Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 39 - Michele Williams - Full Episode | Forensic Files

It was one shot, one bullet, one cartridge case, one firearm. NARRATOR: A couple drawn together by sex and money.
For her, it was about money. For him, it was probably about the sex. NARRATOR: Detectives untangle a web of fantasies
and deceit to uncover the truth of a marriage. She had lied so many times that you practically
picked up the paper, and said, OK, what lie is she's going to say today. NARRATOR: As police raced to the home of Michele Williams
was she about to become an innocent grieving widow, or was she lying about an armed man attacking her husband.
[music playing] NARRATOR: Gregg and Michele Williams relationship was sexually charged from the very start.
As I understand they met in a swingers club. He was with his brother Michael, and Michael says Michele was openly
performing sexual acts in public right there in the club. NARRATOR: Michele and Gregg both had complicated
emotional backgrounds. Gregg and Michele meet in 2007. They're both in their late 30s both twice divorced,
both have children. Michele has three, Gregg has a daughter who's about 10-years-old at the time.
NARRATOR: But that's where the similarities in their back stories end. Gregg is this successful businessman.
He's a brilliant computer engineer, and he's built this successful business. He netted $500,000 take home.
He was great at running a business, and bringing in the funds. And when he's not working he's working out.
He's a bodybuilder, and he also loves martial arts. Michele was not perhaps such a driven personality,
and her path in life had rarely been smooth. Michele had a similarly troubled past.
She had gotten pregnant really early in her teens. She had a child at the age of 17 then another one at the age
of 24 different fathers. She's paying the bills by working as a stripper. One of her sons says he thinks that she
was actually working as a prostitute in there at the same time. She didn't really have one career
that she necessarily dedicated herself to with a larger goal. She worked as a sex worker, she slept with different men,
and she really just seemed to basically be drifting through life in many ways. NARRATOR: Forensic psychologist Dr. Judy Ho
believes that Michele in her late 30s by the time she meets Gregg could have been ready to settle down.
Because she was floating through life in many ways perhaps she saw Gregg as a chance
for finally some grounding, finally a secure base. Somebody that she could count on.
Seemed like it was her ticket to get him on to a better life, and it seemed this was the answer for her
in being able to raise a family, have a great home. And not have any other worries she had
found the answer to the dream. For her, it was about money. For him, it was probably about the sex.
I mean, she was a beautiful woman once she got all dressed up. NARRATOR: Whatever their motivations
the attraction was immediate the relationship whirlwind. In 2007 within a couple of months of meeting
the couple tied the knot. There was dismay on both sides of the family about this quickie wedding.
Michele sons couldn't stand Gregg, and Gregg's family wasn't so sure about Michele either.
NARRATOR: Gregg's family saw Michele as a sexually promiscuous gold digger. Michele's army vet sons thought Gregg was an arrogant bully.
If the couple were hurt by all of this animosity it didn't stop them. Perhaps even despite their problems they are saying nope
this is a choice that I've made I'm committing to this person, and I'm not going to listen to the naysayers.
And so sometimes it actually produces a superficial commitment to the person that everybody doesn't like because you
want to prove them wrong. Shortly after the marriage Gregg and Michele had a little baby daughter together.
NARRATOR: She was Gregg's second daughter. The presence of his first daughter Taylor
was not as welcome in the life of Michele Williams. Michele didn't seem to get along with Gregg's daughter
Taylor, and at the age of 12 Michele blamed Taylor for drugging her. She accuses her of trying to drug both her,
and their little baby daughter. So Michele winds up spending several days in the hospital for an overdose of anti-depressants
and narcotics. NARRATOR: Jealous of the close relationship Gregg had with his first child Michele claimed Taylor had
slipped drugs into her coffee. It was an outright lie, but Michele managed to convince Gregg that his 12-year-old daughter
had an addiction to prescription painkillers also not true. For whatever reason Gregg seemed
to believe whatever Michele said, and he actually send Taylor off to drug rehab.
