The day she died, Constance Culbreth had brought her 4-year-old daughter to her mother’s home and told her family she was going to collect her things and be back. She never made it.
The scene where Culbreth lay dying was so gruesome that the first police officer to look into the room exclaimed, “Oh, my God.”
“There was blood from one end of that apartment to the other,” recalled Tampa homicide detective Julie Massucci of the May 20, 2003, case. Culbreth, 20, had been stabbed and shot in the head. Her nose was nearly severed. She had two stab wounds to her left thigh, stab wounds to her right arm and left eye, and gunshot wounds to her left arm, left cheek and left ear, records show.
She died minutes later at a Tampa hospital.
Her boyfriend, Army Sgt. Richard Williams, had returned to MacDill Air Force Base from Kuwait six weeks earlier, police say. He confessed, telling detectives he had been stressed while he was stationed overseas, and was worried that Culbreth was being unfaithful.
“He felt like she drove him to do what he did,” recalled Massucci of her interview with Williams.
It wasn’t the first time Williams had been violent with a woman, police said. In July 2002, he was charged with aggravated battery on a pregnant 18-year-old, but police say she left the state and so the charges were dropped.
Culbreth’s mother, Constance Weeks, said she believes base officials knew he was unstable and yet worked to protect him and not her daughter.
Williams had received counseling while overseas, police said, and had told his supervisors he was stressed, having domestic problems and contemplating suicide. Upon his return to the States, Weeks said, he checked up on Culbreth constantly, to the point that it interfered with his work.
“The military asked her, ‘Why is he calling you all the time?”‘ Weeks said, recalling a conversation with her daughter.
A few weeks before Culbreth’s death, Weeks said, her daughter was brought to MacDill to meet with Williams’ commanders. “They wanted him to stay in the Army and her to keep him calm.”
Central Command spokesman Maj. Pete Mitchell said that he had no information on Williams’ case and that because of a high turnover rate, Williams’ supervisor could not be located.
Weeks said she would like to plaster posters of her daughter along the streets that lead to MacDill for base officials to notice.
“So every time they drive by, they have to see her face.”
