In October 2003 and January 2004, two men from the Naples area in Florida vanished. But what happened to Felipe Santos and Terrance Williams? As you discover in this gripping investigation by Thomas Lake (with additional reporting by Catherine E. Shoichet and Rosa Flores), the evidence points to Steven Calkins, the Collier County deputy who was apparently the last person to see both men. The CNN team built minute-to-minute timelines of these days that Santos and Williams disappeared — and dug into Calkins’ whereabouts at crucial times — using interview transcripts, dispatch logs, phone records, and other documents. While Calkins declined numerous interview requests, comments from people around him, including former colleagues, reveal suspicion, doubt, and a loss of trust. To this day, the mens’ disappearances remain unsolved.
Here is one of the most striking revelations from the Calkins documents: One day in 2001, almost 14 years into his law-enforcement career, Calkins stopped making arrests. That August, he took a man to jail on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. The records show that from then on, through almost three more years of road patrol, Calkins never arrested anyone again. He wrote almost 400 incident reports without delivering anyone else to jail.
Here’s why this could be relevant to the disappearances of Santos and Williams: Both men were unlicensed or uninsured drivers and could have — perhaps should have — been arrested. Calkins did not take either man to jail.
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