00:00:08
NARRATOR: On the day he
disappeared, Mike Williams and his wife, Denise
had plans to celebrate
00:00:12
their wedding anniversary,
a romantic break just the two of them. If only Mike hadn't tried to
squeeze in a little hunting
00:00:19
trip that morning. Mike never returns home. NARRATOR: A loving
husband, a devoted father,
00:00:26
he had vanished without trace,
leaving his devastated family with nothing but theories
about what had become of him.
00:00:32
Maybe, he'd even been
killed by an alligator. DERRICK WESTER: Because Lake
Seminole is infested or has
00:00:39
a large number of
alligators, there was a rumor around
that the guy probably got snatched up by
a larger alligator,
00:00:47
stuffed up under a rock, and
that alligator probably preyed on him until he decomposed.
00:00:53
NARRATOR: It would take almost
two decades for investigators to uncover the truth
and when they did,
00:00:58
they would learn
that the Williams perfect marriage
wasn't quite the fairy tale everyone had imagined.
00:01:04
[music playing] Mike Williams worked
harder than most to achieve his dream lifestyle.
00:01:26
He wanted a beautiful
home, a wife, and children. His own childhood featured
a loving mother and father,
00:01:32
but the Williams were
far from wealthy. Mike had come from
a modest background. His daddy was a
Greyhound bus driver,
00:01:40
his mom was a daycare
provider, and they had they lived in a double wide trailer.
00:01:45
They save their money up. They didn't buy a fancy home. They wanted to save their money
to provide a good education
00:01:50
for their sons. NARRATOR: Mike worked
nights in a supermarket through high school where
he was a grade A student.
00:02:00
And it was here that he met his
future wife, Denise Merrell. They became high
school sweethearts.
00:02:07
Both were sporty and popular. He played football. She was a cheerleader. It was through Denise that
Mike met Brian Winchester.
00:02:16
When Denise Williams and Brian
Winchester went to high school, they went to North
Florida Christian.
00:02:22
And it was at North
Florida Christian that they met Mike
Williams and they met the woman who would later
become Brian Winchester's wife.
00:02:29
And by all accounts, the four
of them were inseparable. They were fast friends. They all stayed in
Tallahassee after graduating
00:02:37
from high school. NARRATOR: In 1994,
Brian and Kathy married and began a family.
00:02:44
Mike and Dennis
married the same year and had a daughter
five years later. They seemed all set.
00:02:51
Dennis and Mike had
a very strong marriage. They had a beautiful daughter. Mike adored Denise,
did everything for her.
00:02:57
Really, I mean, he
was a great husband. NARRATOR: Mike wanted more
comfort for his family.
00:03:03
While Denise was taking
time out to be a mother, Mike was working
harder than ever.
00:03:08
Mike was a good family man. He was always a hard worker. Before he even graduated from
Florida State University,
00:03:13
he already had a good job
as a property appraiser. And by the year 2000, he
was doing pretty well.
00:03:19
He was making a couple hundred
thousand dollars a year. NARRATOR: In fact,
Mike's boss worried
00:03:23
that he worked too much. He would often be found
in the office before dawn. After a busy day at
work, he'd head home,
00:03:30
cook his wife's dinner,
then return to his desk after Denise and his
daughter had gone to bed.
00:03:35
On one occasion, his
boss took the office keys away so Mike couldn't come
into work at the weekend.
00:03:41
How did Denise feel about her
husband being a workaholic? Not always well, she
would tell friends.
00:03:47
Especially, when
Mike always found the time for his other
passion, hunting waterfowl.
00:03:53
When he was 15, he
started duck hunting and it became his favorite
hobby for the rest of his life.
00:03:59
NARRATOR: The 16th
of December 2000, Mike and Denise's sixth
wedding anniversary.
00:04:04
They were going away for
the night to celebrate. There was even talk of
taking the opportunity
00:04:08
to start trying
for a second child, something Mike
desperately wanted. But first, he had time to get
a few hours of hunting in.
00:04:16
And so on the
morning of December 16, he was going to go to
the Florida Georgia Line
00:04:22
to Lake Seminole. And in Lake Seminole,
it's a huge area. But you see, Mike was
an avid duck hunter.
00:04:30
He had his spot. He knew the areas
he wanted to go. He was supposed to have
came over here duck hunting
00:04:38
that morning and-- by hisself. Nobody else was supposed
to have been with him. NARRATOR: As the weak winter
sun rose that morning,
00:04:46
Mike was already gathering
together his gear, hitching his boat to his truck. It was a ritual he'd gone
through 1,000 times before.
00:04:54
Before dawn he
packed up his truck and he left for lake
Seminole, which is about
00:05:00
an hour away from Tallahassee. It's on the Georgia State line. This was something he
just really loved doing.
