Rodney Williams found guilty of murder of pregnant 16-year-old Tiffany Taylor

For the second time in two years, Rodney Wayne Williams has been found guilty of murdering pregnant 16-year-old Tiffany Taylor, with the judge labelling him a ‘creep’.

And Williams, 68, has killed before.

Tiffany was last seen leaving a motel south of Brisbane seven years ago after Williams organised to meet her on a dating website and pay for sex.

Williams picked up Tiffany near the Waterford West motel in July 2015 and was accused of killing her at a remote industrial area before disposing of her body at Fernvale, 100km southwest of Logan.

Her body has never been found.

Tiffany Taylor was 16 and pregnant when she was last seen leaving a motel south of Brisbane in 2015. Rodney Wayne Williams was found guilty of her murder for the second time on Monday

For the second time in two years, Rodney Williams (pictured) has been found guilty of murdering Tiffany Taylor after he picked her up near the Waterford West motel in July 2015. He had organised to meet with her on a dating website and pay for sex

Williams was found guilty on Monday afternoon after the jury deliberated for almost five hours in the three-week trial.

He had also been found guilty of Tiffany’s murder and sentenced to life in prison after a 19-day trial in March 2020.

But Williams won an appeal in June 2021 and was granted a retrial.

Williams had also been convicted for murder in 1978.

He stabbed an elderly neighbour in the back during a robbery and was sentenced to life in prison but was released on parole after 15 years behind bars.

At this month’s retrial the court heard Tiffany’s blood and DNA were found in Williams’ gold or champagne-coloured Hyundai sedan.

The Crown would show footage it argues shows Williams and Tiffany together in his Hyundai which sported a ‘Hustler’ sticker on the back bumper. 

Williams told police Tiffany had suffered a nose bleed when he picked her up.

The court heard Williams created a false trail of communication with Tiffany (pictured) on the dating website after killing her, with his last message saying: ‘Sorry I didn’t turn up, decided I wasn’t going to pay for it’

Williams (pictured in August, 2015) was found guilty on Monday afternoon after the jury deliberated for almost five hours in the three-week trial

He claimed that he had given her a lift to Redbank Plains but changed his story, saying he dropped her off at a truck stop on the Warrego Highway west of Brisbane and had not seen her since.

He denied having sex with the teen, telling police he told Tiffany he didn’t have any money but she insisted on meeting him anyway because she thought he was interesting after reading his dating website profile.

Footage on motorway cameras and phone tracking details on cell towers indicated that her body was in his vehicle on the drive to Fernvale, crown prosecutor Caroline Marco said. 

Ms Marco said images from toll booths indicated Williams with a passenger in his Hyundai sedan, highlighting one at Heathwood entering the Ipswich motorway.

She said while it was not the most clear image it indicated a person slumped on a reclined passenger seat – a person the prosecutor claimed may be a dead Tiffany.

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Tiffany was reported missing by her sister on July 15, three days after she met Williams at the motel in south Brisbane. Her body has never been found

‘As audacious as it might sound that a person would put a deceased person in the front seat of the car, remember that his journey was along a motorway … and at high speed and if she was slumped in the seat passing motorists may think … she was asleep,’ Ms Marco told the jury. 

Williams created a false trail of communication with Tiffany on the dating website after killing her, the court heard, with his last message saying: ‘Sorry I didn’t turn up, decided I wasn’t going to pay for it’.

He was intercepted by officers at a Brisbane train station with a bag of clothes and sentimental items in August 2015, a day before he was to be interviewed by police.

Supreme Court judge Peter Applegarth slammed the killer for repeatedly lying when he handed down his judgment, NCA Newswire reported, with Williams claiming the girl had been ‘interested’ in him.

‘No 16-year-old girl would have found you interesting,’ Justice Applegarth said.

‘Few 60-year-old women in their right minds would have found a creep like you interesting. The only ones who did would be forensic psychiatrists.’