For about a decade, diners in San Diego’s Mission Beach knew the head chef at Miss B’s Coconut Club as Troy Williams. US Marshals now say that name was fake and that the San Diego chef is Brian Anthony Williams, a 50-year-old wanted in a 2012 Iowa kidnapping, according to People.
Williams was arrested inside the restaurant on Tuesday without incident. Federal officials said they developed information in September that the fugitive was living in San Diego under an assumed name. He had even appeared in local print and television news stories using the alias. A Marshals spokesperson reportedly said someone recognized him from a local media interview and alerted authorities.
The San Diego chef was charged in Scott County, Iowa, in October 2012 with first-degree kidnapping, assault causing serious injury, conspiracy to commit a felony, and first-degree arson. Authorities allege that he and co-conspirators kidnapped, assaulted, and shot a woman before leaving her in a field in northwest Davenport. A federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was added later.
His general manager says he was told to Google the chef’s real name
Eddie Jurado, the restaurant’s general manager, said a friend called to tell him about the arrest and that an investigator then told him the chef was not coming back. He was instructed to search the name Brian Anthony Williams online, and a mugshot of his head chef came up. “I was his roommate for a while and he’s not even Troy,” Jurado said.
The restaurant’s general manager said the two had each worked at the restaurant for about ten and a half years, and that Williams had run the kitchen for eight or nine of them after the first chef left. Staff are still trying to understand how the alias held up for so long. However, Jurado also said employees feel very sorry for the victim and what she went through.
The San Diego chef did not keep a low profile during his years in Mission Beach. He appeared in local television segments featuring the restaurant and sat for a newspaper profile in February. In that profile, the man known as Troy described growing up in New York City’s Queensbridge housing project and working his way up from line cook to head chef.
The fugitive had appeared on local most-wanted lists and the Marshals Service website for more than a decade. “This arrest is a perfect example of those who think they have bested law enforcement and evaded arrest,” US Marshal Ted Kamatchus said. Kamatchus, who serves the Southern District of Iowa, added that deputies remain resolute in pursuing the most dangerous offenders.
Assumed identities have left people close to a suspect blindsided in other recent cases. In August, a woman said she left an Airbnb shortly before the FBI arrested her boyfriend at an airport, in a fraud case where prosecutors allege the man used fake personas. She said she had no idea why until later.
The Iowa allegations have not been tested in court, as authorities say Williams fled the state to avoid prosecution. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The restaurant’s ownership could not immediately be reached for comment, though patrons were seen dining at Miss B’s Coconut Club the day after the arrest.
Nearly 14 years passed between the Iowa charges and the arrest in California. Davenport police had asked a federal fugitive task force for help, and the wanted man’s name ran in public notices during that time. However, investigators did not place him in San Diego until September, as the alias kept the San Diego chef out of reach.
Williams remains in federal custody in San Diego and is expected to be extradited to Iowa to face the charges, though no date for the transfer has been announced.
Published: Oct 10, 2026 08:30 am