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[Music] This story has always been one that has fascinated people because it's so bizarre that this could
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even happen. >> 17 and 1/2 years, we have always talked about Mike Williams being missing.
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Not ever finding his body, not ever having resolution was very difficult. >> He was going to wake up early and go
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duck hunting. He was a big duck hunter. And so he went off to the lake and then he never came back.
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[Music] Mike Williams was a straight shooter. He loved his family. He loved his wife. if
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you put her on a pedestal. >> Mike did everything that she wanted done. Denise said jump. Mike wanted to
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know how high >> they were going to be celebrating their wedding anniversary. And so when he did
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not come home about noon when he was supposed to, Denise started getting worried and started calling around.
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>> This search was the most intensive I ever seen. >> Law enforcement and friends and family
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combing the lake looking for him. They found the boat, his truck, the trailer, that was all there.
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>> I got up in the helicopter, flew around, and looked for his body. And one of the
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things that I noticed, there were no less than 15 to 20 very large alligators swimming all around this area.
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Lake Seol is known for having a lot of alligators. We're in North Florida. There are a lot of alligators.
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When we went back out there, you know, there was more evidence that there was there had been alligator activity around
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there. >> That's what you believed happened to Mike? >> Yes, I I firmly believe that. I guess
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you're sort of hoping you find something and sort of hoping you don't. >> Well, we was hoping if he was here, we
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would find him and get closure, but no, it didn't happen. People are attacked by alligators.
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Little dogs are eaten by alligators. [Music] But you never hear of someone who's just
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banished, eaten by whole by an alligator. >> It is totally impossible for 185 lb man
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to be consumed by an alligator without a trace. >> I think that's when we started going,
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"Oh my gosh, this is not what we thought it was." Many people felt like there was foul
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play involved. >> Cheryl Williams, Mike's mom, comes along. >> And I pray every day that Mike will come
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home. >> Cheryl begins her crusade, if you will, trying to get answers. She'd make picket
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signs and stand in front of the church. There were billboards. You know, have you seen my son? She wrote the governor
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a letter every day for nine years. >> Until God tells me in my heart that that child is dead, I cannot give up looking
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for him. >> She wasn't going to quit until she had a body alive or dead. >> He didn't just fall out of the boat.
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This wasn't just a hunting accident. [Music] This man was murdered and they blamed it
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on alligators for 17 years. [Music] [Music] You've got to really love duck hunting
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to love Lake Seol. It's shallow, it's swampy, and it's popular with the local alligators.
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Mike Williams really did love duck hunting. And people say that's why he came here well before dawn on December
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16th, 2000, alone. His wife said the plan was that Mike would be back home in time to celebrate his wedding
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anniversary. But 12 hours later, after his wife reported him missing, Lake Seol would be
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swarming with rescuers, searching for Mike Williams on the land, on the water, and in the air. Can you show me the area
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that you guys searched in? Basically this area from here to there about five acres.
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>> Alton Reu and David Arnett were among the first law enforcement officers to get a call about a missing duck hunter.
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>> What we thought had happened is that he possibly fell out of the boat or capsized.
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>> Is it unusual for people to fall out of boats while they're hunting for ducks?
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>> It's not unusual. It it happens um quite often out here as far as they might hit
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a stump and throw them out. Early the next morning, there was a break. Mike's boat was found. On board were
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some decoys and his shotgun, but no sign of Mike himself. >> We done a grid search, very slow,
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meticulous grid search back and forth over the search area. >> And what began as a search and rescue
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soon turned into a search for a body. We stayed with that grid until we covered this whole area.
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>> Cadaavver dogs were brought in while teams scoured the murky bottom of Lake Seol in a gruesome search for Mike's
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body that was high intensity and low tech. This is the tool of your trade, right?
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>> That was that was actually one of the poles. >> And all you do is put it in the water
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and see if you feel anything. If it's a log, it's kind of a a a thump. Kind of a
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hard thump. If it would been body, you hit it, it's kind of like a pillow. >> Did you feel something ever on the
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bottom that felt like a body? >> Never. Never. >> Williams vanished one day before his
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sixth wedding anniversary. He met his wife Denise at North Florida Christian High School. He was a football
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player. She was a cheerleader. He was president of the student council. She was the secretary.
