He preyed on women struggling with addiction, police say. Then, one reported him
New Castle County police arrived at Wilmington Hospital's emergency department a little before 3 a.m. on a Monday in mid-March.
Hospital staff were treating a woman who’d been brought to the hospital by ambulance with cuts on her face and bruises on her thighs. She’d also reported that she was raped.
Not long before police arrived at the hospital, a man had dialed 911. He’d encountered the woman on Route 9 (New Castle Avenue) and was told that a man had tried to kill her. She’d asked that he call the police, and he obliged.
As officers began investigating, they said they learned that the woman had escaped from the New Castle-area home of 56-year-old Andrew “Manny” Williams hours earlier. She’d hidden in the neighborhood for about three hours before making her way to Route 9, where she encountered the 911 caller.
Now she was at Wilmington Hospital, where she’d undergone a forensic exam, also known as a rape kit. As she recovered in emergency room 10, she began to recount the previous two, horror-filled days.
The woman’s courage that morning would launch an investigation that resulted in the discovery of multiple additional rape victims in both New Castle County and other jurisdictions, police said.
It would also land Williams in prison while awaiting trial for what detectives say was a pattern of targeting women who struggle with addiction, then using their drug use as an excuse to assault them.
In a country where the U.S. Department of Justice estimates more than two-thirds of rapes go unreported, the woman’s actions were significant. Add in her struggles with addiction – a stigmatized disease that has long resulted in users receiving lesser care as a result of being disbelieved – and the New Castle County police investigation is a remarkable one.
The victim recounts her story
Two days before the woman landed in the hospital, she was at Wilmington’s Riverfront when Williams approached her for a “date,” she told police. She said “date” meant prostitution.
She rebuffed the 56-year-old, telling him she had an abscess on her arm due to syringe use. A friend had also previously warned her about Williams, saying that he was “a liar and he was going to entice (her) with drugs to get her to leave with him,” an arrest warrant says.
Williams, the woman said, didn’t accept no as an answer and gave her a baggie of fentanyl. He told her he could take care of her, and within 15 minutes had arranged a ride to Wilmington Hospital to treat the abscess.
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For more than four hours, she sat in the emergency department’s waiting area with Williams. Finally, about 1 a.m. on Sunday, March 17, she left without seeing a doctor.
From the hospital, the duo made their way back to Williams’ home on foot, arriving around 4 a.m., the woman told police. Along the way, she spotted a man she knew and asked him to tag along. He remained at the home until shortly after dawn, when his mother came to pick him up.
After the man left, Williams’ behavior changed, the woman said.
He had assaulted her when the man was at the home by rubbing his genitals on her body, she said. But once the man left, Williams became increasingly aggressive and barricaded the front door of the split-level home.
On “many occasions,” she told police, he told her to strip naked so he could “make sure that she did not steal any of his crack.” Williams would then check her body, including by forcefully penetrating her with his fingers and hitting her with a broom.
As the hours progressed, Williams became more violent, the woman told police. He punched her in the face, causing her nose and lip to bleed. He’d hit her elsewhere, too, she said, and strangled her once.
At some point, he broke a necklace she was wearing.
Eventually, Williams began raping her, she told police. This occurred on and off for much of the day before a drug dealer arrived at the house to buy crack from Williams, the warrant says.
When the man came into the house that evening, the woman mouthed “help me,” she told police, though he said he “did not want to get involved." As he turned to leave, however, she spotted an opportunity to flee and ran to the door.
After escaping the home, she ran to a walking path near the house, she told police, where she stayed for about three hours before venturing out to Route 9 early on the morning of Monday, March 18. That’s where she encountered the 911 caller and was brought to the hospital.
‘No one’s going to help you’
As a New Castle County police detective began his investigation into Williams, the 56-year-old continued his Monday as normal, court documents indicate.
Early that evening, Williams was driving near the New York Fried Chicken on Route 9 when he encountered a woman whom he had used drugs with in the past. Given the two were acquaintances, she agreed to go to his house to hang out, she later told police.
As they sat on a couch in the home, Williams asked if she wanted to smoke crack. She took a single hit, she said, then told Williams “she (didn’t) really want to do this” because she’d been sober for about six months.
She “did not want to mess up just because (she was) out here,” she told him.
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According to the woman, Williams responded that she'd smoked “all my crack” six months earlier and she owed him.
“I’m going to get what you owe me,” she recalled Williams saying.
Soon after, Williams pulled her pants down and got on top of her, the woman told police. That’s when he assaulted her, then punched her in the head “really hard.”
For a short while, Williams left the woman alone, she told police. But after informing him she was leaving, he again became aggressive.
“Oh, you did my drugs and now you want to leave,” she remembered him saying before he again pulled down her pants, repeating the same assault as before.
At one point, the woman told police, she began screaming for help, to which Williams reportedly replied: “No one’s going to help you.”
