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[theme music] JON FUCHS: Tallahassee
is a relatively small town in North Florida.
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It is only about 30 miles
from the state of Georgia. It is surrounded by a
whole lot of forestry
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to our north or hilly,
to the south is more flat and the beach areas that a lot
of people go to for vacations.
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JUSTIN NEWLIN: But then
just west of Tallahassee is Lake Seminole, where you
get into very rural areas.
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DERRICK WESTER: So December
the 16, the Sheriff's Office received a call. DAVID ARNETTE: Mike
Williams had been reported
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missing on Lake Seminole. And then Denise,
Mike's wife, feared that he was in some
type of trouble,
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possibly a drowning involved. JUSTIN NEWLIN: December 16,
2000 was the anniversary
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for Denise and Mike Williams. They were to travel
to Apalachicola for their anniversary, but his
best friend, Brian Winchester,
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invited Mike Williams
duck hunting that morning. And he knew his love. He knew his passion.
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And Mike confirmed with Denise. It's OK. I'm going to go duck hunting
with Brian in the morning.
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I'll return. And we'll travel
down to Apalachicola. Duck hunters get up early. You have to be on the water
before the ducks are flying.
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They're there bright and early. And Mike doesn't come home. Brian does go home. So when Mike did not
return home for lunch,
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and Denise started
to become suspicious, and that's when she decided
to start calling and say, hey,
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have you guys seen Mike? Do you know where Mike is? Mike is missing. The first call is to
the Fish and Wildlife.
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They went looking for a missing
person on Lake Seminole. DAVID ARNETTE: Lake Seminole
has several hazards.
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One of them being
the flooded timber. TULLY SPARKMAN: That
area is notorious for having roots and stuff.
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So there's chances for people
that go in and get thrown out of their boats there.
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It's not uncommon. There's quite a few accidents
on Lake Seminole in comparison to the number of
accidents to fatalities.
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Fatalities are fairly low. DERRICK WESTER: We call out
all the different agencies
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in and began a search, a manned
search and an aerial search. DAVID ARNETTE: When I
arrived at Lake Seminole,
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there were people and officers. You've got citizen volunteers. You got game and fish.
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And then you've got Sheriff's
Office people there. There was an encampment there.
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There was a tent there. People were bringing food,
firewood, and stuff like that.
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TULLY SPARKMAN: You
had a lot of folks out on the water
searching the water area.
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You had people walking
up and down the banks. JON FUCHS: They've
got boats everywhere.
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Friends of Mike are
bringing their boats over. And they're just getting
larger and larger search going
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on there at Lake Seminole. Searches are conducted. Grid pattern searches
are conducted.
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Literally squaring up the
lake and going, you got this. You got this. Eventually, they started
taking push poles
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and pushing poles in the
ground, going every little grid. We're looking for it. Maybe a boat tipped over and
everybody's intention is finding
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Michael live at this point. TULLY SPARKMAN:
They find his truck parked on a dirt area
with a ramp in the area
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there on Lake Seminole. And so they focus their
search in that area. And what we were looking for
was person, vessel, paddles,
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clothes, decoys,
anything of that nature that would identify
this is where Mike was
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or where he was at. JUSTIN NEWLIN: So at
that point in time, a search and rescue mission--
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volunteers, law enforcement
agencies, equipment, helicopters, airboats. Everybody is looking
for Mike Williams.
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DAVID ARNETTE: They
didn't see his vessel. They had called for
Mike, no response,
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but they had found nothing. It was after dark, but
they had a strong light. And they started searching
the area with the helicopter.
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And then eventually, it evolved
back out into deeper water because we didn't find
anything in that area.
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JON FUCHS: Mike Williams
was a real estate appraiser. He grew up here in the
city of Tallahassee.
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DERRICK WESTER: His dad
was a Greyhound bus driver. And his mom was a
stay-at-home mom,
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but she had a stay
at home daycare. At some point, dad had
a heart attack and died.
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But prior to his dying,
him and the mother were essential in getting
them out of public education,
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and spending all their money
on the private education, and sending Mike to North
Florida Christian School.
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JON FUCHS: He went on to get
a degree at Florida State University and began working
with the Ketchum Real Estate
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company straight out of college. He worked his way up. And by 2000, he was actually
doing really well for himself.
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JUSTIN NEWLIN: He was making
approximately a quarter of a million a year. He was definitely
making six figures.
