Death By Alligator?! (Meet Marry Murder with Michelle Trachtenberg) | Forensic Files

[music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: On the same day Mike Williams and his wife Denise planned a romantic evening
to celebrate their anniversary, Mike, a loving husband and a devoted father, also decided
to see if he could squeeze in a quick hunting trip that morning. Mike never returns home.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Mike vanished without a trace. In fact, he disappeared so suddenly and completely
that his devastated family felt the only possible explanation-- no joke-- was that he had been eaten by an alligator.
Because Lake Seminole is infested or has a large number of alligators, there was a rumor around that the guy probably
got snatched up by a larger alligator, stuffed up under a rock, and that alligator probably preyed
on him until he decomposed. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: A freak accident, the hunter became the hunted.
And that was the official story. Until around 20 years later when investigators discovered
what really happened to Mike, and there was nothing accidental about it. I'm Michelle Trachtenberg and this is Meet, Marry, Murder.
Mike Williams dreamed the American dream. A house with a white picket fence, a solid job, a beautiful wife.
But he learned early on that nothing in life would be handed to him on a silver platter.
Mike had come from a modest background. His daddy was a Greyhound bus driver. His mom was a daycare provider.
And they had-- they lived in a double wide trailer. They saved their money up. They didn't buy a fancy home.
They wanted to save the money to provide a good education for their sons. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Throughout high school,
Mike worked nights at a local market where he met the girl who he would eventually marry,
Denise Merrell. They were a popular couple. He played football. She was a cheerleader.
You've heard this story before. Except these two high school sweethearts also came with a third wheel, a mutual friend
named Brian Winchester. When Denise Williams and Brian Winchester went to high school,
they went to North Florida Christian. 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. And by all accounts, the four of them were inseparable.
They were fast friends. They all stayed in Tallahassee after graduating from high school.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: In 1994, Brian and Kathy got married and started having kids.
Mike and Denise also got hitched in '94, but waited five years before starting their family.
Denise and Mike had a very strong marriage. They had a beautiful daughter. Mike adored Denise.
Did everything for her. Really, I mean, he was a great husband. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Mike wanted his daughter to grow up
with more than he had as a kid. And with Denise being a stay at home mom, that meant he had to work twice as hard.
Mike was a good family man. He was always a hard worker. Before he even graduated from Florida State University,
he already had a good job as a property appraiser. And by the year 2000, he was doing pretty well.
He was making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Mike was a major workaholic.
He'd get to work early, clock out to get home in time to cook dinner for the family.
And then, go back to the office to finish up his work after their daughter had gone to bed.
One time, Mike's boss even had to take away his office keys to stop Mike from coming in over the weekend.
So how did Denise feel about Mike constantly choosing work over their relationship?
According to her friends, not great. Especially since Mike always seemed to find the time for his other passion, duck hunting.
When he was 15, he started duck hunting and it became his favorite hobby for the rest of his life.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: December 16, 2000, the day of Mike and Denise's sixth anniversary.
The plan is for them to go away for the night to celebrate. Mike even thinks they'll maybe take the opportunity
to try for baby number two. But before that, he wants to relax and do a little duck hunting.
And so on the morning of December 16th, he was going to go to the Florida Georgia Line
to Lake Seminole. And in Lake Seminole, it's a huge area. But you see, Mike was an avid duck hunter.
He had his spot. He knew the areas he wanted to go. He's supposed to have came over
here duck hunting that morning. And myself-- nobody else was supposed to have been with him.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: At the crack of dawn, Mike is up getting his gear together
and hitching his boat up, something he has done 1,000 times before. Before dawn he packed up his truck
and he left for Lake Seminole, which is about an hour away from Tallahassee. It's on the Georgia State line.
This was something he just really loved doing. He told his wife, I'll be back in a few hours.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Back at home, Denise gets everything ready so that they can leave for their trip
that night to the nearby town of Apalachicola as soon as Mike gets back from hunting.
Except he doesn't. When he didn't show up for around noon time, his wife started calling around looking for him.
