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The Deck
William Alvarado (Ace of Spades, Connecticut)
00:40:14
William Alvarado was 73 years old when he was found stabbed to death in his living room in Willimantic, Connecticut in 2016. For years, his case was ice cold. But just recently, it started heating up– all thanks to a tip that came in from a deck of cold case playing cards. Now, detectives are working around the clock to finally solve William’s murder – and they’re the closest they’ve ever been.
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- [00:01]
Ashley Flowers
Hi everyone. I'm Ashley Flowers.
- [00:03]
Britt
And I'm Britt.
- [00:04]
Ashley Flowers
And every Monday we bring you a new episode of our number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Where we dive into all the gripping cases, from mysterious deaths to missing person cases to the headlines. Solved, unsolved, you name it.
- [00:16]
Britt
And this year, we're bringing you Crime Junkie in a whole new way. Live on tour.
- [00:22]
Ashley Flowers
That's right. We're hitting the road for a nationwide tour, traveling all over the country to bring you a seriously wild case for an in person investigative experience like you've never seen before. We truly cannot wait to see you there.
- [00:34]
Britt
But tickets are selling fast, so don't wait.
- [00:37]
Ashley Flowers
Yeah, a couple of venues are already close to being sold out, so head to crimejunkiepodcast.com to grab your tickets before they're gone. That is crimejunkiepodcast.com we'll see you soon.
- [00:52]
Detective Eric Dean
Get me Will Trent.
- [00:53]
Will Trent
ABC Tuesdays.
- [00:55]
Ashley Flowers
I don't even know where he is.
- [00:56]
Will Trent
Will Trent is back.
- [00:58]
Ashley Flowers
You thought you could get high forever. Time to come home.
- [01:01]
Will Trent
The series that's being called one of the best network procedurals. We're gonna solve this case featuring new cast member Gina Rodriguez.
- [01:09]
Ashley Flowers
I'm a prosecutor.
- [01:10]
Detective Eric Dean
We deal in truth and facts.
- [01:12]
Oscar Alvarado
Maybe everybody should try that, huh?
- [01:14]
Will Trent
Will Trent. The two part season premiere Tuesdays on ABC and stream on Hulu.
- [01:22]
Ashley Flowers
There's a lot to say when buying a new home or car, but only one thing to say that can help you protect them. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And just like that, a State Farm agent will be there to help you choose the coverage you need no matter where you are in life. When you need coverage options, your State Farm agent is there to help. On the phone or in person. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
- [01:45]
Melissa Alvarado
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- [02:16]
Ashley Flowers
Our card this week is William Alvarado, the ace of spades from Connecticut. William's case is one that has stumped investigators for more than eight years. But it's one that may soon be called a success story thanks to a tip that came in from someone who saw Williams face and case details on a playing card. So today we're Going to do something a little different. We're going to tell you a story of how a cold case heated up thanks to a deck and give you a front row seat to how it all unfolded and what officials say still needs to be done to finally close this case. I'm Ashley Flowers and this is the deck. When first responders heard a call for a medical emergency at the John J. Ashton Towers apartment building come over their Dispatch Just before 2:00am On September 7, 2016, they acted on muscle memory. They suited up, turned on their sirens and drove the familiar route from the fire station to the apartment complex on Valley street, just as they'd likely done the night before and the night before that and the night before that.
- [03:58]
Taylor
If you want to define a routine call in Willemantic, it's pretty much that. We got a medical at Ashen Towers. They go there all the time for medical emergencies. All the time. All the time. All the time.
- [04:09]
Ashley Flowers
That's Willimantic Police Department Detective Eric Dean, a member of Connecticut's Cold Case unit. He told us that John J. Ashton Towers, known simply as the Towers, was home to more than 100 residents, most of whom were elderly, disabled or living with mental illnesses. So emergency services were needed there pretty regularly. And this particular call and how it came in fit the bill. Representatives from a third party medical device company had made contact. You might remember those quotable life alert commercials where someone's grandparent has fallen and can't get up, they can't reach the phone. Well, instead they hit a button on a little device around their neck. So this is basically that same device, same concept, just a different company. And all the medical device company told the dispatchers was that a patient named William Alvarado needed medical attention. So again, muscle memory. Paramedics and firefighters made their way up to Williams unit on the second floor and walked in expecting to take his blood pressure, maybe check his oxygen, help him off the floor and load him into an ambulance. But instead, just minutes after stepping into William's home, they found themselves backing right back out without William. Because it was clear right away to those first responders there was nothing they could do to help him.
