Catherine Rusoff
In December 2006, just days before Christmas, Tammy Myers disappeared. The 29-year-old mother of three had separated from her husband and was living with a new man, William Greer, in a suburb of Houston. A few days after Myers disappeared, Greer also disappeared.
Investigators believed Greer was responsible for Myers’ death and spent years hunting the fugitive.
In 2010, Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch of the Southern District of Texas US Marshals Service Heard about the case and asked to be assigned. “This guy literally thought he could victimize not just Tammy, but everyone else he encountered while he was on the run, and he kind of just turned his nose up in our faces,” Welch told “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant in “ The Day My Mother Vanished,” which airs Saturday, May 11 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Tammy Myers’ daughter, Nicki Myers Bates, told Van Sant that she and her brothers liked Greer. He was kind and generous to them, but it wasn’t long before his relationship with his mother turned dark.
“As a little girl, do you remember seeing your mother in pain?” Van Sant asked.
“Yes,” Bates replied. “She was bleeding, she was bruised, she could barely walk.”
As far as Bates knows, her mother never reported the alleged abuse to the police. Tammy Myers, however, began making plans to leave Greer and get back together with her husband, Ryan Myers. Through tears, Ryan Myers told Van Sant he still loved her. “Tammy was loving and caring,” he said. “A great person to have around.”
Bates was just 7 years old when her mother disappeared — 9 years old when she gave her first interview about the case on “America’s Most Wanted.”
“You kind of went on a mission, didn’t you?” Van Sant asked Bates. “I did,” she replied. “Not just to find William, but just to keep my mother’s name and her case alive.”
US Marshal Service
In 2012, Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin joined the search for Greer. “The family wants someone who will strive to do what needs to be done,” he told Van Sant.
Deputies praised Bates’ commitment to finding Greer. “She would make a great deputy U.S. marshal,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Josh Wright. “We love it.”
Ramin gave the search for Greer a new nickname: “Operation Catch a Toe.” It’s a reference to a toe the Marshals discovered Greer had lost in a bicycle accident. This distinguishing feature was mentioned on wanted posters and the Marshals hoped it would help alert people to Greer’s identity.
“If you have a killer in your house and… that killer is missing a toe… they will easily put two and two together,” Ramin said. Was he right.
CBS News
On November 22, 2017, Marshals received a report that Greer had been located in Mexico. He had been on the run for more than a decade. Within days, a swarm of undercover Mexican police captured a man everyone expected to be William Greer.
“He completely denied it was him.” Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch told Van Sant. “I just wish I had been there to see his face when they took his shoe off.”
“What did they see?” Van Sant asked. “The missing finger,” Welch replied.
“Operation Catch a Toe” was finally successful. Greer was later convicted of manslaughter after agreeing to a plea deal.
For Bates, the heartbreak continues. She is determined to find her mother, who investigators believe Greer buried somewhere in a wooded area of Cleveland, Texas.
Van Sant was with Bates in February 2024, when she left with dozens of volunteers from a search and recovery nonprofit, Texas EquuSearch. The day began with prayers for Nicki and her family.
“Seeing all the volunteers here… I don’t know any of them, and they kept me updated and, you know, made me feel so loved,” Bates said.
That day, three cadaver dogs reacted to something in the same area. The search team didn’t have the right tools to dig properly, so they committed to trying again. Until then, Bates, who is now a mother herself, will be searching on her own.
“My kids are young, but they are fully aware of what is going on,” Bates said. “They want her to be found so badly. So I’m just trying to keep hope for myself but also for my kids and, you know, I just keep looking because I don’t want to give up.
