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Police seek clues in hunting camp death
Wednesday, November 15, 2000 By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
PORT MATILDA, Pa. -- Joseph Caldana might have been one of the last people to see David Williams alive.
Or he might have been one of the first to see him dead.
Williams, a 45-year-old Clearfield-area resident, was found shot to death Oct. 22, buried naked under brush and firewood 35 yards from a remote Centre County hunting cabin -- land owned by cousin and hunting buddy Joseph Williams, an Arnold teacher.
Joseph Williams told state police he was leaving camp after a weekend hunting trip and heading home to Arnold on Oct. 14 when he last saw David Williams. He said he returned seven days later, found his cousin's van still there and his belongings still inside the cabin, and called police to report the man missing.
That's where Caldana comes in.
He's Joseph Williams' brother-in-law, a neighbor about a half-mile down little-traveled East Mountain Road from the camp.
In a search warrant affidavit filed with District Justice Allen Sinclair in nearby Philipsburg, police said Caldana told of visiting the camp at about 6 p.m. Oct. 24, seeing Joseph Williams near the front steps and David Williams around the side, slumped in a lawn chair, head tilted back and arms hanging down.
"Caldana related that he now believes that [David] Williams may have been dead when he saw him in the chair," the affidavit says.
State Trooper James Ellis, one of the investigators who interviewed Caldana, said last night that police aren't sure what to think. But they included the remains of the lawn chair -- as well as David Williams' clothes -- among items they were seeking when they searched the ashes in a wood stove inside the cabin and a burning barrel outside.
Police reported finding melted nylon among the ashes, but haven't said whether it was part of the chair.
Ellis said investigators haven't identified suspects in the case but added, "We have a few people in mind."
In Arnold, Joseph Williams, a visual communications teacher in the Deer Lakes School District, said that after "a couple hours" of questioning by investigators he hoped that he had been zeroed out as a suspect.
He said David Williams -- an avid hunter and the father of four -- was a second cousin to whom he grew closer about three years ago, when Joseph Williams' brother died.
The meeting spot was the cabin, not much larger than a single-car garage, on the 58-acre spread, formerly Joseph Williams' father's ground.
"Dave was a laid-back, easygoing person. ... We were like brothers, better than brothers," Joseph Williams said. "We fished, went to Canada, talked about everything."
For now, the police tape has been removed from the cabin. But much of the contents are in the hands of investigators -- including a possible patch of blood from the cabin floor, a rifle and shotgun Joseph Williams said he hid under his mattress, ammunition, film from David Williams' cameras and even what was diplomatically described as a marital aid.
The latter "might not have any connection to the case," Ellis said.
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