It has been nearly two months since Zelig Williams went missing from the Midlands region of South Carolina...
Williams was last seen leaving his mother's home in the Lower Richland community on the morning of October 3, 2024. Shortly after he departed, friends in New York City received an SOS alert from his phone that seemed to indicate a potential car accident. Family members contacted authorities on October 4 and the Richland County Sheriff's Department (RCSD) took a missing persons report. Hours later, Williams' car was found abandoned in a parking lot along the Palmetto Trail. Despite the accident alert, there was no sign of damage to indicate involvement in a wreck - and no sign of Williams.
No one has seen or heard from him since...
At 28 years of age, Williams stands six feet tall and weighs 150 pounds. He is black with a light complexion, brown eyes, black hair. Yet this missing poster description only scratches the surface of who he is as a human being.
Williams is a talented performer. Born and raised in South Carolina, he learned to dance at Columbia-area studios. Over the past seven years, he has been living his dream of being a professional dancer. Williams made his Broadway debut in Hamilton, toured with Hugh Jackman and won the role of Marlon in the original cast of MJ the Musical.
Friends, mentors and family members recently joined me for a conversation about Zelig Williams - his passion for his art and dedication to his loved ones. You can find the video here. Additionally, more than a dozen of his friends contributed stories about Williams for a second video to celebrate the inspiration he continues to be to those who know him and to engage the public in the search for him.
The project is the brainchild of Troy Styles - founder of Blunt Force Media. Styles wanted to find a way to learn and share much more about the missing Broadway star than a missing persons poster.
"A two-dimensional poster with some basic descriptors cannot possibly convey the most important information about someone - information that might help locate a person who is missing," Styles said. "A poster can't tell you who that person really is."
The hope is that these videos will generate additional interest in Zelig's case - while simultaneously generating new leads in the hopes of bringing him home.
Joining the conversation is Kathy Williams - Zelig's mother - relatives Christine Barber, Aaliyah Skinner and Niani Peoples and dance teachers Caroline Lewis Jones and Jenny Davidson.
"We all know that Zelig was born to do what he does," said Lewis Jones. "Zelig is dance. Zelig is music."
Peoples shared what it was like to grow up with Zelig - as schoolmates and dance students with Broadway aspirations.
"It just was the two of us all the time, sharing moments in the car, doing shows together in school, and really he is a person that I kind of dreamed up the life that I'm now living with," Peoples said. "We would sit and talk about the things that we wanted to do, the kind of dancers that we wanted to be, the kind of performers we wanted to be, ending up in New York, working in the Broadway community. And like, how we were going to make that happen, and how we were going to support each other to get there."
Calling him their "light" and an inspiration, the panelists all shared their reflections and memories - and their shared hope that he will soon return home.
FITSNews reached out to RCSD for an update on the investigation but have yet to receive a response.
If you see Zelig Williams or have any information that could help locate him, please contact the Richland County Sheriff's office, submit a tip at SCCrimestoppers.com, or call 1-888-CRIME-SC.
Callie Lyons is a journalist, researcher and author. Her 2007 book 'Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal' was the first to cover forever chemicals and their impact on communities - a story later told in the movie 'Dark Waters.' Her investigative work has been featured in media outlets, publications, and documentaries all over the world. Lyons also appears in 'Citizen Sleuth' - a 2023 documentary exploring the genre of true crime.