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I do recall that. The more he worked, the
better it was for him. And he wanted to
be very good at it.
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So during the time he
worked as an appraiser, he was putting in 60,
70, 80 hours a week.
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JON FUCHS: He did
everything he could to make a happy life for
himself and his family members.
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He was constantly
working in order to try and make a better
life and make sure that all the means were met.
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Denise was working as well. She was a certified
public accountant. So between the two of them, they
were rapidly building up assets.
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DERRICK WESTER:
Mark and Denise met when they were 15,
16, 17, in high school at North Florida Christian.
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Mike played football. Denise was a homecoming queen. They were dating. So it was a storybook
type of relationship.
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Mike Williams parents, they
were hard workers, blue collar. Denise Williams' parents were--
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her dad was a pastor. Both were from very good,
hardworking families. Both were very religious
and went to church
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on a regular basis on Sundays. JUSTIN NEWLIN: Her
family is and was big into the church environment.
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They too had their wealth. They were well off and
not struggling at all. TULLY SPARKMAN: So
Denise and Mike,
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after school, eventually
got married and had a child, a young daughter. JUSTIN NEWLIN: This is
a white picket fence.
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This is small town. This is your hallmark
movie, if you will. Financially stable,
making very good money,
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especially 20 plus years ago. He was saving up. He wasn't a big spender. And he was a family guy.
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JON FUCHS: They were well on
their way to be millionaires. So by all outer
appearances, Mike and Denise
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have the perfect life. It was really the next
day when it got daylight, which would have been the 17th,
when the vessel was located.
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And things really got concern
for whether he was alive or not. I got on a vessel with the
person that had located it
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and went to the vessel,
which, to our amazement, was just real close to
where he had launched at.
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And it was sitting there next
to the highway and some grass, not visible from the highway,
barely visible from the lake
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because it had went up into
grass and all that grows up four or five foot high. There were life jackets,
as we would expect,
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in the boat, decoys, and of
course, the gun with the gun case that was there. It didn't turn up any signs
of foul play or anything
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that may d that showed any
evidence that he was injured as a result of not being there.
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There was no blood present
and no damage to the boat. JUSTIN NEWLIN: The
Bronco is parked
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down the road just slightly from
the actual boat ramp itself. The boat is found kind of run
aground, pushed up on shore,
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but there's just nothing
really suspicious about it. I mean, it looks like an
accident has occurred.
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JON FUCHS: But the
engine was full of gas. The theory at that time was
perhaps Mike had hit a stump
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and he got knocked overboard. And that's what they
were looking for. However, if that was
the case, typically,
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the boat would continue to run. The engine would
continue to run. It would run all the
fuel out of the engine.
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So if the engine is turned off,
but there's still fuel in there, some people started questioning
how that could possibly be.
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Everybody knows he went hunting. But they all start
calling different persons trying to figure out
if anybody's seen him.
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JUSTIN NEWLIN: Who's going
to know where Mike could be? Well, one of those people
is Brian Winchester,
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one of his best friends. Brian starts actually
leading up a search party. Brian Winchester and his dad
are using their boat in order
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to conduct a search as well. We've got to find Mike. JON FUCHS: So Brian
Winchester also
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went to North Florida
Christian along with Denise Williams and Mike Williams. He played football and other
sports with Mike as well.
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JUSTIN NEWLIN: His
father owned a business. Brian would end up getting
into that business.
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It was very lucrative. It was in finances. And I believe it
dabbled in insurance.
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Brian was just another
kid, another NFC kid, as we call them, and
had a great upbringing
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and everything going for him. TULLY SPARKMAN: So Mike and
Brian were really good friends.
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It was described as
they were best friends. They would go duck hunting
together, deer hunting.
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DAVID ARNETTE: We had found
out in the couple of days that Mike Williams had
quite a bit of money.
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And he loved to hunt. One of the officers and
actually one of the friends suggested to the
officer, well, you know,
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Mike might have
just flew the coop. He might be in South America
bird hunting down there.
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He just wanted to get away. DERRICK WESTER: He's faking his
own death, for whatever reason.
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[tense music] Lake Seminole has a tremendous
population of alligators. JON FUCHS: Alligators
can grow quite
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large in the state
of Florida, 12, 13, 14 feet, sometimes even bigger. They have a whole lot of
teeth with a whole lot
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of chomping power, if you will. DERRICK WESTER: Our theory
is that when Mike went
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into the water or if
Mike went into the water, that he was grabbed
by an alligator,
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and stuffed up under a log,
or taken back into a den, and left until his body
starts deteriorating.
