The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin -Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome back, everyone. Eli is back this week. My back is feeling better. So I did fall again this week on the ice, but slowly recovering, trying to get it all together, trying to make it through this winter in one piece. Winter is coming in strong. But we are happy to both be back this week. And we are on episode 150 this week. That's right. And we are on a cold case. All right.
Let's get into it. Let's do it. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person. Today, we are talking about the cold case of Arthur James Williams Jr. And this happens in Las Vegas, Nevada in April of 1985. But first, a little bit about Arthur. In 1985, Arthur was just three years old and living in Las Vegas, Nevada with his family. He and his five -year -old sister, Anglia,
were close and spent their days together. Their father, who was also named Arthur, worked as a porter at the Tropicana Hotel, and their mother, Annie, worked as a maid at the Las Vegas Hilton. Since father and son shared the same name, the nickname Junior quickly stuck with Arthur. Annie and Arthur Sr. were not together, but they were co -parenting well. Annie lived in the York apartments at 213 West New York Avenue in a neighborhood
known as Naked City in Las Vegas, Nevada. Just two streets over on Philadelphia Avenue is where Arthur Sr. lived. So Jr. and his sister were comfortable in this neighborhood and spent a lot of time going back and forth between their parents' homes. The neighborhood is located just off of the famous Las Vegas Strip. In fact, their neighborhood is in the shadow of the Strat Hotel. Of course, that was not there in 1985, but today you can see the big Stratosphere Hotel right
from both of their homes. While the area had a reputation of being rougher, neighbors pushed back on that image, insisting it wasn't fair and didn't reflect the people who lived there. For Arthur and Anglia, this was a familiar and comfortable neighborhood. Arthur was known for his smile. He was happy -go -lucky, smart for his age and strong. Remarkably strong for a three -year -old, his family would remark. He was also a child whose presence brought joy to the small
circle around him. Neighbors knew him by the smile that just seemed to light up his face. And now a timeline of events. Monday, April 15th, 1985. Just a little bit after 5 p .m., Annie is off of work at the Hilton and she picks up both of her children from their dad and stepmother's home on Philadelphia Avenue. Since she had just gotten off of work, her and the kids quickly swung by her apartment so that way she could
change out of her clothes. Then they all jumped back in the car and headed over to KFC to pick up some dinner. After picking up the food, they head straight back to the apartment. Arthur and his sister said that they weren't hungry. They weren't ready to eat. They wanted to go outside and play. So Annie told them it was fine to go outside. It was just about 6 p .m., so it's still
daylight at this point. When they first step out of their apartment and outside, Anglia notices a white man sitting on a low wall along the sidewalk of West New York Avenue. He was wearing a white button -down shirt that was unbuttoned and had the sleeves rolled up. He was also wearing blue jeans. He was about 5 '8", slender, around 130 pounds, with blondish -brownish hair, possibly
graying, and a slight mustache. She also mentioned specifically that he was wearing brown deck shoes, and he also spoke with some sort of European accent, but no specifics on what kind. The man was sitting on this like half wall outside of the apartment, and Anglia also sat on the wall but farther away from the man. And Arthur was just playing on the sidewalk a few feet in front
of his sister. Suddenly, Anglia heard the man say something along the lines of, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to hurt you, to her little brother. Then, without hesitation, the man stood up, pulled out a folding knife from his pocket, and took a single step towards Arthur. Arthur was still playing on the ground near the curb when the man approached and swung once, stabbing him in the head just above the ear. And just
as quickly, the man took off running. He was bolting down the alley off West New York Avenue, running south. In almost the same instance, Anglia took off running to her mother's apartment, screaming, and told her mom that Arthur had been hit. Annie emerged out of the apartment into a nightmare. She thought that Arthur had been hit by a car since Anglia had come in saying that he was hit, so she's looking in the middle of the road
for her son but can't find him. It's then that Anglia points to Arthur, who's crumpled up next to the curb, and Annie scoops up her son and screams for help. A neighbor rushes out and begins doing CPR on the boy as 911 is called. It's reported that around 6 -11, so really 11 minutes after the kids had stepped outside, is when the first 911 calls started coming in to police. Paramedics arrive, and they start rushing Arthur to the hospital. At this point, no one has been able
to confirm that it was a stabbing. They don't know if he had been hit, if he had been struck with an object, but all they can really know for sure is that he's bleeding from his head. An officer left at the scene realizes that Anglia is the only witness to the murder. She tells police what she saw. The scene at the apartment is small. There is a little blood left at the ground from Arthur, but really it's contained, so police are able to secure the scene quickly.
