A year later, family is still seeking clues

About six months after her brother’s death, Hayley Williams felt a jolt when she saw him at a bus stop.

“There he is!” she remembered thinking, nearly crashing her car at the surprise.

Of course, she realized a moment later, her older brother, Dane, wasn’t there. It was just one of many posters with his picture her family and the Crime Stoppers organization had posted at bus stops around Orange and San Diego counties offering a reward to solve the mystery surrounding his death.

One year ago Monday was the last time anyone saw the 23-year-old alive. Security video shows Williams exiting the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego alone, shortly before 2 a.m. He was a marketing intern for Costa Mesa-based Hurley International and was in town for a convention.

Three days later, Dane Williams turned up in an alley seven miles away, his body dotted with small bruises and scrapes, and wrapped in a blanket soiled with animal droppings and hair. Detectives have no legitimate leads.

“We’ve never filled in the blank of where Dane went after he left the bar,” said San Diego police Lt. Kevin Rooney. “[This case] sticks out in the sense that there’s a young healthy male from out of town. … His contact with the world ended that night. We just don’t know where he went. I like to think people know what happened and need to be in a better place” to provide information.

At this point, police said, that’s all they can really wait for — whoever knows what happened to Dane Williams to come to them.

“It happens in this line of work, where eventually a conscience will turn,” Rooney said.

People have come forward saying they thought they saw Williams later that night, but they’ve all led to dead-ends. Each time the family is put on a roller-coaster of hope, Valen Williams, Dane’s mom, said. Each time, they’ve fallen back to disappointment.

He didn’t have cash for a cab and his phone wasn’t working, a series of unfortunate circumstances that now only leads to more questions, according to his family.

Even Dane Williams’ toxicology report, which can usually answer questions about a death that an autopsy and other evidence can’t, proved inconclusive. He was drunk, the report showed, but the alcohol and any other chemicals in his body did not contribute to his death. In the year since Dane Williams’ death, his family has launched an active campaign to convince anyone with information to come forward.

The family, the San Diego Crime Stoppers, a nonprofit that assists families with rewards for unsolved cases, and Hurley International have teamed up to offer $20,000 for any information leading to a conclusion in Williams’ case. Friends and family revisited San Diego over the weekend and spread out fliers reminding locals that Dane Williams’ death remains a mystery.

“That’s my kind of therapy, keeping his name out there,” Valen Williams said. “We’re like a three-legged table with the fourth one missing.”

“Until we know what happens, it won’t get easier,” Hayley added.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Tips can be left anonymously.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.