It was an early warning sign that Michele Williams could be ruthless when it came to getting rid of those
that she saw as obstacles. Well, she saw people as transactional, she saw relationships as transactional.
So once she wasn't getting the benefits from a relationship she was apt to move on instead of trying to solve the problem.
Perhaps even simple problems that could have been easily resolved if you just communicated with the person,
but she seems like she's easily disposing of the various people in her life, various projects
in their lives. NARRATOR: To those outside of these domestic dramas the Williams looked like a happy family unit.
You had the all-American family living in the suburbs, doing very well financially.
It's the lifestyle everybody dreams that they have. So Gregg and Michele are living what seems to be
this wonderful life of luxury. They have matching Mercedes and a garage. They're living in a gated community
in this beautiful $800,000 McMansion in Keller, Texas, which is a suburb of Fort Worth.
The Williams were living in a community that was thought to be safe. It was a neighborhood where you would raise your family.
NARRATOR: Journalist Domingo Ramirez had only positive stories about Gregg from those who knew him.
We heard from friends and family of a man of a good family. He was just always tending to his family.
He's working so he actually buys her a yogurt shop, so she has something to do while he's working these long hours.
NARRATOR: In early 2011 Michele had begged Gregg to buy her Blueberries a frozen yogurt
store in Keller. A surprise to forensic financial analyst Jeannette Hanna who would one day scrutinize
the couple's accounts. It like was a toy for her, and it's really hard to understand
why she even had the yogurt shop because she didn't really have a business background, and she
wasn't there running it daily. NARRATOR: Michele had discovered there were better things to do with her time than run a business.
Michele was burning through the cash, and using the credit cards doing exorbitant spending,
going shopping whenever she wanted to, buying designer purses and clothes. They had matching Mercedes-Benz that they were leasing
they didn't even own them. So she just had a lifestyle where she had no budget. She could just do whatever she wanted
to whenever she wanted to. Four years into her marriage to Gregg Michele Williams
was living a life that he was paying for, and neither could afford. A recipe for trouble, but how much no one could know.
Now she's saying my daughter and I were asleep on the couch, and Gregg shot himself.
The Blueberries yogurt shop was purchased in May for $110,000, and it was sold right
after the murder for $45,000. NARRATOR: October 13th, 2011 4:40 in the morning, and the marriage of Michele and Gregg Williams ended violently.
The voice of Michele Williams calling from the family's four bedroom home on Jacob Avenue in Keller.
Michele also told 911 that she believed the intruder was still in the home. They arrive at the Williams residence
to find Michele at the front door she's sobbing. She has a large lump on the side of her head,
and she says her husband he's dead. Police for obviously wanted to find out if the intruder
was still in the home. NARRATOR: Entering the house with caution officers find the couple's four-year-old daughter still fast
asleep on the couch. The officers searched the home cleared the home. They checked the inside of the house, outside, and the back,
and found out that there was no intruder at the home. NARRATOR: They found 40-year-old Gregg Williams lying
dead in the master bedroom blood running from a single bullet wound in his right temple.
In between sobs and screams Michele tells officers a story. Michele told the investigators that she was asleep
on the sofa with her daughter. And her husband was sleeping in the bedroom when she hears a noise, and she goes to inspect she says
she goes back into the bedroom. And she thinks she sees this dark clad figure then
all of a sudden she's hit on the head by someone or something, and she goes unconscious.
Michele says when she regained consciousness she looked up, and found her husband shot dead in the bed.
- NARRATOR: Former homicide Detective Rod Demery. The only information that Michele was able to provide
police as far as description, or who it may have been was that it was a male in dark clothing.
So this is the story the police are checking out, and they do a full inspection on the house.