Paramedics rush Arthur to the hospital, where he's quickly moved into surgery. He's still alive at this point, but unresponsive. The next day, Thursday, April 16, 1985, about 17 hours after the attack, at around 10 .20 a .m., Arthur passes away at the hospital. His parents made the decision to donate his organs. His corneas, kidneys, and heart went on to save and help others. His father said, quote, My son's no longer with us, so I prefer to have another life continue. My son
will live on in somebody else's body. Annie very quickly makes the decision that she cannot stay in that apartment any longer. She quickly returns to just grab some important things and then finds a new place to live very quickly. Word spread throughout the complex, sending fear through a community where children were usually running around and playing in the streets. Kids were still outside, but now... Every parent was hovering close by. One neighbor said, quote, we're watching
everybody, even people we know. He might be coming back for someone else or just returning to see the cops. So everyone's on alert and everybody's suspicious of everyone. Another neighbor tells police that he had been outside moments before the attacks but had stepped back into his apartment when the attack was actually taking place. He says, quote, I wish I had stayed out there. I might have seen something. I wonder why he didn't hurt the girl. I guess the guy was nuts or planned
to kill the boy all along. Tips began coming in as media coverage increased on the case. At the time, in 1985, this really hits the Las Vegas media. It's front page news for many, many days. Police are canvassing the area for witnesses
and going door to door to get statements. They did talk to an apartment manager who said that about 15 minutes before the murder, Two Hispanic males had been sitting on the wall drinking beer, but the apartment manager had chased them off because they were littering their beer cans in the landscaping. The men had gone down the same alley that the murderer would run down minutes later. Police continue to question everybody, but it seems very quickly that the only person
that saw the murder is Arthur's sister. On Wednesday, April 17th, 1985, so this is two days since the murder, police had no solid leads at this point and were pleading with the public for help. They hoped that the horror and randomness of the crime would push someone to come forward with what they know. Working with Anglia, detectives established the basic sequence. The man was sitting on the wall. He talked to the children. threatened to kill Arthur, and then pulled out the knife and
stabbed him before running south. It all happened very, very quickly. Detectives work with her to create a composite sketch of the man. And initially, a $1 ,000 reward is offered, but quickly this grows and doubles as people donate due to the horror of the crime. One investigator called it, quote, the most senseless thing I've seen. The family was shattered. They couldn't stop
thinking about Arthur's final moments. The family seemed sure that he likely smiled as the man approached him because that's just how he was. He smiled at everybody. His father said, quote, We don't know what happened. Now we're afraid for his sister. She was the only witness. Why would someone do something to a kid like this? To pull a knife on a baby like this? I can't see it. The family believes that there had to be another witness. It was still daylight when
the crime happened. People were out on the street driving by. There was always people out and about in this community, so his parents believe that somebody else should have seen something. Later that day, police announced that they were looking for another possible suspect, but it could be the same man. This man was seen shortly before the murder took place at about 545, so 15, 20 minutes before the actual act. He matched the
general description that Anglia had given. A white male, early 30s, around 5 '8", with graying brown blondish hair, combed over the ears and parted on the right. He was wearing a cotton white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, light brown khaki pants, and old brown deck shoes. He spoke English with a European accent, so very similar to the same description that Anglia had given. A composite sketch was created from
all of this and released to the media. On Thursday, April 18th, so this is three days after the murder, and police officially release the composite sketch based off of Anglia's description and the description of the man seen, you know, shortly before the crime took place. Hundreds of calls start pouring in, and police start chasing down every single one. People feel like they really recognize at