And she finally got a hold of somebody that had been fishing with him before. That guy got with her father and they came over here and
notified local law enforcement. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: The friend who Denise calls is none other than their best high school
buddy and Mike's frequent duck hunting partner, Brian Winchester. Brian and his dad Marcus tell Denise they're sure Mike's
probably running late. But they'll go back to the lake and check just in case. By the time Marcus Winchester and Brian
Winchester got out of Lake Seminole, the weather had gotten bad. There were some local law enforcement who responded
and then they contacted the Florida Wildlife Commission, the FWC, which oversees Game and Wildlife.
And they began a search for what they treated as a missing person. Perhaps he got lost.
Perhaps he has gotten bogged down into the shallow but mucky waters. Mike would have gone with the proper gear.
In order to go duck hunting, he would have had to worn waders and rubber boots. And if one was to be in shallow water, they could easily sink.
And the waders themselves would pull somebody down below the water's surface. And that was the big concern.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After searching all afternoon, there is still no sign of Mike.
But there's no doubt he was there earlier. Friends see Mike's truck near a remote boat
launch on the Florida side. Meanwhile, a helicopter pilot spots the boat floating.
And then, law enforcement finds his shotgun in the boat. So they're assuming something happened to him.
Maybe he drowned. Mike was last seen in what is known as Stump Lake. Body of water at the deepest area
is 8 feet, sometimes 6 feet, and other times very shallow. It's called stump lake because there were a lot of trees
that grew out of this lake. There were a lot of rotted trees that had fallen and the only thing left for the stumps.
But they would be either hidden just below the water's surface or sticking up just above.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After days of searching and still no sign of Mike, everyone understandably
starts fearing the worst. I would submit that everyone who was involved in the search
for Mike Williams, with the exception of maybe one or two very, very optimistic, very, very hopeful people,
believed that probably after four or five days that there was not going to be a likely recovery.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After a week, it started to look more and more like Mike must have drowned.
So case closed, right? Wrong. Because according to investigators there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
If he had drowned, where's his body? Because normally in this area it would have floated up.
And that hasn't happened and days go by. And so since he's not-- there's no body you have to wonder,
well, what could have happened? And you start ticking off the questions. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: One of those questions
is why, after 10 days of searching, Mike's camouflage hat is discovered floating on the lake.
This was important because it led the researchers to believe that they didn't think might drown.
Because the hat wasn't located in particularly deep waters or just floating in a huge body of water.
This would be an area that they should have found a body along with that hat. The body should have risen to the top.
It wasn't a deep body of water. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Finding Mike's hat leads investigators to believe there may be a reason
why his body hasn't been found. So all I remember was it was a hunter who went missing.
And the rumors or the newspaper had started suggesting that it might have been alligators
or something like that. Seminole Lake has some of the biggest alligators in the state.
They grow to between 13, 14 feet at max and there's some very old ones there. And they get up to 1,000 pounds.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Pretty soon, the search for Mike's body is called off, which makes sense
because whether he was eaten by an alligator or not, it doesn't look like his body is going to show up any time soon.
Either way, by February 2001, Denise is ready to move on. Denise has really kept a low profile during the search.
This has been covered by news media, but Denise isn't talking to anybody. She's the grieving widow.
When the search gets called off, she accepts the fact that Mike has drowned. That Mike somehow has died.
And so she calls for a memorial service to honor her now deceased husband. I think many in law enforcement and many friends
and family of Denise, unfortunately, probably believed that he had passed away. And that's why there were so many people at the service.
Most, if not all of them had come to the conclusion that Mike Williams was not coming back from Lake Seminole.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: In June, six months after first disappearing, a local fishermen
finds Mike's waders out on the lake, which leads many to conclude that Mike did, in fact,
meet an alligatory demise. There were no teeth marks on the victim's clothing. But an alligator or any crocodilian
doesn't have to leave a tooth somewhere in order to kill a person. They actually have a very sensitive
bite force when they want to. The pick up their hatchlings. They pick up things generally.
