Missing Man Found Trapped Inside Metro Station Six Days After His Family Thought He Was Dead

Rashawn Williams walked out of a Maryland hotel one Friday evening in October 2023 and vanished without a phone or identification. The 31-year-old, who is nonverbal and requires round-the-clock supervision, had simply signaled that he needed to use the bathroom while staying at a Residence Inn in Silver Spring. His caregiver went to find a key, but by the time anyone turned around, Williams had crossed the lobby and headed toward the Glenmont Metro station. His family would not see him again for six days.

What makes the case even more disturbing is where Williams spent those missing days. According to a federal lawsuit filed by his family, he encountered Metro employees shortly after midnight, including a station manager who allegedly looked directly at him while he waited for assistance. Williams eventually entered a restricted emergency area, where a door locked behind him. He remained there in darkness, without food or water, until police found him six days later. Now, a federal judge has allowed his family’s case against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to proceed.

This story, my goodness.
A 33 y/o man w/ Down syndrome slipped away from his caregiver and rode DC Metro to final stop.
A Metro worker told him to get off, ignoring his confusion.
He approached the station booth for help, but that worker was on his phone.
He walked into…

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) August 16, 2026

Williams Disappeared In A Matter Of Minutes

Williams was staying at the Residence Inn because his group home was undergoing repairs. His father, Jimmy Hall, has described him as “a people person” who loves family, friends, music and being out of the house. At the same time, Williams needs constant supervision and cannot communicate verbally, making his disappearance particularly serious from the moment he walked away.

At around 6:20 p.m. on the Friday in question, Williams signaled to his caregiver that he needed to use the bathroom. The caregiver went to find a key, but Williams apparently did not wait. He crossed the hotel lobby and left the building, eventually making his way toward the Glenmont Metro station. His family was informed roughly an hour later, according to the account laid out in the lawsuit.

Williams had no phone and no identification with him that night. If he became confused, injured or frightened, there was little he could do to explain who he was or contact his family. His relatives immediately began trying to locate him, but nobody knew that Williams had already entered the Metro system and was about to spend hours traveling on a train.

He Rode A Train For Hours Before Being Told To Leave

According to the family’s lawsuit, Williams boarded a Metro train and remained on it for approximately six hours. The train eventually returned to Glenmont shortly after midnight and went out of service. A Metro employee told Williams to get off, but the family alleges the employee did not make sure he had actually left the station or reached somewhere safe.

That alleged failure became a central issue in the federal case. Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the lawsuit, noted Williams’ visible disability and alleged confusion when discussing what happened that night. The judge wrote, “A modicum of basic communication with Williams to ensure he left the station safely can hardly be considered ‘burdensome’ to WMATA.”

The family argues that Williams’ behavior should have prompted Metro employees to recognize that he needed assistance rather than simply being treated as another passenger leaving an out-of-service train. He had no phone, could not communicate verbally and was visibly vulnerable, according to the lawsuit. Instead of finding his way home, Williams remained inside the station.

The next encounter would become even more significant because, according to the lawsuit, Williams was not simply overlooked from a distance. He allegedly came directly to a station manager seeking help.

A Metro Manager Allegedly Looked Directly At Him

Williams tried to leave through a fare gate but could not get through. Shortly before 12:45 a.m., he walked toward the nearest kiosk, where a station manager was sitting. According to the family’s lawsuit, the manager was taking a personal call on the station landline, and the call continued for more than half an hour while Williams remained nearby awaiting assistance.

The lawsuit alleges that the manager looked directly at Williams but did not address him. Instead, the manager allegedly continued the personal conversation while Williams stood there. Judge Xinis later found that the family’s allegations that Metro employees “ignored Williams’ clear signs of distress” were sufficient for the case to continue.

Williams eventually became frustrated, according to the lawsuit. He threw his hands up and walked farther back into the station after apparently failing to receive help. It was the last known interaction between Williams and a Metro employee before he disappeared into a restricted section of the station.

That detail has become one of the most striking parts of the case because the family alleges Williams was within reach of help. The lawsuit argues that basic communication could have revealed that he was a missing and vulnerable adult who needed assistance. Instead, Williams walked away and eventually found himself behind a door that would change the course of the next six days.

The Door Locked Behind Him

Somewhere beyond the platform, Williams pushed through an emergency exit into an Area of Refuge, a restricted stairwell designed for emergency situations rather than normal passenger use. According to the lawsuit, the door locked behind him. Williams was now inside a confined area with no obvious way to get back into the station.

The family’s complaint says there was no food, water or usable toilet inside the area. It describes Williams as spending “the entirety of his unnecessary confinement in complete darkness, isolated and vulnerable.” He had already been missing for hours when he became trapped, and his family had no idea where to look for him.

The lawsuit also alleges that Metro’s own policies required the emergency area to be inspected. According to the judge’s ruling, however, no Metro personnel inspected the area on the night Williams entered it or during the six days that followed. That alleged failure meant that a vulnerable man could remain inside the station while his relatives searched elsewhere.

Above ground, the search became increasingly desperate. Williams’ family checked subway stations, apartment buildings and surrounding streets, while relatives worked in shifts to cover as much ground as possible. His father would later describe how the search changed as each day passed without a sighting.

His Father Eventually Started Searching For His Body

“We were taking shifts of walking around the subway station, the apartment buildings and then come back,” Hall said while describing the family’s search. Relatives were covering areas around Silver Spring and the Metro system, trying to find any sign of Williams. Every hour that passed made the situation more frightening because nobody knew whether he was safe, injured or somewhere unable to call for help.