00:05:07
He told his wife, I'll
be back in a few hours. NARRATOR: Denise stayed
at home preparing
00:05:12
for the romantic break in
the nearby charming fishing town of Apalachicola. But when hours passed
with no sign of Mike,
00:05:19
alarm bells began to ring. When he didn't show
up for around noon time, his wife started calling around
looking for him and she finally
00:05:27
got a hold of somebody that had
been fishing with him before. That guy got with
her-- her father
00:05:32
and they come over here and
notified local law enforcement. NARRATOR: The
friend who responded
00:05:40
to Denise's
panic-stricken phone call that day was Mike's high
school buddy, a duck hunting
00:05:45
partner, Brian Winchester. He and his father,
Marcus told Denise that everything would be fine
and then headed to the lake.
00:05:53
ETHAN WAY: By the time
Marcus Winchester and Brian Winchester got out
to Lake Seminole,
00:05:57
the weather had gotten bad. There were some local law
enforcement who responded and then they
contacted the Florida
00:06:04
Wildlife Commission,
the FWC, which oversees game and wildlife. And they began a
search for what they
00:06:12
treated as a missing person. Perhaps he got lost. Perhaps he has gotten bogged
down into the shallow,
00:06:23
but mucky waters. Mike would have gone
with the proper gear. In order to go duck hunting,
he would have had to worn
00:06:30
waders and rubber boots. And if one was to be in shallow
water, they could easily sink
00:06:37
and the waders themselves,
would pull somebody down below the water's surface. And that was the big concern.
00:06:46
NARRATOR: Searchers did not
find Mike Williams at the lake that afternoon, but they
found plenty of evidence
00:06:51
to prove that he'd been there. Friends see Mike's
truck near a remote boat launch on the Florida side.
00:06:58
Meanwhile, a helicopter pilot
spots the boat floating. And then law enforcement
finds his shotgun in the boat,
00:07:07
so they're assuming
something happened to him. Maybe he drowned. BRIAN HARRIS: Mike was last seen
in what is known as Stump Lake.
00:07:16
Body of water at
the deepest area is eight feet,
sometimes six feet. And other times, very shallow.
00:07:25
It's called Stump Lake because
there were a lot of trees that grew out of this lake.
00:07:30
There where a lot of rotted
trees that had fallen and the only thing
left were the stumps.
00:07:35
But they would be either hidden
just below the water surface, or sticking up just above.
00:07:44
NARRATOR: Conservation officers
and friends of Mike returned to the lake day after day
to continue the search
00:07:49
but before long, hopes
of finding Mike alive began to fade. I would submit that everyone
who was involved in the search
00:08:00
for Mike Williams, with
the exception of maybe one or two very, very optimistic
very, very hopeful people,
00:08:07
believed that
probably after four or five days, that there was not
going to be a likely recovery.
00:08:14
NARRATOR: At first, friends
and investigators believed that Mike must have drowned.
00:08:19
But a week or so after
his disappearance, they started to question
that hypothesis.
00:08:24
If he had drowned,
where's his body? Because normally in this area,
it would have floated up.
00:08:29
And that hasn't
happened and days go by. And so since he's not-- there's no body,
you have to wonder
00:08:36
what could have happened? And you start ticking
off the questions. NARRATOR: 10 days into the
search, investigators made
00:08:43
another disturbing discovery. Mike's khaki camouflage
hunting hat floating on top
00:08:49
of the lake's dark waters. This was important because
it led the searchers to believe
00:08:56
that they didn't think Mike
drowned because the hat wasn't located in particularly
deep waters or just floating
00:09:05
in a huge body of water. This would be an area that
they should have found a body along with that hat.
00:09:13
The body should have
risen to the top. It wasn't a deep body of water. NARRATOR: Baffled by
the absence of a body,
00:09:21
investigators began to consider
a sensational new theory. So all I remember was it
was a hunter who went missing
00:09:29
and the rumors are the
newspaper had started suggesting that it might
have been alligators
00:09:33
or something like that. Seminole Lake has
some of the biggest alligators in the state.
00:09:40
They grow to between
13, 14 feet at max. There are some
very old ones there and they get to go
up to 1,000 pounds.
00:09:50
NARRATOR: Within a few weeks,
the search for Mike's body was scaled back. Soon, nobody was
looking for him.
00:09:56
Eaten by an alligator
or not, by now recovery seemed
increasingly unlikely. In February 2001, two months
after her husband went missing,
00:10:05
Denise Williams was
looking for closure. Denise has really kept a
low profile during the search.
00:10:12
This has been covered
by news media, but Denise isn't
talking to anybody. She's the grieving widow.
00:10:19
When the search gets
called off, she accepts the fact that Mike has drowned. That Mike somehow has died.