least somebody from this composite sketch. The next day, on Friday, April 19th, so four days since the murder, a second sketch was released, though this one has fewer details in the face. We'll have them up on our Instagram, at coldandmissing, so you'll see the first one they release is very detailed. The second one... is less detailed. No explanation was given for why a second drawing was needed or released, but again, more and more tips come in for people who think that they know
this man in the composite sketch. However, police run down all of the leads that come in one by one, and they rule each one out. On Tuesday, April 23rd, so it's been a week since the murder, Detectives still had no workable leads. Hundreds of calls had been logged, but none pointed them towards a suspect. Police had ran them down one by one, and according to them, none of them panned
out. On Sunday, April 28, 1985, so it's been 13 days now, and nearing the two -week mark, fear in the apartment complex remained high. A neighbor, Maria Lopez, said, I'm scared because they haven't caught the guy. I don't know what's going to happen. and I'm keeping a closer eye every day. The complex manager, Willie Daniels, said the atmosphere had changed entirely. Quote, everybody's leery at night. It's just really depressing. There used to always be children
playing. It's just dead now. A couple of tenants have even purchased guns. Arthur's father voiced another concern, that there were likely witnesses who were too afraid to come forward. He says, quote, In response to this, in May of 1985, so a month after Arthur's murder, a couple in the neighborhood, Jim and Rosa Weber, bought a dedicated phone line and printed posters in Spanish, hoping that if someone did have information, but was undocumented, they would come forward to Rosa
and Jim and tell them what they know. This was even signed off by the police, who thought it would be helpful as their case had stalled a month out. However, it doesn't seem that any meaningful tips ever came from this effort. And despite the sketches, the tips, the interviews, and the overall terror really gripping this area, this neighborhood, quickly the case goes cold.
Over the years, investigators try to work on the case and they do some things here and there, but it remains firmly in the cold case category. In January of 2025, so just earlier this year, almost a complete year now that we're at the end of December or nearing the end of December, but just shy of 39 years, the Las Vegas police stepped up their effort around their cold cases. So they officially formed a cold case unit and had full -time detectives working specifically
just on cold cases. And retired homicide Lieutenant Jason Johanson sits down for a LVMPD -produced podcast, and he discusses the case. In this interview, he mentions that there were truly lots of tips called in on this case, from as small as mentioning a man who always carried a knife on him, to a specific tip to check out a man in the Air Force, but he doesn't really elaborate on that at all.
However, he says that the most consistent tip that came in was that Annie, Arthur's mom, had a relationship with a guy that she worked with at the Las Vegas Hilton. Tipsters believed that the man could be involved in Arthur's murder. Coworkers of Annie said that about three weeks before the murder, the two of them had broken up and he had threatened to hurt her while she was at work. Annie had reported him at work to her supervisors, and he was fired as a result.
He again threatened Annie when he was fired. Police at the time in 1985 interviewed the man, and ultimately, it appeared to rule him out. He had passed a polygraph test at the time, but really, the most damning piece of evidence was that Anglia didn't recognize him. Anglia knew who... Anglia knew who her mom's ex -boyfriend was and could recognize him. However, she did
not recognize her brother's murderer. Police say that they have talked with Anglia recently to discuss her brother's murder and that the evidence that they have in this case is very slim, but there is some. As far as evidence goes, according to this interview, they still have the blood that was found at the scene and recovered. The blood has never been tested to, one, confirm that it's truly Arthur's and never tested to see if it had been mixed with anybody else's.
