Kriti Mehrotra
It was in late 2011 when everything turned upside down for the family of 50-year-old mother of three Edwardyne Ann Williams, as she suddenly disappeared without a trace left behind. What no one could have ever imagined was that she would soon be found dead, as explored in Investigation Discovery’s ‘Heart Of Darkness: History Of Violence,’ leaving loved ones shattered. According to them, she had no known enemies and was trying to lead a rather self-fulfilling life, but law enforcement officials were fortunately able to identify the perpetrator quickly.
Edwardyne Williams Was Found Dead in a Wooded Area Days After She Went Missing
Although born on November 23, 1961, in Michigan, to Edwardyne Tessmer and Daniel Kreel, Edwardyne “Dynee” Kreel Williams eventually settled down in Hope Mills, North Carolina. She was actually one of six kids, so she distinguished herself early on when growing up, all the while also embracing different familial dynamics as well as motherhood when it came knocking. As per reports, she had two daughters from her first marriage, a son from an ensuing relationship, and had sadly just lost her second husband, Michael Williams, on December 18, 2010.
Therefore, by the time late 2011 rolled around, Edwardyne was doing her best to transform her grief into motivation and working towards a master’s degree from a nearby college. Little did she know she would never be able to complete her studies as she would disappear on November 27, 2011, hours after she had attended a concert in South Carolina alongside a friend. Her last text was to this friend at 1 am, thanking him for taking her out, following which she went radio silent – that’s when her family began to worry since such silence was uncharacteristic.
Edwardyne was close to her loved ones, so one of her brothers went to her 1822 Canady Pond Road home to see what was wrong after no one could reach out to her for a few days. The only person there was her son, Robert Terry Ellison, who also hadn’t seen his mother since the early hours of November 27, resulting in them filing an official missing person’s report. Unfortunately, it was initially just the 50-year-old’s car as well as her cellphone that were found abandoned on Chickenfoot Road on December 4, with her purse being recovered from a tree nearby. Later on, on December 11, her remains were found at an illegal trash site 200 feet from her home road – she was face down, and her neck bones, cartilage, as well as muscles, were broken in a way consistent with strangulation.
All Lines of Investigation into Edwardyne Williams’ Murder Revealed Only Circumstantial Evidence
From the moment Edwardyne was reported missing, suspicions about her son, Robert Ellison, arose because not only had he not raised any alarms for her, but he also didn’t seem concerned. This much was even backed by the brother who had come to check up on the victim, with him indicating to officials that his nephew seemed rather nonchalant about the situation. As if that’s not enough, the then-29-year-old himself stated he didn’t think anything about it until his uncle showed up, since his mother had allegedly told him she planned on going away.
According to Robert’s statements, he had moved back in with Edwardyne relatively recently to help her navigate grief while also finishing his studies without worrying about rent or finances. “She came up with the idea that it would probably be easier for me to come home and it would be best for all of us,” he said in an interview. “…we could help each other out.” However, as investigators began looking deeper into him, other aspects of his overall relationship with his mother started coming to light too, especially the fact that he openly resented her.
As per records, Robert didn’t have a great childhood or a comfortable life as an adult, and he blamed his otherwise happy mother for it all, whether it made sense to do so or not. One of his half-sisters actually testified that he had been in and out of the house throughout his life owing to substance issues, which even resulted in him once securing a brief stint in state prison. Then, his other half-sister came forward to reveal he had once bent their mother’s finger backward following an argument in 2006, and it wasn’t entirely new for him to be physical. In fact, one of his ex-partners testified that he used to choke her during fights before another witness revealed they’d heard him threaten Edwardyne’s life.
As if that’s not enough, when detectives spoke with the victim’s college advisor, they asserted they knew she had been concerned about her son moving back in owing to their history. Therefore, with the brother’s statement clarifying that Robert had told him Edwardyne had left home on that fateful night following a fight between them, they suspected him to be his mother’s killer. In the end, though, it was her signature keychain hanging in a location she would never have placed it in their home, as well as the fact that he had the keys to her abandoned car, that enabled them to arrest him on the charge of murder.
Robert Terry Ellison is Currently Serving Life in Prison
Despite the prosecutors not having any DNA evidence, direct eyewitness statements, or a confession, they took Edwardyne Williams’ murder case to trial with just circumstantial evidence. The defense tried to poke holes in their narrative by suggesting someone else might be responsible since there was nothing to really connect Robert to his mother’s cause of death but to no avail. Following a week of testimonies, the jury believed that he had indeed killed Edwardyne in a fit of rage before disposing of her and abandoning her car to throw off the investigation. As a result, in November 2015, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole despite his maintaining his innocence until the very end. Thus, today, at the age of 43, he remains incarcerated at the Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
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