San Francisco police are asking for the public's help finding a woman they say may be to blame for a hate crime near an Alamo Square home that was later set on fire. There’s an added twist to this story: police say that suspect was reported missing by her family just over two weeks ago.
Terry Williams is trying to make sense of the latest turn in a case that began back in April when he says someone left disturbing packages at his home that included threats and racial slurs.
“I still can’t get over the fact of why would you want to do something like that?” said Williams. “I could never imagine no stuff like this.”
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, and now police say they have identified a 67-year-old woman as the suspect. Her name is April Martin Chartrand, and in addition to being named a suspect, she's also a missing person according to police. Her family filed a missing person's report on August 23.
Williams says he didn’t recognize the woman's name, but then he saw the photos.
“I instantly knew who she was,” said Williams. “I’d been seeing her in the neighborhood for years, so I walked past her house all the time. When I had clients who lived on that block I would walk past her house.”
Williams is a well-known dog walker in the area and says they had an encounter several years ago near a tree frequented by dogs.
“She was breaking plates in front of her building and leaving the sharp part of the plate around the tree where the dogs pee at,” said Williams. “I’m like, why would you do that? Dogs can get hurt doing that. So I took a picture of her doing and the outcome of that was they made her take all the stuff down.”
He believes she was putting those broken plates out to keep dogs from getting near the tree. He says after that, he would try to speak to her, but in his words, she didn’t want anything to do with him. He says learning she was the prime suspect has left him with more questions.
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“I still find it hard to believe, like it’s a dream or something that it’s a black person that did this. All this time, you’re portraying a crime, trying to make it like a hate crime of people of another race,” said Williams.
In the days after those threats there was also a fire at his home. San Francisco investigators are still looking into the cause for that blaze.
Meanwhile, police are asking for the public’s help locating Chartrand. If someone sees her they're asked to call 9-1-1.