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>> How' they seem together? Great couple. >> Scott Dunie met Mike in high school. He
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and his wife Anessa were among Mike's best friends. >> If you knew Mike, he's the kind of
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person that uh is going to do anything and everything for you. So Denise, you know, found a gem.
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They both graduated from Florida State University. Denise became an accountant for the state. Mike became a real estate
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appraiser. Working for Clay Ketchum. >> This kid was straight as an error. He really truly was.
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>> Clay and his wife Patty got to know Mike well. >> He was an unbelievable worker. It was
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not uncommon for him to do 15-hour days. I mean, he would be in there early, work
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until 1 or 2 in the morning, and then be right back. He had incredible energy. >> Before long, Mike's career took off. And
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that's when he married Denise. >> He loved his wife. He even would leave the office and go pump her gas.
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>> I'm sorry. Go pump her gas. >> Yes. She would call him and say, "Mike, I need gas." And Mike would run over
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there, pump her gas, and run back. We all said we wanted to be married to Mike. Just before Mother's Day in 1999,
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Denise gave birth to the couple's daughter. And by chance, a local Tallahassee TV station was at the
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hospital. >> We're just totally overwhelmed. She was due Tuesday and she would have made me
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wait a whole another year for Mother's Day. >> She tipped the scales. >> It was unbelievable. I have a whole new
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respect for my wife and women in general and what they go through to bring a a new child, new life into the world.
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19 months after he became a father, Mike was missing. And the longer the search lasted on Lake
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Seol, the harder it was on the searchers, afraid of what they might find. One of Mike's oldest friends, Brian
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Winchester, was out there looking for him from the start. And it was Brian who discovered Mike's empty boat.
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Brian decided that we didn't want to be there when Mike's body was pulled up. >> Brett Ketchum was with Brian during the
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search. So, we would get in a car and drive to a gas station and go get a Coke and it was very emotional trips. I mean,
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it was, you know, crying and it was tough. >> The search was called off after 44 days.
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Rescuers could find no trace of Mike Williams. He was listed officially as still missing and some people wondered
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if he had just run off. >> We knew Mike had not run off. I mean, he loved his family and he adored his
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daughter. Adored her. So, Mike did not run off. This was not some elaborate ruse.
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>> Soon there was another explanation offered for why Mike's body could not be found.
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that he had been snatched by an alligator. >> Alligators, they don't eat you right
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then. This is morbid to talk about, but they go stuff you somewhere for 6 months
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and and then come back later. >> One of the rescue teams agreed, writing, "The alligators have dismembered and
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have stored the remains in a location that we would not be able to find." But there was at least one person who
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had serious doubts about that theory. Mike's mother, Cheryl. She pretty early on believed that there
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was more to this and that he was not in likes him at all. I think she just thought something
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something's not right here. [Music] Six months after Mike Williams disappeared, investigators had no new
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leads, no real hope of finding him. And then what could be a break bubbled up from the muck of Lake Seol?
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>> That pole is marking a spot where the waiters had popped up. A local fisherman found a pair of
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waiters like these which were believed to have belonged to Williams. >> Did it make sense to you that they
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popped up here? I mean, you would you had searched that area, right? >> We had searched it many times.
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>> Well, very well. Then two days after that, Mike's fishing jacket and his hunting license were
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found at the same spot along with a flashlight. But Williams was still missing. His wife Denise was raising
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their 2-year-old daughter alone. >> Denise was a doting mother, the pride and joy of her life.
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But Scott Dunie says now that Denise was a single mom, money was getting tight. >> I was helping her with some of the items
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that needed to be sold and to generate some cash until the insurance money came.
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>> And there was a lot of insurance money involved. Williams had three policies worth more than $1.75
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million. Mike wanted to make sure his family was taken care of because Mike hunted and
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fished and did some pretty high-risisk activity and Clay really encouraged him to load up.
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>> With her expenses reportedly mounting, Denise went after the insurance money quickly.
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>> While the search itself is still going on, while he is still actively missing,
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they're still actively searching for her. He she is going and filing a claim against his life insurance.
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Jennifer Portman covered this case for the Tallahassee Democrat. She was a consultant for 48 hours.
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>> She was really ready to accept the fact that he was missing and presumed dead
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very early on. >> But the state of Florida was not. According to Florida law, since there
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was no proof Williams had died, he would not be declared dead for 5 years. Denise
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did not want to wait that long to collect on Mike's life insurance. >> How much time did it take in this case?
