Robert L. Williams, a 38-year-old White man from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was shot and killed on July 15, 1985, in the Spring Brook area of Dunn County. Williams had met Alvin Taylor, a traveling nightclub singer, in 1984; what began as an acquaintance later became entangled with a series of killings attributed to Taylor. On July 15, 1985, Taylor shot Williams with a .357 Magnum at or near the rural Spring Brook farmhouse Taylor was renting, then concealed the killing by burying Williams behind the farmhouse and reportedly covering the remains with quicklime.

Williams’ remains stayed hidden for roughly two years until a subsequent renter discovered the burial site and contacted authorities, turning the property into a homicide investigation that linked Williams’s disappearance and death to Taylor. Taylor was arrested in April 1987 and later admitted to killing Williams and several others; he was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect on four first-degree murder charges and committed indefinitely to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services at Mendota Mental Health Institute. More than four decades after Williams’s killing there is no publicly identified alternative suspect.

Does anyone have information about Williams’s life in Eau Claire or his connections in 1984–1985 that could shed light on his final months?