They grab something very gently in some cases and sink it and drown it and can leave not even on the person.
Yeah, it's very possible. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Thinking that Mike's waders might be
a sign his body is nearby, police divers begin searching the area. Everyone hopes finding Mike's body
will finally bring some closure, especially Denise. And this allows her to collect on their life insurance policy.
And Denise then will collect more than 1 and 1/2 million dollars. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After Mike Williams's waders
are found floating on the surface of Lake Seminole, police divers are called in to search for his body.
They end up uncovering Mike's jacket, hunting license, and flashlight, but no Mike.
But Mike's wife, Denise, is ready to move on. And successfully petitions for Mike to be declared
dead, which according to veteran homicide detective Brian Harris, is her first mistake.
The mere fact that they found those items, it should have generated a murder investigation where more
work should have been done. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: But while Denise appears to have come to terms with Mike's death,
Mike's mother Cheryl isn't ready to call it quits yet. Mike's mother, she's not accepting this.
She's not ready to believe that her son is dead. There are too many questions. Too many suspicious things.
This just doesn't make sense. She's not letting go. She's not giving up on her son.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Cheryl starts putting up billboards and handing out flyers asking the public for help
looking for her missing son. She is not ready to leave any stone unturned, even when it comes to her daughter-in-law.
Ever since Cheryl Williams began, essentially, what I call her crusade, Denise Williams
has been vilified by certain parts of the Tallahassee community. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: By this point,
rumors are spreading like wildfire. Everyone is questioning whether Dennis is really the grieving
widow she appears to be, but a gossip seems to be the least of Denise's worries.
Denise was still a stay at home mom. She had an infant daughter. She had no ready source of income.
So she needed to do things to take care of the bills that were starting to mount up in terms of her home, vehicle,
insurance, other things. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Lucky for Denise, she knows just the way to get her hands
on a whole bunch of money. She has filed a petition to have Mike declared legally dead.
A county judge grants it. And this allows her to move forward with getting the money from that life insurance policy.
And Denise collects more than 1 and 1/2 million dollars. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Right around the time
Denise cashes the check on Mike's life insurance, her friends discover that she actually
filed the claim less than three weeks after Mike first disappeared. For someone to file for insurance when you haven't
even recovered a body within 19 days would seem suspicious to me. From an outside view it may seem suspicious.
But one of the things that everyone needs to remember is that the person who was in charge of handling
their insurance affairs for both Mike and Denise was the Winchester group. And that was the insurance company
that was run by Marcus Winchester, who was Brian Winchester's father. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: No surprise.
Mike's mother Cheryl thinks the whole thing is pretty fishy and pushes to reopen the investigation.
She is relentless. She never gives up on her son. In 2004, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
reopens the investigation into Mike's disappearance. Because now, they have enough evidence to say,
this doesn't make sense. They look back and they say, hold on, none of it adds up.
No body floating up. 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. None of it made sense.
The gas tank and the boat is completely full. The location where the boat is-- by this time, Mike's own mother
has done her own research about wind speed and currents at the time that Mike went missing.
None of this added up to her. She wasn't buying it. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Cheryl's persistence pays off
and the new investigation starts finding holes in the original alligator theory.
If someone had fallen off a boat and they drowned, a lot of other things are going to eat
them long before an alligator touches them. They're going to have-- this part of the United States, they're
going to have crawdads on them, they're going to have turtles eating them. A lot of the things are going to be
cleaning that up before an alligator even thinks about it. That's not their food supply.
It's not what they're looking for. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: But wait, there's more.
Alligators, in essence, amongst hibernate in the winter time. The temperatures were cool, in the 50s, very damp.
When the temperatures are in that kind of setting, alligators are not feeding. This was not feeding season for alligators.
And they want to be 88 and 1/2 degrees, optimally, to be able to feed and digest their food.
When they're not that temperature, everything kind of changes. They will slow down their feeding.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Even though it's starting to look more and more like Mike Williams wasn't eaten
by alligators, investigators still can't figure out what happened to him. But while Mike's mother Cheryl refuses to give up
looking for answers, Denise Williams is moving on with her life. And right there with her as Mike's former best
friend, Brian Winchester. We still don't know where Mike is, how he died, did he die.
