Detective Donna Williams is a recurring character in Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4 and Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building. She was the detective investigating the murders of Tim Kono, Bunny Folger, Ben Glenroy, and Sazz Pataki.
She is portrayed by Da'Vine Joy Randolph.
History[]
Early Life[]
As a child, Williams liked the TV show Herman's Head, as the titular character Herman was guided by a group of people in his head so he was never alone. She believed that she would always be alone like Herman, but her attitude changed when she met Kiara when she pulled her over for texting while driving. The two got married and had a son together.[1]
Tim's Death[]
When Tim Kono was found dead at the Arconia, Williams was one of the officers who responded to the call. She examined the body and the scene and confidently said it was a suicide. She was upset when she noticed Charles-Haden Savage, Mabel Mora, and Oliver Putnam standing outside Tim's apartment. She asked if they were associated with the deceased. They told her they just lived in the building and asked if she was sure it was suicide. Williams realized then that they were true crime junkies and told them it was a textbook suicide. She told them to leave and enjoy the fact that they still have lives to live.[2]
Williams came home one day to find her pregnant wife, Kiara, working on the nursery. She wanted them to do it together, but they were running out of time. Williams heard that Kiara was listening to a true crime podcast and begged her not to subject their unborn child to true crime. Kiara was upset to smell cigarettes on Williams when she leaned in for a kiss, but Williams defended that she'd had to deal with a dead kid that day, one who had been killed by her stepfather. Williams heard the podcast mention Tim Kono and realized it was a podcast about her case, which she closed as a suicide. Kiara believed their point of view had merit, upsetting Williams, who left to go back to the office.
At the office, she learned that the toxicology report wasn't submitted and she also had Tim's phone, which she'd meant to send to IT.
Williams went back home to Kiara and told her what she'd discovered. Kiara wanted her to re-open the case and solve it, but Williams said it doesn't work like that and it would look bad for her to re-open a closed case.
Back at work, Williams listened to the podcast as she went over things. After looking at a picture of Kiara, she put Tim's phone in an enveloped and addressed it to Mabel.[3]
When the trio faced threats from Teddy Dimas to wrap the podcast up and not implicate him and his son in their grave robbing scheme, they contacted Williams for help. They met up in a secluded area and she refused to acknowledge that she was the one who sent them Tim's phone. She told them she was running a tox screen on Tim and a fingerprint scan on his laptop, which was used to type his suicide note. The rest was on them and they had to make it a tight case.
The episode came out soon after and Williams listened to it at her desk. She also had Teddy and Theo arrested for Tim's murder based on the case they made in the episode. Williams call them on the phone to tell them about it, but then got an email from the medical examiner that said that Tim was poisoned before he was shot and she also had timestamped phots of Theo and Teddy outside before the fire alarm even went off, meaning they couldn't have killed Tim.[4]
Trio's Arrest[]
Shortly after they proved that Jan Bellows killed Tim, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver were found with Bunny Folger's body. Williams had them arrested and warned them not to say anything as they passed her.[5]
Questioning the Trio[]
Mabel, Charles, and Oliver were taken to the police department, where Detectives Kreps and Williams questioned them about the death. When they questioned Mabel, Kreps played the clip from the podcast of Mabel talking about her recurring dream of stabbing an intruder with a knitting needle. Mabel asked for a lawyer at that point. They said that her story, that she came back to her apartment to get champagne and Bunny was just there, had a lot of holes. Mabel asked again for a lawyer. Then they surprised Mabel by asking her what she did with the knife. Mabel hadn't even known she was stabbed with a knife. While they were talking to Oliver, they asked if he hated Bunny, the board president who wanted him out of the building. During Charles' interview, he drew from his experience on Brazzos and tried to find the one-way mirror. Williams became irritated with this and told him to sit down so they could get started. After they were interviewed, they were all released, but told they were persons of interest in the crime. Williams walked them out and warned them not to investigate or make a podcast about the case.[6]
Visiting Oliver and Charles[]
Williams cut her maternity leave short to return to New York and question Oliver and Charles, bringing along her baby, Keith. She asked them what really happened when Mabel went to her place to get champagne. When they refused to answer, she said their silence would force her to agree with Kreps, who believed Mabel did it, as she had a history of snapping. Charles said those incidents were unrelated and Bunny wasn't stabbed with a knitting needle after all. The knife wasn't at any of their places and Mabel didn't kill Bunny. Oliver suddenly excused himself to go to the bathroom, where they could hear him telling something to open. Charles awkwardly excused himself to check on Oliver. Williams followed them and listened as they talked about Oliver failing to get rid of the knife. When they opened the door, she confronted them about it, but they played dumb. She said she wasn't trying to put Mabel away, but she did want to solve the case. Oliver and Charles excused themselves to the bathroom again, then returned with the knife, which they handed over to Williams. They explained why Oliver and Lucy's prints would be on it. Williams thanked them and said she'd let them know what she found out.[7]
Arresting Poppy and Kreps[]
True to her word, when the forensics came back on the knife, Williams called Mabel and told her the DNA they found on the knife matched a dead girl from Chickasha, Oklahoma: Becky Butler. The trio then set up a show to get Becky, now going as Poppy White, to confess. While they did that, Williams arrested Becky/Poppy's accomplice, Daniel Kreps, then came back to the Arconia to arrest Poppy.[8]
Interviews[]
Williams came to the theater on the day of their sitzprobe. She told them that someone involved in the show was the murderer and tried to round them all up to go to the station for interviews. Oliver convinced her to hold the interviews at the theater instead. She took over Charles' dressing room for this purpose, but became frustrated when he kept coming in and ordered him to stay out. When the time came for Charles to perform his patter song, she decided to leave to watch him. Unbeknownst to her, while she was out of the room, Oliver slipped in and planted a camera to record the interviews. At the end of the interviews, she had her officers pull Dickie aside to arrest him, but when Loretta saw this, she stepped up and said she'd killed Ben.[9]