- [05:30]
Taylor
The initial officers go in there and they immediately know that he's deceased. There was large amounts of blood on and surrounding William. It was obvious that there was some kind of violent struggle or violent attack, I should say in plain sight. There was no obvious wound. There was no bullet. Usually when you go to some of these scenes, you could tell if it's a gunshot victim, a strangulation, you can see sometimes the ligature marks or cordage or something that was used for this case. You couldn't really see anything. They just knew that he was deceased and there was a large amount of blood. In fact, it wasn't until we called the medical examiner and they started moving William did they notice the stab wound.
- [06:10]
Ashley Flowers
Detectives hadn't been able to see it at first due to the way William was positioned in his chair. But once the side of William's neck was visible, there was no question about it. He had been stabbed once from the left side of his neck deep into his chest.
- [06:26]
Taylor
So at that point, you're looking for knives, ice picks, screwdrivers, anything that's linear and can cause that kind of damage.
- [06:34]
Ashley Flowers
While detectives didn't find a bloodied knife laying near his body or anything like that, they did find some sharp objects. Specifically, they found knives. Like a lot of knives.
- [06:48]
Taylor
There was just. There was a lot of. There was a lot of knives. Like, when I tell you, like there was a lot of knives. Ballpark, easily probably over 20. We located knives in bedrooms, the dining area. So they were all over, probably everywhere but the bathroom.
- [07:04]
Ashley Flowers
Detectives bagged up all those knives in the house, along with a few other items of evidence that they'd spotted right away, like a phone and a pack of Newport cigarettes sitting on a table near William's body. And those cigarettes especially stood out because we know from William's family that he didn't smoke. Investigators also found a single drop of blood in the kitchen sink that they thought could have belonged to the killer when they were attempting to clean themselves up. And investigators seized dozens of items that they wanted to check for any left behind DNA. After taking stock of all the potential evidence inside William's home, they set out to look for more evidence outside of the towers, With a particular focus on some nearby dumpsters. Having been to this apartment complex many times before, detectives knew that there was a dumpster behind the building and then another used by a stop and shop grocery store and a friendly's restaurant. And those dumpsters were on a kind of cut through path that people who lived in the towers were known to use, as many residents there didn't have cars of their own. And since these were spots with a lot of foot traffic, detectives thought it was possible that whoever killed William knew about those dumpsters too, and tossed away the murder weapon or potentially other valuable evidence.
- [08:22]
Taylor
When a crime like this is committed, we, as investigators start dumpster diving, we start jumping into these dumpsters and looking for anything that could have been discarded by the Suspect or suspects, you know, whether it's throwing away clothing or hats, masks, gloves, any kind of weapon, we take and we seize it and we test it. So we collected a large amount. We call it an inventory of weapons or tools that we didn't know if they were used or not. You get one shot at it. The trash company comes and dumps that dumpster. You don't get it again. So you just sort of have to jump in there. And it's not a perfect world. It's not TV, where, yeah, they tell you 7, you know, 8 and 18 inch object the diameter of this. They don't tell you that until, you know, sometimes weeks later.
- [09:12]
Ashley Flowers
So at the start, they collected anything and everything, more sharp objects, a bunch of small pocket knives. And it took some time, but the autopsy report would eventually show that William was killed with a blade that went 8 inches deep. So they were looking for something that was at least 9 inches, if not longer. Which meant that most of the knives they collected at the scene, which were a lot smaller in size, couldn't be the right knife. And what they'd seen back at William's apartment hadn't been much help either. William's home looked pretty much undisturbed. I mean, there was no clear sign of forced entry, nothing to indicate any sort of robbery. It looked like William was killed right where his body was found, in a chair in the corner of his living room where he sat wearing only a white tank top and underwear. Which did tell detectives something about their killer.
- [10:04]
Taylor
Whomever is responsible, I believe knew him.
