. You have to have looked back over your conversations with him, Kathy that day and the day before. Anything unusual, he sound different, you get any hint that he was planning something? Oh no, no, no sir, none of that. And he didn't seem unhappy or distressed or worried or angry or anything. No, he, none like that. Kathy says she did not notice anything unusual. But there is no question Zellik had been struggling. The family says while Zellik was living in New York, he'd been facing some mental health issues. Doctors had prescribed him medication. He even spoke about that in a podcast he created called Human in the Mirror. I'm glad to be where I'm at with everything that I've been through and where I'm at with my, my health journey, my mental health journey, myself love journey. That was eight months before he went missing. He was taking his medication for his mental health. He was working so hard. Kathy shared that information and everything else she could about Zellik with the Richland County Sheriff's Department. By the end of the night on October 4th, 2024, investigators located the Red Ford Escape Zellik was driving. The SUV was left in a parking lot at the intersection of McCord's Ferry Road and Bluff Road near Watery, South Carolina. That is about half an hour's drive from the Williams home at about 20 minutes from Angel's diner where the SOS alert went off. And Caroline says, it was unfamiliar to Zellik's loved ones. When I first went out and I got lost ten times, like it's in the middle of nowhere. Investigator JP Smith says his team went over the SUV. There was no obvious damages or anything to the car. There was nothing outstanding about it that we saw, but we did look into the car. Smith confirmed they found some of Zellik's belongings inside. I can't comment on what was located in the car because it's part of the investigation. The family says everything Zellik had with him when he left that morning except his phone was found in the car. They found the car where it's closed, followed up in it, issues, it's wild. That's Kathy's, because the clothes were folded in her mind. Zellik would not have folded it's closed immediately like that. He wouldn't have. Now investigators also processed the car's data. They would not comment on the information that revealed. However, the family learned that was not Zellik's first trip to the area near the parking lot. We know the day before on Wednesday, October 2nd that Zellik had been driving in that area. Anything about that area familiar to him or to any of you. "No, it's like it's major farmland." The parking lot where Zellig's car was found is located at the Palmetto Trailhead. It's an entrance to a hiking trail, which stretches nearly 500 miles across South Carolina, from the mountains to the coast. The trail off that parking lot is wooded, and crosses miles of wetlands and river swamp, with multiple bridges, and places where people can fish, canoe, and kayak. "The trailhead is very proper to trail. People come in from out of town just to walk that trail. It's huge. It's huge." The Richland County Sheriff's Department walked that trail and found no sign of Zellig, so they turned to local news media for help. On October 5th, they put out a press release about Zellig. "Deputies with the Richland County Sheriff's Department are asking for your help and locating a missing 28-year-old man." "Just like in any other missing person case, we push all the information we can out to the public because if someone sees something, we want them to say something." And someone did. A volunteer doing maintenance on the Palmetto Trail reached out and said he was approached by someone who said they'd seen a man on the trail. Someone was in some type of distress. The description the eyewitness gave, matched that of Zellig Williams. The volunteer told investigators he went down the trail to see if he could find that person, but was unable to do so. That tip came complete with a problem. That volunteer did not get contact information for the eyewitness. The investigator Smith says they have not been able to identify that person. "We haven't talked to that person we don't know who that is." Still, that tip, vague as it was, did give investigators an area to focus their search. "We used boats, ATVs, aeroplane, drones, you name it we used it." Google NBC affiliate, WIS, documented the efforts and kept Zellig the name in the news cycle. "A very active search is underway right now. Right now family members are continuing on with their own search." Given Zellig's Broadway profile, it did not take long for his disappearance to hit social media too. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, I desperately need your help in finding this man. If you know anything or think you have seen him, please contact the police or their tip line. Even Hugh Jackman, who worked with Zellig on his touring show, posted on Instagram saying, "Zellig, we love you and are praying for your safe return." National news stories followed. We are now hearing from the family of a missing Broadway dancer who vanished in South Carolina. With all that attention, Cathy and her family knew they needed someone to take charge. Cousin Mioka took on that role. She began fielding interview requests, talking with investigators and coordinating search efforts. She quickly found out. She had a lot more questions than answers. "There's limited resources about how do I support my cousin? How do I help organize the search? What do we do? How do we get missing flyers? How do we get those out?" Early on, the Black and Missing Foundation helped create and distribute flyers. Other organizations, such as We Are the Essentials and Missing Link, whose mission is to support families of the missing and guide them through crisis, also stepped up. "There's not much about playbook on this, I know." "Well, I'm working with Missing Link now to write it because I come from a very corporate infrastructure with Verizon and retired as a chief of staff for the senior vice president of customer care, so I'm just used to playbooks and there's no playbook that exists. And I can't imagine another family going