Rodricus Fred Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rodricus had been staying with his father Roger Williams and his father’s girlfriend Grace Trotman in July 2010 when his mother unexpectedly called wanting to see her son, Rodricus' mother was told she could pick him up at the Battery in Charleston. The couple claimed the boy had fallen from the Battery into Charleston Harbor. Trotman reported to Charleston Police that she saw Rodricus wandering the Battery and said he had possibly gone through the rails and fallen over the seawall into the harbor. An intense search for the boy ensued but was called off the next morning when it was determined that Rodricus had never been at the Battery. Behind an abandoned trailer they discovered a trash can filled with concrete. Inside the trash can, they found Rodricus.

 

Rodricus had officially been missing since July 6, 2010, but forensic investigators determined he probably died on or around June 6. Rodricus died from blunt trauma to the head before his body was wrapped in plastic bags placed in a trash can and filled with 400 pounds of cement. His body was so badly decomposed it had to be identified through DNA testing.

 

Trotman told investigator that Williams would punch Rodricus in the back and the head, and throw his face to the floor. The night Rodricus died, Trotman said she called Williams at work and he told her not to call 911 because Rodricus had bruises. She said she didn’t call 911 because she was scared. Grace Trotman pled guilty to one count of homicide by child abuse and one count of desecration of human remains. Trotman was sentenced to 15 years in prison with credit for the time she had already served.

Williams was sentenced to life without the chance of parole.