Jan's Breakout[]
When Williams learned that Jan had escaped from prison, she and a group of armed NYPD officers went to Charles's place to find her. Williams was displeased to learn that Jan had been there and Charles failed to report it, despite knowing that was illegal. When Charles was finally taken off hold with 911, Williams was horrified to learn he was reporting a murder. Mabel then told Williams she might want to check the incinerator. Williams took the other officers and went to do so.[10]
FBI Takeover[]
Soon after the investigation started, Williams went to Charles's place to talk to the trio. She told them that it wasn't public yet, but the FBI had stepped in to take over the investigation. They believed Jan paid someone to kill Sazz while she was in prison. They also believed she'd done to Florida. The bullet that killed Sazz was from a 300 Win Mag based on the one casing found in the Dudenoff place. The apartment belongs to M. Dudenoff, a retired professor whose neighbors say they're in Portugal, which Williams didn't believe. All the neighbors were playing cards when they heard the shot except Rudy Thurber, a guy with Christmas decorations up year-round. When Charles said that he was certain Jan didn't kill Sazz, Williams agreed, but didn't believe Sazz was the killer's intended target. Williams knew after three seasons that the trio wouldn't stand by while the police and FBI investigated. She became distracted when Eva Longoria, Zach Galifianakis, and Eugene Levy entered the apartment. They were there to study Mabel, Oliver, and Charles to perfect their roles for the movie. Williams threatened Oliver and the others not to let anything happen to Zach Galifianakis, saying she'd kill them herself if anything happened to him.[11]
Charles called Williams to his place to give her the gun they'd taken from Bev Melon. He also showed her the three murder boards they'd put together. She told him it was too many and they had to narrow down their suspects. When Oliver and Mabel came in, Oliver shared his delight that the bicep in Loretta's Instagram pictures had been identified. Unfortunately, it belonged to Jack Jonk, an Olympic swimmer. Williams told Oliver to warn Loretta she was about to get Jonked. Then she left to check out the gun and told them to narrow down their suspect list.[12]
When Zach Galifianakis and Glen Stubbins were injured in a shooting at a publicity photo shoot for the movie, Williams came to the trio, angry because her one request was that they not let anything happen to him. But she said he was okay, that the bullet had ricocheted off the plate in Glen's head and hit Zach. When Charles said that they believed Tawny and Trina were the killers because Tawny's boots matched the print at the Dudenoff apartment, Williams said she'd need more than that to get a warrant. She also informed them that Dudenoff wasn't in Portugal as she had bene cashing social security checks at a bodega in New York. Additionally, someone had spotted Jan nearby. Before she left, Williams gave Charles Sazz's remains. When they found that the remains contained an extra left shoulder, Mabel texted the serial number to Williams, who tracked it back to Dudenoff, meaning he was also in the incinerator with Sazz.[13]
Lester's Murder[]
After finding evidence of a murder in The Velvet Room, the trio called Williams to come look at it, but by the time she arrived, it had been cleaned up, leaving no trace of the crime. Williams advised them to talk to the help, because rich people do a lot of stupid things around them. Charles showed Williams a picture of the two cops who came to "find" Nicky's body. She said that she didn't know them, but wouldn't tell him if she did because the last person to try to out dirty cops had to move to Florida. Then they asked her about taking the finger and she said she'd have to get back to them on that. Mabel later reached out to Williams and asked her to search for Tommy the Tongue. She said it wasn't a person, but a business and all the money had been withdrawn from it that morning. She told the trio, who realized the address of the business was their current location, where they'd tracked Sofia using Charles's phone. Williams advised them not to go inside, telling them to think about who would want the money badly enough to kill Lester and Nicky.[14]
Williams came back to Charles's place to pick up the finger, but when they handed it over, Williams checked the cup to find it only had ice in it. They checked around Charles' fridge and found a black smudge, but Charles admitted it could be from his new rubber soled boots. Williams then asked how she could access the security cameras in the building. They went downstairs to find LESTR and Howard, knowing they could help. On the way, they ran into Althea and Williams realized what was going on between her and Mabel. Althea mentioned seeing lights in Charles's apartment the night before and going to check it out with her friends only have Mabel suggest she'd made it up when the footage showed nothing. Althea walked away, but Williams had Howard back up the footage and play it again, which showed a glitch indicating someone had cut something out. Williams sent Mabel to apologize to Althea while she and Charles went to the precinct to get any footage they had of Lester falling in the fountain. They brought the footage back to Oliver's place and watched it. It had been edited in the same way as the other footage. Charles the noticed that the logo from Last Gasp, his dating app, matched the logo in the corner of the footage. Williams found out that Bash Steed owned the company, meaning he had edited the footage and was catfishing Charles.[15]
Williams was on her way to Cabo with her wife and baby when all international flights were cancelled. Loretta was also at the airport and brought Williams back to the Arconia with her after telling Williams they were planning to go to ladies' night at the casino. Williams insisted on going with them so they didn't screw it up. She, Loretta, and Mabel went shopping and then recruited Lorraine to join them after finding her sad in the lobby. Before they went to the casino, Williams noticed a dealer leaving and got the uniform off her. Then she positioned herself as a dealer at a Blackjack table with the plan of cheating so Camila lost continuously in the hopes of goading her into a confession. Mabel and Lorraine left after Lorraine couldn't keep on a cheerful face. Them Loretta told Camila that Williams was cheating, so Camila had Williams ejected.