00:10:27
And so she calls for
a memorial service to honor her now
deceased husband. ETHAN WAY: I think many in law
enforcement and many friends
00:10:39
and family of Denise,
unfortunately, probably believed that
he had passed away. And that's why there were so
many people at the service.
00:10:47
Most, if not all of them,
had come to the conclusion that Mike Williams was not
coming back from Lake Seminole.
00:10:56
NARRATOR: In June, a fisherman
from nearby Jackson County discovered Mike's
waders in the water.
00:11:01
They were pristine. Was it more evidence that Mike
had been mauled by alligators?
00:11:07
FRANK ROB: There were no teeth
marks on the victim's clothing, but an alligator,
or any crocodilian,
00:11:13
doesn't have to leave
a tooth mark somewhere in order to kill a person. They actually have
a very sensitive
00:11:18
bite force when they want to. They pick up their hatchlings,
they pick up things gently.
00:11:22
They grab something very gently,
in some cases, and sink it and drown it and can leave
not even a mark on the person.
00:11:29
Yeah. It's very possible. NARRATOR: Believing that the
floating waders would at long
00:11:34
last lead them to
Mike's submerged body, police divers were brought in. It was a tense moment
for Mike's loved ones.
00:11:42
Would the search bring the
closure that they craved? And this allows her to collect
on their life insurance policy.
00:11:50
And Denise then will collect
more than $1.5 million. NARRATOR: After the discovery
of Mike Williams waders
00:12:07
floating on the surface
of Lake Seminole, search and recovery
divers were called in.
00:12:12
They believed they
might find his body entangled in the dense hydrilla
weeds that choked the lake bed.
00:12:18
They uncovered Mike's camouflage
jacket, hunting license, and flashlight. But two weeks after
he had disappeared,
00:12:25
there was still
no sign of a body. A mystery may be, but
Mrs. Denise Williams felt the need to move on.
00:12:32
She successfully
petitioned to have Mike declared officially dead. Veteran homicide
detective, Brian Harris,
00:12:40
believes granting a death
certificate was a mistake. The mere fact that
they found those items,
00:12:46
it should have generated a
murder investigation or more work should have been done.
00:12:54
NARRATOR: Denise may have come
to terms with letting Mike go, but his mother, Cheryl was not
prepared to give up on what
00:13:01
had happened to her son. Mike's mother, she's
not accepting this. She's not ready to believe
that her son is dead.
00:13:10
There are too many questions. Too many suspicious things. This just doesn't make sense.
00:13:16
She's not letting go. She's not giving up on her son. NARRATOR: Cheryl paid
for billboard appeals,
00:13:22
handed out fliers
and took out adverts, asking the public for help. She examined every possibility.
00:13:29
Even her daughter-in-law
came under suspicion. Ever since Cheryl
Williams began, essentially,
00:13:37
what I'd call her
crusade, Denise Williams has been vilified
by certain parts of the Tallahassee community.
00:13:46
NARRATOR: The grapevine
in Tallahassee was alive with whispers. Was Denise Williams
really the grieving widow?
00:13:53
Gossip was perhaps the
least of her worries. With Mike gone, Denise needed to
become the family breadwinner.
00:14:00
Denise was still
a stay at home mom. She had an infant daughter. She had no ready
source of income,
00:14:07
so she needed to do things to
take care of the bills that were starting to mount up in
terms of her home, vehicle
00:14:14
insurance, other things. NARRATOR: Luckily
for Denise, she knew just how to get her hands
on a very large sum of money.
00:14:21
She has filed a
petition to have Mike declared legally dead. A county judge
grants it and this
00:14:28
allows her to move
forward with getting the money from that
life insurance policy.
00:14:33
And Denise collects
more than $1.5 million. NARRATOR: It was around this
time that friends of Denise
00:14:41
discovered that
she'd first filed a claim for life insurance
less than three weeks
00:14:46
after Michael disappeared. The cause of death she listed
was accidental drowning.
00:14:54
Amongst those helping her,
one of her oldest friends, Brian Winchester. It was at the direction
of Denise's father,
00:15:03
and with the input of Brian,
that they began the process of simply filing a claim.
00:15:07
The sad reality
about life insurance is you don't want
to ever need it. But when you need it, you
actually have to ask for it.
00:15:13
And there's no set
time that somebody is supposed to sit around
and wait before they
00:15:17
actually begin the process. For someone to file for
insurance when you haven't even recovered a
body within 19 days
00:15:27
would seem suspicious to me. From an outside view,
it may seem suspicious, but one of the things that
everyone needs to remember
00:15:36
is that the person who
was in charge of handling their insurance affairs,
for both Mike and Denise,
00:15:43
was the Winchester group. And that was the
insurance company that was run by
Marcus Winchester, who
00:15:49
is Brian Winchester's father. NARRATOR: Cheryl
Williams remains defiant. She began campaigning
for an investigation
00:15:56
into Mike's disappearance. She is relentless. She never gives up on her son. In 2004, the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement
00:16:06
reopens the investigation
into Mike's disappearance. Because now, they
have enough evidence
00:16:12
to say this doesn't make sense. They look back and
they say, hold on. None of it adds up,
nobody floating up,
00:16:19
no teeth marks on everything
that came to the surface. Something's wrong here. So Cheryl has finally been
heard and the case is reopened.
