On July 16, 1988, Sharmanita Grays, a 16-year-old African American female, was found dead at the Bay Point Motel located at 3530 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, Florida. Her body was discovered mostly nude in a stairwell just outside the motel room. The circumstances surrounding her death were deeply troubling and pointed to a pattern of violence that had gripped the area during the late 1980s.
Grays had reportedly been staying at the motel with Charles Henry Williams, a man who lived
nearby and was known to her. Williams later admitted to police that he had rented the room for Grays at her request. According to his account, he and Grays smoked crack cocaine together in the room. A third individual, Aida Rodriguez, was also present briefly but was sent out to buy cigarettes. When Rodriguez returned, Williams claimed Grays did not want her to enter the room, allegedly to hide her drug use. Williams stated that he left the motel to obtain more drugs and returned to find the door locked. After a manager opened the door, he found Grays asleep. He claimed he left again and returned later to find the room empty, at which point he stayed, used drugs, and watched television until police arrived.
The body of Sharmanita Grays was found just outside the motel room shortly thereafter. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner determined that she had died from asphyxiation. Her death was one of many similar cases during that period, involving young African American women found partially clothed and strangled in various locations across Miami. These cases were eventually linked to a suspected serial killer operating in the area.
Charles Henry Williams, an African American male born in 1956, became the primary suspect in a string of murders that targeted inner-city women, many of whom were sex workers or drug users. Williams had a long history of sexual assault charges dating back to the 1970s, including multiple convictions and arrests. Witnesses placed him with several victims shortly before their deaths, and he was known to frequent the neighborhoods where many of the bodies were found.
Although Williams was never formally charged with the murder of Sharmanita Grays, he was arrested in April 1989 and later convicted of rape in a separate case. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. At the time of his arrest, police suspected him in at least 17 murders, a number that later rose to 32. The killings shared a consistent pattern: victims were often found nude from the waist down, strangled, and left in secluded areas. Williams denied responsibility for the murders but admitted to having sex with several of the victims shortly before their deaths
