Our card this week is William Alvarado, the Ace of Spades from Connecticut.William Alvarado was 73 years old when he was found stabbed to death in his living room in Willimantic, Connecticut in 2016. For years, his case was ice cold. But just recently, it started heating up– all thanks to a tip that came in from a deck of cold case playing cards. Now, detectives are working around the clock to finally solve William’s murder – and they’re the closest they’ve ever been.If you or anyone you know has information about William Alvarado’s murder in Willimantic, Connecticut, on Sept. 7, 2016, please call the Willimantic Police Department at (860) 465-3135 or the Connecticut Cold Case Unit tip line at 1-866-623-8058. Tips can also be sent by email, to [email protected], by Facebook Messenger to the Connecticut DCJ Cold Case Unit Facebook page or mailed to the Willimantic Police Department, 22 Meadow Street, Willimantic, CT, 06226.View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/william-alvarado Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org. The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: Who was William Alvarado and what happened to him?
Our card this week is William Alvarado, the Ace of Spades from Connecticut. William's case is one that has stumped investigators for more than eight years. But it's one that may soon be called a success story thanks to a tip that came in from someone who saw William's face and case details on a playing card. So today, we're going to do something a little different.
Chapter 2: What led to the reopening of William's cold case?
We're going to tell you a story of how a cold case heated up thanks to a deck and give you a front row seat to how it all unfolded and what officials say still needs to be done to finally close this case. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. When first responders heard a call for a medical emergency at the John J. Ashton Towers apartment building come over their dispatch just before 2 a.m.
on September 7, 2016, they acted on muscle memory. They suited up, turned on their sirens, and drove the familiar route from the fire station to the apartment complex on Valley Street, just as they'd likely done the night before. And the night before that. And the night before that.
If you want to define a routine Commonwealth Manic, it's pretty much that. We got a medical at Ashen Towers. They go there all the time for medical emergencies, all the time, all the time, all the time.
That's Willimantic Police Department Detective Eric Dean, a member of Connecticut's Cold Case Unit. He told us that John J. Ashton Towers, known simply as The Towers, was home to more than 100 residents, most of whom were elderly, disabled, or living with mental illnesses. So emergency services were needed there pretty regularly. And this particular call and how it came in fit the bill.
Representatives from a third-party medical device company had made contact. You might remember those quotable life alert commercials where someone's grandparent has fallen and can't get up. They can't reach the phone. Well, instead, they hit a button on a little device around their neck. So this is basically that same device, same concept, just a different company.
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Chapter 3: What did the investigation reveal about the crime scene?
And all the medical device company told the dispatchers was that a patient named William Alvarado needed medical attention. So again, muscle memory. Paramedics and firefighters made their way up to William's unit on the second floor and walked in expecting to take his blood pressure, maybe check his oxygen, help him off the floor and load him into an ambulance.
But instead, just minutes after stepping into William's home, they found themselves backing right back out without William because it was clear right away to those first responders there was nothing they could do to help him.
The initial officers go in there and they immediately know that he's deceased. There was large amounts of blood on and surrounding William. It was obvious that there was some kind of violent struggle or violent attack, I should say. In plain sight, there was no obvious wound. There was no bullet. Usually when you go to some of these scenes, you could tell if it's a gunshot victim, a strangulation.
You can see sometimes the ligature marks or cordage or something that was used. For this case, you couldn't really see anything. They just knew that he was deceased and there's a large amount of blood. In fact, it wasn't until we called the medical examiner and they started moving William that they noticed the stab wound.
Detectives hadn't been able to see it at first due to the way William was positioned in his chair. But once the side of William's neck was visible, there was no question about it. He had been stabbed once from the left side of his neck deep into his chest.
So at that point, you're looking for knives, ice picks, screwdrivers, anything that's linear and can cause that kind of damage.
While detectives didn't find a bloodied knife laying near his body or anything like that, they did find some sharp objects. Specifically, they found knives. Like, a lot of knives.
There was a lot of knives. Like, when I tell you there was a lot of knives, Ballpark, he's probably over 20. We located knives in bedrooms, the dining area. So they were all over, probably everywhere but the bathroom.
Detectives bagged up all those knives in the house along with a few other items of evidence that they'd spotted right away, like a phone and a pack of Newport cigarettes sitting on a table near William's body. And those cigarettes especially stood out because we know from William's family that he didn't smoke.
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Chapter 4: How did William's relationships impact his life?
And ultimately, him being that accepting probably cost him his life because he allowed perhaps the wrong people in his life, the wrong intentions. And when he did, say, recognize those things, it was literally too late, right?
Oscar said he and William's other brother, who lived in the Towers too, told him that William had been beaten up for asking people for his money back. Oscar and Melissa said that they warned William about being too generous or giving off the vibe that he had more money than he did. They didn't want him to put a target on his own back.