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>> It took 6 months. It was very fast. Abnormally fast. >> That's because Denise's attorney argued
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to a judge that the waiters, the vest, and the hunting license were proof enough that Williams was dead. The judge
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agreed and issued a death certificate. Cause of death, accidental drowning while duck hunting on Lake Seol. Body
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has not yet been recovered. >> Based on that, and that alone was what got him declared dead.
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>> Pair of waiters and a fishing license and some other stuff. >> Yeah, exactly.
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>> The case of the missing hunter seemed closed and was soon forgotten by almost
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everyone, but not by Mike's mother, Cheryl. >> Did she believe that her son drowned in
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Lake Seol. >> She never ever believed that her son was in the lake and she was absolutely
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committed to finding out what happened to him. It's never out of my head. Where is this
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child? >> Cheryl caught the attention of the local news. >> He may be dead, but he's not in that
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lake. And if somebody did hurt my child, I want them found and I want them punished.
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>> Cheryl started keeping notes of everything, copious notes of all of the, you know, strange things that were going
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on. >> She eventually filled 27 single spaced pages with lots of unanswered questions
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like, "What made the waiters float after 6 and 1/2 months underwater?" Her notes
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ended with a plea to anyone who would listen. Please help me find my son. >> She was trying to basically compile all
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of these evidence that she could find and trying to get it in front of someone who would listen to her.
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>> Well, did Denise help her? >> Oh, no. Denise completely cut her off. >> Denise was adamant. No investigation.
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>> She threatened to withhold Cheryl's granddaughter from her. >> Correct. She said, "If you continue to
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press for this investigation, you will never see your granddaughter again." >> So, what did she do?
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>> She took the energy she would have spent, love it on that child, then tried to
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find her daddy. >> Charl pressed on and started poking holes in the official version of what
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happened to her son. For years after Mike Williams disappeared, there was a theory that the
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reason his body was never found was that he had been eaten by alligators. Turns out there is a problem with that theory.
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Charled Matthew Areco, an alligator expert. Florida has a few of them. In his response, he explained that
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alligators do not feed in the cold winter months. Cold weather um causes the water temperature to drop so
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alligators don't feed in the winter time. >> What's more, Aresco said that when alligators kill, there is always
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forensic evidence left behind. And he said attributing Mike's disappearance to an alligator attack may be a convenient
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explanation for the authorities, but was virtually impossible. >> We're in North Florida. There are a lot
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of alligators. I will give you that. But it is winter. Alligators do not eat human beings without leaving a trace in
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the middle of December when it's cold. It just doesn't happen. [Music] >> If not for Cheryl Williams,
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there's no way that we would know where Mike Williams was or anything that ever happened to him. She was the driving
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force. Charl Williams knew because an expert told her that her son was not eaten by
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an alligator, but she did not know much else about how he vanished. >> One of the things that has been so
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difficult about this case is that there was an absolute lack of physical evidence. You didn't have a body. You
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didn't have any of these things that maybe could point you towards something. >> But Cheryl had something. those 27 pages
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of detailed notes. In 2004, four years after Mike disappeared, Cheryl's campaign finally caught the attention of
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the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Investigators met with her and then launched a multi- agency
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investigation. >> When did you first begin thinking this was a crime? >> The first night we talked to Miss
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Cheryl. At the time, Derek Wester was with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. He was part of the
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investigation. >> She had it all broke down, and then as she's relaying this story, all these
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inconsistencies start adding up. >> Do you remember what some of those inconsistencies were?
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>> The insurance. >> It was Mike's three life insurance policies that caught their attention,
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particularly the last one he bought, not long before he disappeared, worth $1 million.
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How did Mike Williams end up with that million-dollar life insurance policy? Who sold it to him?
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>> Brian Winchester sold him the million-dollar life insurance policy about six months before he went missing.
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>> Brian Winchester was an insurance agent. He'd been Mike's best friend since high
00:19:13
school where, like Mike, he met his future wife, Kathy Aldrich. And from then on, the two couples were
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inseparable. >> You know, they did literally everything together. They went out to dinner
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together. They bought houses at the same time. They >> got married at the same time.
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>> Had babies at the same time. >> You know, they were they were very close. >> Brian Winchester was in the insurance
00:19:37
business. So, it's not that odd that he would sell his friend an insurance policy.