By the fifth day, Hall’s fear had become something much darker. He told The Washington Post that he had stopped expecting to find his son alive and was searching for his body instead. The family had no reason to believe Williams was still alive, and there was no obvious clue pointing them toward the locked emergency area at Glenmont.

The family also faced a major problem with Maryland‘s missing-person alert system. Williams was too old for an Amber Alert and too young for a Silver Alert, which at the time required a missing person to be at least 60. He was 31, meaning a vulnerable adult who could not communicate verbally fell between two systems designed to help locate missing people.

That gap would later become a major part of Hall’s campaign for change. But in October 2023, there was no Purple Alert system available to issue a statewide notification for someone in Williams’ situation. His family continued searching while Williams remained trapped inside the station.

Police Found Williams Alive After Six Days

On October 26, an officer searching the Glenmont station was reportedly told by a station manager about an emergency exit door that opened into a restricted area. When the area was checked, Williams was found inside. He had survived six days in the locked space while his family had been searching around the region for him.

The condition in which he was discovered was severe. Judge Xinis’ opinion describes Williams as severely dehydrated and undernourished, while the lawsuit alleges that he was covered in his own urine and feces and had bugs nesting in his hair. He was taken to a hospital and treated for severe dehydration after being rescued.

For Hall, the moment of finding his son alive came with an almost unbearable realization. His family had spent the previous six days “scouring the entire DMV,” as he later put it, while Williams had been inside the Metro station the entire time. The place they had been searching for him was also the place where he had been trapped.

Hall said his son greeted him after the reunion with two simple words: “Hi, Daddy.” It was a moment of relief after nearly a week of believing the worst, but the family would soon discover that the ordeal had not ended when Williams left the hospital.

The Family Says Six Days In Darkness Changed Him

According to the lawsuit, Williams experienced lasting changes after being rescued. His family alleges that he became unable to tolerate darkness and began struggling with nighttime behavior. He reportedly stays awake, rocks back and forth, wanders between rooms and sometimes has episodes of screaming without an identifiable trigger.

The lawsuit says complete darkness can now cause panic attacks in which Williams frantically runs into rooms searching for help. Before the disappearance, his family says he had been able to live with his usual routines and supervision. Afterward, they allege that the experience created fears and behaviors that continue to affect him.

Williams is now 33, according to the lawsuit. His family says the consequences of those six days are still visible in his everyday life, making the case about more than the conditions in which he was found. They argue that the alleged failures surrounding his disappearance contributed to lasting physical and psychological harm.

The lawsuit is seeking damages, but the family has also focused on accountability. Their argument is that several opportunities existed to recognize Williams needed help, including the moment he was allegedly seen by Metro employees and the period when he was trapped in an area that the lawsuit says should have been inspected.

WMATA Tried To Get The Case Thrown Out

The family’s lawsuit names WMATA and WeAchieve, the nonprofit responsible for Williams that night. The family alleges that WeAchieve violated Maryland staffing requirements by assigning one employee to supervise four people. WMATA, meanwhile, argued that it was protected by immunity and also characterized Williams as a trespasser in the restricted area, according to the court proceedings.

In August 2026, Judge Xinis rejected WMATA’s motion to dismiss the case. That decision allows the family’s claims to move forward, but it does not mean a jury has found WMATA responsible for what happened. The allegations will still have to be tested as the litigation continues.

The judge’s decision does, however, mean the family’s allegations were sufficient to survive the agency’s attempt to end the case at an early stage. Xinis found that the circumstances described by the family raised questions about whether WMATA owed Williams a duty of care and whether its own policies were followed.

The family’s attorney, Timothy Maloney, described the ruling as a wake-up call for WMATA. The transit agency said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The case now moves toward the next stages of the legal process, with the events surrounding those six days set to receive further scrutiny.

His Father’s Fight Created A New Alert For Vulnerable Adults

Hall did not stop fighting once his son was safely home. Within weeks of Williams being found, he went to Maryland lawmakers with a specific request: create an emergency alert for critically missing adults with disabilities who could not communicate normally and who did not qualify for an Amber or Silver Alert.

The campaign eventually produced Maryland’s Purple Alert program. The General Assembly passed the legislation in April 2024, and the system took effect that October. It covers certain missing adults between 18 and 60 with intellectual and developmental disabilities, brain injuries, mental disorders and hearing or vision loss.

The system would not have existed when Williams disappeared. That fact is difficult to separate from his family’s experience because the exact gap Hall complained about was the gap that had affected his son. Williams was an adult, but he was also a vulnerable person who could not simply tell strangers where he lived or ask for help in the same way another missing adult might.

After the law passed, Hall said, “We cross the finish line victorious.” He also explained why he had continued the fight after bringing his son home: “My son didn’t have a voice, and he had to go missing for six days.” His final goal was simple. “It’s all about the next family now. That they don’t have to endure what we endured.”

The Court Case Is Now About What Happened Behind That Door

Rashawn Williams went missing after leaving a Maryland hotel for what should have been a brief trip to the bathroom. He ended up riding a train for hours, encountering Metro employees, entering a restricted area and becoming trapped in darkness for six days while his family searched for him.

The federal lawsuit will now examine the allegations surrounding those events. A court has allowed the case to proceed, but the claims have not yet been decided by a jury, and WMATA has not admitted liability.

What cannot be disputed is what happened after Williams disappeared: he was found alive inside the station, severely dehydrated, and his father turned a six-day nightmare into a campaign for a new alert system. Maryland’s Purple Alert now exists. Hall’s hope is that another family never has to search for someone who has fallen through the same gap.