Donna Williams

## Detective Donna Williams

**Detective Donna Williams** is a recurring character in Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3 of *Only Murders in the Building*. She was a detective on the Tim Kono murder investigation.

She is portrayed by Da'Vine Joy Randolph.

## History

### Early Life

As a child, Williams liked the TV show *Herman's Head*, as the titular character Herman was guided by a group of people in his head so he was never alone. She believed that she would always be alone like Herman, but her attitude changed when she met Kiara when she pulled her over for texting while driving. The two got married and had a son together.

### Tim's Death

When Tim Kono was found dead at the Arconia, Williams was one of the officers who responded to the call. She examined the body and the scene and confidently said it was a suicide. She was upset when she noticed Charles-Haden Savage, Mabel Mora, and Oliver Putnam standing outside Tim's apartment. She asked if they were associated with the deceased. They told her they just lived in the building and asked if she was sure it was suicide. Williams realized then that they were true crime junkies and told them it was a textbook suicide. She told them to leave and enjoy the fact that they still have lives to live.

Williams came home one day to find her pregnant wife, Kiara, working on the nursery. She wanted them to do it together, but they were running out of time. Williams heard that Kiara was listening to a true crime podcast and begged her not to subject their unborn child to true crime. Kiara was upset to smell cigarettes on Williams when she leaned in for a kiss, but Williams defended that she'd had to deal with a dead kid that day, one who had been killed by her stepfather. Williams heard the podcast mention Tim Kono and realized it was a podcast about her case, which she closed as a suicide. Kiara believed their point of view had merit, upsetting Williams, who left to go back to the office.

At the office, she learned that the toxicology report wasn't submitted and she also had Tim's phone, which she'd meant to send to IT.

Williams went back home to Kiara and told her what she'd discovered. Kiara wanted her to re-open the case and solve it, but Williams said it doesn't work like that and it would look bad for her to re-open a closed case.

Back at work, Williams listened to the podcast as she went over things. After looking at a picture of Kiara, she put Tim's phone in an enveloped and addressed it to Mabel.

When the trio faced threats from Teddy Dimas to wrap the podcast up and not implicate him and his son in their grave robbing scheme, they contacted Williams for help. They met up in a secluded area and she refused to acknowledge that she was the one who sent them Tim's phone. She told them she was running a tox screen on Tim and a fingerprint scan on his laptop, which was used to type his suicide note. The rest was on them and they had to make it a tight case.

The episode came out soon after and Williams listened to it at her desk. She also had Teddy and Theo arrested for Tim's murder based on the case they made in the episode. Williams call them on the phone to tell them about it, but then got an email from the medical examiner that said that Tim was poisoned before he was shot and she also had timestamped phots of Theo and Teddy outside before the fire alarm even went off, meaning they couldn't have killed Tim.

### Trio's Arrest

Shortly after they proved that Jan Bellows killed Tim, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver were found with Bunny Folger's body. Williams had them arrested and warned them not to say anything as they passed her.

### Questioning the Trio

Mabel, Charles, and Oliver were taken to the police department, where Detectives Kreps and Williams questioned them about the death. When they questioned Mabel, Kreps played the clip from the podcast of Mabel talking about her recurring dream of stabbing an intruder with a knitting needle. Mabel asked for a lawyer at that point. They said that her story, that she came back to her apartment to get champagne and Bunny was just there, had a lot of holes. Mabel asked again for a lawyer. Then they surprised Mabel by asking her what she did with the knife. Mabel hadn't even known she was stabbed with a knife. While they were talking to Oliver, they asked if he hated Bunny, the board president who wanted him out of the building. During Charles' interview, he drew from his experience on Brazzos and tried to find the one-way mirror. Williams became irritated with this and told him to sit down so they could get started. After they were interviewed, they were all released, but told they were persons of interest in the crime. Williams walked them out and warned them not to investigate or make a podcast about the case.

### Visiting Oliver and Charles

Williams cut her maternity leave short to return to New York and question Oliver and Charles, bringing along her baby, Keith. She asked them what really happened when Mabel went to her place to get champagne. When they refused to answer, she said their silence would force her to agree with Kreps, who believed Mabel did it, as she had a history of snapping. Charles said those incidents were unrelated and Bunny wasn't stabbed with a knitting needle after all. The knife wasn't at any of their places and Mabel didn't kill Bunny. Oliver suddenly excused himself to go to the bathroom, where they could hear him telling something to open. Charles awkwardly excused himself to check on Oliver. Williams followed them and listened as they talked about Oliver failing to get rid of the knife. When they opened the door, she confronted them about it, but they played dumb. She said she wasn't trying to put Mabel away, but she did want to solve the case. Oliver and Charles excused themselves to the bathroom again, then returned with the knife, which they handed over to Williams. They explained why Oliver and Lucy's prints would be on it. Williams thanked them and said she'd let them know what she found out.

### Arresting Poppy and Kreps

True to her word, when the forensics came back on the knife, Williams called Mabel and told her the DNA they found on the knife matched a dead girl from Chickasha, Oklahoma: Becky Butler. The trio then set up a show to get Becky, now going as Poppy White, to confess. While they did that, Williams arrested Becky/Poppy's accomplice, Daniel Kreps, then came back to the Arconia to arrest Poppy.

### Interviews

Williams came to the theater on the day of their sitzprobe. She told them that someone involved in the show was the murderer and tried to round them all up to go to the station for interviews. Oliver convinced her to hold the interviews at the theater instead. She took over Charles' dressing room for this purpose, but became frustrated when he kept coming in and ordered him to stay out. When the time came for Charles to perform his patter song, she decided to leave to watch him. Unbeknownst to her, while she was out of the room, Oliver slipped in and planted a camera to record the interviews. At the end of the interviews, she had her officers pull Dickie aside to arrest him, but when Loretta saw this, she stepped up and said she'd killed Ben.

## Personality

Williams is very sarcastic and swears a lot. She is often stressed and annoyed due to her job, and gets especially annoyed with Charles, Oliver and Mabel. However, underneath her cross and sardonic attitude she is a good and kind person. She is also very honest and hardworking.

## Relationships

### Kiara

Williams believed that she would spend her life alone, but her attitude changed when she met Kiara, who she later married. Williams' focus on work has caused problems between her and Kiara, especially when Kiara was preparing for their baby (whom they named Keith) and Williams was spending a lot of time at work and unable to help as much.

## Career

She is a detective. She is trying to make sergeant.

## Gallery

### Episode Stills

Photography by Craig Blankenhorn"Persons of Interest" (S02E01)"Flipping the Pieces" (S02E07)"Sitzprobe" (S03E08)

## References

1. ↑ "To Protect and Serve" (2021). Season 1, episode 6.
2. ↑ "True Crime" (2021). Season 1, episode 1.
3. ↑ "To Protect and Serve" (2021). Season 1, episode 6.
4. ↑ "Fan Fiction" (2021). Season 1, episode 8.
5. ↑ "Open and Shut" (2021). Season 1, episode 10.
6. ↑ "Persons of Interest" (2022). Season 2, episode 1.
7. ↑ "Flipping the Pieces" (2022). Season 2, episode 7.
8. ↑ "I Know Who Did It" (2022). Season 2, episode 10.
9. ↑ "Sitzprobe" (2023). Season 3, episode 8.
10. ↑ "To Protect and Serve" (2021). Season 1, episode 6.
11. ↑ "To Protect and Serve" (2021). Season 1, episode 6.