He just was naive to the fact that people may have been gravitating towards him not to be his friend, but to take advantage, manipulate, and have poor intentions. Again, like a little kid, like, oh, I want them to be my friend, so let me help them.
Melissa said that it got to the point that people walking by his apartment would just stop in and ask him for money because they knew he had it.
Say they spent their check and they need five minutes for cigarettes and they walk by William's apartment because he would leave his door open at times. When William got money, he was flashy with it as if he had money, but it's not much money. There were moments that my dad walked into his apartment and he had like dollar bills, like money pinned on his wall.
Oscar said he asked William about the money on the wall. And William said that to him, it was the same as hanging art or photos up to decorate. Oh, that old man has $5 or $20.
There was people that they would tell me that William was like the bank owner. He was like a bank. If you want money to lend you money, go to William. He's the bank.
But in what became his final days, William was keeping track of the loans he was giving out.
But he was good with numbers. When he had money, he knew how to count the money and he knew what he had. He started to recognize when he needed to put his foot down.
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Chapter 5: What role did Carmen play in William's last night?
Detective Dean said that he and other investigators listened to her and her dad's concerns and looked harder at their theories, especially about Carmen. But there was just never any evidence to link her to William's murder.
And I'm not saying Carmen's, you know, an angel. I just, I'm an evidence-based guy. I follow evidence, you know, and evidence at this time does not suggest that she's involved.
So William's family and investigators kept digging. More than once, detectives thought that they were finally getting somewhere, only to hit a dead end. Detective Dean said that they interviewed dozens of people over the years, but nothing panned out. And that was largely due to a unique challenge in this case.
Many people who live in the towers were living with mental illnesses, which meant it was often hard to follow the leads they were giving.
It's like a frustrating game of just like a ladder. You go to speak to this person. No, I didn't say that. I said that he told me he saw that. Then you go to speak to him. No, I told my wife that this is what I saw. But she said she saw it from... And then you keep on going down the line. And then you hit, just by the laws of probability, you hit one of those severely mentally ill tenants.
And then he goes off about the aliens or goes off about the government conspiracy. And you're like, there's now... There's the gap in the ladder. So I think that's where bringing more awareness to it, you might get the top of that ladder that I can't follow because I'm being cut off by a lead that doesn't go anywhere.
Detective Dean said that a lot of the missing rungs in that ladder were also because many of William's neighbors have kept their lips sealed tight. And just like William was, he thinks they're scared. But scared of what or of who?
I wholeheartedly believe that people in that building right now know what happened. With William and the violence of that attack, I find it very hard to believe that one person could do this without anyone knowing.
Now, whether it's that attacker being seen by someone or telling someone or asking for assistance in getting rid of weapons or evidence or someone seeing him or her getting rid of any weapons or evidence, I think someone saw something. I think they're scared because if that can happen to Willie, who is the nicest guy in the world, what can happen to them?
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Chapter 6: What were the challenges faced during the investigation?
In the meantime, he's also hopeful that other people will come forward with even the smallest of tips to help them prove who killed William. They are so close to solving his case, to getting justice for William. They're even hoping that someone listening to this episode might be able to fill in the last few gaps that will make their case airtight.
I think we're a lot closer today than we were at any point in this investigation. And that's the whole point of doing this interview, right?
Because we're going on very limited eyewitnesses and witness accounts, and your listeners are going to be able to hopefully help us because, say, someone who is one of your listeners remembers something or saw something that can help us, point us in the right direction. Doing something like this with you and your audiences can only help.
Detective Dean said that although no one has called in yet with that last link they need to connect their person of interest to William's murder, people have been calling them about this guy.
See, word travels fast in the towers, and it seems that other residents heard pretty quickly that he was being questioned about William's murder, and they've apparently got a lot of stories about him taking advantage of other elderly folks in the area. Detective Dean said, basically, this guy is a menace.
people have come forward about saying that they're scared or reluctant to talk just based on his threats. I think that's the motivation to get people to call to get this guy out of their lives and out of their buildings. He's basically preying on these elderly and disabled residents, whether it's through drugs or violence or threats or some kind of fraud or scam.
Now that we've peeled the onion, so to speak, so much on him, more and more of these cases are coming to light about this guy's
Melissa and Oscar said that they know people have been scared, but they hope that they'll be brave enough to pick up the phone now if they know anything about William's murder. For William's family's sake, and for everyone's safety.
We just want someone to come forward and to speak up and to do the right thing in order to keep that community safe and to give and bring William justice and closure to our family to just come forward if they are scared. We can understand that, but they can make the choice to do something now, right? They can... Come forward now, you know, and make the right decision to help William.
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