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And then, of course,
the alligator would go back and eat him. And I was there
for three weeks.
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I worked every day
for three weeks. The other officers were
there just as long as I was.
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None of us ever
saw an alligator. JUSTIN NEWLIN: During this case,
you know, in December of 2000,
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it was freezing. People started having
doubts about that. One is because the
temperatures at that time.
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Alligators are a
cold blooded animal, which means that as the
temperatures get colder,
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they get very inactive
and almost hibernate. So their activity--
and they also don't
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feed during that time period. There was ice from
the edges of the lake, 10 or 12 feet out,
that was very thin,
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but it was ice on the lake. The temperatures
stayed right around or just above freezing day and
night for about three weeks.
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Very rarely does a person
go-- actually never has, from my knowledge, where the
person entirely disappears.
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Either parts of the body,
the body, its entirety, there's always some
sign of that death
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as it relates to an alligator. [tense music] So while the search
party is going on,
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a member of the search
party found a camouflage hat that a lot of
hunters would wear.
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Whenever it was brought back,
it was later identified as being probably from Mike Williams.
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Brian Winchester was actually
the one that identified it. DERRICK WESTER: One of
the game and fish officers
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said he found it kind of weird
because they had been over in that area pretty thoroughly.
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And it seems like
they were just seeing that hat floating in the water. So you have to think, you
have 20 boats out there.
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You've got somebody on that
boat with a long pipe-- because of the hydrilla,
it's grass that grows
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straight up from the bottom. And it smothers everything out. So they're literally
taking pipes.
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And they're poking
every inch of that. I think it was about
a five acre grid that they had actually
went and said,
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this is our spot because of
where they found the boat, where they found the hat.
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They said, he's
somewhere out here. JUSTIN NEWLIN: After
a couple of days, it was determined
he likely drowned.
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And we would likely locate
him after he surfaces. After a couple weeks go by
and he has not surfaced,
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wildlife officers, others
who grew up in that area are like, well, he had to
be eaten by an alligator.
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And that had to be it. TULLY SPARKMAN: The
search went for 44 days until it turned from
a search and rescue
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to a search and recovery. At that point, they
decided it's been 44 days. There's really not
much chance of him
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still-- if he's in this water
of him still being alive. Still a lot of
questions, but no answers.
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[tense music] JUSTIN NEWLIN: So months go by. Rolling into the spring of
2001, something pops up.
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TULLY SPARKMAN: A
fisherman was driving by and saw something
floating in that area
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where they had done
all the searches. And he pulls it up. And it's a pair of waders.
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DERRICK WESTER: The waders will
fill up with water with you in them and drag you
down to the bottom.
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And if you can't
break the suction to get them off
of you to get out, then your gear
essentially will kill you.
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JON FUCHS: And later,
they're identified as being Mike Williams' because
they have items in there.
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There are no signs of any
kind of bite marks, tearing, or anything else that would lead
to a theory of an alligator type
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situation that was being
theorized at that time regarding Mike Williams. The scuba diver goes down
in that particular area.
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He's shown the area
by the fishermen. And in the process, he finds
a shirt, sweater, jacket.
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And brings it to the surface. When they open it up
and look in the pockets, Mike Williams' hunting
license is still preserved
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inside one of the pockets. So all this material is found
in the water, which turned out
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to be enough to go
into the petition to get a death certificate
in six months as opposed
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to five years. To be officially
declared dead, there's three people in Florida
that can declare you deceased--
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a judge, a medical doctor,
or law enforcement. The judge would
be in a situation
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where a body has gone missing. We have no idea
where this person is. After five years, OK,
we'll declare you deceased.
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Denise actually filed
for the first of the life insurance policies
in January of 2001.
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At the time that she
applied for that, the search was still ongoing. People are actively searching
for Mike on the lake.
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He hadn't been declared dead. Most people probably believed
he was because of the time
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he has been
disappeared, but nothing has been found to
indicate that he was in fact deceased at that time.
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But she was there applying
for an insurance policy. Brian Winchester's dad
owned a insurance company.
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Winchester Insurance. And they wrote
insurance policies. Both of Mike's policies
were written by Brian.
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When Denise
requested to declare Mike deceased within six months,
to some, it was suspicious.
