Darci Irene 'Smiles' Williams, a 25-year-old female, was a cherished daughter known for her ever-present smile. Her life, however, came to a tragic end in the late summer of 2004 in Kansas City, Missouri. The last time her mother saw her alive was on the afternoon of August 25, 2004, when she dropped her off near 25th and Prospect. Darci was seen walking towards a small group of men, a fleeting image that would become the last memory her mother had of her.
Weeks went by with no word from
Darci, a silence that was deeply unsettling for her family. The devastating truth of her fate was revealed on September 4, 2004, when police received a 911 call directing them to an alley between 24th Street and Terrace, near a U-Haul facility. There, hidden from casual view under roofing tar paper and amidst some brush, lay Darci's body. Her remains were badly decomposed, and a black knit shirt was wrapped around her neck. Due to the state of her body, an exact cause of death could not be determined, but the manner in which she was concealed led the medical examiner to rule her death a homicide.
The investigation into Darci's murder uncovered a chilling connection to a series of other female homicides in the area. The man responsible was identified as Terry A. Blair. In a disturbing twist, it was Blair himself who had made the anonymous 911 call leading police to Darci's remains. Following a thorough investigation, Blair was arrested and charged not only with Darci's murder but with the deaths of five other women as well. On March 27, 2008, after a bench trial, Terry A. Blair was found guilty of the murders of Sheliah McKenzie, Patricia Wilson, Carmen Hunt, Anna Ewing, Darci Williams, and Claudette Juniel. He was subsequently sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, bringing a close to the legal chapter of a story that left a permanent scar on the community and the families of his victims.