But five years have passed now. He's been declared officially dead. And Denise and Brian get married and they move in together
into the same home that Mike and Denise had shared in Tallahassee. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: By now, the rumor mill
is going into overdrive. Almost everybody is wondering the same thing. Did Denise and Brian's affair start before Mike went missing?
The idea that Brian Winchester and Denise Williams had an affair is essentially that urban legend
that develops from the fact that, yes, Denise Williams did marry Brian Winchester many, many years
after Mike's disappearance. People presume that because they got married, they must have had a relationship
prior to Mike's disappearance. And that's simply not true. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: In 2007, Cheryl's
reopened an investigation into Mike's disappearance starts to lose steam. You're working up an investigation with no body.
And that can be very difficult because the body itself can tell a story. It's a body of evidence.
And this was the challenge for law enforcement. And as a result, you don't get as many resources thrown
in on a missing person case. And hence was the case. There's no crime scene documentary.
There's no preservation of evidence. There's no preserving the items that were recovered.
And so, in essence, the case goes cold. It goes dormant. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: But then, a few months later,
Mike's brother Nick gets in contact with the police. It seems that one of Mike's guns,
a 22 caliber Ruger pistol that Mike had inherited from their father, had gone missing.
By 2007, Mike's family they're wondering, Dennis has returned all of Mike's original weapons.
All of these guns and whatever he had hunting-wise to his family. It's part of their legacy.
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
that gun back from Denise. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: At this point, it's seven years since Mike Williams first vanished.
Detectives are ready to throw in the towel. But Cheryl isn't willing to give up the fight.
This lady with herself, made fliers, put them on light poles in Tallahassee. She had a picket sign that she stood
out in front of the church that the Winchester's-- Brian and Denise attended. She got funding.
She had big billboards erected around Tallahassee. Have you see my son? She took out ads in the paper.
I mean, she never stopped. She wrote about 9,000 letters to the governor of the state.
She kept it public. She never let it die. Not one of them was opened. Not one of them.
They were just tossed aside. It's a closed case. Not my job. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Finally, when it seemed like all was
lost, Cheryl found someone who'd actually listen and that was the beginning of the end for Denise Williams.
The authorities released a three page indictment. And it spells out what they believe happened.
Something out of a bad Saturday evening movie. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Eight years after Mike Williams was
supposedly eaten by alligators while duck hunting, Mike's mother Cheryl convinces a Jackson County sheriff's
detective named Derrick Wester that there are too many questions surrounding Mike's strange and sudden
disappearance. Once I had an opportunity to have a discussion with Miss Williams--
Miss Cheryl Williams, which was Mike's mother, some of the things that she brought up kind of just
made you want to look into it more. You know want to just track down this and this
to appease this grieving mother. And then, it just kind of just snowballed into maybe
there really was something happened here. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After taking a look into Mike's life
insurance arrangements, Wester discovered there were actually three policies, one of which had been taken out just
months before he went missing. And all that money was bankrolling Denise and Brian's lavish lifestyle.
And I was having discussions with some other investigators about whether or not he actually had applied for the insurance
policy that the Winchester Financial Group had wrote for him. And Brian Winchester was the agent.
But I had needed Mike Williams' picture for something. So I had his stuff laid on my desk
and I pulled up the application for his insurance-- his life insurance. And I pulled out the driver's license number
and typed it into the computer so I can get his driver's license picture. And when I typed the number in, it popped up
Denise Williams' picture. I was like, well, how is this? I mean, she's not the applicant.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: All of this has Detective Wester starting to suspect Mike's policy has been
changed after he disappeared. Did Brian Winchester go and do that using the him and Denise's
knowledge and information. And then, when they just need a driver's license number,
yeah, I will speculate, he's said, well, we just need a number. And so she pulled hers out and they copied the number down.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: But there was still more. He had a different policy in between the time
he went missing and the time she filed for presumptive death certificate. We had to check that she had wrote
and signed to pay the premium during that six month period. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Naturally, Wester
began to wonder just when Denise and Brian's relationship had actually started. There was no evidence that suggested that the--
Denise Williams and Brian Winchester were having an affair. They were in close proximity to each other.