- [10:12]
Ashley Flowers
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- [12:25]
Taylor
Whomever is responsible, I believe knew him. He's in his underwear in his own apartment that late at night. If someone did come and made contact with him, you would think it'd be someone he is familiar with. Obviously there was an issue, there was a disagreement, or there was a conflict of something that would cause this to happen. And I don't think it was just as a random attack on an elderly man inside of his apartment. I think it's more personal and I think the wound and his appearance suggests that. And where he was positioned, there was nowhere for him to go. So it was almost like it was a confrontation where the suspect knew that this is the spot where they can have William at a disadvantage, seated with nowhere to go because of a recliner to his left, a wall to his right, and another wall behind him, like.
- [13:10]
Detective Eric Dean
Kind of literally cornered.
- [13:12]
Taylor
Literally cornered. I wanted to say that, but, yeah, literally cornered. He was in a corner of a room. You feel even worse because he really didn't have a chance.
- [13:20]
Ashley Flowers
Because the apartment building William lived in was public housing, it was easy for detectives to contact the housing authority and identify both William and his next of kin. And from there, they started knocking on doors throughout the towers to find out who else knew William. And it turned out William knew a lot of people in his building. And he was known to even let a lot of people in into his home. Our reporter Taylor went to the Towers with Detective Dean to see how these apartments were laid out. And they're kind of set up like a college dorm. Each floor has a common room with couches where residents hang out and a balcony where smokers can gather. And then the hallways are long and narrow. Some residents, including William, would occasionally keep their doors open to chat with neighbors as they walked by or invite them in. William didn't do that all the time, but his family said that he was a social guy, and he really, more than anything, just wanted friends. William's brother Oscar told our reporter that William was one of seven siblings and grew up in Puerto Rico. The family moved to Connecticut when William was a teen, and William only ever learned a few English words. He never learned to read or write in either language because, as his niece Melissa told us, he only had about a third grade education, which made him very childlike. But William's limited education didn't stop him from leading a full life, Even an adventurous one. In his younger years, Oscar said that William had gone back and forth Between Connecticut and Puerto Rico More times than he could even count. Once. He broke a record in their family for the most trips back and forth, Having gone to the island four times in just four weeks. Here's his brother Oscar, and he didn't.
- [15:05]
Oscar Alvarado
Know how to read or write, but he knew his way down. He knew everything as where to go and all this. And he wasn't scared going out on his own, you know, going Puerto Rico, coming back. He just liked to travel. It was fun for him.
- [15:23]
Ashley Flowers
Oscar said William had been traveling back and forth a lot to take care of a family home on the island after their mom and dad died. But as William got older, he kind of hunkered down in the towers and lived a quieter life.
- [15:37]
Taylor
He spent his days just hanging out with neighbors. He would frequent the soup kitchen, which is right here, one block over. He didn't have transportation. He was limited physically on what he could do. I mean, he was an older man. He liked to just have a couple beers, Hang out with his brother, Hang out with family and friends whenever he could, and just enjoyed, enjoy life.
- [15:55]
Detective Eric Dean
There was like this bench or by the tree. They just like to sit outside and watch people pass.
- [16:02]
Ashley Flowers
That was his niece, Melissa. She said William was also very generous, Even when he didn't have the means to be. He was no longer working and was living off a fixed income from monthly Social Security checks. But he often gave away what little he had to others who asked for a loan or something like cigarettes or car repairs. Most mornings he would get up before sunrise to earn some extra cash that he would likely end up giving away.
- [16:30]
Detective Eric Dean
William would collect cans to get extra money, so then he would have a little bit more money that he really, you know, worked for to then again have people come asking him for his money. His mental state was like, he was like super kind hearted. He Is someone who would. He didn't have much, but he would still give, you know, and he doesn't have anything to give, you know, but he would still share.
- [16:58]
Oscar Alvarado
He was helpful, kind, loving. He would like. He would help others in needs, even if he didn't know them, he would help them.
- [17:11]
Detective Eric Dean
He just was someone that kept to himself, wanted to enjoy people around him and have friends and company and just have companionship. And sadly that included people with bad intentions. And he was too young minded to recognize this person is probably not good for me. He easily could be manipulated. He was just very warm and open and accepting. And ultimately him being that accepting probably cost him his life because he allowed perhaps the wrong people in his life the wrong intentions. And when he did say recognize those things, it was literally too late. Right.
- [18:02]
Ashley Flowers
Oscar said he and William's other brother, who lived in the towers too, told him that William had been beaten up for asking people for his money back. Oscar and Melissa said that they warned William about being too generous or giving off the vibe that he had more money than he did. They didn't want him to put a target on his own back.
