Alex Omenye
An investigative report has been published into the disappearance of a Latino man named Filipe Santos and a Black man named Terrence Williams in separate events in Florida.
According to the CNN, both men vanished after meeting the same White constable Sheriff, Steven Calkins.
He climbed into the deputy’s patrol car and hasn’t been seen since. The constable claimed to have driven Terrance to a Circle K convenience store. But there was no evidence that Terrance had visited the Circle K. And he was never seen by his mother again.
Another man had ridden in his patrol car three months before. Felipe Santos, like Terrance Williams, had been driving illegally. He ran across Cpl. Steven Calkins of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, just like Williams. And, like Williams, he vanished right after that.
Santos was dropped off at a Circle K convenience store, according to the constable. However, there was no evidence that Santos had visited the Circle K. And he was never seen by his family again.
The publication created minute-by-minute timelines of each man’s disappearance using phone records, dispatch logs, and interview transcripts.
It also got every incident and arrest report available from the deputy’s time with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, totaling over 2,000 reports from 1987 to 2004.
A CNN reporter launched a new investigation into the disappearances of Felipe Santos and Terrance Williams in 2019. Two more reporters eventually joined the initiative.
Approximately 70 people were interviewed. The journalists submitted dozens of open-records requests to government entities, resulting in almost 10,000 pages of documentation and many hours of audio recordings.
Calkins spoke positively of the males who went missing during interviews with sheriff’s detectives. Santos was “very courteous and polite and very cooperative,” and “very, very nice.”
Williams was a “clean-cut looking young man. Very soft spoken and very, very mannerly and very respectful of me and very well-spoken.”
CNN received tapes of some of Calkins’ interviews. They include a scene in which he appears to be unaware that he is being videotaped. And his account of the two individuals at the time was completely different.
Calkins was protesting about the probe in a deep, authoritative voice.
He claimed he had already provided too much information. He stated that he would not speak further unless he was represented.
He said that while he had broken several laws, he had not broken any laws. Finally, he stated: “I’m not going to be dragged through the mud any longer because a couple of scumbags have gone missing.”
The disappearance of Filipe Santos and Terrence Williams dates back 19 years.