All of them were. Kathy Thomas and Mike Williams and Brian Winchester and Denise
Williams would go out socially. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Police records, on the other hand,
told a totally different story. One night the Tallahassee police department had called in a abandoned vehicle
at a church down the road from Denise and Mike Williams' house. They were still married at the time.
The truck was registered to Brian Winchester. They looked up the contact number for the owners,
they called Brian Winchester's house. And Kathy Winchester, at that time, answered the phone.
Well, she thought that her husband was duck hunting in Arkansas or somewhere out of town.
So she called Brian's father. And by the time the father got over there, the vehicle had already been gone.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: You'd think after all that Denise and Brian had gone through by that point they'd
be able to get over anything. But seven years after getting married, their relationship was on the rocks.
By 2012, this happy couple, Denise and Brian, not so happy anymore. Apparently, Brian has a little sex addiction problem.
And that's enough for Denise to say, I'm out of here. So Denise decides she's getting out of the marriage
and she and Brian separate. And so he's no longer with Denise, but he still loves her very much.
He still is so attached to Denise. That's the love of his life, or at least in his mind.
By 2016, the marriage is going to end. They were separated. Some periods of getting back together.
But Denise has had enough. She has now filed for divorce. In August of 2016, something kind of bizarre happens.
Denise is driving on her way to her job at Florida State University when all of a sudden Brian Springs from the backseat and basically
attacks her. He starts shouting demands at her. Something out of a bad Saturday evening movie.
He pops up from behind the seat and he kidnaps her. And he holds a weapon to her.
And he's pleading for her to keep their marriage together. And then, she's trying to calm him down.
And he's basically sort of delirious and he's angry and he's desperate. And he says, look, I'm not going to kill you.
But I don't have anything to live for. I don't want this divorce. I don't want this divorce.
But if you want a divorce, I just don't have any reason to live and I'm going to kill myself.
And she calms him down. She says, please, Brian, just calm down. Just calm down.
You'll be OK. Everything will be fine. So she calms him down, she takes him back to his vehicle,
she promises him she won't talk to the police. Just calm down, Brian. Everything will be OK.
And when she leaves him, she goes straight to the police and she tells them what happened.
And when they did eventually apprehend him for that, he had a tarp and he had bottles of bleach
and he had other items in his truck that suggested that he was probably going to kill
and bury Denise Williams. Brian is charged with kidnapping, domestic assault, and burglary.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: So after all of that, now that Brian and Denise are getting divorced,
that's the end, right? Wrong. There's a law that says spouses cannot be compelled to testify.
But these guys are getting divorced. Now there's a criminal case against Brian. Someone's going to sing.
This premise of husband and wife privilege was very beneficial to Denise initially.
She knew that Brian would never say anything against her and vise versa because they were in on it.
They were co-conspirators in this death. They were in on it. And so by both of their actions, their silence was sealed.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: With their marriage over all of a sudden, Brian's ready to strike a deal
with the prosecutors who want to throw him in jail for kidnapping Denise at gunpoint.
And all he has to do is lead them to Mike Williams' body. Florida law enforcement officials
hold a news conference. The reporters are all there with their cameras set up. And they announce after all of these years--
17 years Mike Williams body has been found. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: In return for finally giving up
the goods, Brian Winchester gets himself off the hook for kidnapping his ex-wife.
Brian Winchester got the deal of the century. Brian Winchester was facing life in prison for kidnapping
Denise Williams at gunpoint. He was two to three months away from going to a trial.
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,
looking at life in prison, he approaches the state attorney's office and offers to tell them a story.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: 17 years after Mike Williams vanished without a trace, Denise Williams is formally charged
with killing her husband. And according to Brian Winchester, she's the one who planned his murder
down to the very last detail. Brian is the star witness. And he says, yes, I pulled the trigger.