00:16:29
None of it made sense. The gas tank in the
boat is completely full. The location where the boat is--
by this time, Mike's own mother
00:16:37
has done her own research
about wind speed and currents at the time that
Mike went missing.
00:16:44
None of this added up to her. She wasn't buying it. NARRATOR: A fresh investigation
revisited the alligator theory,
00:16:53
and the findings
revealed inconsistencies. If someone had fallen off
a boat and they drowned,
00:16:59
a lot of other things are eat
them along before an alligator touches them. They're going to have--
00:17:04
this part of the
United States, they're going to have crawdads
on them, they're going
00:17:06
to have turtles eating them. A lot of the things
are going to be cleaning that up before
alligator even thinks about it.
00:17:10
That's not their food supply. It's not what
they're looking for. NARRATOR: And there was more.
00:17:14
BRIAN HARRIS: Alligators,
in essence, almost hibernate in the winter time. The temperatures were cool
in the 50s, very damp.
00:17:25
When the temperatures are
in that kind of setting, alligators are not feeding. This was not feeding
season for alligators.
00:17:36
And they want to
be at 88 and 1/2 degrees, optimally, to be able
to feed and digest their food.
00:17:42
When they're not at
that temperature, everything, kind of, changes. They will slow
down their feeding.
00:17:46
If they do eat something, it
takes them longer to digest it. And, really, gators only have
to eat once a year if they could
00:17:51
find a good meal, feed on
that one time in a year, and they're good to go. NARRATOR: There were many
unanswered questions,
00:17:58
but the investigation
failed to find any answers. Years went by. Cheryl was not to be swayed.
00:18:05
She continued her
relentless campaign. Even as she did, Denise Williams
was moving on with her life.
00:18:11
And by her side,
Brian Winchester, Mike's best friend
and the man who had arranged his life insurance.
00:18:19
We still don't know
where Mike is, how he died. Did he die? But five years have passed now.
00:18:26
He's been declared
officially dead and Denise and
Brian get married. And they move in together
into the same home
00:18:35
that Mike and Denise had
shared in Tallahassee. NARRATOR: As Denise
and Brian went public
00:18:40
with their relationship,
the Tallahassee rumor mill went into overdrive. Had their affair, in fact,
begun before Mike went missing?
00:18:50
ETHAN WAY: The idea that Brian
Winchester and Denise Williams had an affair is, essentially,
that urban legend that develops
00:18:55
from the fact that,
yes, Denise Williams did marry Brian Winchester
many, many years
00:19:00
after Mike's disappearance. People presumed that
because they got married, they must have
had a relationship
00:19:06
prior to Mike's disappearance,
and that's simply not true. NARRATOR: Little by
little, the community
00:19:11
began to share in
those suspicions. Life for Denise was
growing uncomfortable. She and Brian Winchester
were both, you know,
00:19:19
talked about and gossiped about. And so Denise Williams
became very, very guarded.
00:19:25
She was always, I think, you
might describe her a little bit as shy. But she essentially retreated
to going to work, doing her job,
00:19:33
and she was very, I'd
say, circumspect and quiet about just her life in general.
00:19:42
NARRATOR: In 2007,
the investigation into Mike Williams
disappearance, prompted by his mother,
ground to a halt.
00:19:48
You're working up an
investigation with no body. And that can be very
difficult because the body
00:19:53
itself can tell a story. It's a body of evidence. And this was the challenge
for law enforcement.
00:20:01
And as a result, you don't
get as many resources thrown in on a missing person
case and, hence, was the case.
00:20:09
There's no crime
scene documentary, there's no preservation
of evidence, there's no preserving the
items that were recovered.
00:20:16
And so, in essence,
the case goes cold. It goes dormant. NARRATOR: Later that year,
Mike's brother, Nick,
00:20:27
contacted police. He wanted to report
a missing gun, a .22 caliber Ruger
pistol, that Mike
00:20:34
had inherited from his father. By 2007, Mike's
family, they're wondering, Denise has returned
all of Mike's original weapons,
00:20:46
all of his guns, and whatever he
had hunting wise to his family. It's part of their legacy.
00:20:53
But they're missing
a weapon, a .22. And through the help
of the local sheriff and a court order,
they're able to obtain
00:21:01
that gun back from Denise. NARRATOR: Another mystery,
another unexplained twist.
00:21:06
Why had she kept the
gun, one that she'd actually claimed on insurance? She'd reported it as lost.
