Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators have built a homicide case based on circumstantial evidence against the fugitive friend of former Denver radio personality Steven B. Williams.
Harvey Stephen Morrow is a suspect in the death of Williams, who was found floating 6 miles off Catalina Island on May 18.
Morrow disappeared soon after he saw investigators searching his boat for evidence, said sheriff’s Lt. Al Grotefend.
Williams, who was 59, was half of the 1980s KBPI team of “Steven B. and the Hawk.”
He had been helping Morrow outfit a 69-foot sailboat in preparation for a worldwide cruise when he vanished. Williams had been living on the boat at the time of his death.
Authorities believe Morrow portrayed himself as an investment banker and persuaded Williams to turn over up to $1.9 million of his and his sister’s inheritance from their deceased father to buy offshore stock, Grotefend said. Morrow was telling Williams that the investments were a good tax shelter, he said.
But Morrow, 55, a former vice president of Chatfield, Dean and Co., an Englewood stock-brokerage firm, didn’t invest the money, Grotefend said.
“It got siphoned off into Harvey’s account,” he said.
Not even Morrow’s wife has seen or heard from him since he disappeared four months ago, he said.
“He’s kind of fallen off the charts,” Grotefend said. “With that much money he could probably go wherever he wants.”
Williams’ sister, Jan Williams, 62, of New Jersey, is living on food stamps while considering whether to file a lawsuit to recover her inheritance, she said. Grotefend said it is likely she has a valid claim on the sailboat, which is currently being held for evidence.
“I’m hanging on by my fingernails right now,” she said. “The church is passing the hat for me to pay my rent.”
She said she needs to go to Los Angeles so she can spread her brother’s ashes in the bay.
“It’s not enough to grieve that my brother is dead. I’m poor also.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
