Kriti Mehrotra
When 19-year-old Melissa “Missy” Witt suddenly disappeared without a trace left behind in 1994, her loved ones were sure something terrible had transpired since it just wasn’t like her to go off-grid. Nevertheless, as explored in Hulu’s ‘At Witt’s End: The Hunt for a Killer,’ it wasn’t until her car was found with pools of blood nearby a few days later that officials indeed took the matter seriously. That’s when they decided to leave no stone unturned and began looking into all possible suspects who could have been involved, especially known prolific, violent men like William Dillard Taylor.
William Taylor Allegedly Abused His Own Children
Although not many details regarding William’s early years, upbringing, or home life are publicly available as of writing, we do know the July 28, 1959-born Arkansas resident was a predator. After all, in the 1990s, he was officially accused of having sexually abused his children as well as step-children for years — from the ages of four to 14 — driving the police to look at him for the 1988 disappearance of 6-year-old Morgan Nick and 1994 murder of 19-year-old Melissa Witt too. However, according to the aforementioned original, his mother was quick to allege that he was with her the evening the latter vanished, and he has always, along with his loved ones, vehemently remained he had no hand in the former case.
However, William isn’t entirely innocent as he went on the run around 1995 as soon he realized detectives wanted to question him about the two missing persons cases while also ensuring he faced the charges against him. By this point, there were three felony rape/sexual assault warrants involving children against him, and that’s the basis on which a Game Warden managed to arrest him in Oklahoma a short while later. It was during his ensuing trial that one of his daughters testified as the primary victim that he had begun molesting her when she was just four, only to later rape her — she made it clear it was on more than one occasion.
As if that’s not enough, the survivor also asserted that William’s abuse gradually became more frequent before he went as far as to involve her siblings, half-siblings, as well as strange older men. She even indicated that the reason she hadn’t come forward for a long time was because he had threatened to kill her mother and her sisters if she ever opened her mouth, so she was genuinely afraid. This was actually backed by the defendant’s other children, all of whom, barring one, testified that they had similar experiences — that their father had molested them, raped them, and had gotten other people involved before ensuring they didn’t say anything to anyone by threatening the lives of their loved ones.
William Taylor is Serving His Time in a State Prison
With the several damning depositions against him, William Dillard Taylor was eventually found guilty of one count of rape/sexual assault involving a minor as well as two counts of failure to appear in court. Therefore, he was not only ordered to register as a sex offender but was also handed down a life sentence without the possibility of parole plus two terms of 36 months each for the lesser counts. He did subsequently appeal his case – once in the late 1990s itself and once around the mid-2000s – on the grounds he didn’t get a fair trial due to the media circus around his case, wasn’t represented well, and was held to a different standard than others.
However, he was denied both times, with the judge ruling the court did not err in any way, shape, or form, meaning his claims had no basis, so his conviction, as well as his sentencing, were upheld. Therefore, today, at the age of 65, he remains incarcerated at the maximum-security Cummins Unit in unincorporated Lincoln County, Arkansas, where he is expected to stay for the rest of his natural life.
Read More: Where Is Angela Taylor Now?