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To others, it was
a grieving spouse. DERRICK WESTER: So
in 2001, I think June or July, there was a presumptive
death certificate issued by Leon
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County judge, Judge Crusoe. The cause of death
was listed as drowning. So with the death certificate
issued at that point,
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that enabled Denise to
apply for the $1.75 million. JUSTIN NEWLIN: As a criminal
investigation is over,
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as a missing person
investigation's law enforcement is concerned was over, there
wasn't a lot of evidence
00:18:38
to move this ball forward. But Cheryl Williams
did not let this stop. So Mike Williams mother
was Cheryl Williams.
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Ms Cheryl did not buy
the alligator story. DERRICK WESTER: It was
mother's intuition.
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She wanted some type of closure. And she didn't feel
like she had gotten it and that something else
was definitely going on.
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JON FUCHS: The official cause of
death was that he had drowned. Through all indications, that
was where everything was found.
00:19:11
Despite that, Ms. Cheryl still
did not believe that her son was drowned in Lake Seminole.
00:19:17
She did not believe that the
alligators had eaten him. And she was on a quest to
find out really what happened.
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JUSTIN NEWLIN: She would
get on the side of the road and hold up signs and say,
you know, my son didn't drown.
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Who killed my son? What happened to my son? At one point, there was
a meeting with Denise.
00:19:38
And Denise, more or less,
gave Cheryl an ultimatum. Let this die. Stop. Mike's not coming home.
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And if you don't,
you're not going to see your granddaughter anymore. Cheryl did not stop.
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Ms. Cheryl was always
a good source of, what about this happened and
what about that happened.
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JON FUCHS: She's writing letters
to the governor of the state of Florida, the
commissioner of Florida
00:20:01
Department of Law Enforcement,
anybody that will listen. And thousands of letters,
almost daily, to the governor
00:20:08
and legislators, begging for
some sort of investigation as it relates to her son.
00:20:13
DERRICK WESTER:
And I think it was just a point of
personal fortitude or whatever you want to
call it, that, hey, I
00:20:19
ain't going nowhere. JUSTIN NEWLIN: So there's not
a lot going on with the case after spring.
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Denise, she's had him
declared deceased. She's got the death certificate. She's claiming insurance.
00:20:43
And it's all just
kind of moving along. The daughter's growing older. She's getting ready
to go to school.
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So upon passing and
collecting the insurance policy for over $1.7 million,
Denise Williams
00:20:55
now is a grieving widow. She is raising her
daughter as a single mom. All the while, she, of
course, has got the benefits
00:21:06
of that $1.7 million. Lives in a nice house. As time progresses,
Denise Williams
00:21:15
becomes public knowledge
that she is now dating Brian
Winchester, who was Mike Williams' former best friend.
00:21:32
JUSTIN NEWLIN: So in
2004, just under-- right around four years
after the passing of Mike
00:21:38
or the disappearance of Mike-- at the time, nobody knows. Denise Williams marries
Brian Winchester.
00:21:45
JON FUCHS: So both of
them are now benefiting from that $1.7 million. They're living high
when it comes to money.
00:21:51
They really don't have much
issues at that particular time. And Florida Department
of Law Enforcement
00:21:57
starts asking questions. And they actually opened a case
in 2005 as to the disappearance
00:22:02
and/or death of Mike Williams. As this becomes public,
people start talking. And people start
exchanging their theories
00:22:12
and the thought processes,
during the course of which it really comes to light
that Denise and Brian had
00:22:19
something going on
well before even Mike went, disappeared, and died. It went back all
the way to 1997.
00:22:31
TULLY SPARKMAN: So Ms.
Cheryl, during all this, she keeps a pretty good
track of what's going on.
00:22:36
She was a mother. She was looking for reasons and
looking for ways to figure out
00:22:40
what was going on. She's got a lot of people out
there that report back to her. Just tell her and say, hey,
I saw this, or I heard this,
00:22:46
or this is happening. She would contact the
law enforcement and say, hey, I heard this
or I heard that.
00:22:51
As we are learning
more and more and people become
exchanging stories, there's actually learned that
Brian Winchester and Denise
00:22:59
Williams had a liaison
with a third person over in Panama
City, which is about 2.5 hours to the
West of Tallahassee
00:23:07
while Mike was still alive. So during the marriage,
Brian Winchester and Denise purchase a house.