00:21:13
Once again, detectives find
themselves wondering if Mike's death was suspicious after all.
00:21:20
Mike has been declared dead. But now, he's a
suspicious missing person. So that causes the state of
Florida to look at this case
00:21:32
as perhaps, this
is insurance fraud. Maybe Mike and Denise
are working together.
00:21:39
Or what is the conspiracy here? So it's reopened, but
nothing really happens. And then eventually,
it gets closed again.
00:21:49
Cheryl keeps calling,
and calling, and calling. She's still doing
the billboards,
00:21:53
she's still doing the
flyers, she's not giving up. But pretty soon, the law
enforcement officials
00:22:00
are saying, enough is enough. And they're just not
even taking her calls. NARRATOR: Seven years after
Mike Williams vanished,
00:22:07
it seemed all hope of solving
the case had been abandoned. But Cheryl would still
not take no for an answer.
00:22:13
This lady went herself, made
fliers, put them on light poles in Tallahassee. She had a picket sign
that she stood out
00:22:20
in front of the church that the
Winchesters, Brian and Denise, attended. She got funding, she
had big billboards
00:22:28
erected around Tallahassee. Have you seen my son? She took out ads in the paper.
00:22:34
I mean, she never stopped. She wrote about 9,000 letters
to the governor of the state.
00:22:39
She kept it public. She never let it die. Not one of them was opened. Not one of them.
00:22:46
They were just tossed aside. It's a closed case. Not my job. NARRATOR: Finally, she found
someone who would listen
00:22:54
and when she did,
everything began to unravel. The authorities released
a three page indictment,
00:23:01
and it spells out what
they believe happened. Something out of a bad
Saturday evening movie.
00:23:14
NARRATOR: In 2008, Derrick
Wester, a detective in the Jackson County
Sheriff's Department,
00:23:19
had become deeply
troubled by some of the claims being made by
Cheryl, Mike Willams' mother.
00:23:24
There were simply too
many unanswered questions. Once I had an opportunity
to have a discussion with Ms.
00:23:31
Williams, Ms. Cheryl Williams,
which was Mike's mother, some of the things that she brought
up kind of just made you,
00:23:37
like, want to look
into it more, you know, want to just track
down this, you know,
00:23:43
to appease this grieving mother. And then it just kind
of snowballed into maybe there really was
something happened here.
00:23:52
NARRATOR: Wester
delves deep into Mike's life insurance arrangements. He'd had three
policies, including
00:23:59
one taken out just three
months before he went missing. The payouts were now bankrolling
Denise and Brian's lifestyle.
00:24:06
And I was having a discussion
with some other investigators about whether or not he actually
had applied for the insurance
00:24:13
policy that the Winchester
Financial Group had wrote for him. And Brian Winchester
was the agent.
00:24:20
But I had needed his-- Mike Williams'
picture for something. So I had his stuff
laid on my desk,
00:24:26
and I pulled up the
application for his insurance, his life insurance. And I pulled up the driver's
license number, typed it
00:24:32
into the computer,
and was going to get his driver's license picture. And when I typed
the number in it,
00:24:36
it popped up Denise
Williams' picture. So I was like,
well, how is this? I mean, she's not the applicant.
00:24:44
NARRATOR: Investigator
Wester now suspects Mike's policy
was altered in the days
00:24:49
following his disappearance. Did Brian Winchester
go and do that? Using him and Denise's
knowledge and information
00:24:56
and then when I just need
the driver's license number, I would speculate he said,
well, we just need a number.
00:25:01
And so the chief
pulled her's out and they copied the number down. NARRATOR: And Wester found more.
00:25:08
He had a different
policy in between the time he went missing and
the time she filed
00:25:14
for the death certificate. Because she had-- we had
to check that she had wrote and signed to pay the premium
during that six month period.
00:25:24
NARRATOR: Wester
also looked at Denise and Brian's relationship. Had it really begun
after Mike's death?
00:25:30
What he found painted
a complicated picture. There was no evidence of that. There was no evidence
that suggested that the--
00:25:39
Denise Williams and
Brian Winchester were having an affair. They were in close proximity to
each other, all of them were.
00:25:44
Kathy Thomas, and Mike
Williams, and Brian Winchester, and Denise Williams
would go out socially.
00:25:52
NARRATOR: But police records
told a different story. One night, the Tallahassee
Police Department
00:25:58
had called in a
abandoned vehicle at a church down
the road from Denise and Mike Williams' house.
00:26:05
They were still
married at the time. The truck was registered
to Brian Winchester.
