A beaten, sheet-wrapped body found in a Brooklyn lot last week has been identified as a beloved doctor who was known to patients for his easy manner and affinity for house calls, authorities said yesterday.The body of Dr. Pete David Williams, 42, was discovered in an East New York lot Dec. 16. He had been beaten and smothered, wrapped in sheets and stuffed into a plastic bag, cops said.
Stripped of all but his underwear, the Trinidadian immigrant lay unidentified in the Brooklyn morgue for five days even though his estranged wife, Judy, reported him missing Dec. 11, the day he disappeared. She identified him yesterday.
In a bizarre twist, Judy Williams was quoted over the weekend before the identification as saying she believed he had been beaten, tied up and dumped. But she insisted she believed he was still alive.
Yesterday, while speaking to authorities, she distanced herself from that comment, attributing it instead to another relative, said a police source. She was too upset to speak to reporters.
Detectives are reviewing the doctor's finances, insurance policies, home life and patient lists to determine whether anyone would want to kill the friendly general practitioner.
"We're looking at everyone, like we always do," an investigator said.
Williams died of brain hemorrhaging from a severe beating with a blunt object and from suffocation, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner.
Williams' 1996 black Lexus, which he was driving the night he vanished, was found abandoned Sunday afternoon on Ralph Ave. in Flatbush.
He was last seen getting takeout Caribbean food on Rutland Road, where he stopped after dropping off his autistic 7-year-old son at a friend's house.
Williams also is the father of a 4-year-old daughter. He separated from his wife about four months ago.
For 17 years, he saw patients in an office on Linden Blvd. in East Flatbush.
Before moving out, he lived with his wife and children on the second floor of the same building. Teary-eyed patients and neighbors streamed out of the house yesterday, extolling the virtues of a physician known for making house calls and giving patients a break on their bills.
"He used to do house calls with geriatric patients, even all the way to Staten Island, even at 2:30 in the morning. He would come to your house if you needed it," said patient Thalia Ifill.
The doctor's brother, Trevor, said the physician had no known enemies.
"Everybody is devastated; everywhere we went to put up flyers people knew him," said Trevor Williams. "We knew Saturday night that something was wrong because he's a very, very responsible person."
I honestly think Joseph Sweat is a stronger match. The way he has a lighter complexion to me also would make it strong. Although the DNA recon appears darker this UID was listed as White/Hispanic from the time he was found in 2005 until last month. Because the torso was found only days after he was probably killed (and the head was found a few days later and decomposed) I am guessing that the race may have been determined visually back in '05.
