Into the Woods: The Disappearance of Devin Williams

Devin Williams lived in Emporia, Kansas with his wife and three children. Everyone who knew him said that he was a loving father and a hardworking man, and by all accounts he seemed to be happy with his life. He and his wife Mary Lou had recently purchased a new house, and Mary Lou would later say that they were at the happiest point in their marriage. There is, therefore, no real explanation for why he would suddenly leave it all behind. This would happen on May 28th, 1995. The last scenario in which he would ever be seen alive was bizarre to say the least. He kissed his family goodbye and then took a truck ride into the unknown...

## Going Offroad

Devin was 29 years old when he vanished. The morning of May 23rd was a morning just like any other - he said goodbye to his adoring family before setting off in his eighteen-wheeler truck out towards California to deliver a shipment and pick up a stock of lettuce for the return journey. It was a route he had taken many times before, and all indications pointed to this just being another drab drive across the country. However, such assumptions could not be farther from the truth. He would actually reach his California destination, and was able to check in with his boss, one Tom Wilson, who would later tell investigators that he couldn't see '*anything out of the ordinary*' that would've made him suspect what was coming next.

Things first took a turn for the weird on the main freeway in the Buck Springs area off Interstate 40 in Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia - when he suddenly took a turn down an obscure forest road and started inexplicably driving up it into the thick woodland. This was not a recognisable short-cut route to anywhere, and it would only lead him deeper into the forest. Wherever he was going at this point, he certainly wasn't going down his ascribed route. On Saturday evening (May 27th), he telephoned the company headquarters one final time - complaining that he was unable to sleep but saying that he was determined to get back on the road. The next morning would be far stranger than anything the person manning the company phone could've ever imagined.

It was May 28th when he reappeared from the bizarre detour - but his reappearance would only pose more questions than his brief time off radar could've ever hoped to. Lynn Yarrington and a group of her fellow campers were enjoying a day of outdoor activities in Tonto National Forest near to Kingman, Arizona. It was shaping up to be a nice day of rural idyll - but this was all shattered when Devin's 10 ton truck came hurtling out of nowhere and smashed through the campground - sending terrified witnesses darting for cover and leading to two campers nearly being run down where they stood. Commenting on the weird trance that Devin seemed to be stuck in, Lynn said that there '*was no expression on his face at all*' and that he didn't even try to slow down as he barrelled through the campground, ignoring the two people he nearly killed. The truck didn't stop, and sped off down the narrow campground road out of sight - disappearing into the forest once again.

Later that day, Devin's bizarre rampage came to a stop that was just as baffling as his brief offroad excursion. Two hikers came upon his truck, stalled in a forest-bordered field some ways away from where he had last been seen. Devin appeared to be dazed, confused and barefoot, and as the hikers pondered their newfound predicament he is alleged to have said to them '*They made me do it. I'm going to jail*' after they asked him why he driven the truck to that spot. Charles Hall, one of the hikers in question, felt as if they had just stumbled onto a '*hostage situation, a hijacking, kidnapping, whatever*' and that perhaps someone in the truck had held a gun to Devin in order to force him to do whatever it was he was now convinced he would be incarcerated for. However, Hall's suspicions of commonplace foul play had doubt cast over them when Devin made no attempt to keep them there or to ask for help, before promptly wandering off into the forest and disappearing from sight. Baffled, the hikers notified the authorities.

Deputy Dean Williams arrived, already of the suspicion that there was foul play afoot at the scene based on the hikers' testimony. However, he searched the inside of the truck and found that it was clean and well-looked-after. There was no sign of a struggle and nothing seemed to be missing - including Devin's briefcase and cargo. The truck was confirmed to have indeed been that belonging to one Devin Williams, and he was left just as boggled by the events as all the witnesses. Nobody could work out why this seemingly-happy man had abandoned everything and taken a wild detour across America before abandoning his truck and wandering into the forest.

The following day, Monday the 29th, two unnamed campers would come across Williams as he wandered through the woods. They said that he was seemingly in a trance, and was talking to himself. They pulled over and asked if he needed help - but the bewitched trucker just said '*I gotta light the grill*' before taking a rock and use it to strike a $20 bill he was holding in his hand. He seemed to be trying to light a fire using the $20 bill and the rock - and the campers soon started to suspect that he was insane. However, they would have no chance to ask him further questions before he turned and suddenly threw the rock at their car - prompting them to drive away. That would be the last time anyone would see him alive. Extensive searches turned up nothing.

## One Answer and Several Questions

It was May 2nd, 1997 when a human skull was discovered by hikers just a quarter of a mile away from Devin's last known location. Authorities checked through dental records to try and discover who the skull had belonged to, and they were able to confirm that it was indeed that of Devin Williams. There were no obvious signs of trauma on the skull, however, and so the only thing the discovery really answered was the question as to where Devin had ended up. In the absence of concrete evidence, wild theories were sure to swirl around the case like a thick fog. The first, and most rational, suggestion was that Devin was on drugs - leading him to behave in the erratic fashion reported by witnesses before presumably dying accidentally. However, his boss confirmed that he was regularly drug tested by the company and that they had never had any problems of that nature with him. He also had a clean bill of mental health, and despite suggestions that he may have had some kind of diabetic episode, there seems to be no evidence to back up this claim - it is seemingly unknown whether or not he even had diabetes to begin with. He had no known enemies, and there is no likely motive for why someone would want to abduct a truck driver in order to force them to go hurtling through the forest in the middle of nowhere before disappearing. His actions were purposeless, from the looks of things.

Interestingly enough, there was apparently something of a UFO flap going on in that area at the time, and so some researchers have speculated that he became somehow tangled up with flying saucer strangeness, and that he was ultimately abducted by aliens before being returned less than a mile from where he had disappeared. The phenomenon of missing persons reappearing just a short distance away from their points of disappearance is also something which has been recognised by David Paulides in his *Missing 411* series of books.

## Sources

'The Mysterious Disappearance of Devin Williams' on *Unsolved.com*

 'The Bizarre Vanishing of Devin Williams' for *Mysterious Universe*

 '*Something in the Woods is Taking People*' by Steph Young