- [18:23]
Detective Eric Dean
He just was naive to the fact that people may have been gravitating towards him, not to be his friend, but to take advantage, manipulate, and have poor intentions again, like a little kid, like, oh, I want them to be my friend, so let me, let me help them.
- [18:42]
Ashley Flowers
Melissa said that it got to the point that people walking by his apartment would just stop in and ask him for money because they knew he had it.
- [18:52]
Detective Eric Dean
Say they spent their check and they need five minutes for cigarettes. And they walk by William's apartment because he would leave his door open at times. When William got money, he was flashy with it, as if he had money, but it's not much money. There were moments that my dad walked into his apartment and he had like dollar bills, like money pinned on his wall.
- [19:15]
Ashley Flowers
Oscar said he asked William about the money on the wall. And William said that to him it was the same as hanging art or photos up to decorate.
- [19:23]
Detective Eric Dean
Oh, that old man has $5 or $20.
- [19:26]
Oscar Alvarado
Like there was people that they would tell me that William was like the bank. He was like a bank. If you want money, lend your money, go to William. He's the bank.
- [19:40]
Ashley Flowers
But in what became his final days, William was keeping track of the loans he was giving out.
- [19:46]
Oscar Alvarado
But he was good with numbers. When he had money, he knew how to count the money and he knew what he had.
- [19:54]
Detective Eric Dean
He started to recognize when he needed.
- [19:57]
Ashley Flowers
To put his foot down his family said that he started to put his foot down with one woman in particular. Carmen, who, according to Detective dean, was nearly 30 years younger than him and lived a few doors down the hall with her boyfriend Oscar. And Melissa said William's relationship with Carmen started as a friendship. A few years earlier, Carmen had offered to help William manage some daily medications he needed for things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol. But William's family had become concerned with exactly how much time William was spending with Carmen and how much money he was allegedly giving her.
- [20:34]
Oscar Alvarado
William was paying all her bills, like.
- [20:38]
Detective Eric Dean
Helping her with things. So, like, she clearly was taking advantage, giving him some attention, probably to encourage him to keep helping her. Right. Like, that's how you can manipulate. He's a lonely old man.
- [20:56]
Ashley Flowers
Before family members could even raise their concerns about Carmen with detectives in the wake of William's murder, she was already on their radar. Because it turns out it wasn't William who pressed his medical alert button for help that night. According to the medical device company, it was a woman's voice they heard saying something had happened to William and that he needed help. And that woman was Carmen. Jewelry. There is something magical about it, isn't there? The way it makes you feel, the memories it holds and the stories it tells. But when it comes to buying it, things don't always go smoothly. If you want to make buying jewelry feel as special as wearing it, look no further than blue nile.com@blue nile, you'll find thousands of independently graded diamonds and fine jewelry pieces at prices below your expectations. Want to learn more about a particular piece? Blue Nile's Jewelry experts are ready 247 via phone or chat. From tech specs to budget recs, they're here to help you find a piece you'll feel great about for yourself or someone else. I bought items for myself. I've given them as gifts. And truly, Blue Nile never disappoints. One of my good friends even got his wife's engagement ring on Blue Nile. And hand to God, it is the nicest ring I've ever seen. Experience the ease and convenience of shopping at Blue Nile, the original online jeweler. Go to Bluenile.com today. That's Bluenile.com according to what Carmen told police, it wasn't unusual for her to pop over to William's apartment at all hours of the night. She even had a key to his place so she could kind of just come and go as she pleased. And on that particular night, she told police that she and her boyfriend Pablo had hung out with William in the early evening. Her boyfriend went to bed at around 11pm and a few hours after that, she headed back over to William's place. She said she and William had this little routine where they would hang out every night, drink a few beers, play some cards. She told detectives that she went to his place just before 2am to make a cup of coffee. Which seems like an odd time to make coffee. I know William's family even told our reporter that they only knew William to drink one cup of coffee when he woke up in the morning. Two maybe, but I don't know. Maybe Carmen was a middle of the night coffee drinker and didn't have a coffee machine of her own. Either way, she told detectives that she went over there and that's when she found William covered in blood. So she pressed his medical alert button and ran back home to tell her boyfriend what was going on. She also apparently called Oscar from William's phone.
