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TikTok helps crack cold case
Ariel Plasencia reports
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Police say a TikTok post led to the arrest of St. Petersburg’s most wanted criminal who is accused of shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend while she held their baby on her lap and her four-year-old sat nearby in 2021.
On Tuesday, the St. Petersburg Police Department announced that U.S. Marshals arrested Benjamin Robert Williams a.k.a. ‘Bambi’ in Mexico City last week after a three-and-a-half-year search.
Police say last week someone saw a post on TikTok and called authorities with a tip that Williams was living in Mexico.
Side-by-side images show Benjamin Williams in 2021 and 2024. Images are courtesy of the St. Petersburg Police Department.
St. Petersburg police said the TikTok video that the unidentified Good Samaritan saw was posted on August 10, 2021, just 10 days after the deadly shooting by Jasmeen Alexander.
"The fact that her four-year-old was in the backseat. She was holding her baby. I have a newborn baby myself, so it just really was like, I really need to get this out there," Alexander told FOX 13 News.
Alexander lives in Alabama, but she says this St. Pete story caught her eye. So, in 2021, she posted about it on her TikTok page—just like she does for other true crime cases. Alexander has 2.8 million TikTok followers.
"When it comes to social media, your video can hit at any point in time," Alexander said.
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St. Pete's most wanted criminal captured in Mexico
A man accused of shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend at a St. Pete cemetery in 2021 in front of her young children has been captured in Mexico after a good Samaritan saw a TikTok video about the search for Benjamin Williams.
St. Petersburg police announced on Dec. 3rd that despite Alexander’s video being over three years old, an unidentified person living in Mexico happened to see it just last week.
That person recognized Williams and told the U.S. Embassy he lived in Mexico.
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Alexander told FOX 13 News that detectives contacted her two days ago and explained that her video helped them solve the case.
"It's crazy, unexplainable," Alexander said. "But, I mean, it was just meant to happen like that, I guess. You really can't explain it."
Joana Peca was shot and killed while holding her baby on her lap 15 months ago.
Detectives contacted the U.S. Marshals Service and Williams was taken into custody and brought to the United States. A St. Pete detective drove to Miami to pick him up and take him to the Pinellas County Jail.
"A dangerous criminal no longer poses a threat to the community or the family because they were nervous, he was going to come back and try to harm the family," St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a press conference on Tuesday, "Nothing can replace the loss of your daughter, but at least we have a dangerous person off the street. At least a loving mother, a loving daughter and the family can know now that we have him in custody."
Williams was wanted for the shooting death of 27-year-old Joana Peca. Police say he shot Joana Peca in the face multiple times on July 31, 2021, outside the Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in front of her young children.
Both children were uninjured, but "terrified at what had just happened," police said at the time.
Pictured: Joana Peca
"That 4-year-old has to live with that for the rest of their life, watching his mom being executed," St. Pete Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a previous news conference.
Joana Peca and Williams had been in a relationship and had a baby together, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.
The victim's mother, Eleni Peca, said her daughter went to the cemetery because Williams had asked her to come visit where his sister was buried.
"She trusted him, that's why she went there that day," Eleni Peca said in a past interview. "He was at his sister's grave. She went there to show support for him."
Fugitive Benjamin Williams next to Joana Peca, who is accused of gunning down while she held their baby on her lap.
On Tuesday, she said, "I feel a Christmas present for me and my little boys came early this year and I couldn’t ask for more than that phone call I got from the police department when they said he got arrested. I can’t explain the feeling that I had at that moment, but it was a combination of happiness and pain at the same time."
A week after the shooting death, U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Williams’ capture.
In November 2022, "In Pursuit with John Walsh" on Investigation Discovery and Discovery Plus featured Peca’s case and the hunt for Williams.
U.S. Marshal William Berger and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division's Special Agent in Charge Kirk Howard also attended Tuesday's press conference.
According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, Benjamin Williams shot his former girlfriend, Joana Peca, in the face while she was holding their baby in her car last year near Woodlawn Memorial Gardens.
Jail records show Williams has had about 40 arrests in Pinellas County dating back to 2007. Charges included drug possession, tampering with evidence, aggravated battery, armed robbery, grand theft and resisting arrest.
Williams has been charged with first-degree murder for Peca's death and two counts of child abuse.
Police are investigating if Williams was involved in other criminal activity in and outside the Bay Area.
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