through that." On October 16, 2024, 13 days after Zellig disappeared, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott held a press conference. "I want to thank all the media for being here today because you play a very important part and bring enclosure to this family and helping us to find Mr. Williams. We need help of the community, we need help from everybody to be involved in this search." Mioka also spoke at the press conference. She shared those details about Zellig's mental health and said that when he vanished, Zellig did not have his medication with him. Right before Zellig went missing, he stopped taking his medicine as the belief, okay? And that would put him in a situation that he would be very, very vulnerable, alright? Mom Kathy also stepped up to the mic with a raw and emotional plea. "I just want Zellig to come home, you're like that, you're like that, you're like that." It was a difficult time in Richland County, still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which had hit nearly three weeks earlier. "Zellig Carolina is recovering from Hurricane Helene, we have seen so much damage in the area from down trees to down power lines." Undeterred, a group of volunteers from the community came to assist in the search. "I just was so appreciative of how many people came to support." "It won't be an easy search, but they're going to continue to look for as much as they can." Investigators Smith says damage from the hurricane made their search efforts along the Palmetto Trail, much more challenging. "The landscape had totally changed. The water from the storm had pushed things up, probably in a safe estimate three to four feet higher. So there were a lot of safety concerns, numerous searches were done pertaining to that area." "Zellig's friend Caroline says she and her husband even took boats out of the river to look for him." "It's like a very sneaky river. The water was extremely high that day, so you're dealing with a lot of variables in terms of the environment and how the landscape changed. So if he did have some howling up in the water, you know, that would be very tricky." The case became weeks, with no sign of Zellig and no news. His family was growing more and more anxious, and their thoughts were about to lead them to even darker places. "Anything come of any of those searches that point you in any particular direction?" "Now, the only direction those searches point us into is foul play." Many 20-somethings are more than willing to share every detail of their lives. The good, the bad, and the ugly on social media. Zellig Williams, ever the performer, took it all a step further. "Hello, hello, welcome to Human in the Mirror with Zellig Will." That's Zellig. In that podcast, he released eight months before he disappeared. He shared updates there about his professional life. This is my first time as a professional performer, not having a job, and I'm in a new season of transition. He shared even more on Instagram, like dancing videos. excerpts of his singing. As well as those personal details about his mental health. He also spoke about a different struggle he was facing. "Hello, everyone. This is Zellig. I wanted to hop on here and just let you guys know a testimonial on my side. I've been delivered from homosexuality. I'm thankful to be where I'm at right now." "I just struggle with this for salt, lor, and I feel free. I feel like I can be myself again." That video begins with him saying, "I've been delivered from homosexuality," which feels like some admission of shame from him, which I heard that. I felt so bad for him. Yes, so just think about what we have to think about even as a family is, Zellig is a free spirit. He's a beautiful soul, right? At the age of 18 or 19, he's in New York and he is involved in Broadway and meeting a lot of people, having a lot of experiences with his traveling. He's had a lot of experiences. He was impressionable and young, and now he's older and he's trying to figure it out. Kazan Miyoka says that as much as Zellig shared online, he didn't talk much with his family about his sexuality. It feels like he was wrestling with his sexuality. Oh, absolutely. Oh, yes. Absolutely. He was figuring it out. This is a lie everybody. Cutting him off because of his sexuality or any of those issues like nobody was nobody was threatening to You know sort of throw him out of the family or stop talking to him, right? I don't know about you guys, but I don't you know have conversations about my sexuality To my mom That's not the topic of discussion right So could all the different struggles that like was facing have led him to harm himself His family doesn't think so. He had stuff he wanted to do. He was interested in this camp He was planning on going back to New York going back on stage This is not somebody who sort of abruptly decided to stop You know, yeah, and none of that says Self-harmed to me. No, he had tried off some parts and had gotten a callback or either a part of supposed to start in January Yeah, in January, and he was excited about his future Plus they all say Zellie was a mama's boy After the loss of his sisters that attachment only grew This family does not think Zellie would put Kathy through the pain of losing another child There was no question the love for his mother was evident. He knows what they went through together and He wouldn't leave her Yeah, that was too spiritual. Yes, use too spiritual. You're doing it. It's hard to believe he would want to put you through that again Well, I first started reading about this. I thought to myself this story's different this person Did this do himself? This is not somebody else is doing But the more I read about this and the more I talk to you guys. It's really just not clear I mean you do have this sort of mental health component and you do have some sort of Feeling of shame or anguish that that comes out of that Instagram video But on the other hand, like this guy is not going to disappear. No, no exactly And what you don't have is his journals what you don't have is his dreams and and what he his intent was Right, and there is no intent to do any harm to