She added that she kept fighting until Williams got angry and shoved her out of the home. She wasn’t able to get her phone, purse or other items before being forced out.
Two days later, just before noon on March 20, she met with the detective.
Like the woman on Monday, she recounted the assault. But, she added, she had never previously been scared of Williams.
His aggression, she told police, was “a lot worse than anything” she’d seen previously.
‘You’re lucky I don’t put a gun to your head’
As the detective delved deeper into Williams, he learned that 10 months earlier, another woman had reported that she’d been raped at Williams’ Oakmont Drive home.
That time, however, Delaware State Police were also involved.
According to court documents, the woman had let an acquaintance borrow her car but he hadn't returned the vehicle. She later found the car at the Budget Inn off Route 9.
While it’s not clear exactly what occurred when the woman found the car, a Delaware State Police spokesperson said troopers responded to the motel for a “disorderly conduct” call.
There, the woman told police about the assault, court documents say. Delaware State Police said given the crime occurred in New Castle County police jurisdiction, the investigation was turned over to that department.
Knowing there was now possibly a third victim and that there could be more, the New Castle County detective contacted the woman, who agreed to meet him at a Pennsylvania police department.
There – less than 24 hours after the detective had met with the second woman – the woman told her story.
In early May 2023, she had come to Delaware after a dealer in Philadelphia gave her drugs to sell. She and her girlfriend met an acquaintance at the Super Gas on Route 9 near New Castle, where she tried to sell him what she had.
He declined and they drove around for a bit, she told police. Eventually, the acquaintance asked to borrow her car for an hour or two and she agreed. He dropped her off at “this guy’s house, saying it was a friend’s house,” she told police.
The acquaintance added that “there would be drugs there and that it was a free-for-all,” the warrant says. It was Williams' home.
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At first, things were OK, the woman told police. She and her girlfriend fell asleep on the couch, and she was later awoken by Williams.
He told her to come upstairs, as there was crack she could smoke, she told the detective. She replied that she wanted her girlfriend, but Williams reportedly told her to let the other woman sleep.
Williams, the woman said, wanted her to sit on his lap – something the other two women had also reported. When she declined, he pulled her onto him, she said.
Within minutes, Williams began accusing the woman of stealing his crack and made her strip so he could search her “entire” body, she told police. Then, he demanded oral sex.
When the woman refused, instead asking for her girlfriend, Williams responded “You’re going to do this for me,” the arrest warrant says.
“I let you stay in my house, you need to do this,” he reportedly said before forcing her. Then, he told her to lay on her stomach on the floor and raped her.
The woman told police she cried loudly in hopes that her girlfriend would wake up. Williams, meanwhile, got angry and threatened to throw her out the window, she said.
“You’re lucky I don’t put a gun to your head and shoot you,” she also recalled him saying.
Eventually, Williams allowed the woman to get dressed. The two went to the living room, where the girlfriend had finally woken up.
The woman told police she tried to give her girlfriend a look that something was wrong, but Williams spotted the facial expressions and confronted her. She said she didn’t initially tell her girlfriend she was raped because Williams was there.
After the woman recounted her story to the New Castle County detective, he showed her a photo lineup of possible suspects. She picked out Williams.
Less than two weeks later, officers arrested Williams and charged him with multiple counts of rape and assault, as well as kidnapping, strangulation, theft and drug charges.
When they searched his home, they found the necklace that had been broken during the March 17 assault as well as other items belonging to the woman. They also found blood on the floor.
'These women feel they have no voice'
As Williams awaits trial from prison, those who work with drug users are quick to note that these kinds of sexual assaults are not uncommon. Studies have long shown that those who struggle with addition are at higher risk for sexual violence.
But assaults are also not frequently reported, said Dr. Sandra Gibney, a local doctor and addiction medicine expert. She said this presents a “unique challenge” for victims, healthcare providers and police.
“These women feel they have no voice and no way to get (out) from under the manipulation,” Gibney said. “Oftentimes, providers and first responders see their situation as her ‘fault.’”
In her time as an emergency department doctor at St. Francis Hospital, Gibney saw women who only reported incidents because they were so badly hurt that they needed medical care, she said. In several cases, they hid in their hospital room or even in the CAT scan room because they were so afraid.
Thus, it makes it all the more remarkable that the women did speak up – and that an arrest was made.
New Castle County Police Chief Joseph Bloch commended his detective, Joshua Willis, for his “relentless” work on the case, noting “how much the victims went through during their toughest of times.”
“I hope that the result of this investigation gives these victims some hope as our agency continues to be committed to seeking justice for all victims within our community,” Bloch said.
The investigation continues, as Willis believes there may be more victims. Police ask anyone with information to call the detective at 302-395-8016, or email him at Joshua.Willis@newcastlede.gov. Tips can also be reported to Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800- TIP-3333.
Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on X at @izzihughes_
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: How police nabbed Delaware man accused of preying on women drug users