So no idea if the murderer maybe accidentally cut himself in the attack and perhaps his blood is at the scene too. So that has never been tested according to this interview, but there are plans to test it. I don't know if that's happened in 2025. I couldn't find any updates on this, but it's... does sound like the LVMPD is looking to test it. The other piece of evidence they have is a beer bottle that they found in the
alleyway that the murderer ran down. Now, there was that apartment manager who chased those guys off like 15, 20 minutes before the murder happened, but he specifically said that they were drinking beer cans. And they found a beer bottle in the alley. So police collected it. And they did process it. And there are some fingerprints on it. But they've never come back with a match. So I know they ran it through the systems in 1985. They
did it again in the mid -90s. And I believe, again, they're going to try again in 2025 to see if anything's been added to the system over the years that maybe they could get a hit on. However, if those things have happened, I do not know. Or if they have, there might not be
any new information. Truly, it sounds like police think that this will only be solved when somebody comes forward with information that they've either been sitting on, a deathbed confession, or maybe something that's just jogged their memory in
hearing Arthur's story being told. But that is truly all we know about the murder of Arthur James Williams Jr. So if you know anything about the murder of Arthur in April of 1985, please contact the LVMPD at 702 -828 -3521 or to give an anonymous tip, you can call Crime Stoppers at 702 -385 -5555. So that is the cold case of Arthur Williams Jr. I just wanted to start off talking a little bit about Arthur and just that,
I mean, he was a child. The descriptors of him being happy and just a bright little soul wasn't shocking to me because he was so young. His personality was just beginning. And I'm really glad to know that his sister is still with us. And, you know, the way his family cared for him after his passing and the way they shared their son with people. And I'm talking in terms of the organ donation, I thought was so beautiful. But this was a really
heartbreaking listen. I'm sure it will be for anyone else who's listening, but the amount of time that has passed, I just want to say I don't think it's impossible to solve this. So I'm talking about it from a hopeful perspective, even though it is truly devastating that Arthur is not here anymore. Yeah, that was so beautifully said. We, you know, of course, we'll have pictures of Arthur on our Instagram. And when you see like this, like just like beautiful, like, I
don't know, three year olds. I know they're not technically babies, but I'm like, that's just a beautiful little baby. Like he's he's a baby to me. Like he's so little. And yeah, the the cruelty, the randomness. Of this just sense, senseless, completely senseless murder, like. I'm truly kind of at a loss of words when I think about this case because it's just senseless in every way that something can be senseless. The community behind this story, behind this heartbreaking
story, I think is kind of heroic. And of course, along with his family, which we'll speak on a little bit later. First, just taking note of the community's response to hearing that they were referred to as a rough community, maybe rough around the edges, and that their response was, no, that's not who we are, and that they're a neighborhood and a community of people kind
of building something together. And I really loved hearing that, that they had a willingness to defend themselves and pride in their own. I thought that that was really beautiful. And their response to Arthur's murder was pretty incredible too, down to the donations and the willingness of people to be a safe space for people to bring information to if they had it, and police response too within that community. Overall, I thought it was really positive, especially
in comparison to what we've heard before. And especially for the time period, I was kind of surprised that it was taken as seriously as it was. And that's what gives me hope here, again, that there is a possibility that this case could be solved. Yeah, I think this case had to be taken seriously by everyone just because, like, truly how senseless it was. I feel like everybody, police, neighbors, community, Las Vegas as a whole was like, okay, let's get this guy. Like,
this is a bad guy. Like, Las Vegas might have some shady people within it, but it seemed collectively everyone was like, this is a bad guy that we don't want here. And still, this man has just slipped through. It was completely random, which
makes it, especially in 1985. very hard to solve you know there's no security cameras there's no cell phones there's no dash cams that you know there's just no little pieces to help the police like even start to try to figure out who this person is now i know we can't figure it out here on this podcast but what we can do is rewind a little bit and i just want to rewind to the beginning of the timeline which is when Arthur's mother is picking up Arthur and his
sister from their dad's house. Now, since she's ending her work shift and they're picking up some dinner on the way home, that description sounded very familiar to me. My mom worked, and often when she would pick us up and my dad was still working, we would pick up some sort of fast food on the way home. And just the description of it all, the kids still wanting to play outside a little bit before the sun went down, all of it sounded very normal to me. Nothing that I
wouldn't have done as a child myself. I think I had multiple nights like that as a kid. So everything to me sounded very normal and standard for this kind of night for them. Yeah. From all accounts, this was like a very typical night. You know, like I said in the beginning, Arthur's parents, you know, were They weren't together, but they were co -parenting great and lived just blocks from one another. So the kids were comfortable in this neighborhood. They knew the streets well.