00:26:08
They looked up the contact
number for the owners. They called Brian
Winchester's house,
00:26:13
and Kathy Winchester, at that
time, answered the phone. Well, she thought her husband
was duck hunting in Arkansas
00:26:21
or somewhere out of town. So she called Brian's father. And by the time the
father got over there,
00:26:29
the vehicle had
already been gone. NARRATOR: Denise and Brian
had gone through a lot
00:26:35
to be together. More than anyone could
possibly have imagined. Yet seven years
after they married,
00:26:41
the relationship
began to crumble. By 2012, this happy couple,
Denise and Brian, not so happy
00:26:51
anymore. Apparently, Brian
has a little sex addiction problem and
that's enough for Denise
00:26:57
to say I'm out of here. So Denise decides she's-- she's getting out
of the marriage
00:27:02
and she and Brian separate. And so he's no
longer with Denise, but he still loves
her very much.
00:27:09
He still is so
attached to Denise. That's the love of his life,
or at least in his mind.
00:27:16
By 2016, the marriage
is going to end. They were separated, some
periods of getting back
00:27:23
together, but has had enough. She has now filed for divorce. NARRATOR: For four years,
the couple's relationship
00:27:32
had been on and off. Brian had sought therapy
for his addiction, but struggled to
fight his demons.
00:27:39
With a divorce
looming, he made one last desperate plea for Denise. In August of 2016, something
kind of bizarre happens.
00:27:48
Denise is driving on
her way to her job at Florida State University
when all of a sudden, Brian
00:27:55
springs from the backseat
and basically attacks her. He starts shouting
demands at her.
00:28:03
Something out of a bad
Saturday evening movie. He pops up from behind
the seat, and he kidnaps
00:28:10
her and holds a weapon to her. And he's pleading for her to
keep their marriage together.
00:28:17
And then she's trying
to calm him down. And he's basically,
sort of, delirious. And he's angry and
he's desperate.
00:28:25
And he says, look. I'm not going to
kill you, but I don't have anything to live for.
00:28:29
I don't want this divorce. I don't want this divorce. But if you want
a divorce, I just
00:28:33
don't have any reason to live
and I'm going to kill myself. And she calms him down.
00:28:37
She says, please,
Brian, just calm down. Just calm down. You'll be OK. Everything will be fine.
00:28:42
So she calms him down, she
takes him back to his vehicle, she promises him she
won't talk to the police.
00:28:48
Just calm down, Brian. Everything will be OK. And when she leaves him,
she goes straight to police,
00:28:53
and she tells them
what happened. And when they did eventually
apprehend him for that,
00:29:00
he had a tarp, and he
had bottles of bleach, and he had other
items in his truck
00:29:06
that suggests that he was
probably going to kill and bury Denise Williams. Brian is charged
with kidnapping,
00:29:14
domestic assault, and burglary. NARRATOR: Brian and
Denise's divorce would be a game changer.
00:29:23
There's a law
that says spouses cannot be compelled
to testify, but these guys are getting divorced.
00:29:30
Now, there's a criminal
case against Brian. Someone's going to sing. This premise of husband
and wife privilege
00:29:40
was very beneficial
to Denise, initially. She knew that Brian would
never say anything against her
00:29:47
and vice versa because
they were in on it. They were co-conspirators
in this death.
00:29:53
They were in on it. And so by both of their actions,
their silence was sealed. NARRATOR: When the
marriage ended,
00:30:00
so did the pact of silence. A secret deal was struck
between husband number two, Brian Winchester,
and the prosecutors, who
00:30:09
had charged him in
relation to holding Denise at gunpoint in her car. It was a deal which
meant the unearthing
00:30:17
of Mike Williams's body. Florida law
enforcement officials hold a news conference.
00:30:22
The reporters are all there
with their cameras set up. And they announce after all
of these years, 17 years, Mike
00:30:31
Williams' body has been found. NARRATOR: Brian Winchester
had handed information
00:30:39
to detectives in return
for a lenient sentence for abducting his
estranged wife.
00:30:44
Brian Winchester got
the deal of the century. Brian Winchester was facing
life in prison for kidnapping
00:30:52
Denise Williams at gunpoint. He was two to three months
away from going to a trial.
00:30:58
Brian Winchester had
been in jail for almost a year, a little over a year. And when faced with the prospect
of having to go to trial
00:31:08
looking at life in
prison, he approaches the state attorney's office and
offers to tell them a story.
00:31:17
NARRATOR: 17 years after
her husband Mike vanished without a trace, Denise Williams
would be formally charged
00:31:23
with murdering her husband. Brian claimed that
Denise had planned the murder of her
high school sweetheart
00:31:31
right down to the last detail. Brian is the star witness. And he says, yes. I pulled the trigger, but
Denise was the mastermind.
00:31:52
In May of 2018, Denise
Williams is leaving her job at Florida State University. She's on her way to
go find her daughter
00:31:59
and celebrate her birthday,
when police show up and handcuff her and
take her into custody.