00:23:22
They sold the house
that Mike and her lived in and then purchased
a property on Lake Jackson.
00:23:28
Really nice place,
a huge lake front. JON FUCHS: It's
a gorgeous house. It's got really
pretty brick flooring
00:23:37
throughout it, expansive,
two storey, probably three to five acres of property
that are associated
00:23:44
that runs right up to the lake. Cost well over $1 million. JUSTIN NEWLIN: But this is
funny business over here with--
00:23:51
I think it ended up being
1.75 million that they got. Her husband died
six months later.
00:23:56
And she claimed it
six months later. Like within a year, we have-- something is fishy.
00:24:03
But unfortunately, in
court, that's not enough. TULLY SPARKMAN: So
the case never closes.
00:24:11
It just continues to move along. And everybody kind
of understood. And you knew that Denise and
Brian were going to be tight.
00:24:18
It was going to take a crack in
that relationship for something to happen. So we keep track
of what's going on.
00:24:25
JON FUCHS: So in 2005,
Florida Law Enforcement reopened the investigation. And they are now looking
at it through the eyes of,
00:24:31
did something bad
happen to Mike Williams that might possibly be like a
murderer or a criminal aspect?
00:24:36
They then go back and start
looking through everything. They discover the
different insurance
00:24:43
policies and Denise being
the sole beneficiary of these policies. They're discovering the
connection of Brian Winchester
00:24:50
is the one that wrote
these particular policies. During the course of this,
they uncover a statement
00:24:56
from a person that believed
that they saw Brian Winchester walking down the road
there by Lake Seminole,
00:25:05
close in proximity to where the
Bronco was found the next day, despite the fact
that Mike Williams
00:25:13
was supposed to be alone and
Brian Winchester wasn't there. When the individual
came forward and said
00:25:19
he saw Brian Winchester at Lake
Seminole on December 16 of 2000, years later, this
information was provided,
00:25:27
a photo lineup is actually
produced for him to see if he can identify Brian Winchester.
00:25:32
He picked him out
of a photo lineup. But he described the demeanor
of Brian at the lake.
00:25:38
And it was not a smiling. And it was almost as if he
was walking from one vehicle
00:25:45
to another vehicle or walking
along the side of the road. There is absolutely nothing
I could do with the fact
00:25:53
that Brian Winchester
was at Lake Seminole because I couldn't narrow
down the time frame
00:25:58
that this subject was there. About eight years
into their marriage of Denise Williams and Brian
Winchester, they separate, 2012.
00:26:14
Brian was angry. Brian was doing everything
he could to save it. But unfortunately, I
feel like Brian turned
00:26:24
to alcohol and other extremes. JON FUCHS: Brian does
not take this very well. He starts having a lot of
problems, some of which
00:26:35
includes narcotics use. And eventually, in 2016, Denise
cuts off communication with him.
00:26:46
JUSTIN NEWLIN: All
of that culminated in an event in early 2016, where
Brian got into the back seat
00:26:54
of Denise's car. And when Denise entered the
car, he held her at gunpoint and told her where to drive.
00:27:06
JON FUCHS: She somehow managed
to get him to allow her to drive to a relatively public area.
00:27:13
She actually pulls the car
into a CVS Pharmacy and parks behind the CVS, in which they
have a long conversation.
00:27:21
Denise, realizing the
dangerous situation she's in, starts agreeing with
him and saying, look,
00:27:28
you're here holding
a gun up to me. This is not the time or place
or the right way to do it.
00:27:33
But I promise you, if you let me
go to work, we will talk again. And she eventually is
able to convince Brian
00:27:39
to let her do that exact thing. During the time period
all of this is going on, she doesn't show up for work.
00:27:44
Coworkers are starting
to make phone calls. They start calling
Denise's sisters.
00:27:49
Denise's sisters are
now trying to get-- co-workers or trying
to get a hold of her.
00:27:53
It happens that one
of Denise's sisters is married to a
Tallahassee Police officer.
00:27:59
So she calls her husband. What do we do? How can you help me? Things along those lines.
00:28:05
JUSTIN NEWLIN: They talk to her. And she says,
Brian kidnapped me. He was in my car
when I got back in it
00:28:11
and made me drive around town. We talked about things. And she's like, were you
going to report this?
00:28:17
And Denise was hesitant
to even report this. Eventually, it is reported. She then gets to the Leon
County Sheriff's Department.
