Trailblazing Henderson police detective dies

John Trouble Williams Sr. would regularly drop by the grave site of a teenage slaying victim only known for four decades as “Jane Arroyo Grande Doe.”

The Henderson police homicide detective and his wife, Jackie, even raised funds for a headstone the couple would visit and decorate with flowers several times a year.

At the site, the veteran officer would utter a promise: “one day or another they will find out who did this,” the couple’s daughter, Joan Williams, said this week.

John Williams died on Nov. 17, nearly two years after he attended a press conference in which police officials named the Jane Doe as 17-year-old Tammy Corrine Terrell of Roswell, New Mexico.

He was 73.

Jackie Williams, his wife of 50 years, died one year and 16 days before he did, their daughter said.

“He served the Henderson Police Department with Honor and Distinction and positively impacted all those who worked with him,” police Chief Hollie Chadwick told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a statement, noting that she had the privilege of working with the detective.

“We are forever grateful to his dedication, sacrifice, and service to the City of Henderson and the Henderson Police Department,” she continued.

Dedication to fatherhood

His qualities as a tireless detective were reflective to his dedication to fatherhood.

Joan Williams tenderly recalled her childhood being filled with camping, fishing and hunting trips.

If Williams his children wanted to play, say catch, after he came home after long work hours, he would only ask for a few minutes to unwind.

Then, “he would come with his glove, ready to play,” his daughter said about playing until she was tired or they couldn’t see.

When Williams and her sister were toddlers, the couple showed up to Carson City intending to adopt their second child.

They walked out of the adoption center as parents of three, she said.

“The moment that we met, he was like, ‘no, we are taking them both,’ ” Joan Williams said about her and her sister.

Became a confidant

Later a father of adult children, he became a confidant, a best friend, who can put their mind at ease, she added.

If Joan Williams was going through a tough time, he would offer reassurances about being proud of her and pleading to not be too harsh on herself, she said.

“He was an amazing, amazing man,” she added.

Born in Barberton, Ohio, Williams’ family relocated to Henderson in his late teenage years, according to his online obituary.

Before he became an officer in 1972, he worked doing laundry for Strip casinos, Joan Williams said.

After patrolling Henderson neighborhoods for four years, he was promoted to detective for a variety of units, before becoming one of the city’s few homicide investigators.

Tammy’s bludgeoned and stabbed body was discovered on Oct. 5, 1980, near old Lake Mead Drive and Arroyo Grande Boulevard.

‘Only family she’s got’

“I’ll never not work on it,” Williams said about the case in a 2006 retirement story in the Review-Journal. “We’re basically the only family she’s got.”

He kept his promise, continuing to comb over the files, which he had memorized, for years after, his daughter said.

When Tammy was identified through DNA, the retired detective was one of the first to know, after a fellow detective showed up at his home with pictures of when the teen was alive.

Asked why he kept on the case for decades, he said in 2021: “because she had nobody there to find out who she was and to help her.”

Jackie Williams said at the time that she was able to connect with Tammy’s family.

“It was very exciting. I wanted to tell her that her sister was not forgotten, that we’ve always remembered her,” she said. “That was the important part for me.”

Joan Williams said that no matter what horrific case his father was trying to crack during her childhood, he was good about separating it from his family life.

Still, “I’ve never seen my dad light up over a case the way that he did with her,” she said.

Visited 48 states

In retirement, John Williams continued to hunt and fish, and joined the Nevada Trailblazers, a group of RV travelers, according to his obituary. He and Jackie Williams “visited all 48 states in the contiguous U.S.,” his obituary noted.

Williams’ funeral services this month were attended by a plethora of family members and friends, his daughter said. Henderson police’s honor guard performed a ceremony.

It was there that she heard more stories about his passion for law enforcement, and the love he had for the city.

“All he wanted to do was just serve and protect the city of Henderson,” she said. “And he did everything he could as a police officer and as a citizen,” Joan Williams said.

The detective is survived by his three children, including John Williams Jr. and Jennifer Coulter, two grandchildren and cousins and nephews.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.