Kenneth Williams went missing without being reported, and authorities are still seeking information about his disappearance. The Long Beach John Doe story is very sad. On June 3rd, 1978, between 4:15 AM and 4:30 AM, people found the body of a young boy lying face down on Division Street in Long Beach, California. He looked like a teenager. When the police came, they thought he might have died from a drug overdose.
Kenneth Williams
They learned something different when they took the boy’s body to the medical examiner’s office. He had been choked and then thrown onto Division Road. He wore a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, a brown belt, and blue and white “Redwings” running shoes, according to the report. He was between 5’7″ and 5’11” tall. ‘PAID’ was written on his hand, but by the time they found him, the ink was pretty worn off.
Police thought the “PAID” stamp on his hand might have come from a pub or club nearby. He was thought to be between 15 and 19 years old by the medical examiner, but most likely closer to 15. After he died, no one came forward to say who he was, so police called him the Long Beach John Doe. Some people thought it might have been affiliated with Randy Kraft, a dangerous serial kil*ler.
Randy Kraft, a dangerous serial k*iller, was working only a mile from where John Doe was found, but he wasn’t thought to be the k*iller in the end. Even though people kept trying, the investigation into who ki*lled John Doe and who he was never made any progress. The Long Beach Police Department was still determined to find the person responsible. Then, in 2022, Othram, a company known for solving cold cases and finding people who have been missing, stepped in to help solve the mystery for good.
A Texas company called Othram got badly damaged skeletal evidence that was linked to John Doe. Earlier attempts to test it had failed, but Othram was able to get DNA that could be used for testing. Genealogists used this DNA to look for possible John Doe relatives. In September 2022, the FBI, Othram, and local police finally held a press conference to share the results that everyone had been waiting for.
The person they finally found was Kenneth Nevada Williams, a 15-year-old boy from La Puente, California, which is about an hour away from Long Beach. He was the John Doe from Long Beach. Kenneth’s family never said that he was missing. Echo Jones, his sister, told ABC News that Kenneth ran away in 1978. They didn’t report it because they thought he had gone to start a new life somewhere else.
She told ABC, “He wanted to live in the city and have fun at clubs. He wasn’t into drugs or anything like that, but you know, big city, bright lights.”
Fox News said Kenneth had not been seen since October 1977, when he was last seen at Fairgrove Academy School. That was a year before he went missing. Right now, police are looking for the person who did what happened to Kenneth so they can put them in jail. People who know anything should call the Long Beach Police Department at 562-570-7246 and give them case number 1978-6979.