They knew people in between. Everybody kind of knew who they were. Yeah, like everything about it made sense down to like the kids not really wanting to eat in that moment. They want to go outside and play. So like, sure, go outside and play. You're a child. Have fun. Now, I know the timeline honestly kind of starts and ends here,
but. a ton happens and one of the things that I I didn't really take note of it but because there was nothing to take note of but as I was listening to you if it felt like this man had appeared out of nowhere and I know he had been he had been sitting there watching them but to me maybe if he had been there even in the minutes prior as she was driving herself and the kids in after picking up the KFC, was he even there
in those moments? It sounds like he appeared within minutes of the kids being out there, killed Arthur, and then vanished. Like, as mysteriously as he was there, then suddenly he was not. And that's the... That's the weirdest part of the story for me, or not the story, the oddest part of the crime is that this man seems so oddly placed. So some questions I have, I don't know if you'll be able to answer them, was, was he out of place? Was he someone who looked out of
place within this community? Because if not, the sketches of this man show nothing that would set him apart. And by that, I mean, if he looks like someone who could have been in the community, the sketches aren't really going to say much. So I know I threw a lot at you there, and I'm going to let you just jump on now. I do think the man would have looked a little bit out of place in 1985 in this neighborhood. Was and mostly is still today, I believe, a black and brown
neighborhood. Not a lot of white folks live there. So I think that this man would have seemed very out of place. And maybe that's why there are some witnesses who say they saw someone looking very similar about 15, 20 minutes before the crime. We don't know where neighbors. Might have seen him before it happened, like where in relation
to the apartment he was seen. But yeah, I would be actually very curious to know if, you know, Annie or Arthur's sister had noticed the man when they had pulled up and gone into the apartment with the food, if they had seen the man there, because we know. 15 minutes before the murder, he's not there. The apartment manager had seen those other two men chase them off. So he wasn't sitting there at that time. And then when the
kids come out, he's already on the wall. From my understanding, he's sitting there already. And Anglia sits away from him. And then he kind of stands up, says something to the effect of like, I'm going to hurt you or I'm going to kill him. makes a threatening statement for sure and
then steps forward and murders Arthur. Yeah to me you know especially if he is someone that did not look similar to anyone else in the community I think that he was someone who was not part of the community and he also sounds like someone who was it's very easy to say evil and yes I believe part of that but just possibly out of his mind because, I mean, maybe I'm saying that because I can't make sense of what happened. So I must believe that, that he was out of his
mind. I guess I wanted to know if you thought that the ex -boyfriend's possible involvement was worth anything. I know he was cleared by law enforcement. But he did make those threats towards her. And yeah, I don't know. I guess I wanted to just circle back on him as well. I think to answer that, I have to back up a little bit to just the suspect overall, the man that murdered Arthur. Because while we don't know a lot, there are a few things that we do know.
