The Murder of Jerry ‘Mike’ Williams | Millionaire Murders | Forensic Files

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

When Jerry 'Mike' Williams died in a boating accident, questions soon emerged about the potential involvement of his wife Denise and Mike’s longtime friend, Brian Winchester.

Greed, jealousy, revenge, lust, anger — any and all are motives for murder. When there's cash involved, the stakes are even higher. Explore a new case in each episode of Millionaire Murders.

Brief Summary

Mike Williams disappeared in 2000; his wife and best friend conspired to murder him for insurance money, leading to their convictions years later.

Key points

The Disappearance of Mike Williams. On December 16, 2000, Mike Williams goes missing while duck hunting, leading to a massive search effort.
The Search Efforts. A large-scale search operation is launched on Lake Seminole, involving volunteers and law enforcement.
Suspicion Arises. As time passes without finding Mike, doubts about his disappearance begin to surface, especially regarding the alligator theory.
Cheryl's Quest for Truth. Mike's mother, Cheryl, refuses to accept the official story of his drowning and seeks justice.
The Investigation Reopens. In 2005, Florida Law Enforcement reopened the investigation into Mike Williams' disappearance, looking for criminal aspects.
A Shocking Confession. Brian Winchester reveals a chilling plan to murder Mike and Cathy during a boating trip.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Mike confirmed with Denise, It's OK. I'm going to go duck hunting.

Mike reassures his wife before going hunting, setting the stage for his disappearance.

2:01WatchMar 30, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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