NARRATOR: Would the evidence support Michele Williams claim that an unknown intruder had knocked her out cold,
and then executed her husband. As police looked around the perimeter they couldn't find any evidence of forced entry
onto the property, or into the house. Nothing's been disturbed. There's nothing that's been knocked over or rifled through,
and there appears to have been nothing taken. Initially she said that an intruder had broken
in through a bedroom door. The only thing police found was a flathead screwdriver,
and some scratches on the door. But the damage to the door didn't amount to enough to open the door or anyone
to actually gain entrance. NARRATOR: From the moment of the crime being reported by Michele
her story struck some as implausible. One of Michele's first stories that we had heard
was that it was a home invasion, and that just didn't ring true to me because that meant the intruder had
to break in through the patio door of the bedroom. And then go find Gregg's pistol in his nightstand,
which was right beside the bed on the left side. And then go back in front of his bed to the other side,
and then shoot him level through the head. Why wouldn't the home invader just shoot them
on the left side of the head or in the somewhere else in his body when he was first finding the pistol.
That didn't make sense. NARRATOR: And if it was a home invasion why had the perpetrator not stolen anything.
$20,000 in cash lay untouched in a safe. Any clues that the police find struck them as odd out of place.
At the back door of the bedroom leading to the back yard police find a 45 caliber gun lying on the floor.
Next to it is a shell casing, and next to it is a wrench. It's almost like it's laid out there on display.
A few feet outside the door-- They found a plastic Clorox tub that held Clorox wipes,
and then they realized that all the services in the bedroom and around the house had been wiped clean for fingerprints
or any DNA evidence. Now cops are getting suspicious. This looks like a staged robbery.
NARRATOR: As crime scene officers concluded their search news was spreading of a murder
in the neighborhood. It was only a few hours after the shooting had occurred that we were notified from Keller police
that they had a death investigation going on. And that caught our attention because we don't have
a lot of death investigations in the suburbs of the Fort Worth, Dallas area. What kind of death investigations
are we talking about? Are we talking about a suicide or are we talking about a homicide.
What exactly are we talking about here? NARRATOR: Questions that the detectives were seeking answers
for as they interviewed the only witness to Gregg Williams death his wife Michele not in the frame for the murder yet.
Michele wasn't a suspect, and she voluntarily went to the police station to talk with the investigators.
And it's pretty routine in a case like this they ask her to change her clothes when she gets there
to the station so that they can check her clothing for any possible evidence that maybe something has transferred
from the intruder to Michele. Michele was submitted to a gunshot residue test. Over the next five hours police
continue to question Michele because her story just isn't matching up to the evidence that they found.
They ask her over and over again tell us what happened, and her stories changed time and again,
but it's still this intruder guy in black. She was asked seven times about whether or not what happened, and she told them
the same story seven times. NARRATOR: This was the crime that the press in Fort Worth
thus reported, a fatal home invasion in an affluent suburb. I believe that it was a front page story because we had
the initial report was that an intruder had come into her a home again, we're talking
about a gated community. An intruder had broken into a home, had killed somebody,
and yet there was a woman and a child who were not injured. The first story we hear is an intruder.
We want to try to find out OK, for the community's sake who was this person, give us a description,
was there a car that he drove off in a truck. What weapon could this intruder have had.
There was a lot of questions that needed to be out there quickly because of the community's safety
was involved because again we're talking of a suburb that has very little crime.
And here was someone breaking into a home, and killing someone. So we had to get the information out as quickly as possible.
NARRATOR: But even as the residents of Keller came to terms with the shocking news.
Michele Williams was at Keller police department changing her story. Finally they said to her, look Michele we have enough evidence
we know it's one of two things. Either you killed your husband or he killed himself which is it?
And that's when Michele breaks. Now she's saying my daughter and I were asleep on the couch,
and Gregg shot himself. She says that she made the story up, and put all this evidence
down about the intruder because she didn't want her daughter to know the true story that her dad had
committed suicide. She says she took the Clorox disinfecting wipes, and that she wiped everything down.
She says she took the wrench, and she hit herself on the head so it would look like there was an intruder.
She said she then wiped down the wrench, she wiped down the handle, she wiped everything down to cover it up.
NARRATOR: It was an extraordinary story at this point, detectives had little to disprove
Michele's version of events. She was charged with tampering with evidence, and released on bail.
Free now to tell Gregg's family the same stories that she had told the police. Gregg was depressed, and she says
that at one point shortly before his death she'd gone into the garage. And she saw both cars were actually warm
as though someone was running in the cars in the garage like maybe he was planning to kill himself.