00:32:06
Denise is under
arrest for the murder of her husband, Mike Williams. Everybody who's in jail
facing a murder charge
00:32:17
is very concerned and very
upset because you're wondering, how did I get here? Why am I here?
00:32:22
Why am I in jail? The authorities release
a three page indictment. And it spells out what
they believe happened.
00:32:34
NARRATOR: For the
people of Tallahassee, the grand jury indictment ended
a 17 year wait to find out what
00:32:40
had happened to Mike Williams. The courtroom was kind
of like a little circus. I mean, essentially,
everybody in town
00:32:47
had thought Denise Williams
was guilty for years, and years, and years. NARRATOR: The public
gallery was packed.
00:32:52
Some had come to see
Denise face justice. Others believed she was the
victim of a grave injustice.
00:32:58
Whilst Denise faced a life
term for conspiracy to murder, Brian had his deal. He was going to
jail for kidnapping,
00:33:06
but there was no mention
of him being charged with killing his friend. He knows where the
body's buried because he
00:33:12
killed Mike Williams. By offering the body and by then
adding a little extra, which
00:33:18
is you can go after
Denise Williams, I'll make up a story for you. NARRATOR: For homicide
detective, Brian Harris,
00:33:25
the facts speak for themselves. There is no chance Denise is
not involved in this murder.
00:33:33
NARRATOR: Denise gave
nothing away as she sat in the Leon County Courthouse. She was very, very,
very, I don't know, cold.
00:33:40
Very-- not responsive. Kind of, almost, robotic. NARRATOR: She maintained
her innocence.
00:33:45
Her lawyer told the
court that Denise had always believed that Mike
had died in a tragic accident.
00:33:51
But the cops know
all the details. They know all the information. They know where the
bones were buried.
00:33:57
They know the details
and the motive, and the why this has happened. Somebody talked.
00:34:04
Somebody laid out the plan. This was a plan laying
in wait and 17 years later, it all came unraveled.
00:34:16
I mean, they
turned on each other. Ultimately, bottom line
is those two turned on each other in the end.
00:34:22
And it's a direct result of
Cheryl Williams one woman army. NARRATOR: In detailed
testimony, Brian told the jury
00:34:32
how the conspiracy had begun. So Brian says he and Denise
start having an affair.
00:34:37
And that affair started three
years before Mike disappeared. Three years before
he was killed.
00:34:44
And in that time
they're thinking, how can we be together? Because see, Denise's family
doesn't believe in divorce.
00:34:52
And so Denise is like, you
know, I can't really do that. So how are we going
to be together?
00:34:57
NARRATOR: For three
years, they met in secret in vehicles and hotel rooms. On double dates, they would
secretly kiss as soon as Mike
00:35:03
and Kathy's backs were turned. Nine months before Mike
Williams disappeared, Denise and Brian started
hatching their plan.
00:35:14
They conspired to
kill Mike Williams. She wanted Brian
to kill his wife and help her kill
Mike, her husband.
00:35:28
But an ironic twist, if you
can say Brian has principles, Brian told Denise
I can't do that
00:35:37
to the mother of my children. NARRATOR: On the morning of
the 16th of December 2000,
00:35:43
Mike Williams had not
gone to the lake alone. As best we can gather and from
what Brian Winchester testified
00:35:50
to, he had made arrangements
with Mike Williams on the evening of
December 15, 2000
00:35:58
to go hunting with Mike
out at Lake Seminole. No one knew that
Brian Winchester and Mike Williams were going
to be hunting together.
00:36:07
Mike's mom is right all along. Mike would not go
out hunting alone. He had a buddy and
his buddy was Brian.
00:36:13
It was going to
be Brian and Mike. They were going to do
a little duck hunting. He stated that he had
met Mike Williams over here
00:36:21
in Jackson County
at the boat ramp. They had launched the boat. It was a little 15
foot [inaudible]
00:36:29
with a Go-Devil
motor on the back. According to Brian Winchester,
who's really the only person
00:36:36
who knows what happened, he
and Mike got in a small boat and he pushed off
from a landing.
00:36:43
They weren't on the water very
long before Brian Winchester adjusted the boat in
such a way that Mike
00:36:50
Williams fell overboard. As Mike Williams made his
way to a cypress stump. DERRICK WESTER: Mike Williams
had stood up in the boat.
00:36:59
Brian Winchester pushed him out. They were dressed in
duck hunting gear, which included a set of waders.
00:37:08
And it was Brian Winchester's
thought and anticipation that he would fall
into the water
00:37:12
and the waders would
fill up with water and he would go to
the bottom and drown.
00:37:19
NARRATOR: But it did not
go according to plan. For a start, a safety conscious
Mike had practiced many times
00:37:26
removing his waders
in the water. He managed to keep his
head above the surface.