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>> No, it's not. I mean, just the timing of it in retrospect looks a little weird.
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>> That wasn't the only thing that started to look weird. Those waiters that popped
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up in Lake Seol surfaced just as Denise Williams needed proof that her husband was dead in order to get the insurance
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money. >> How many days before the court hearing these waiters popped up? >> Less than a month. I mean, it was really
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close. >> They had supposedly been submerged in the lake for 6 months. >> These waiters was in very good shape.
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They were also not slimy. >> And what did that mean? They had not been in the water very long.
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>> So you looked at that stuff and you thought to yourself, "What? >> Planted?" >> It was planted.
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>> Yeah. >> No one could say for sure who planted it. But as time passed, Denise Williams
00:20:34
and Brian Winchester started attracting attention and some suspicion. Because years after Mike disappeared, Winchester
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divorced his wife Kathy. He began dating Denise and then he married her. >> We went to the wedding.
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>> Was she a suspect in your mind at that point? >> I think in mine I was Yes. The minister
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at some point said, "I've counseledled with this couple and they have no secrets I don't know." And Clay and I
00:21:04
both went. >> We kind of nudged each other like, "Well, there might be this one little
00:21:09
secret you don't know." all these things start becoming like clear that we now we've got the
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insurance now we've got the waiters got the alligator theory being busted by the
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experts so as they're building their case you know they talk to people they start
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getting somewhere >> one of the first people investigators talk to was Denise Williams
00:21:34
>> there's no emotion there's no softening up there there's there's nothing. I mean, she's just matter of fact and
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cold. >> But Brian Winchester had much more to say. He offered detectives an alibi for
00:21:49
the morning Mike Williams went missing. He said he was 60 miles away from the lake in bed.
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>> Brian tells us that he was going hunting with his father-in-law and overslept.
00:22:00
>> You know for a fact that Brian was not telling you the truth then. >> Mhm. Winchester could not have known it, but
00:22:07
detectives already had a witness who said he saw Winchester that morning at Lake Seol.
00:22:14
>> I know the the man personally. I mean, I've I've known him all my life and I composed the line up and I took it to
00:22:20
him. Joel says, "Well, he wasn't smiling like that, but that's him." And he pointed to Brian Winchester.
00:22:25
>> And he had seen that same man. He said when >> that morning >> there was one more thing Winchester
00:22:31
didn't know. Police were talking to his ex-wife and she told them Denise and Brian might have been having an affair
00:22:41
for years before Mike disappeared. >> There was definitely a suspicion that him and her were having an affair well
00:22:49
before that December >> while Denise was still married to Mike. >> Yes, >> the plot was sure thickening, but
00:22:56
investigators still weren't sure what the full story was. After 2 years, the FDLE hit a wall. But
00:23:05
Cheryl Williams, who had been fighting since the day her son disappeared, was not giving up.
00:23:12
>> And it's horrible not knowing what happened to him. >> She was very, very, very frustrated with
00:23:18
FDLE and felt that they were not doing their job. They weren't trying. >> So, she picketed, you know, she would
00:23:25
have signs made and and walk up and down in front of the church. Every year she would have billboards put
00:23:32
up around town. >> It showed a picture of Mike and missing and if you have any information who's to
00:23:37
contact >> and she went after the governor. >> She wrote the governor a letter every
00:23:41
day for 9 years. >> In fact, the governor received 1,472 letters that we know of.
00:23:54
>> Her suspicion was always with Brian and Denise, more so with Denise. The two people who were considered most
00:24:03
likely suspects were together and unless one of them turned on the other, you were never going to find out what
00:24:09
happened here. >> Did you think this case would get broken? >> Not until I found out that they were
00:24:15
having marital problems. They turned on each other like rats in a sack. Until God tells me in my heart that that child
00:24:42
is dead, I cannot give up looking for him. As the years dragged on, it looked like
00:24:50
the mystery of what happened to Mike Williams might never be solved. If Brian and Denise knew anything about
00:24:58
Mike's disappearance, they weren't talking and no one could make them. By Florida law, as long as they stayed
00:25:05
married, neither could be forced to testify against the other. >> With Brian and Denise being married, you
00:25:13
were how were you ever going to get the truth? because one is not going to turn on the other.