NARRATOR: If Gregg's family thought she was dishonest before this story didn't seem to change their mind.
Gregg's family is having a real problem believing the suicide story. Just the year before Gregg's best friend Bryn
his brother-in-law had committed suicide, and he was really angry. He said that Bryn had destroyed the family.
He said it was a chicken way of going. He was really very angry, so it was hard to believe that Gregg
would do that himself. NARRATOR: In any case, once she had left Keller police department even Michele had trouble knowing,
which narrative to stick to. She started lying, and you don't remember the lie. So you might tell your aunt OK, it was a suicide.
You go over here to your cousin no it was an intruder. So now you start talking to all family members,
and you don't remember who really you told the story to, and you can keep it straight.
NARRATOR: Gregg's family were already suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his death.
In the following weeks his wife Michele repeatedly gave them cause to question her role in it.
Gregg's family goes on with the funeral arrangements, and Michele doesn't even help the family plan the funeral.
And in fact Michele doesn't even attend the funeral. I think at the point of her husband's funeral
Michele had already decided that she was going to break all ties, and I think by showing up at the funeral she probably
foresaw all the difficult interactions that she was going to have. People asking questions, the family surrounding her.
I don't think she wanted to do anything about that. I don't think she wanted to engage with his family further
nor put herself in these discomforting situations. NARRATOR: Michele made decisions that bewildered friends
and family first she ditched the business that Gregg had only recently bought for her.
The Blueberries yogurt shop was purchased in May for $110,000, and it was sold right
after the murder for $45,000. She also sold Gregg's IT business. Now mind you he made quite a bit of money at this business,
and had a good clientele built up. And she sold his business the one that made half a million dollars net take
home that year she sold it for $8,000 about a month after his murder. I think she was really just trying
to be done with it as quickly as possible because in her mind she was thinking about how her life would
look after Gregg died. But while Michele Williams was working on moving on suspicious detectives
continued their investigation. I don't think she thought through all of this other stuff.
I don't think she thought through the fact that she might be the person of interest in his murder.
I don't think she thought through all of the other consequences that she would have to resolve
first before she could move on with a quote unquote "better life." NARRATOR: As Michele Williams flip-flop between stories
detectives were building a picture of what really happened in her husband Gregg's
bedroom on October 13th, 2011. Could he have been shot by an unknown intruder. First, Jamie Becker a forensic firearms,
and tool mark examiner had to establish what weapon had been used. So in the crime laboratory the firearm, and tool mark section
is typically tasked with identifying fired bullets or fired cartridge cases back to a particular firearm.
NARRATOR: Gregg's own gun was recovered from the scene as well as a used bullet casing.
And the Keller police department had submitted some evidence to the section that they wanted tested.
They submitted the pistol, the cartridge case, some bedding from Mr. Williams's bed, and of course we had
the bullet from the autopsy. NARRATOR: The bullet, the casing, and the weapon matched.
Gregg was shot with his own 45 auto caliber pistol, and it was a very high end pistol.
And he kept it in his nightstand beside him, which would have been to his left. And he was shot in more of the right temporal region
of his head. NARRATOR: What did that show? The pathologist had recovered the bullet from Gregg's head,
and it had been noted that it was fairly straight through. It didn't have a downward trajectory,
or an upward trajectory it was fairly straight. The police and the medical examiner of course
noticed he had these marks on his face on the right side of his face. These marks are known as powder or gunpowder stippling marks,
and they're little tiny bruises that are caused when the gunpowder strikes with force.
That means that the gunpowder had traveled some distance. The presence or absence of stippling
shows whether or not a gun was placed near, or away from the body. So performing my range work where I shoot the pistol
with similar ammunition to develop where this pattern would be recreated. It was somewhere greater than six inches,
but less than 24 inches. NARRATOR: This hypothesis was further supported by the absence of blowback
in the barrel of the gun. When the firearm is found, and there is no blood or debris
inside the firearm then that too is indicative that is not a contact wound because there's no blowback.