00:28:25
And they start asking her
questions about what happened. And she starts telling
them what it is that Brian
00:28:32
Winchester did that morning. Florida Department of Law
Enforcement investigator goes in and tries to
ask a question of her
00:28:38
and says, look, given
what just happened, do you think Brian
had something to do
00:28:42
with the disappearance of Mike? Denise said, I don't
want to talk about that. And she shuts down
any conversation
00:29:01
as it relates to Mike
Williams' disappearance. It was odd. Brian was arrested for
the kidnapping in 2016.
00:29:12
JON FUCHS: Warrants are
drawn up for the kidnapping and aggravated assault with
a firearm on Denise Williams.
00:29:21
TULLY SPARKMAN: They get enough. And they've got enough to go
forward with a charge on him
00:29:25
for aggravated kidnapping,
which is going to push a 25 year sentence or better. One day, we get a call
from his attorney and says,
00:29:33
hey, my client's got information
that he'd like to proffer to you, which is tell us what's
going on in return for some form
00:29:42
of help on his case. Sometimes you have to-- I guess you can make
a deal with the devil
00:29:47
to get the best you can
out of the whole situation. JUSTIN NEWLIN: He
has to run this show.
00:29:53
He's trying to save himself. We don't know what
he's going to tell us. Let's just let him run it.
00:29:59
He starts to tell
this story of Denise and he planned a boating trip
with both of their spouses.
00:30:06
So Brian was going
to take Cathy. Denise was going to take Mike. And they were going
to go out on a boat.
00:30:11
And then they would push
the other two overboard. So Mike and Cathy would
die, drown out on a boat.
00:30:19
That was going to
be the accident. And then they could get
together and get married.
00:30:23
Brian, of what
conscious he had, says, I'm not going to kill my wife. No, I'll just get divorced.
00:30:31
So the only option was
Mike had to go missing. Mike had to no longer be around. [tense music]
00:30:45
JON FUCHS: Brian says he
somehow convinces Mike that he's got this new, special
place that he's found
00:30:50
and scouted out for
this duck hunting, but we need to put
our waders on first, because typically you
wouldn't put waders
00:30:56
on if you were in a boat. So he gets Mike to
put the waders on and they start motoring out.
00:31:18
JUSTIN NEWLIN: Thinking he's
going to drown in his waders. And he tells, you
know, Mike's flapping
00:31:25
around, flopping around, trying
to get back to the surface. And he sees Mike's
actually succeeding.
00:31:30
And he's not drowning. Turned out the guy that
taught him how to duck hunt made him practice in a pool,
getting out of waders because he
00:31:39
knew there were a
lot of duck hunters that die from drowning
because waders fill up.
00:31:43
So he would make him jump
in a pool with the waders on and take them off and
learn how to get out of them.
00:31:49
And he would time him
until he could get it and do it quickly enough. And sure enough,
according to Brian,
00:31:53
when he pushed him
in the water, he said he thought he went under. And next thing he knew, he's up
out of the water with the waders
00:31:59
off. Then he started hollering. Well, if you've ever been
on a lake, sound travels.
00:33:06
JUSTIN NEWLIN: Takes
his shotgun and shoots his best friend, three to
six feet away, and kills him.
00:33:16
Well, at that point,
the body does not sink. So Brian has to drag the
body back to the shore.
00:33:25
He dragged him
back to the ramp. He then took him and loaded him
in the back of his Suburban,
00:33:32
Brian Winchester Suburban. He took the boat and went over
to a cove, in which it was
00:33:39
eventually found,
and left the boat there, and then walked
back to his Suburban,
00:33:43
and then drove home. TULLY SPARKMAN: Got to his
house and he was exhausted. I mean, moving that dead weight,
moving all that stuff around.
00:33:55
He was exhausted. He went in and took a nap. Takes a nap, gets up, realizes
he has to do something.
00:34:07
JON FUCHS: He said he
eventually came up with a plan to drive to a dried
up lake bed area,
00:34:11
not far from where he
lives called Carr Lake. Stop at a Walmart, north of
Tallahassee, and got shovels,
00:34:21
tarps. He had the tarp. He had the shovel with him
in the vehicle with him. JON FUCHS: Said he gets
out, and he digs a hole,
00:34:33
and he buries his best friend
right there at Carr Lake. JUSTIN NEWLIN: So this
interview goes on.