00:25:23
>> But behind the scenes, Denise and Brian's marriage was disintegrating and after 7 years in 2012, they decided
00:25:34
to separate. >> He is, you know, self-describes as being a sex addict. He's trying to please her
00:25:42
by going to therapy, by getting counseling. Like, he's jumping through all these hoops, trying to do all these
00:25:47
things to get her back, and she's not kind of accepting them. >> After four more years of trying to patch
00:25:55
things up, Brian snapped. >> One morning, Denise gets in her car. She's driving to work and she senses
00:26:04
something in the back and Brian Winchester has hidden in the back of her car and is coming over the seat and has
00:26:09
got a gun. >> He's got a gun. He's got a gun. >> He had a gun. He had a tarp. The idea
00:26:15
was that he was going to kill her. >> He's screaming and I'm just like shaking and he's telling me to stop crying that
00:26:22
people are going to notice because >> Denise reported her kidnapping to the Lyon County Sheriff's Office.
00:26:27
>> I was like, "Are you planning on, you know, ending both of our lives today?" Well, mine. I'm planning on mine. And
00:26:34
then he would say, "I want to kill." He must have said a million times, "I want to kill myself."
00:26:38
Brian Winchester was soon arrested and charged with the kidnapping and aggravated assault of his wife.
00:26:46
>> I was just kind of agreeing with whatever he was saying, and I was like, I know that you love me. And
00:26:51
>> police quickly realized that the rift in Denise and Brian's marriage presented an
00:26:57
opportunity. A tag team of detectives arrived to see what they could get out of Denise to see
00:27:05
if she would now flip on her aranged husband and talk about his involvement in Mike Williams's disappearance.
00:27:14
>> I know Denise. He did it. And you knew exactly what I'm talking about. And he was going to do it
00:27:21
again. >> Tallahassee detective David Mccrainy tried. If he wasn't going to kill
00:27:25
himself, then he was going to kill you so that you couldn't talk about him later.
00:27:30
That is the truth. >> Mccrainy turned up the heat. >> 15 years ago, he walked in, told you he
00:27:36
had done something, didn't he? >> No. >> Denise, >> no. >> You have got he this is not going away,
00:27:46
okay? He's going to kill you. He's either going to kill himself. We just got no other avenue.
00:27:51
>> But Denise did not budge. My name is Mike Deainy. I'm at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
00:27:58
>> So, special agent Mike Deainy came in. He'd been working the Williams case for
00:28:03
years. >> Do you think it's responsible for Mike's disappearance? >> I do not. And I never had. I would have
00:28:09
never buried him if I thought that. I mean, in my mind, in my heart, no. >> She wasn't giving up anything.
00:28:17
>> She was giving up absolutely nothing. >> Where do you think my spirit is? >> Oh, I I have no idea. Any speculation on
00:28:24
that >> on where he's buried? >> Buried. >> I mean, I believe >> you don't really believe he he died at
00:28:30
on the lake. >> I do. >> Why? >> I just I just always have. That's what I believe.
00:28:38
>> That was her story and sticking to it. >> That left Brian as the only possible
00:28:46
source of information in the Williams case. He was facing a long stretch in prison for the kidnapping, but there was
00:28:53
no word about what, if anything, he would say about Mike's disappearance. We're here in state of Florida versus
00:29:03
Brian Winchester 2000. >> 16 months later, Brian plead guilty to kidnapping and assaulting Denise and
00:29:11
appeared in court for his sentencing. We had a a plea and we weren't sure what the government was going to ask for.
00:29:18
>> He was crying at times. He apologized. >> Tim Jansen is Brian Winchester's lawyer.
00:29:25
>> We had indicated we want 15. The state gets up and asks for 45. >> My client wouldn't like to address the
00:29:31
court. Pardon me. >> Never ever did I have any intentions of harming Denise, nor would I.
00:29:52
Nonetheless, I do know that she was hurt by my actions. And again, I am truly sorry.
00:29:59
[Music] Start by stating your name, please. >> Denise Williams. >> Denise showed up at the sentencing for
00:30:09
>> What was she like there? What did she want? >> She wanted him to go to prison for the
00:30:13
rest of his life. >> I start each day with the memory of him jumping out of the back. And I end each
00:30:20
day feeling the gun shoved in my ribs when I turn on my right side trying to sleep.
00:30:27
>> She was scared. She was compelling. >> He will finish what he has started no matter what age he is when he's
00:30:34
released. >> Most people in the courtroom were pretty stunned by it. It was pretty powerful.