- [23:40]
Oscar Alvarado
She said, come down as soon as you can. Cause your brother, I believe he's dead.
- [23:47]
Ashley Flowers
Detective Dean said that Carmen's timeline of the evening was tough to nail down because Carmen, her boyfriend, and even William didn't really live by any sort of strict schedule. But still, detectives tried to determine a loose window of time in which William was likely killed. They were told that Carmen and Pablo allegedly saw William last between 11pm and maybe around midnight. And when first responders arrived at the scene, it was just after 2am and what they saw was that some of the blood had already started to pool and dry. So that left a pretty short window of time in which he could have been killed. And in that short period of time, Carmen was the last known person to see William alive and then the one to find him dead. Detective Dean said that investigators interviewed Carmen that morning, less than eight hours after William's body was found. And he said that she was acting a little strange, but the detectives recognized that she might just be reacting to the fact that she just found her friend brutally murdered.
- [24:52]
Taylor
A lot of her statement was very mumbled and quiet and rambling. At some points, when they exited the interview room, she would actually continue to talk to herself. It's just one of those things that you just sort of put in the back of the head and you're like, all right, you know, we'll maybe go back to that. Which they did. And the state police did an extensive investigation into the persons of interest in the beginning, which obviously revolved around Carmen. Just because of her access, she saw him last and then discovered him. Nothing came to fruition with Carmen. She was cooperative. A lot of the clothing that she had on before and after she voluntarily gave up, we had them tested. We didn't discover anything that would lead us to believe that she was responsible.
- [25:37]
Ashley Flowers
Police interviewed her boyfriend Pablo, early on in the investigation, too. And both Carmen and Pablo gave police DNA samples. A lot of items from William's home were also sent out for DNA testing. And the results eventually showed that there were a few unknown DNA profiles on those items. Now, we know that a lot of people went in and out of Williams apartment, so that DNA doesn't necessarily belong to their suspect. And police didn't want to reveal exactly what items they pulled DNA from. But they compared Carmen and Pablo's samples to those profiles that they had. And neither were a match to any of the unknown samples. Melissa said that she and her father were never told about that DNA sample Carmen gave. But either way, the family has been steadfast for years that Carmen was at the center of whatever conflict or confrontation led to William's death. They don't necessarily think she killed him, but they think that she may have gotten him wrapped up in some sort of rivalry between men living in the Towers who might have been interested in Carmen. Even though Carmen had a boyfriend, William's family thinks that William might have been in some sort of relationship with her. Or at least maybe he was under the impression that they were in a relationship.
- [26:56]
Detective Eric Dean
I think it was like a telenovela of jealousy and manipulation. And it got messy. And I think there was jealousy and possessiveness for her amongst the men. And that ultimately created tension between William and these other men. Because now he's in this love triangle with her that you don't know what she could have said that could have triggered one of these men to take matters into their own hands.
- [27:33]
Ashley Flowers
Oscar and Melissa told our reporter that they voiced concerns when William began seeing Carmen and giving her money, Especially when it started happening more and more frequently. Apparently, just before his death, he had been feeling a bit jealous. He believed that Carmen was spending a bit too much time with other men in the Towers, Including a military veteran who was living down the hall. And then another guy who went by the nickname of Scarface.
- [27:58]
Detective Eric Dean
All these guys seem to have given her something, Whether it's rides or money for cigarettes, Tools to make cigarettes or alcohol or extra cash.
- [28:10]
Ashley Flowers
Not long before he died, William apparently even bought a cigarette rolling machine for Carmen to try and limit her need to talk to these other guys. Now, we reached out to Carmen to find out more about her relationship with William. But as of this recording, she didn't return our calls. Now, it wasn't just William's family who was concerned about his living situation. They said that William himself had started to worry that something bad was going to happen to him. And soon. In the weeks leading up to his murder, William asked his brother Oscar to come with him to the housing office so they could ask for a housing transfer because he didn't want to live in the towers anymore.
- [28:51]
Oscar Alvarado
He kept telling me he felt scared there for his life because he felt threatened and he was afraid of his life that somebody would do something harmful on him.
