A missing 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl was found in the basement of a home rented by a 27-year-old active-duty airman after investigators tracked his cellphone to Dover Air Force Base, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by The Salty Soldier.
The girl later told investigators that Dylan Drake Williams sexually assaulted her, recorded multiple encounters and assaulted her while she was asleep, according to an FBI affidavit supporting the complaint.
Williams faces federal charges of coercion and enticement, transporting a minor for criminal sexual activity and traveling across state lines for illicit sexual conduct. The affidavit also states that he was charged Aug. 20 with second-degree rape in Kent County, Delaware.
The search began that morning when Falls Township police responded to the girl’s home in Levittown, Pennsylvania, around 7:30 a.m. Her family reported that she had left during the night without their knowledge or permission.
She had left her cellphone behind. Her mother found messages indicating that a man had picked her up and turned the phone over to police, authorizing investigators to search it.
Investigators reviewed the messages and obtained emergency records from the social media company and Williams’ cellphone carrier. Those records identified Williams and placed his phone at Dover Air Force Base, where he worked as an active-duty airman, according to the affidavit.
Members of Dover police, the FBI, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the U.S. Marshals Service contacted Williams at work. He told them the girl was at his residence in Camden, Delaware.
At approximately 3:47 p.m. Aug. 20, investigators went to the home and found her in the basement, which Williams had been renting and living in, the affidavit states.
The girl was taken to Dover police and later to Kent General Hospital. While with a police victim advocate, she used the advocate’s phone to tell a family member that Williams had assaulted her in her sleep, according to the filing.
The affidavit describes communications recovered from her phone dating from June 13 through Aug. 20. Investigators said the messages included sexual conversations, arrangements to meet and statements showing Williams knew she was underage.
During an Aug. 26 FBI interview, the girl said she had told Williams she was 15 when they first began communicating. He told her he was 27, according to the affidavit.
Messages preceding her disappearance show Williams arranging to pick her up during the night and asking her to block his account and leave her phone behind. They also discussed her packing a bag and sneaking out of the house.
The girl expressed fear and asked whether he was going to kill her, according to the affidavit. Williams denied that he would and told her, “But I’m not going to hurt you.”
She told the FBI that Williams picked her up near her home early Aug. 20, assaulted her before and during the drive to Delaware and recorded those encounters on his phone.
When they reached his residence, she said, Williams told her to wait in the car while he checked whether his roommates were around. She described additional assaults inside and said he told her not to use the bathroom until he returned from work.
The affidavit also describes an earlier meeting in Pennsylvania during which the girl said Williams assaulted her and recorded it.
During his own police interview, Williams admitted knowing she was 15 and driving to Pennsylvania to pick her up before bringing her back to Delaware, according to the FBI.
He described her as withdrawn and quiet when he arrived and said she appeared not to want to be there. When investigators asked what she would say about him, Williams said he believed she thought he would hurt or kill her and that he did not intend to take her home, the affidavit states.
The federal complaint was filed Aug. 28. Records show Williams was brought from Delaware state custody to federal court in Wilmington on Sept. 3.
At a Sept. 17 hearing, Williams waived his preliminary hearing and did not contest detention. A federal magistrate judge ordered him held pending further court proceedings.
Williams is represented by the Federal Public Defender’s Office. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
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