But Denise was the mastermind. In May of 2018, Denise Williams is leaving her job
at Florida State University. She's on her way to go find her daughter and celebrate her birthday.
Well, police show up and handcuff her and take her into custody. Denise is under arrest for the murder
of her husband Mike Williams. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: For Mike's family and friends,
really, the entire city of Tallahassee Denise's indictment marks the end of a 17-year-old mystery.
The courtroom was kind of like a little circus. I mean, essentially, everybody in town
had thought Denise Williams was guilty for years and years and years. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: It seemed like everyone
showed up to watch Denise finally face justice. Ironically, some people believed that she
was actually the victim of a grave injustice. Because while Denise was facing life in prison,
Brian only received a relatively light sentence for kidnapping and wasn't charged at all for the killing of his old friend.
He knows where the body is buried because he killed Mike Williams. By offering the body and by then adding a little extra, which
is you can go after Denise Williams, I'll make up a story for you. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: But Denise seemed to be completely
relaxed during the trial. She was very, very, very, I don't know, cold but not responsive.
Kind of almost robotic. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Denise insisted she was innocent.
Her lawyer claimed she had always believed Mike had died in a tragic accident. But the cops know all the details.
They know all the information. They know where the bones were buried. They know the details and the motive
and the why this has happened. Somebody talked. Somebody laid out the plan. This was a plan laying in wait.
And 17 years later, it all came unraveled. I mean, they turned on each other. Ultimately, bottom line is that those two turned on each other
in the end. And it's a direct result of Cheryl Williams' one woman army. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: In detailed testimony,
Brian gave up the goods. So Brian says he and Denise start having an affair. And that affair started three years before Mike disappeared.
Three years before he was killed. And in that time, they're thinking, how can we be together?
Because see, Denise's family doesn't believe in divorce. And so Denise was like, you know, I can't really do this.
So how are we going to be together? MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: For three years, they'd planned a secret rendezvous
in back seats and hotel rooms. On double dates with their spouses they'd still away kisses when Mike and Kathy weren't looking.
Nine months before Mike Williams disappeared, Denise and Brian started hatching their plan.
They conspired to kill Mike Williams. She wanted Brian to kill his wife and help her kill Mike, her husband.
But an ironic twist, if you can say Brian has principles, Brian told Denise, I can't do that
to the mother of my children. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: The morning of December 16, 2000,
Mike Williams didn't go to the lake alone. As best we can gather and from what Brian Winchester testified
to, he had made arrangements with Mike Williams on the evening of December 15, 2000,
to go hunting with Mike out at Lake Seminole. No one knew that Brian Winchester and Mike Williams were going to be hunting together.
Mike's mom is right all along. Mike would not go out hunting alone. He had a buddy.
And his buddy was Brian. It was going to be Brian and Mike. They're going to do a little duck hunting.
He stated that he had met Mike Williams over here in Jackson County at the boat ramp.
They had launched the boat. It was a little 15-foot [inaudible] with a GO-DEVIL motor on the back.
According to Brian Winchester, who's really the only person who knows what happened, he and Mike got in a small boat
and pushed off from a landing. They weren't on the water very long before Brian Winchester
adjusted the boat in such a way that Mike Williams fell overboard. As Mike Williams made his way to a Cyprus stump.
Mike Williams had stood up in the boat. Brian Winchester pushed him out. They were dressed in a duck hunting gear,
which included a set of waders. And it was Brian Winchester's thought and anticipation
that he would fall into the water and the waders would fill up with water and he would get to the bottom and drown.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Brian's plan didn't work out the way he thought. And a big reason why is because Mike had practiced taking
off his waders underwater. So he was able to keep his head above the surface. It's not called Stump Field or Stump Lake for nothing.
Mike was able to when he was tossed out of the boat grab on to a stump. He was able to tread water, so to speak.
Stay above water and he began hollering and yelling for help. And Brian Winchester freaked out.