The force that goes into the victim actually comes back out, and goes into the barrel of the gun.
NARRATOR: All the ballistic evidence suggested a straight shot to the temple fired from between six
and 24 inches away. Not easy to explain by the notion that Gregg had shot himself.
So if Gregg committed suicide, and had his hand on the pistol operating the grip safety.
And had it supported maybe by his pillows, so that he had this nice level shot through his head
from a distance of greater than six inches away but closer than 24 inches. The hypothesis was is that he had laid his pistol down
on his pillow sideways away from his head, and then pulled the trigger. That would leave very distinctive gunshot
residues that would be detectable, and observable on his pillows. There weren't any.
NARRATOR: Suicide was looking very unlikely. There was more about the scene that didn't add up.
The bullet casing was found on the ground right next to the gun. The staging of the pistol was very obvious to me
because the cartridge case shouldn't have been found there. So during the firing of a pistol such as
he had the 45 auto caliber firearm. The cartridge case should have been extracted,
and ejected more towards the right and the rear of where the shooter was. So if Gregg had committed suicide
it had been likely to have been found actually right there in his bed with them, but where it was
staged right next to the pistol, right next to the wrench, which was all placed nice and neatly right
by the door to the back poach. NARRATOR: A month after the murder Michele asks for help.
She turned to the son from her first marriage. She wanted his help to get Gregg's
former wife Kathy arrested. She tries to get her own son to get his friends together to try to frame Kathy.
Michele's plan was to have her son purchase an extra large sweater and some gloves,
and to fire a gun with those items trying to capture or collect gunshot residue.
Once that was done she wanted that evidence planted in Kathy's car, and an anonymous call
made to police so they could find the evidence therefore blaming her for the murder.
He thinks she's losing it at this point doesn't know what's wrong with her, but he just dismisses it.
NARRATOR: After Michele's son Andrew refused to help her frame Kathy Williams she turned
her attentions to her other son Lee not for help, but to be a stooge. So she decides at this point that she wants
to frame one of her own sons, so she started asking questions on whether or not from her son that her other son
could have actually done this. He thinks is she trying to frame my brother. Michele had had a fight with his brother Lee just days before,
and it sounds as though Michele may be trying to pin it on him. Do you think that Lee could have had something to do with this?
Her own son her stories are flipping back and forth. It's like she's grasping at straws.
I think she just lives life moment to moment quite impulsively, and never really thinks through everything
from beginning to end. NARRATOR: By January 2012 detectives believed they had enough to prove that Michele had murdered
her husband Gregg Williams. She was arrested, and charged but almost immediately
prosecutors hit a snag. Vital forensic evidence had been compromised. One of the main issues was Gregg
was actually transported in his own bed sheets to the morgue. That actual bed sheet would be used as evidence,
so it would be collected separately to collect any other evidence. But to wrap someone up in that then it
can catch a lot more evidence from other people and other places. Say for instance one of the paramedics lost a hair,
or perspired, or bled or something then that evidence would be not usable. And that cross contamination in an autopsy
would have been devastating to the case. NARRATOR: Fearing the defense attorney would discredit their forensic evidence prosecutors
went for plan B. So prosecutors came to an agreement with Michele, and that was to allow her to plead two deadly conduct
and hindering an investigation. Under Texas law she could get as little as two and half years, or as many as 20 years.
Prosecutors actually agreed to recommend an 18 year sentence. It's actually a very good deal, and Michele agrees to it,
and they set a date for sentencing. But while awaiting sentencing a flurry of bombshell developments in Michele's private life.
She's on the internet looking for how to create fake birth certificates, how to obtain fake social security cards,
and there was also how to live as a fugitive. NARRATOR: Awaiting sentencing for her involvement
in her husband's death Michele Williams found love. October 2013 as they're awaiting sentencing Michele's
actually dating. She's actually dating one of her son's best friends. Gene Wallis is a personal trainer.