00:34:43
We corroborate a lot of the
story that Brian's telling us. What was Denise's role?
00:34:47
What was her involvement? I was like, this is it. She's more involved in this. You told her what happened?
00:34:56
No, I never told
her what happened. I just said he's-- you don't have to
worry about it.
00:34:59
He's not coming home. She does not know
what I've done. So all the interviews
throughout the years
00:35:05
that were done with
Denise, you know, she did not know what happened. She knew Brian killed
him at her request,
00:35:12
but she didn't know
how he killed him. At that point, we
decided, well, let's see
00:35:19
if you can take us to the body. JON FUCHS: Keep in mind, it's
been 17 years at this time.
00:35:24
So things change. The lake is now filled in. It's actually
covered with water. Brian is in shackles.
00:35:32
And he's dressed in
the jail uniform. And he's walking around. He's looking. And he's looking.
00:35:37
And he's trying to describe. He's telling us how
different it looks. JUSTIN NEWLIN: But we're talking
18 years of growth since then.
00:35:47
They have forensic
people that do this. They are seasoned and trying to
figure out how to collect bodies
00:35:52
and process crime scenes. And essentially, they build a
dam around this particular area.
00:36:00
It's called a cofferdam. It's inflatable bladders
that will keep the water out. And they bring out these big
backhoes with the buckets
00:36:06
that will scrape. And slowly, a couple inches
at a time, scrape and move dirt. And then we sift through it all.
00:36:13
He moves it off and went
all the way down the line. It went for almost a
week, just digging.
00:36:18
And finally, at one
point, he hits that tarp. And they stopped. And they go in and recover it.
00:36:26
Recover a body
wrapped in a tarp. Everything stops. Everybody goes down. And they uncovered
Mike Williams.
00:36:40
Body's been there
now for 17 years. The only thing
left is a skeleton. So they've got to process the
scene and do it forensically.
00:36:57
We take this entire
tarp with all the contents to the medical examiner to
conduct an autopsy to determine
00:37:03
the cause of death. [tense music] When they lay the parts
and everything out, the first thing
they do is x-ray.
00:37:17
And they x-ray the gloves. And they x-ray the skull. And inside the glove, you
can still see Mike's wedding
00:37:24
band is still on his hand. The first thing they notice
is that the large piece of the skull is missing.
00:37:32
This is consistent with Brian
said happened, where he shot him point blank with a shotgun.
00:37:36
What they find behind
that gaping area in the back of the
skull is a whole bunch
00:37:40
of very small pellets. That is, again
consistent with birdshot. Very, very small
birdshot sized pellets.
00:37:48
And then we had to identify
him through dental records. And we were able to
confirm that this
00:37:53
was Mike Williams that was
located right where Brian told us he was going to be.
00:37:58
All of this is odd because
Brian Winchester hunted that same spot every duck Season
until he showed us where he was.
00:38:07
And he would-- he told
us, he was like, yeah, every time I'd come by, I
would just do the old peak.
00:38:12
And nobody's found him yet. Just look and see. DERRICK WESTER: I think that the
motivation was lust and greed.
00:38:29
I think that Brian's goal
and the reason he did it is because he was
obsessed with Denise.
00:38:35
It was Brian and Denise's
sexual desire for each other, chasing each other, the
things that they would do.
00:38:42
And then you add on top of that
the opportunity to have almost $2 million and be together.
00:38:51
And I think that just--
that pushed them. JON FUCHS: We started
working towards securing
00:38:59
an arrest and prosecution
for Denise Williams. Florida State University
and Florida Department
00:39:04
of Law Enforcement
go into her office and they secure
her in handcuffs. Brian testified in his trial
that it was so that those two
00:39:17
could be together. And that the insurance was
just like icing on the cake. JUSTIN NEWLIN: It was an
agreement with the state
00:39:32
and the defense that Brian
would proffer the information on the murder of Mike
Williams, but that information
00:39:38
would not be used against him
in the kidnapping sentencing. We would waive guidelines, which
is waive minimum mandatories
00:39:45
and let the judge
decide, on his own, without any input
from either side, that this is the
sentence I feel best
00:39:53
appropriate for this charge. It's considered an open plea. So we walked in. Brian pled open to the court.
00:40:01
Brian was convicted of
aggravated kidnapping, armed kidnapping and was
sentenced to 20 years in prison.