00:30:38
>> I'm asking you to sentence him to life in prison for the crimes he has committed. It comes down to my life or
00:30:45
his. And I'm asking you please to choose mine. Thank you. [Music] >> Come on up with your client, Mr. Jansen.
00:30:56
for kidnapping Denise. Brian was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. >> He was shackled at the waist and the
00:31:06
ankles. And when they shuffled him off to prison, we felt so defeated because we said, "There'll never be an answer to
00:31:15
our friend Mike. Never an answer. We won't know." >> Well, you were wrong. >> We were wrong.
00:31:24
They had found Mike's body. [Music] [Music] This was so huge. It still is really
00:31:46
pretty stunning. Just one day after Brian Winchester was sentenced for kidnapping Denise
00:31:53
Williams, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement held a news conference. And the news really was huge.
00:32:00
>> Standing here now, I can tell you that we know what happened to Mike Williams.
00:32:05
He was murdered. They know that because sometime before he was sentenced for kidnapping, Brian
00:32:12
Winchester cracked and confessed in these audio recordings. >> I went and met Mike at a gas station. I
00:32:22
followed him to the lake. We launched the boat. It was just like a hunting trip was supposed to be.
00:32:30
Winchester had cut a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his confession he would not be charged with
00:32:37
murder even though he admitted killing his best friend. >> I got him to stand up and I pushed him
00:32:44
into the water and he was in a panic. Obviously I was in a panic. I didn't know what to do and I ended up shooting
00:32:52
him. The agreement that we drafted up said that anything he said that day could not
00:32:59
be used against him. >> Winchester gave prosecutors what they wanted most, the location of Mike
00:33:06
Williams's body. >> I backed my Suburban down to the edge of the lake and put his body in the back
00:33:14
and pushed his boat back out into the water. Brian says he left Mike's truck and trailer at Lake Seol to make Mike's
00:33:22
disappearance look like an accident. But actually, Mike's body was nowhere near Lake Seol.
00:33:32
He was 60 miles away at Carl Lake, a remote marshy area just 10 minutes from Winchester's home.
00:33:42
Brian led investigators here to the spot he buried Mike back in 2000. >> And they commenced what FDLE told me is
00:33:52
the most extensive search they have ever undertaken in the history of the agency.
00:33:55
>> The search uncovered Mike's skeletal remains and his wedding ring among other things.
00:34:04
And there was horrifying evidence of what happened to him. >> And what they were able to show very
00:34:12
clearly was that he had been shot basically at point blank range in the face with a shotgun.
00:34:18
>> This was up close, personal, deadly. >> Yeah. >> And gruesome. >> Yeah. >> And Winchester provided one final piece
00:34:30
of the puzzle. He said it was all Denise's idea. >> She would not get divorced. And so she
00:34:39
basically said there's only one solution. >> As he tells it, she was not willing to
00:34:45
endure the public shame of a divorce. So she thought murder was a better answer.
00:34:50
>> I guess it was better to be known as a widow than a divorce. Aea. >> Wow, that is incredibly cold. And
00:34:58
wouldn't it be great if we also, oh, by the way, collected, you know, almost $2 million in insurance.
00:35:03
>> We would end up together. We would live happily ever after. Oh, and as a side
00:35:07
note, we've got all this money to enjoy our wonderful life today. >> The happily ever after part didn't work
00:35:15
out so well. In May 2018, five months after the discovery of Mike's body was announced,
00:35:24
Denise Williams was arrested and charged with firstdegree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and
00:35:32
accessory after the fact. >> It was a very bizarre moment. And she said nothing and she didn't look at
00:35:41
anybody. She just looked straight ahead. >> It's a bittersweet feeling. You are so thankful that she
00:35:50
has been outed for the true person she is. But it doesn't you're still left with the same result.
00:35:57
>> Even though you saw her let away in shackles >> in an ugly dress and hair that needed a
00:36:03
die job. I got to tell you that felt pretty good to me cuz I know how important appearances are to her.
00:36:13
>> She didn't do it. She had nothing to do with it. She's completely innocent. Defense attorney Ethan Weey is
00:36:18
representing Denise. >> Did she know about it? >> No, not before, not during, not after.
00:36:23
>> You are very confident. >> I have an innocent client. It's the best kind. [Music]
00:36:31
>> On December 11th, 2018, prosecutor John Fuches gave his opening argument at Denise Williams's murder trial.