The widow and her musclebound young lover opened a gym in nearby Bedford. She reinvented herself as Shelley Williams never
telling clients that she was the focus of a murder investigation. Being in a relationship also gave Michele a convenient fix
to a knotty dilemma. Michele didn't want to go to prison she was hoping that she wouldn't be sentenced to the 20 years
that she was facing. So she told the judge that she was pregnant with twins. It's a high risk pregnancy, so she
knows what's going to happen. The judge agrees to delay the sentencing trial until after the babies are born.
She had lied so many times that you practically picked up the paper, and said, OK, what lie
is she's going to say today. NARRATOR: Some were skeptical but Michele handed over a sonogram to prove the existence of her unborn twins,
and as family, friends, and law enforcement officers were still reeling from that announcement.
She took advantage of the delayed sentencing hearing to snatch a moment in the limelight.
Before the sentencing trial ever happens Michele goes on television, and she changes back to her original story
it was an intruder. NARRATOR: The US public had all about Michele's ordeal she was the grieving widow whose husband had died
in a violent home invasion. Also watching local law enforcement. It's a very good thing for people to do interviews
with the press because they're given a formal interview that we haven't orchestrated, or have to read
them their rights or anything. They voluntarily tell a story or lie, and give us more leads
and more evidence to go off. NARRATOR: In this case by denying her involvement in Gregg's death Michele was seen
to be reneging on the plea deal that she had struck with the judge. Because she's adamant that she didn't do anything
she goes on national TV to say I'm innocent. The judge who accept the plea deal hears this,
and says no we're not going to accept the plea let's go to trial. So Michele actually ended up going back to court,
and she was not able to keep her deadly conduct up plea. And she would be going on trial for the murder.
NARRATOR: When Michele was hauled back to court now indicted for murder officials expected to see signs
of a growing baby bump, but once again Michele's claims were exposed as lies. Investigators later looked there
was no hospital record, or nothing to indicate that she was pregnant ever. At that time between after the murder and the time that
the trial starts, and then there's other indications where she's on the internet looking for how to create
fake birth certificates. How to obtain fake social security cards, and there was also how to live as a fugitive.
And Michele's sister actually says this is her thing. I mean, she does this she fakes pregnancy,
she fakes miscarriages. I don't know it's a way of attention, but this is not unusual for her.
NARRATOR: For those following the Gregg Williams murder case it was a roller coaster ride.
I've never run across a murder suspect like this. I've been a reporter for 40 years,
and I've never run across somebody who lied so many times during a murder investigation.
And probably to this day she might still believe it. I don't know. NARRATOR: In September 2014 almost three years
after her husband Gregg was killed Michele Williams stood trial for his murder. Prosecutors cast Michele as a liar, and an arch manipulator,
but could they prove she had the motive to kill. They will hear a lot about her changing stories
as to what happened, and all of the people she has tried to frame for the murder of Gregg
when she in fact is the one who is guilty. Even her own son Andrew will take the stand
and testify against her. Privately he might have been still supportive of her, but he sure hated to publicly testify against her.
And tell other people my mom's a liar she tried to make me produce evidence to say that Gregg's ex-wife had committed the murder,
and why I didn't go to the police right off the bat. Well, that's because it's my mom I couldn't do that.
I had to think it over. NARRATOR: Jurors had the ballistic evidence that made the possibility of both a suicide,
and an attack by an unknown intruder seem unlikely, and something new had been discovered.
Michele had had Gregg take her to the gun range to practice shooting fairly recently
before this occurred. She wasn't familiar maybe necessarily with guns not like somebody like me who shoots all the time,
so she had had like a little refresher course. NARRATOR: Schooled in how to shoot,
but why kill her husband? And the prosecution argues this was purely about money.
It was all about money. NARRATOR: In 2011 the couple was days away from completing the purchase of their dream home,
but there was a major snag in their plans one Gregg knew nothing about. She was the one in charge of the books for about
the business and their home, so during that year Gregg only had six transactions out of all of the businesses
and household financial. He wrote some checks for his daughter's counseling. All the rest of the activity was completely by Michele,
and so she was the one moving money around. And spending the money and charging on the credit cards,
and Gregg had no idea what debt she was accumulating and the cash withdrawals that she was making.