Like he takes off running for one. He runs south through an alleyway. And if I'm not mistaken, that would lead towards the Las Vegas Strip, like the famous Strip. And this man is said to have some sort of European accent and thinking about Las Vegas and all the tourism that it attracts
and the kind of. transient town that it already is because it's a you know it's a tourism town so people coming in and out i i think about that um how close they are to the strip the accent um all of that starts to get in my head about who this this person is and and he took off running he didn't get in a car so does he live nearby is he running to the strip is he going to a hotel is he visiting so that's why you know like that so that triggers those questions and then to
come around to the ex -boyfriend he made multiple threats to Annie and had like oh I don't want to say a reason to be mad but you know we see this this evidence of like he's fired from his job and then a few weeks later her son is killed after he made threats against her so I think it's like worth talking to him again but I don't think he actually did the crime just because Arthur's sister didn't recognize him and police seemed confident that she would have recognized
the mom's ex -boyfriend at that point so you know it's like I wonder could it be a murder for hire you know could you meet a tourist and you know they're kind of out of their mind and you talk them into doing this thing obviously that's all speculation we don't know but that's really just where my mind kind of circles on this a little bit is just How does that guy get to sitting on that wall at that time? Yeah, I
mean, my mind theorized that as well. But because the crime, the senseless murder against Arthur, it seemed so chaotic to me that it couldn't possibly have been a murder for hire. But when I think about... Other cases we have looked at, not necessarily ones we've covered on the podcast, just ones you and I have taken an interest in in our own life. I've seen wilder murder for hires, for sure, especially in documentaries, any historical cases. So it's completely possible. But again,
I recognize that that's our theories. I just wanted to circle back again. Because there's DNA in this case or possible DNA. So to me, that means that everything gets looked at again. Everything that was looked at the first time needs a second and fresh eye and new things need to be looked at as well. But for me, this includes the ex -boyfriend that maybe he needs to be questioned again. Yeah, I think re -questioning people is always great. Just how has your story changed
over the years if it's changed, right? And then, yes, DNA. When I was listening to this interview and I heard that they never tested the blood, my first thought was like, well, what if the guy accidentally cut himself? You hear about that a lot in crimes that involve stabbing. While it was just one wound that was inflicted on Arthur, there's still that possibility that, you know, an abrupt stop, we don't know exactly where,
you know, a knife is going to stop moving. Your hand slips, you cut yourself a little bit, that gets mixed up in the chaos. So testing it in 2025, or if it hasn't been tested yet, 2026, with very sensitive, sophisticated DNA tests, I think is a great shot. And if we get a DNA match or a DNA hit that's not Arthur, I think
that can really blow this case wide open. And I hope that testing is... still being done I'm hanging a lot of hope on it yeah I am as well I really hope that if this DNA is looked at that it's on Arthur's side that it's on the justice of Arthur's side for for him for his sister for his mother for his father for his whole family and for that community yeah all of Arthur's family deserve answers in this case and whoever did this to this little boy this baby needs to be
needs to answer for it they need to be held accountable nobody I it feels so wrong in my body that this person has just gone through life for the last 40 plus years without having to answer for this so desperately desperately desperately want to see this case solved for Arthur and his family so again If you know anything about the murder of Arthur Williams Jr., please contact the LVMPD at 702 -828 -3521 or to give an anonymous tip, you can call Crime Stoppers at 702 -385 -5555.
Like I mentioned throughout the podcast, we'll have that beautiful picture of Arthur on our Instagram at coldandmissing. And we'll also have the two suspect sketches. Again, like I mentioned, one is very detailed. The other is not as detailed. But police. Still today on their website have both of these composites together. So I want to put them both out there. You never know what's going to jog someone's memory. So all of those can be found on our website at Cold and Missing.
And please share those. Let's get energy behind Arthur's case. I feel the movement, like the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, they want to solve this case. They want this case off their books. They want answers here. The family wants answers. Let's give the... the energy to this case and let everyone know we haven't forgotten about Arthur. We want answers here. Another way that you can help us spread the word, get the message out about this cold case and other cold cases
is leaving us a five -star review. It goes a long way in feeding that algorithm machine that we all have to deal with. So five stars really gets people to listen to this podcast, give us a shot. hear cases like this. So if you've never heard of Arthur's case before, please go give us a five -star rating and get this case out there. Get Cold and Missing out there so more people are talking about it. I can't believe
I never heard of this case before. I think everyone should be talking about this so we can get it solved. And if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we have... official transcripts on our website, www .coldandmissing .com. You can also contact us there and you can find all of our old episodes there as well. It's a great resource. If you want to connect, if you want to find other things, visit us at www .coldandmissing
.com. But that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all. Thank you.