- [29:04]
Ashley Flowers
William apparently told Oscar that this weird thing kept happening. He would come home to find that the burners on the right side of his stove were burning hot. And William swore that he didn't leave his stove on and that he never even used those burners on that side. I mean, we all know we have a favorite stove burner and then one we would never touch. And that's how it was for William, too. So while he never said if he suspected any particular person, William made it clear that he thought someone was coming into his home and either trying to start a fire or trying to get him in trouble for leaving the stove on. So that August, just weeks before William's murder, Oscar took him to the housing office.
- [29:49]
Oscar Alvarado
And the lady says to me, you know what? I am very sorry, but we have a list, and the list is very long, and we don't have any openings for him. Okay? That was, I think, three weeks before his death.
- [30:08]
Ashley Flowers
It was actually in that housing office that Oscar saw his brother for the very last time. And Oscar remembers going back to that same office to return the apartment keys after William was murdered.
- [30:21]
Oscar Alvarado
And I told the lady, remember when I came here three weeks ago and askew to move my brother somewhere else? And you didn't. You said that you had no openings.
- [30:33]
Detective Eric Dean
How do you swallow that? You're like, I came here, I advocated for him. I said he felt unsafe, and three weeks later, he gets killed.
- [30:41]
Ashley Flowers
Melissa said when she thinks about what happened to William, it always hurts her to know that he was killed in a place where he was supposed to.
- [30:49]
Detective Eric Dean
Be safe because he was in his house, right? And he's supposed to feel safe there. And like someone comes in where you're supposed to be safe and kills you for who knows what. Probably something so stupid, literally, it was probably for some girl or some little bit amount of money or some discrepancy of some sort. Something probably so small that he lost his life for that. Now there's this Hole in my dad and his siblings and the Alvarado family that it's like, why? And someone should be held accountable because he didn't deserve that. And it just. It's forever changed. Something's missing, and it didn't need to be missing.
- [31:45]
Ashley Flowers
Melissa and Oscar have never stopped advocating for William. And as police were doing their investigation, they sort of took matters into their own hands, too. Melissa and her father started visiting the towers as often as they could, knocking on people's doors to speak with them themselves. They sat down with Carmen multiple times, held community events to canvas the neighborhood with flyers, posted their own $2,000 reward for information, and pushed hard for a higher reward from the state, which they eventually got. In June of 2023, the governor bumped up the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of William's killer to 50 grand. And Detective Dean credited Melissa with making that happen. He and Melissa actually went to high school together, so they have remained in close contact over the years as their investigations ran sort of side by side.
- [32:38]
Taylor
She deserves all the credit in the world for this because she would not let it go, and nor should she.
- [32:42]
Ashley Flowers
Detective Dean said that he and other investigators listened to her and her dad's concerns and looked harder at their theories, especially about Carmen. But there was just never any evidence to link her to Williams murder.
- [32:55]
Taylor
And I'm not saying Carmen's, you know, an angel. I just. I'm an evidence based guy. I follow evidence, you know, and evidence at this time does not suggest that she's involved.
- [33:07]
Ashley Flowers
So Williams family and investigators kept digging. More than once, detectives thought that they were finally getting somewhere, only to hit a dead end. Detective Dean said that they interviewed dozens of people over the years, but nothing panned out. And that was largely due to a unique challenge in this case. Many people who live in the towers were living with mental illnesses, which meant it was often hard to follow the leads they were giving.
- [33:35]
Taylor
It's like a. It's like a frustrating game of just like a ladder. You go to speak to this person. No, I didn't say that. I said that. He told me he saw that. Then you go to speak to him. No, I told my wife, this is what I saw. But she said she saw it from. And then you keep on going down the line, and then you hit. Just by the laws of probability, you hit one of those severely mentally ill tenants, and then he goes off about the aliens or goes off about the government conspiracy, and you're like, there's. Now there's the gap in the ladder. So I think that's where bringing more awareness to it, you might get the top of that ladder that I can't follow because I'm being cut off by a lead that doesn't go anywhere.
- [34:16]
Ashley Flowers
Detective Dean said that a lot of the missing rungs in that ladder were also. Because many of William's neighbors have kept their lips sealed tight. And just like William was, he thinks they're scared. But scared of what? Or of who?
- [34:36]
Britt
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- [35:35]
Taylor
I wholeheartedly believe that people in that building right now know what happened with William and the violence of that attack. I find it very hard to believe that one person could do this without anyone knowing. Now, whether it's that attacker being seen by someone or telling someone or asking for assistance in getting rid of, you know, weapons or evidence, or someone seeing him or her getting rid of any weapons or evidence, I think someone saw something. I think they're scared. Because if that can happen to Willie, who is the nicest guy in the world, what can happen to them?