He was in a lot of debt and that came from the fact that Michele Williams spent a lot of his money
without him knowing about it. His net take home that year was around half a million dollars after business
expenses and everything. So they were very well off, and they were living in a nice big house, and having pool parties
and just living the high life. NARRATOR: For more than a year Michele had been splashing
the cash without restraint. To taking out over $100,000 in cash during the year.
She also had charged on my credit card payments of 68,000 during the year, which indicates that she's
using the credit card as she's finding out about. Regarding the cash withdrawals that's a large amount
of cash for anybody. NARRATOR: Then there was the frozen yogurt shop that Gregg had bought
his wife to keep her busy. Michele would come into the business during the daytime,
and just pull the money out. Basically treated the shop as her ATM, and would pull the cash out of the till.
NARRATOR: They were due to close on the purchase on October 14, but Gregg was about to discover that the purchase
couldn't go ahead as planned. She had overspent obviously, and she was trying to hide from Gregg that they didn't have the money
available for the mortgage. They needed approximately $95,000 when they went to closing the following day,
and they only had about $35,000 left in their accounts. And you can also see leading up to the day of the death
where she's moving all of this money around trying to get it accumulated. So it indicates to me that she was at a dead end
because she was going to have to tell him, or he was going to find out that they did not
have enough money to go to closing the next day for their new house. NARRATOR: The couple's financial records
have been exposed in court. The jury had been told Michele's motive for killing her husband.
Michele realized that the good times were over because Gregg was obviously going to be upset that there wasn't
any money left in the accounts. That's why I looked at the life insurance policies
because it turned out she had a $850,000 life insurance policy on Gregg. NARRATOR: Finding the life insurance policies also helped
explain the slew of lies that Michele had told over the previous three years. So why did Michele keep changing her stories?
The story of the intruder wasn't adding up, so she flips to the suicide story, but she doesn't stick to the suicide story.
Why would that be? She wants to collect on the life insurance Gregg could not have committed suicide because the policies
all had clauses in them that said they would not pay out in the event of a suicide.
But accidental death, murder, health, $850,000 to Michele on this policy. So as it led up to the day of the closing on the mortgage,
and Gregg finding out that she had just blown through there money. That she knew that as a last resort
she could pull this off and collect on the 850,000, and still continue to live her extravagant lifestyle.
NARRATOR: Will the jury at Tarrant County criminal court agree? On September 29th, 2014 they retired
to consider their verdict. The jurors deliberated for seven hours over a period of two days, and in the end
their verdict Michele Williams is guilty of the murder of her husband Gregg. She was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
She's eligible for parole in 30 years. A third shot at a happy marriage had ended with the doting husband losing his life.
An investigation full of twists and turns had ended with a wife spending most of her life behind bars.
I strongly believe that he got duped by someone, and I don't think he saw it coming.
She's an attractive woman, and Gregg just saw somebody who he thought he could spend
the rest of his life with. I dare say his family or Gregg Williams himself never believed that he was going
to be murdered by his wife. [music playing]

Greg and Michele Williams were attacked in their home. He died, and she survived. How would detectives unpick what really happened?

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Michele Williams murdered her husband Gregg to cover financial troubles and collect life insurance, leading to her conviction and 60-year sentence.

Key points

A Web of Lies. Detectives untangle a web of fantasies and deceit to uncover the truth of a marriage.
The Night of the Murder. On October 13th, 2011, the marriage of Michele and Gregg Williams ended violently.
The Evidence Doesn't Add Up. Police find no evidence of forced entry, raising doubts about Michele's claims.
Michele's Changing Stories. Michele's story about the night of the murder keeps changing, raising suspicions.
The Forensic Evidence. Forensic evidence reveals that Gregg was shot with his own gun, contradicting Michele's story.
The Evidence Against Suicide. Ballistic evidence suggests a straight shot to the temple, making suicide unlikely.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

For her, it was about money.

0:21WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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