00:37:31
It's not called Stump Field
or Stump Lake for nothing. Mike was able to, when he
was tossed out of the boat,
00:37:38
grab on to a stump. He was able to-- to
tread water, so to speak. Stay above water and he began
hollering, yelling for help.
00:37:47
And Brian Winchester
freaked out. He didn't know what else to do. Brian Winchester circled
around him approximately three
00:37:55
times and then, while looking
directly at Mike Williams, he shot him in the face
with a 12 gauge shotgun
00:38:03
at a distance of
less than three feet. NARRATOR: This wasn't
part of the plan. Brian couldn't leave
Mike's body in the water
00:38:12
with a gunshot wound. He had to cover his tracks. He drug him back
up to the hill,
00:38:19
he backed his vehicle down
here and loaded him up into the back of his vehicle. He then took the
boat and drove it
00:38:27
around to where it was found. Then he walked to the
shore, walked down the road back to his truck and
then drove back to Tallahassee.
00:38:35
NARRATOR: Brian knew there would
be a search for Mike's remains. He made sure they wouldn't
look in the right place.
00:38:41
To move the boat
away so it wouldn't draw suspicion to the area
where the bones would be.
00:38:49
And that is why the
boat's final positioning is in direct contrast
to where the water
00:38:54
and the current flows and
the wind speed at that time. Brian explains it all. It all is making sense.
00:39:01
It's not an alligator. All these theories
were thrown out. But what was even
more horrifying
00:39:09
was the plot and the
plan that he tells. In the afternoon, he
took the body to Carr Lake
00:39:19
and buried it in a shallow
grave next to the waterside. Brian is the star
witness, and he says, yes.
00:39:30
I pulled the trigger, but
Denise was the mastermind. Denise was the one who
came up with the idea.
00:39:38
It was all about Denise. NARRATOR: Would the jury
come to the conclusion that Brian had acted
alone or would they
00:39:46
accept his claim that
Denise had demanded that he kill his friend? Denise is the brains
behind this operation.
00:39:52
Denise had the forethought to
obtain a life insurance policy. She had the well-being enough
to think about declaring Mike
00:40:02
dead before his body is found. And who knows? If Denise had only been able
to control her own selfishness,
00:40:12
if she had stuck
it out with Brian, perhaps Mike never
would have been found. We often say, there's nothing
better than a scorned woman.
00:40:22
I think it goes
the same for men. Nothing better
than a scorned man. NARRATOR: After 17 years
without answers, justice when
00:40:30
it finally came, was swift. Brian's story is very likely. And the jury believes so, too.
00:40:36
And Denise Williams is
convicted on all charges-- conspiracy to commit murder
and accessory after the fact.
00:40:46
And she's sentenced
to life in prison. We were all surprised. The jury had been out
approximately eight hours.
00:40:54
We felt, as the defense team,
the case had not been proven, that Brian Winchester had
admitted to being a murderer
00:41:00
and being a liar. So we were surprised. It takes-- it's almost
like a gut punch to have something like
that happen when they come
00:41:08
back and say, you know, guilty. NARRATOR: To investigator
Derrick Wester, it was the only
possible outcome.
00:41:15
As soon as I heard that
they had found his remains, I knew that eventually, they
was going to arrest her.
00:41:23
NARRATOR: Denise
Williams' defense counsel, believes that Brian Winchester
has been allowed to incriminate
00:41:28
his ex-wife in a
murder she didn't commit in return for revealing
where he'd hidden Mike's body.
00:41:34
One of the things
he said on the stand was that Denise Williams
wasn't on the lake that day
00:41:40
when he killed Mike Williams,
but she was in his head. I mean, if you
kill somebody, you
00:41:45
bury him in a shallow grave,
you know where the body is. And obviously, the
government wanted the body.
00:41:53
And Brian Winchester was the
only person who knew where Mike Williams remains were.
00:41:58
And so he turned
that into, you know, the key component of
the deal of the century.
00:42:05
As to Brian Winchester
receiving immunity, this case and-- wouldn't be solved, Mike
Williams' remains wouldn't
00:42:15
have been found,
and Cheryl Williams wouldn't have got closure. So I think that it's a
decision that a prosecutor
00:42:22
has to make daily
about, you know, what you have to give to get. NARRATOR: Denise Williams was
sentenced to life imprisonment
00:42:31
without parole for the
murder of Mike Williams and for the fraudulent
life insurance claim.
00:42:36
Denise Williams is a
cold, calculating woman, was very, very manipulative
of men in her life.
00:42:42
ETHAN WAY: To me,
it's the case that's the biggest tragedy of my career
in terms of an innocent person
00:42:48
being convicted. It's not the most
salacious case, it's not the most violent case,
it's not the most complicated
00:42:56
case, but it is a case where
you're left with this position that the central mob mentality
in the community based
00:43:03
perception was more of a factor
than the actual trial itself. [music playing]