New podcast aims to bring greater attention to missing Broadway dancer Zelig Williams, who vanished from South Carolina in October 2024

NBC NEWS
Veronica Fulton
March 11, 2026

The family of Zelig Williams knew from an early age that he was destined for the stage. “I want to say it started at around the age of 3,” cousin Mieoki Corbett Jacobs told Dateline.

Zelig is a triple threat: actor, singer, dancer. But where he really shines is in dance. “He grew up in South Carolina, was dancing here for a local company called Southern Strut,” Mieoki said. Zelig moved to New York City to pursue his dreams and made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of Hamilton at just 19 years old. “He was the youngest cast member,” Mieoki said. In 2019, he traveled with Hugh Jackman on the actor’s tour, “The Man. The Music. The Show.”

Then, he joined the cast of MJ: The Musical. According to his bio in the playbill, Zelig graduated from Pace University with a BFA in commercial dance. “He gives all thanks to God for blessing him with this opportunity,” the playbill reads.

“When I think of Zelig, I think of joy, light, family, dance,” Mieoki said. “When he’s talking to you, you feel like the most important person in the room.”

It’s been more than a year since Zelig has been able to grace the stage. He vanished in October 2024, and his family is desperately hoping to bring him home.

In 2024, Zelig faced a lot of change. After his grandmother died, he went back home to Columbia. He wanted to spend more time with his mother, Kathy. “Anyone who knows Zelig — truly knows him — knows how much — how important it was to him, the relationship that he had with his mother,” Mieoki said. “So for her to not know where her child is — her only remaining child is — and — and not have some — some idea is painful.” Twenty years earlier, Kathy lost her two daughters in an accident.

Zelig was still pursuing his dreams and looking for roles to audition for, but he was also hosting workshops for dancers and young Broadway dreamers in South Carolina. “It wasn’t just about dance. He wanted to share what it was like to try out for Broadway,” Mieoki said.

Mieoki acts as the family’s spokesperson and shared what Kathy described as the events of the morning Zelig vanished — Thursday, October 3, 2024.

“He was going out that morning,” Mieoki said. Kathy was sitting on the porch when Zelig came outside at about 9:45. “They say good morning to each other.” Kathy saw that Zelig had his portfolio in his hand. “She assumed he was going to make copies,” Mieoki said. “He got in the truck and left.”

About 20 minutes later, a friend of Zelig’s in New York City received an SOS alert from Zelig’s phone. “[The friend] contacted Kathy to let her know that it said that he’d been in a car crash. She immediately jumped in her car without knowing the — the exact location of the car crash,” Mieoki said.

Kathy headed toward the Staples where Zelig usually went to copy his portfolio, but then the friend notified her that the location of the crash was in the other direction. “It said it was in front of a place called Angel’s Diner, which is only about — about 18 minutes from her house,” Mieoki said. “There was no sign of an accident anywhere. She rode around. She even asked the people in the restaurant.” Kathy didn’t find Zelig or his car, so she went home and waited for him to return. He never did. “She was starting to get concerned or worried, and she contacted the police department to let them know.”

Investigator JP Smith of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department told Dateline his department took the missing persons report on Friday, October 4, 2024. “At about one o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. “His mother had initially made contact with us the day before, but we didn’t do the official report until October 4.”

Smith says the department located Zelig’s car at the Palmetto Trailhead later that night. “A person did walk up to a, uh, park worker where his car was located, and we can’t confirm, but he described the person that would fit the description of Zelig,” he said. “And they saw him in the — down into the park.” According to Smith, the reporting party said the person may have been in some type of distress. “They reported that to one of the park workers,” he said.

Investigators found some of Zelig’s personal belongings in his car. “The car did not look like it had been in an accident,” Smith said. He told Dateline that Kathy had notified them of the crash alert, and deputies did go to the location where the alert had been activated. “There was no record of — or no evidence of a crash taking place,” he said. “We checked with our dispatchers and, of course, our highway patrol, and there was no records of any type of crashes in that area.”

“We do not know what initiated that alert,” he added.

The search efforts were largely focused on the area where Zelig’s car was found. According to Mieoki, that area is on the corner of McCords Ferry Road and Bluff Road near Wateree, South Carolina. “It’s right at the corner,” she said. “There’s a small, little parking area that might fit — fit about six cars at most. And that’s where his car was found.”

“Dogs, drone, foot, boat, air,” Investigator Smith listed. “All our resources were deployed in the search.” They did not find anything of note.

By Sunday, October 6, Zelig’s family had gathered a small army to search for him. “It was just the family and about 50 volunteers,” Mieoki said. They scoured the park for any clue to Zelig’s whereabouts. “We’ve not found any sign of anything in that park,” she said.

Zelig’s disappearance quickly gained national attention. Mieoki says that over the past year, the family has connected with multiple organizations offering assistance. They work with two groups closely: We Are the Essentials and Missing Link. “We still continue to partner with them, because we are looking to identify any leads,” she said. They are still hoping to gain insight into what was going on in Zelig’s life beyond what they already know.

Just this week, the Black and Missing Foundation featured Zelig’s story on season 3 of their podcast, Untold Stories: Black and Missing. The first episode of the season covers the disappearance of T’Montez Hurt, who was featured in Dateline’s “Missing in America” series in 2024. Black and Missing Foundation co-founder Natalie Wilson told Dateline their goal with the podcast is to keep stories like Zelig’s in the forefront. “Because far too often our cases are not getting the media coverage, law enforcement resources, or community engagement, um, so that that missing individual can be found,” she said.

The Black and Missing Foundation got involved with Zelig’s case shortly after he vanished. “We were able to get in contact with [his family] right after, and, you know, utilize our platform, creating a flyer,” Wilson said. She hopes the podcast will also help Zelig’s case. “We’re hoping that we can still put the pieces of the puzzle together,” she said. “We really want to help them solve this case, um, and to find him and bring him home and we — we’re not sure what the answer would be, you know, but at least they deserve answers as to what happened to him.”

“Listen in to the podcast — all we need is one person to come forward, even with the slightest bit of information that can help solve the case,” Wilson said.

Investigator Smith told Dateline his department is still treating Zelig’s case as a missing person case. “We have followed up on all the leads that has came in to our department,” he said. “As leads continue to come in, we will follow up on those leads.”

“There is going to always be a belief and hope that we can bring Zelig home,” Mieoki Corbett Jacobs told Dateline. “In all honesty, we’re not ruling anything out.” She told Dateline the family believes “foul play is definitely something that — that could have occurred in this situation.”

“We understand what the probabilities are,” she said. “But we’re focusing on the possibility, as well.”

Sergeant Bryce Hughes of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Office told Dateline her department receives many missing persons reports. “However, most of those are typically resolved within a — we would say, a fairly quick timeframe,” she said. “With this case, we are particularly concerned because obviously that did not happen.”

“It’s very important to the sheriff’s department that we are able to get closure to his family. We want to know where he is,” Hughes stressed. “We never want to leave families in a position where they don’t know, because that’s one of the hardest things for families, is just to not know.”

Zelig is about 5’9” and about 175 lbs., with brown eyes. He would be 29 years old today.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department asks anyone who was at the Palmetto trailhead in the days surrounding Zelig’s disappearance who may have seen him or have any information about his disappearance, to please come forward. You can call the RCSD at 803-576-3000 or Midland Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

Photo credit: Mieoki Corbett Jacobs