00:36:40
>> Denise likes the sound of being a widow much more than a divorce. obviously can't be caught with a murder.
00:36:47
So, they had to make it look like an accident. >> Raise your right hand, please.
00:36:50
>> Early on, the state called Brian Winchester. >> We had an agreement that she would never
00:36:57
say anything about me and I would never say anything about her because we felt like that as long as neither one of us
00:37:03
talked that nobody would ever find out what happened. >> Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
00:37:09
Ethan Weey was in an enviable position for a defense attorney representing an accused murderer. The prosecution star
00:37:18
witness admits he is the killer. >> When you shot Mike Williams with a 12- gauge shotgun, was Denise Williams
00:37:24
standing there with you? >> No, she wasn't. She was in my head behind me. >> Denise Williams had no idea that you
00:37:31
shot her husband in the face with a shotgun. Did you? >> Correct. >> Sir Winchester, you're a murderer. Isn't
00:37:36
it true? >> Yes, sir. Mr. Winchester, you're a liar. Isn't it true? >> Yes, sir.
00:37:41
>> Of course, Cheryl Williams always suspected her one-time daughter-in-law was involved. And Cheryl was now a
00:37:48
witness for the prosecution. >> The initial theory was that he was missing and possibly eaten by
00:37:55
alligators, >> right? >> You never believed that, did you? >> No, sir. >> How long did it take before Denise
00:38:00
called you and said, "I'm sorry. I was wrong all these years." She never did. >> Finally, Winchester's ex-wife Kathy
00:38:10
testified Denise kept quiet as part of a conspiracy of silence between Brian and
00:38:16
Denise. >> Were you aware that Brian Winchester kidnapped Denise Williams? >> Yes.
00:38:22
>> About a week after that, did Denise ask you to do something? >> Denise asked me to get a message to
00:38:28
Brian that I'm not talking. After three days of testimony, both sides rested. Ethan Weey was so
00:38:42
confident the state had no hard evidence that he didn't want the jury to consider
00:38:47
any charges less than murder one. >> This is a strategy decision. As you understand, it's a little bit out of the
00:38:54
ordinary. >> Yes. >> I guess for one of a better word, it's a little bit of a gamble.
00:38:59
>> Yes. The jury was now facing an all orno decision and the attorneys presented
00:39:05
their closing arguments. >> This is not a case about trying to get quote justice for Mike. This is a murder
00:39:12
case. There's no evidence that supports any of the allegations against my client. We are counting on you to return
00:39:21
a verdict that speaks the truth. And that verdict is not guilty. >> Think back three days ago.
00:39:29
Brian Winchester is on the stand describing how he shot his best friend. Everybody in this entire room
00:39:39
was moved by the sheer horror of that situation. One person, that one person sat here, absolute stone
00:39:50
face, didn't bat an eye, didn't shed a tear. That lady right there, Miss Denise Williams. The jury took eight hours to
00:40:00
reach a verdict. >> The defendant is guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
00:40:07
>> Denise Williams was found guilty. As to count two, we the jury find the defendant is guilty of firstdegree
00:40:16
murder. On all counts, >> the defendant is guilty of accessory after the fact of firstdegree murder.
00:40:26
Mike's family and friends waited 18 years for this day. >> Sometimes the wheels of justice turn
00:40:34
slowly, but they do still turn. >> For Cheryl Williams, it has been a long, heartbreaking fight, but now she can
00:40:43
finally lay her son to rest. >> It hit her really hard and and I think she's still coming to terms with it. I
00:40:52
mean, the brutality of it, the the finality of it, how anyone could do this to Mike,
00:40:58
>> it kind of destroys your your faith and in man >> to do this to him and the way it was
00:41:04
done and it's just unimaginable. >> You still miss him? >> Oh, yeah. >> He was such a good guy. He loved to
00:41:13
work. He loved his family. He put him on a pedestal and he got killed for it. That's the irony of this is the kid did
00:41:20
nothing wrong. [Music] CBS next. A rock star of the snake breeding world found dead.
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>> I assumed it was a snake. >> It wasn't a snake, but the killer was coldblooded. Who would want to kill Ben
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Renick? If you couldn't have imagined anything like that. >> 48 hours prime time double feature
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continues next on CBS. [Music]