Devin Williams

[crystaldawn]

For those of you who don't remember that name offhand he was the truck driver who drove his semi into the National Forest and began acting strangely and disappeared. Apparently his case continues to be a true "unsolved mystery". I talked to Devin's daughter a few days ago. She said they still have no idea why he was acting that way before he disappeared. Although Lifetime never updated it, Devin's skull was found around 6 months after he went missing at the bottom of a cliff. The rest of his remains were never found.

[joshypiano]

CrystalDawn, what is it with you and truck drivers lately?

Anyway, for me there are only a few options for this case:

1) he developed a mental illness/nervous breakdown
2) he ingested some substance
3) he suffered some trauma to the head

According to the family he didn't do drugs and didn't have any history of mental illness (although some variants can come on very quickly and almost unforseen). So my guess is either something stress related caused him to snap, or due to the stress he began taking drugs (which i have a truck driver friend who tells me its very prevalent withing the truck driving scene), or perhaps he had some slight accident which caused some damage to his head.
One thing that rules out the drugs thing for me (most likely) is that he was seen the next day still behaving strangely. Thats sounds more like a long term
problem. Such as a mental issue or head trauma.

[icomeinpeace]

I've always wondered about this man and what could have possibly have happened to make him act so bizarrely. I did find this strange article. I think it's best taken with a grain of salt.

http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/v44/ss970110.htm

"Smear" has become intrigued with a story we didn't bother to print at the time, about a 18-wheel truck driver named Devin Williams who disappeared mysteriously in May of 1995, at a location only five miles from the spot in Arizona where Travis Walton was allegedly abducted in the 1970s.

Williams drove his 18-wheeler off the main highway onto a winding unpaved road in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, and when it got stuck, he abandoned it there. Campers who saw Williams asked him why he had driven into this dense wilderness, and he replied, "I didn't do it. They did it", but he did not elaborate. The next day he was seen again, barefoot, disoriented, and "talking to a tree". That is the last time he was ever seen, and he is presumed dead. "Unsolved Mysteries" ran the story, MUFON investigated it, and two psychics tried their talents; but as of this writing, no one knows what really happened to this unfortunate driver!...

[Oooga Chucka]

This case is very sad. I remember them showing a pic of him and his family, and then they showed a black and white pic of his family without him, and they were all sad-faced. Just heartbreaking.

The word "trauma" has been thrown around here - is it possible that he was involved in a traffic accident in which someone else was killed? By all accounts, he sounded like a straight-up guy. If he had felt responsible for someone's death, that might have caused him to snap and also be worried about "jail."

[Clockworkhigh]

Originally Posted by Oooga Chucka

This case is very sad. I remember them showing a pic of him and his family, and then they showed a black and white pic of his family without him, and they were all sad-faced. Just heartbreaking.

The word "trauma" has been thrown around here - is it possible that he was involved in a traffic accident in which someone else was killed? By all accounts, he sounded like a straight-up guy. If he had felt responsible for someone's death, that might have caused him to snap and also be worried about "jail."

Good possibility, but there would have been a body found if he killed someone. There would have been witnesses for a truck that size hitting a person/car. There also would have been damage done on his truck if he did hit someone and then cover it up. That is too far-fetched and it would require police corruption, no witnesses, no damage, no missing person reported all in one. Unlikely.

[truthbtold]

This was just on Spike last week and they didn't have any update about his skull being found.

[cmyweb]

Originally Posted by truthbtold

This was just on Spike last week and they didn't have any update about his skull being found.

I'm pretty sure they did...if you'll notice Spike frequently starts the showings a few minutes late and then the end gets cut off by the DVR. In this case the update was at the beginning of the second hour aired.

[sdb4884]

Maybe he was involved in a hit and run incident and was overcome with guilt.

[cocytus]

Originally Posted by joshypiano

CrystalDawn, what is it with you and truck drivers lately?

Anyway, for me there are only a few options for this case:

1) he developed a mental illness/nervous breakdown
2) he ingested some substance
3) he suffered some trauma to the head

According to the family he didn't do drugs and didn't have any history of mental illness (although some variants can come on very quickly and almost unforseen). So my guess is either something stress related caused him to snap, or due to the stress he began taking drugs (which i have a truck driver friend who tells me its very prevalent withing the truck driving scene), or perhaps he had some slight accident which caused some damage to his head.
One thing that rules out the drugs thing for me (most likely) is that he was seen the next day still behaving strangely. Thats sounds more like a long term
problem. Such as a mental issue or head trauma.

I tend to agree. However, there are many drugs that can cause debilitating effects if taken in excessive quantities or if people have allergic reactions to them. Some of those drugs were (and are) easily available to people who travel for work, like truck drivers.

Additionally there's:

1) Medical conditions like diabetes and meningitis that can cause strange behavior.
2) He may have had an existing mental illness and simply was able to function w/ it until a certain point.
3) Sun stroke/heat stroke-induced psychosis. He could have been suffering from a heat-related illness.

The sad part about this was that none of the campers apparently had any way (or if they did, didn't use it) any means to contact emergency services about this guy. That may have saved his life. When I go out hiking, I always take a small two-way radio as well as my cell phone in case of emergencies.

It would be nice if more people did the same. It would certainly reduce the number of incidents like this.

[kane7474]

There was another Devin Williams thread on her a few months back where I had posted about seeing a friend of mine who was also a truck driver act just like Devin was before he went missing.
My freind had diabetes and would have these episodes like this where he would act irratic and make no sense. Luckily for him there where people around that knew what was going on and got him to eat which brought him out of the altered state of mind. I think Devin had an issue like this but unfortuatley there was no one around that recognized his symptoms and could help so he literally wondered around until he died of exposure.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by kane7474

There was another Devin Williams thread on her a few months back where I had posted about seeing a friend of mine who was also a truck driver act just like Devin was before he went missing.
My freind had diabetes and would have these episodes like this where he would act irratic and make no sense. Luckily for him there where people around that knew what was going on and got him to eat which brought him out of the altered state of mind. I think Devin had an issue like this but unfortuatley there was no one around that recognized his symptoms and could help so he literally wondered around until he died of exposure.

I agree with Kane. His behavior alone seems to me like he had some mental health issue, but you would think his family would have known about some history of mental illness. That's why the diabetic "shock" scenario seems the mostlikley in this case.

[kane7474]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I agree with Kane. His behavior alone seems to me like he had some mental health issue, but you would think his family would have known about some history of mental illness. That's why the diabetic "shock" scenario seems the mostlikley in this case.

Well this is normally how people find out they are diabetic. I have two friends who found out they had diabetes by going into a coma. Devin may have just developed it and it hit him while driving home.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by kane7474

Well this is normally how people find out they are diabetic. I have two friends who found out they had diabetes by going into a coma. Devin may have just developed it and it hit him while driving home.

Yep I don't think he knew previously that he was diabetic and he suddenly lapsed into one of the shocks on his trip.

[kane7474]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Yep I don't think he knew previously that he was diabetic and he suddenly lapsed into one of the shocks on his trip.

Ya when I saw the re-enactment of this I recognized that odd behavior as being exactly what my friend was doing when he had his episode. Its sad that law enforcement was not able to get to him and recognize his condition.

[idol]

The diabetic scenario is a good guess since he had no history of drug use or mental illness.