Authorities think men moved body

Terry Keith Williams, who was arrested Thursday and charged with obstruction of justice in the Katherine Waring case, was given her iPod as a token of gratitude for helping Ethan Mack move her body, according to a Charleston police affidavit.

Williams, 31, of North Charleston, was in bond court Friday, accused of hindering police in the investigation into Waring's disappearance and death. He denied the charges, and county Magistrate Linda Lombard set Williams' bail at $200,000.

Police on Oct. 7 charged Mack, 29, of Johns Island and Heather Angelica Kamp, 30, of James Island with obstruction of justice and forgery.

Waring lived with her parents on Murray Boulevard in Charleston. She disappeared June 12 after going to a West Ashley gym, a downtown drugstore and Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse. Her parents filed a missing persons report several days later when someone tried to cash one of her checks at a local bank.

The search went on for nearly four months. Her parents hired a team of private investigators and offered a $25,000 reward for information that would help find their daughter. The search ended Oct. 10 when the private investigators located Waring's skeletal remains on Wadmalaw Island and called police.

When Mack and Kamp were arrested several days before the body was found, the affidavits filed by police allege that both gave false statements about events on the night Waring last was seen and that they forged a check drawn on Waring's account. The affidavits also said it was Kamp who had come forward and told police that her earlier statements, as well as Mack's, were false.

But nothing in those affidavits indicated foul play. Police still were calling it a missing person's case.

The affidavit filed for Williams' arrest is the first public record in which police allege that anyone had any contact with Waring's body after her death.

The affidavit states that a witness, whose identity was withheld, gave a statement Monday saying, "Ethan Mack and Terry Williams put Waring's deceased body in the trunk of a vehicle. As payment or gratitude for Williams' help in moving Waring's body, Mack took the iPod from Waring's body and instructed Kamp to give the iPod to Williams after the body was moved and Kamp did (so)."

Police spoke with Williams on Thursday and he stuck with the same story he'd told them Oct. 8, when he was first questioned about the iPod, the affidavit states. He said he got the iPod from Kamp in exchange for providing her cigarettes and food whenever she wanted and that he didn't know the iPod was Waring's until two months after he had received it, when he saw Waring's name on it.

Asked why more serious charges weren't filed against Mack and Williams for allegedly moving Waring's body, police Public Information Officer Charles Francis said a judge's gag order prohibits police from talking about the case.

During the bond hearing Friday, Williams told Lombard that he was from New York and had been living in Charleston for six years. He said he owns a start-up business called Prepaid Legal Services and works as a painter on the side.

Lombard read from his rap sheet, which includes convictions in 2007 for strong-arm robbery and in 2008 for forgery. He served 245 days out of a 10-year sentence for the robbery conviction and got a two-year suspended sentence and probation for the forgery conviction.

His wife, Kimberly, asked Lombard for a low bond. "He's trying to change his life. He really is," she said. "We have a daughter. I want him to come home so he can be with us."

Williams vociferously denied the charges against him. "I have talked to the police from the beginning," he said. "I've never lied to them. ... I don't understand why they are trumping up this charge."

Reach David W. MacDougall at 937-5655 or macdougd@postandcourier.com.