He didn't know else to do. Brian Winchester circle around him approximately three times.
And then, while looking directly at Mike Williams, he shot him in the face with a 12 gauge shotgun
at a distance of less than three feet. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Shooting Mike in the face
wasn't exactly part of the plan to make it look like a drowning. A gunshot wound meant he'd have to cover his tracks.
He drug him back up to the hill, he'd backed his vehicle down here, and loaded him up into the back of his vehicle.
He then took the boat and drove it 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Brian knew
that he'd be looking for Mike's body so he made sure they wouldn't look in the right place.
In the afternoon, he took the body to Kerr Lake and buried it in a shallow grave next to the waterside.
Brian is the star witness. And he says, yes, I pulled the trigger but Denise was the mastermind.
Denise was the one who came up with the idea. It was all about Denise. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After 17 years
of lies, when justice finally came for Denise Williams, it came fast. Brian's story is very likely and the jury believed so, too.
And Denise Williams is convicted on all charges. Conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact.
And she's sentenced to life in prison. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Denise Williams' lawyer believes
Brian Winchester got away with murder by being given the opportunity to incriminate his ex-wife
in return for revealing where he'd hidden Mike's body. One of the things he said on the stand
was that Denise Williams wasn't on the lake that day when he killed Mike Williams, but she was in his head.
I mean, if you kill somebody and you bury them in a shallow grave, you know where the body is.
And obviously, the government wanted the body. And Brian Winchester was the only person who knew where
Mike Williams remains were. And so he turned that into you know the key component
of the deal of the century. I'd asked to Brian Winchester received immunity, this case
in-- wouldn't be solved. Mike Williams' remains wouldn't have been found and Cheryl Williams wouldn't have got closure.
So I think that it's a decision that a prosecutor has to make daily about you know what you have to give to get.
To me, it's the case that's the biggest tragedy of my career in terms of an innocent person being
convicted. It's not the most salacious case. It's not the most violent case. It's not the most complicated case.
But it is a case where you're left at this position that the essential mob mentality in the community-based
perception was more of a factor than the actual trial itself. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: For planning and cashing
in on her husband's murder, Denise Williams is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility
of parole. Any way you cut it, the murder of Mike Williams is a tragic story and a chilling reminder
that the person most likely to kill you may be the person you married. Denise Williams is a cold calculating woman.
Was very manipulative of the men in her life. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: I'm Michelle Trachtenberg.
And I'll see you next time on Meet, Mary, Murder. [music playing]

Hi FilmRise True Crimers! On this next episode of Meet Marry Murder: Mike and Denise Williams were the seemingly perfect All American married couple. Their picture-perfect world comes to a screeching halt on their Anniversary Day when Mike goes fishing at Lake Seminole, Florida and is never seen alive again for almost 20 years.

Could it have been the alligators in the lake who were responsible for Mike's disappearance as Denise claimed, or was it something closer to home? Alligators don’t seem to be a great alibi…what do you think? Let me know below in the comments and be sure to like and subscribe to stay in the loop for more episodes!

Enjoy ❤

Michelle Trachtenberg

Brief Summary

Mike Williams disappeared in 2000; his wife and best friend conspired to murder him for insurance money.

Key points

Mike Williams' Mysterious Disappearance. On the day of his anniversary, Mike Williams goes missing during a hunting trip.
The Alligator Theory. Initial theories suggest Mike was eaten by an alligator, but evidence raises questions.
Suspicious Life Insurance Claim. Denise files a life insurance claim shortly after Mike's disappearance, raising eyebrows.
Cheryl's Relentless Search. Mike's mother, Cheryl, refuses to accept his death and campaigns for answers.
The Shocking Kidnapping. Brian Winchester kidnaps Denise, pleading to keep their marriage together.
The Murder Conspiracy Unveiled. Brian reveals Denise's role in planning Mike's murder after 17 years.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

A freak accident, the hunter became the hunted.

Michelle Trachtenberg describes the initial narrative of Mike's disappearance.

1:00WatchNov 17, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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