himself or in knowing intent If you can have moments where you're sad or you're going through things, but if I get anything from all the things I'll read as a Zellie was full of hope So if Zellie did not harm himself Could something else have happened maybe an accident His family is not sure With no evidence of that and no solid leads They had to consider another more disturbing possibility What did you think it happened Kathy? I I really don't know I just say it is somebody got him You think this is foul play I think somebody got my job. I think our consensus is just based on all the information that we have is that yes We do believe that foul play is involved In their minds foul play could suggest different scenarios They wonder if Zellie was going to the trailhead to meet up with someone and maybe the encounter went wrong If he went there to meet someone No idea who no zero or a second scenario Maybe someone harmed Zellie in another location and then moved his car to the trailhead There's a possibility that someone drove that car and parked it there for us to believe that that's where Zellie was and the phones never been found So right the dogs never picked up a cent at all never Given how active Zellie was online that's someone could have been anyone He was constantly auditioning and talking to people in his room when it's laptop through zoom auditioning preparing Forage and studying spirit spirituality and having meetings with that as well Zellie followed Some very specific like public figures in terms of you know some different churches and Profits that he was very connected to and you know journaled about them and he tagged them Zellie was immersing himself in multiple congregations He'd gotten baptized and was joining young adult and men's groups He was really trying to find community here in Columbia Do you have any sense that anybody that he was in contact with from any of the churches that he was involved with was trying to control Zellie or might have in any way been involved in this everything's on the table But yes, we have thought of yes of all those things thought of all of those things But there's but there's nothing pointing to that right now. No. There's kind of nothing pointing to anything Investigators say they have done their best to track the data from Zellie's digital footprint Trying to find any of the people he'd been interacting with online before he disappeared We have access some information pertaining to the phone records I can't go into detail with that because we are still dealing with an open investigation Of course it makes it harder when you don't have the actual phone But that information is still being looked into Zellie had two computers as well which Smith's team is still examining Those computers were brought to our attention and we're all living in to both of those matters Investigators Smith says his team has to keep some secrets We still have this open case. We don't know where it's going to lead So we're protective of information because we want to find Zellie We can't comment on his medical state. We speak to the family on a regular basis They voice their concerns to us and we're going to consider all of that information that we're receiving from the family We're spoken with numerous people that knew him, that worked with him If there is someone investigators have missed Smith wants to hear from them If someone or anyone has information that causes them concern about who he may have came in contact with We encourage them to give us a call so we can look into it And if they can tell us why they have concerns about it People who were in Columbia or at the truck head doing this time days before days after They had a family meeting family meeting anything just give us a call Someone else they would like to talk with That lone eyewitness who reported seeing someone who looked like Zellie in the park on the day he disappeared If that person hears this or hear any other news feed we want that person to come back and say what they saw and exactly where they saw it at Investigators Smith says he and his team have not ruled anything out We're still looking into it. It's still a definitely a act of investigation that's going on The searches for Zellie are ongoing The family is beginning to play on their next one for October The state of South Carolina has a motto Dome Spiro Sparo translated from the land It means while I breathe I hope For Zellie's loved ones those words ring very true Do you think you still alive? I think so I hope so We understand the likelihood of Zellie still being present with us is slim We know the probabilities but the possibility is that he is alive. We want answers period and we just pray yeah those things As his family approaches the two-year anniversary of his disappearance this fall They remember Zellie as a performer a son a friend Oh A young man worked hard and dreamed big If you have any information about Zellie Williams' disappearance Please come forward Zellie Williams is about five foot nine and 175 pounds with brown eyes He will turn 30 in September Anyone with information about Zellie's disappearance Should call the Richland County Sheriff's Department at 803 576 3000 Or the Midland Crime Stoppers at 1 8 8 8 crime SC To look at pictures of Zellie and to learn about other people we've covered in our missing in America series Go to datelinemissinganamerica.com There you will also be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future Thanks for listening we'll see you Fridays for date line on NBC Or you can stream anytime on peacock youtube or by subscription on the NBC news app You can also listen to full date line episodes and original podcast series Wherever you're listening right now Subscribe to date line premium for early access and add free listening for all our podcasts Missing an America is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Veronica Mosaic is the producer of this episode. Sarah Dahlberg is the associate producer. Brian Drew is the editor. Bradley Davis is senior producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, Jessica Fenton is head of audio production. [MUSIC]