00:40:12
Due to the agreement
between the state of Florida and Brian's defense team, he
was immune from prosecution
00:40:17
for the murder of Mike Williams. [tense music] So trial for Denise Williams
was in December of 2018.
00:40:36
And it was compelling. It was approximately
a week long trial. TULLY SPARKMAN: There's a lot of
media, a lot of things going on.
00:40:44
Our trial, our case was heavily
weighed upon Brian Winchester. Brian Winchester takes a stand
and again, in chilling detail,
00:40:56
described what happened. So he said what
he said happened. And then we showed,
yes, that happened.
00:41:04
Yes, that happened. Yes, that happened. And we finished with the
insurance claims, the fact
00:41:13
that she made the initial claim
while the search was still ongoing. JUSTIN NEWLIN: Denise's defense
in trial was this is all Brian.
00:41:19
I had nothing to do with this. Brian did this on his own. Brian was obsessed with me.
00:41:23
He wanted every-- he wanted me. And that was it. I had nothing to do with this. She just sat right
there for what
00:41:33
you're knowing is the first time
she's ever heard this story. Deadpan. She heard how her
husband was brutally
00:41:40
murdered by his best friend. And she knew about
it and did not-- there's no sympathy.
00:41:47
There's no sorrow. There's nothing. For the first time you're
ever hearing this, how?
00:41:56
JON FUCHS: I remember
thinking about the fact that he died with
his wedding ring on,
00:42:01
and how powerful that was of
his belief in the marriage, and that she didn't have
that same conviction
00:42:11
for the marriage. And I laid the ring down
on the banister that was in front of the jurors.
00:42:19
And I remember closing
with, Mike Williams took his vows with him to the grave. The only part of that Denise
took was till death do us part.
00:42:31
And that's where we left
the closing arguments. And then we sat back and
waited for a verdict.
00:42:40
The jury was out
probably about two hours. They came back and gave her a
guilty as charged on all counts.
00:42:51
TULLY SPARKMAN: So on
January 20 of 2019, Denise was convicted
of first degree murder
00:42:58
and accomplice to
murder, which turned out to be, just about to
the date, 19 years,
00:43:06
just a month over,
maybe only a month later than 19 years since
the murder occurred.
00:43:11
JUSTIN NEWLIN: And
sentenced to life in prison she was also convicted to
conspiracy to commit murder
00:43:17
and sentenced to an
additional 30 years in prison. It was a very scary,
risky, frustrating
00:43:27
deal that had to be made to
get closure for this family. We wouldn't be there without it.
00:43:33
We wouldn't know where
Mike Williams was. Brian Winchester would
still probably be
00:43:37
in prison for the kidnapping. And Denise would
be walking free. TULLY SPARKMAN: And for Ms.
Cheryl, it was just her--
00:43:43
just her love of her son. And she was not going to go. She was ridiculed, and
made fun of, talked about,
00:43:50
and had lost her relationship
with her granddaughter because she kept pushing. She never let go.
00:43:55
I don't know anybody
that wouldn't want a mother like that. JON FUCHS: I remember
thinking what Mike
00:44:06
must have been going through. And the fact that he's thinking,
hey, I've got this newborn baby.
00:44:14
I've got a loving wife. I have a great life. I'm getting ready to
go for my anniversary.
00:44:22
Here I am hunting
with my best friend. Then suddenly you're in the
water, fighting for your life,
00:44:28
trying not to drown, and the
terror that that entails. Then the realization that you
didn't fall over, that your best
00:44:41
friend pushed you over. And then the realization
he just raised a shotgun. And the last thing that
Mike was able to see
00:44:52
was the bad end of a shotgun
before his best friend, that he's been friends with,
that he played ball with,
00:44:59
that he grew up
with, that he shared everything with is the one that
was getting ready to kill him.
00:45:07
DAVID ARNETTE: I'm
glad it was solved. I'm very thankful that
Mike had a mother that
00:45:13
was very persistent,
that she didn't give up, that she stayed with her
thoughts and her beliefs
00:45:24
until it was actually
proved to be what she said. There was something
other than a drowning.
00:45:33
TULLY SPARKMAN:
Unfortunately, there's a young girl that
lost a father over it, a grandmother who lost
a granddaughter over it,
00:45:40
and two people are
now sitting in prison, and a man who was a good man,
a hard working man that would
00:45:47
provide for his family that
is no longer alive because two people decided their
lust and greed was more
00:45:54
important than anything else. [theme music]