Report details Williams murder

As Tamara Williams' boyfriend brutally stabbed her more than 10 times with a kitchen knife on Tuesday, at least 25 neighbors called 911 in a futile attempt to stop the murder.

Williams, a 20-year-old LSA senior, died during surgery at University Hospitals at 3:24 a.m. from multiple stab wounds. She died from puncture wounds on her back, neck, chest and upper and lower back, Washtenaw County Medical Examiner Bader Cassin said in a preliminary autopsy report.

"She's trying to get up, she can't," said the first man who got through to a 911 dispatcher.

"I think he's killing her," said another caller.

EMILY NATHAN/Daily Leo Heatley, director of the Department of Public Safety, listens to tapes of 911 calls made early Tuesday morning. Alarmed callers alerted officials of the killing as it took place in Northwood housing.

Leo Heatley, director of the Department of Public Safety, said that two or three of the deep stab wounds that Kevin Nelson, inflicted would have been enough to kill her. Heatley also said yesterday that a second bloody knife was found in Williams' apartment.

According to the medical report, Williams had cuts on both of her hands and across her fingers, as well as scratches on the back of her left forearm. Such injuries seem to be indicative of efforts to defend herself, the autopsy report stated.

The DPS officer who arrived on the scene saw Nelson standing over Williams and repeatedly stabbing her in the back. The officer then fired two fatal shots at the 26-year-old Ann Arbor resident, who died at 2:57 a.m. as a result of one of the gunshot wounds. Both bullets entered the right side of his body, hitting his chest and abdomen.

The DPS officer arrived on the scene at 12:20 a.m., three minutes after the first 911 call was placed.

Ivan Mosely, an Ann Arbor resident and friend of Nelson's, spoke to Nelson just hours before the violent attack began.

"He told me that he and Tamara were working it out and they were talking a lot more," Mosely said. "He was calm. Everything was cool. I have never seen him in a rage where he was capable of doing something like this."

Two bloody knives were found on the crime scene, one in the basement and the other outside, where the attack ended.

"The knife that Nelson used was a long-bladed kitchen knife," Heatley said.

Heatley said there is still no theory about what exactly occurred in the apartment. "The argument may have started in the basement and moved upstairs to the kitchen area. There is a blood trail from the basement to the kitchen," he said.

The second knife adds another dimension to the murder, Heatley said: Perhaps Williams used the knife to defend herself.

"It is within the realm of possibility that Williams used the knife in self defense," Heatley said. "We haven't established if it was self defense or if Nelson used it."

Multiple horizontal "sharp cuts" were on the insides of both of Nelson's wrists, Cassin said. It is not yet known when the cuts were made or what the cuts could indicate about Nelson's mindset that day.

Bruises and scrapes on the left side of Nelson's face may indicate that Williams was defending herself, Cassin said.

Williams managed to get out of the house, go outside and knock on a neighbor's window for help. Williams escaped to the backyard of her house, as neighbors became witnesses to the brutal stabbing.

Realizing a murder was occurring before their eyes, some attempted to intervene while others actively made many 911 calls. At least one baseball bat was thrown at Nelson in an attempt to stop the stabbing.

But just three hours before the melee began, Mosely spoke to a tired but calm Nelson, who recently returned home after a long day at work.

"We talked for an hour, up until 9:05 p.m.," Mosely said. "He was tired, because he had just come home from 14 hours at work. I would never have predicted this. I just don't understand."

Mosely said the arguments he had witnessed between Williams and Nelson were never violent. "Kevin was a calm person. He always just wanted to talk things out," he said.

Only one instance stood out in Mosely's mind that could possibly show a different side of Nelson.

"I remember one time that that Tamara told me about," Mosely said. "One night, Tamara picked Kevin up from a night club in Detroit that Kevin and I were at. Kevin isn't a mean drunk, he just gets silly and was making me laugh. Tamara told me later that when she and Kevin got home, he went from sloppy drunk to suddenly chasing her around the parking lot. It was just like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. He just chased her around and didn't say anything.

"No one ever knows what goes on after the doors are closed."

Mosely said that death was an easy way out for Nelson, considering the brutality of his actions.

"Kevin was my friend, but I wish he wasn't dead, so he could suffer and visualize what he has done," Mosely said.

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