Williams went to Charles' apartment, where Charles and Oliver were in a therapy session with Grover Stanley. Williams was intrigued and joined the session. She gave them advice that they appreciated. Then they attempted to get Grover to take back selling his apartment, but he realized it was too late. When Loretta came in and shared everything she'd learned, Williams left, saying it sounded like she'd have a lot of work to do. However, she was still going to get a massage first.[16]
On the last day before the Arconia residents had to move out, Williams came to see them and was upset to hear Mabel say she was giving up. She and Mabel went downstairs to The Velvet Room, where Williams said people like her and Mabel couldn't just walk away from a mystery. Just as Williams went to leave, Mabel noticed a shoe print nearby that seemed to be coming from the wall. She discovered a hidden doorway. Inside was a painting and passage directly into the dry cleaners. They realized that that's how they'd gotten Nicky's body there the night he died. And the painting in there matched Randall's Instagram post background, meaning he'd never left the building at all.[17]
Williams came back to the Arconia to arrest Beau Tillman when the trio figured out he was the murderer.[18]
Personality[]
Williams is very sarcastic and swears a lot. She is often stressed and annoyed due to her job, and gets especially annoyed with Charles, Oliver and Mabel. However, underneath her cross and sardonic attitude she is a good and kind person. She is also very honest and hardworking.
Relationships[]
Kiara[]
Williams believed that she would spend her life alone, but her attitude changed when she met Kiara, who she later married. Williams' focus on work has caused problems between her and Kiara, especially when Kiara was preparing for their baby (whom they named Keith) and Williams was spending a lot of time at work and unable to help as much.[19]
Career[]
She is a detective. She is trying to make sergeant.[20]
Notes and Trivia[]
- She voted for Beau Tillman, a choice she later regretted.[18]
Gallery[]
Episodic[]
Episode Stills[]
Appearances[]
| Season One | |||||
| #01 | "True Crime" | #05 | "Twist" | #09 | "Double Time" |
| #02 | "Who Is Tim Kono?" | #06 | "To Protect and Serve" | #10 | "Open and Shut" |
| #03 | "How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?" | #07 | "The Boy from 6B" | ||
| #04 | "The Sting" | #08 | "Fan Fiction" | ||
| Season Two | |||||
| #01 | "Persons of Interest" | #05 | "The Tell" | #09 | "Sparring Partners" |
| #02 | "Framed" | #06 | "Performance Review" | #10 | "I Know Who Did It" |
| #03 | "The Last Day of Bunny Folger" | #07 | "Flipping the Pieces" | ||
| #04 | "Here's Looking at You" | #08 | "Hello, Darkness" | ||
| Season Three | |||||
| #01 | "The Show Must..." | #05 | "Ah, Love!" | #09 | "Thirty" |
| #02 | "The Beat Goes On" | #06 | "Ghost Light" | #10 | "Opening Night" |
| #03 | "Grab Your Hankies" | #07 | "CoBro" | ||
| #04 | "The White Room" | #08 | "Sitzprobe" | ||
| Season Four | |||||
| #01 | "Once Upon a Time in the West" | #05 | "Adaptation" | #09 | "Escape From Planet Klongo" |
| #02 | "Gates of Heaven" | #06 | "Blow-Up" | #10 | "My Best Friend's Wedding" |
| #03 | "Two for the Road" | #07 | "Valley of the Dolls" | ||
| #04 | "The Stunt Man" | #08 | "Lifeboat" | ||
| Season Five | |||||
| #01 | "Nail in the Coffin" | #05 | "Tongue Tied" | #09 | "LESTR" |
| #02 | "After You" | #06 | "Flatbush" | #10 | "The House Always..." |
| #03 | "Rigor" | #07 | "Silver Alert" | ||
| #04 | "Dirty Birds" | #08 | "Cuckoo Chicks" | ||
References[]
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