- [36:08]
Ashley Flowers
In the lobby of the towers, a faded photo of William is still pinned to a bulletin board advertising the $2,000 reward that Melissa and Oscar first posted out of their own pockets as they desperately tried to collect information. Detective Dean recently went to hang a new reward poster in the towers advertising the higher dollar amount. But somebody tore those down.
- [36:32]
Taylor
I put those posters up in the lobbies, and people take them down. So for me, that says something. Why is someone taking down the poster that offers a reward like that? Money. I know it's not about the money, but $50,000 for someone that lives in that building is probably more than their yearly income, right? A lot more. So someone's deliberately went out of the way on one occasion, to take them down. That made me think, why? Why would someone do that? And then I thought about it. Maybe who's responsible lives there or visits there, which then made me think, maybe they're taking it down because they don't want anyone to know and call and, you know, call in a tip.
- [37:14]
Ashley Flowers
About a year and a half ago, somebody outside of the towers finally did come forward with a tip. Around the summer of 2023, letters started arriving in the mail from a confidential informant. This guy said he happened to be flipping through a certain set of cold case playing cards that are circulated through Connecticut prisons. And that's when he came across a card with William's photo on it. He recognized William, so he wrote to the cold case unit to tell them that he held the answers that they had been looking for all these years and that he was ready to talk.
- [37:52]
Taylor
That's why these ducks are amazing. They're helping.
- [37:56]
Ashley Flowers
The man said he knew who William's killer was. It was someone he knew, and he knew a lot about what allegedly happened that night. Unfortunately, it's a story that law enforcement wants to keep close to the vest for now. What detectives would tell us is that they were able to corroborate a lot of what he told them. In fact, most of what he told them checked out. So they started to take a hard look at the guy he was pointing the finger at. It turns out it was someone police in the town of Willimantic knew pretty well. He had a history of criminal activity and had strong ties to the towers. So just a few months ago, they decided to talk to this guy themselves. They brought him in for questioning multiple times. In fact, they've talked to pretty much everyone in his inner circle by the time we wrote this episode. They're getting closer and closer. But as of this recording, they just don't have enough information to make an arrest. At least not yet. But when our reporter Taylor sat down with detective Dean in September at the police department, she sat just a few feet away from some packages that were sealed up with bright red tape labeled evidence. And inside them were some videotapes pulled from surveillance cameras on the towers, Footage that was initially thought to have been corrupted. But, man, isn't it amazing how technology changes every single day. Just the day after sitting down for our interview, Detective Dean went to drop those tapes off with a video enhancement Expert in the Boston area.
- [39:40]
Taylor
The technology and resources that we didn't have in 2016, the door has opened. As recently as this week in September of 2024, for us to try to get a glimpse inside that apartment building.
- [39:50]
Ashley Flowers
We checked back in with Detective Dean in early December, and it turned out the expert was able to enhance the tapes. And detectives were actively making their way through the footage frame by frame, trying to see who they can place at the towers at the time of the murder. We'll let you know what they find. They're hoping modern technology can help them take a second look at other old evidence, too. Remember how we mentioned detectives took a bunch of items from the crime scene for DNA testing? And remember they were able to develop some unknown DNA profiles on items in William's apartment and that may or may not belong to their suspect? So far, they haven't found a person who matches these unknown profiles just yet. But they're planning to retest a lot of the evidence and compare those profiles to their new person of interest and even to old suspects, just to be sure. And Detective Dean said that he's hopeful something is going to come of that. In the meantime, he's also hopeful that other people will come forward with even the smallest of tips to help them prove who killed William. They are so close to solving his case, to getting justice for William. They're even hoping that someone listening to this episode might be able to fill in the last few gaps that will make their case airtight.
- [41:12]
Taylor
I think we're a lot closer today than we were at any point in this investigation. And that's the whole point of doing this interview, right, because we're going on very limited eyewitnesses and witness accounts. And your listeners are going to be able to hopefully help us because, say, someone who is one of your listeners remembers something or saw something that can help us point us in the right direction. Doing something like this with you and your audiences can only help.
