Podcast Commentary: The Missing Zelig Williams Case on Crime Junkie

In this episode of Podcast Commentary, we dive deep into one of the most haunting recent stories to hit the true crime world: Crime Junkie’s November 2025 episode “Missing: Zelig Williams.”

Broadway dancer and Columbia, South Carolina native Zelig Williams was, by every account, a force of nature – a “pillar of light” whose career had taken him from Hamilton on Broadway to the national tour of MJ the Musical. After years of success, he moved back home in 2024 to be closer to his mother, teach dance, and pour into his community. Then, on October 3rd, 2024, he vanished.

We walk through the key facts Crime Junkie lays out and then start pulling at the threads. There’s the eerie iPhone SOS alert suggesting a violent crash at one location – and the discovery of Zelig’s undamaged SUV nearly 20 miles away at a flooded Palmetto Trail parking lot. There’s the GPS data showing the car entering, leaving, and then returning to the same spot, as if someone deliberately staged the scene. Inside the vehicle: his brown slides and clothes, but no phone. Outside: a wilderness area that was almost immediately swallowed by catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene, likely wiping away crucial evidence.

From there, we explore the clash of competing theories that has frozen this case in place. Was this a tragic result of a severe mental health crisis, compounded by medication issues and dangerous weather? Or does the evidence – the car’s movements, the abandoned shoes, the missing phone, the resume in his hands when he left home, and most of all his devotion to his mother – point toward foul play and a staged crime scene, as his family firmly believes?

We also look at what happened after the disappearance: the large-scale search involving helicopters, drones, boats, and specialized river teams; the enormous outpouring of community support; and the national spotlight brought by Hugh Jackman’s public plea. Then we discuss the long, painful silence that followed – sparse updates from law enforcement, a private investigator who never went public with any findings, and a missing persons case that remains “active” on paper but feels stalled in practice.

Finally, we dig into the new direction the family is taking. With the Palmetto Trail effectively “crossed off,” they’re now focused on Zelig’s social and spiritual circles in the months before he disappeared – including churches in South Carolina and Atlanta and a reported shift in his religious and personal identity. We examine how this could have made him especially vulnerable to manipulation or exploitation by someone he trusted, and why that possibility changes how you read every detail of the timeline.

This episode isn’t just a recap of Crime Junkie’s work. It’s a careful, critical re-examination of the contradictions in the case, the investigative choices made early on, and the emotional core of the story: a mother who has already buried two children and refuses to give up on her only remaining son.

If you care about true crime, missing persons cases, or the way media attention can both help and complicate investigations, this is a story you won’t be able to shake – and one that might still depend on the right person finally coming forward with what they know.