COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — A pair of missing person cases in Collier County have reached 20 years of age, and the investigations remain open. Still, as time has gone on, the disappearances of both Felipe Santos and Terrence Williams have received nationwide attention despite the two decades since they vanished.

Standing in the spot where her son was last seen alive, Marcia Williams spoke about the goals her son Terrence Williams had for his life.

“He wanted to move his children here; that was his goal,” Marcia said. “He did tell me if anything happens to me, basically take care of my children.”

It was a promise his mother, unfortunately, had to keep. In January of 2004, at the Naples Memorial Gardens, her 27-year-old son disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. Terrence had followed his mother to Naples from Tennessee, working odd jobs to save up enough money to move his children down with him.

Then came January 12 of 2004. Terrence made plans to go to a party with friends, parking his unregistered Cadillac at the cemetery.

“Sunday night, I dropped him off and he got into a car that he should not have driven. This was the Cadillac that he had purchased.” Marcia said.

Terrence never came home from the party. His mother grew even more worried as time went on, and hours became days.

“I’m used to talking to him, 2, 3 times a day. Hadn’t heard from him,” she said. “So at that point, we were just calling the jail, the morgue, we were calling everywhere to find him.”

She couldn’t find her son, but she uncovered several clues. Terrence’s Cadillac was behind a fence at a tow yard, and a small group of people who claimed to see him at the cemetery were being loaded into the back of a Collier County deputy’s cruiser, according to reports from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

Thinking Terrence must have been arrested, she called the sheriff’s office but claimed they weren’t much help. This left her with the obvious question.

“How can you put someone in the back of your cruiser, and he’s nowhere!” she said.

Things continued to develop, though. According to those same reports, Deputy Steve Calkins later admitted to picking Terrence up, saying he stopped to help the 27-year-old because he was having car trouble. Calkins said he then gave Terrence a ride in his cruiser to a nearby Circle K.

It was another dead end until Marcia got a call from the Mexican consulate in Miami.

“He said we have a young man missing from the Mexican community. He was picked up by the same deputy, same MO, same everything, and Felipe disappeared just like Terrence, not in jail; they couldn’t find him anywhere.” Marcia said.

Felipe Santos, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico living in Immokalee, had been picked up the previous October in Naples after a minor traffic accident. Interview transcripts from CCSO show Calkins was the deputy who picked him up. Just like Terrence, Santos was never seen again and remains missing.

At the time, neither missing man got much media coverage, something FGCU law enforcement expert David Thomas understands all too well.

“It is the value of life for individuals of different races that this country has had for years. Not until recently, until people start screaming and yelling about it, that’s when law enforcement is forced to change its agenda,” Thomas said.

Regardless, the possibility of a connection drove investigators to get to work. They searched the waters and woods near where the missing men were last seen. They never found a trace of Santos or Williams. Deputy Calkins repeatedly denied harming the men during polygraph tests and was never charged with a crime.

Calkins was fired from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office in 2004 for unbecoming conduct, violating CCSO rules and willfully departing from the truth. Then-Sheriff Don Hunter said in a report, “I have lost trust in Calkins and his ability to describe incidents in detail and to recall them. Also, he was not cooperative with the agency.”

Calkins has since moved to another state.

Marcia later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Calkins, but an arbitrator ruled in favor of Calkins in 2020, and the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

For Marcia, the nightmare continues.

In 2012, ABC7 cameras were rolling as a team of more than 30 people and cadaver dogs searched for nearly seven hours after the sheriff’s office got a reputable tip. It turned up nothing, but it did launch the cases into the mainstream with coverage from journalists like Anderson Cooper.

In May last year, actor/filmmaker Tyler Perry featured both men in a documentary series called “Never Seen Again.”

He’s even offered a $200,000 reward for information.

“Thanks to Tyler Perry, a tremendous amount of help getting it out there, and thank you, lord, because God just keeps opening doors,” Marcia said.

In a statement, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office thanked Tyler Perry for his support and reiterated that both missing person cases remain open. They hope that, eventually, they might get a tip that helps bring closure to both men’s families.

“You become a different person; your whole life changes. If I had closure, that would be different, but I don’t have closure, so I’m just moving along every day, constantly; where can I go? Who can I talk to?”