- [41:39]
Ashley Flowers
Detective Dean said that although no one has called in yet with that last link, they need to connect their person of interest to Williams murder. People have been calling them about this guy. See, word travels fast in the towers. And it seems that other residents heard pretty quickly that he was being questioned about William's murder. And they've apparently got a lot of stories about him taking advantage of other elderly folks in the area. Detective Dean said, basically, this guy is a menace.
- [42:09]
Detective Dean
People have come forward about saying that they're scared or reluctant to talk just based on his threat. I think that's gotta be the motivation to get people to call, to get this guy out of their lives and out of their building. He's, like, basically preying on these elderly and disabled residents. Whether it's through drugs or violence or threat or some kind of fraud or gam. Like, now that we've peeled the onion, so to speak, so much on him. More and more of these cases are coming to light about this guy's criminal activities. And it's. It's sad because he takes advantage of people at their poorest state.
- [42:46]
Ashley Flowers
Melissa and Oscar said that they know people have been scared, but they hope that they'll be brave enough to pick up the phone now if they know anything about William's murder. For William's family's sake and for everyone's.
- [42:59]
Detective Eric Dean
Safety, we just want someone to come forward and to speak up and to do the right thing in order to keep that community safe and to give and bring William justice and closure to our family, to just come forward. And if they are scared, we can understand that. But, like, they can make the choice to do something now, right? They can come forward now, you know, and make the right decision to help William. And it's okay that they didn't before, but they can make a new decision and choose to do that now.
- [43:46]
Ashley Flowers
Our reporter asked Oscar what it's been like living without his big brother and without answers for so many years.
- [43:53]
Oscar Alvarado
Empty. Emptiness. Sadness. I miss him, you know, I miss his voice. I always went to have. Give me a pep talk if I needed a conversation with him. Advice. I don't have him. I trust it. Everything with him. My talk to my everything. Now he's not here.
- [44:25]
Ashley Flowers
Oscar lights a candle for his brother every day and often pauses in his dining room to gaze at an oil painting of William that the funeral home had made for his memorial services. In it, William smiles a soft smile. The painting hangs in a wooden frame in the center of the wall, surrounded by photos of William's family over the years. Their family should still be taking photos with William to add to that wall and making new memories in Connecticut and even back in Puerto Rico. Oscar is planning to retire soon. He knows that he would have used all of his newfound free time to see his brother more often, to invite William over for visits and bring him on vacations. Oscar said he's looking forward to traveling to Puerto Rico when he's done working. But it won't be the same without his brother. Nothing will ever be the same without his brother again. He'll visit William and their parents when he's back on the island, though.
- [45:21]
Oscar Alvarado
I'm gonna go to see the. Because my parents are buried there, and William, I took him there with ashes because we cremate them. I built a nice little house for the coffins. That's where he wanted to be.
- [45:42]
Ashley Flowers
If you or anyone you know has information about William Alvarado's murder in Willimantic, Connecticut on September 7, 2016, please call the Willimantic Police Department at 860-465-3135 or the Connecticut Cold Case Unit Tip Line at 1-866-623-8058. Tips can also be sent by email to cole.caset.gov and we'll have more ways to reach out in our show Notes the Deck is an Audio Chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com so what do you think Chuck? Do you approve.
- [46:35]
Will Trent
Prepare for the crime and investigation event of the New year with the premiere of two groundbreaking new series on AE each week hit the streets of the Big Easy with a dedicated team of detectives as they search for answers and justice in the gripping new series Homicide New Orleans. Then join an elite Mexican task force in their pursuit of American fugitives hiding south of the border in Fugitive Hunters Mexico Homicide Squad New Orleans. New episode tomorrow at 9, followed by a new Fugitive Hunters Mexico at 10. Part of a crime and investigation event only on A and E. Watch now on the A and E app.
- [47:08]
Ashley Flowers
Hi everyone, Ashley Flowers here. If you're looking to fill your playlists in the new year and to maybe add some new shows in addition to this one to your listening routine, AudioCheck has you covered with a full lineup of weekly shows. New episodes drop every single weekday. Whether you're looking for original recording or a deep dive Investigation, investigation, even cases that make the headlines or explorations into the unknown, there is always something from audiochuck to tune into. So fill your new year with gripping stories from audiochuck. Just search audiochuck A U D I O C H U C K wherever you're listening and find new podcasts to keep you going all year long.