As soon as I landed back in Shanghai my phone started beeping with incoming Wechat messages. Did I remember Dave Williams? Of course I remember him? I know him, not remember him. That’s the sort of language you use when someone has died. What was up with Dave?
Oh didn’t you know, he’s a murderer. What!?
Yes well it turns out he had been fooling all of us for years. His name’s not even Dave Williams and he’s not an English teacher and all-round nice guy. He’s actually a guy called Daniel William Hiers, wanted for the murder of his wife and for child sexual abuse in the USA. In fact I learn, he’s been on the run for 14 years.
Bloody hell! And I have sat and had lunch with him, drunk with him, laughed with him. And all the time he had this skeleton in the cupboard. He must have been looking over his shoulder all the time, wondering when he was going to get caught.
Well eventually it catches up on you doesn’t it… someone recognised him and they picked him up – Thank God. There’s one fewer dangerous sexual predator and wife killer on the loose. I suppose with a fake passport, a change of name and a pleasant attitutude, you can quite easily blend in, in a foreign land.
He started a new life here, new job, new family even. They don’t deserve what’s happened – another victim of this slippery character. I wish I could say ‘I thought there was something odd about him.” But actually I thought he was pretty nice. I enjoyed his company.