Mike Williams was a man who went missing in Florida in 2000. He was initially presumed to have drowned while out duck hunting. His remains were found in 2017 – his wife Denise has been arrested and charged with his murder.
We will start with some background into Mike. His full name was Jerry Michael Williams – he went by Mike. He was born on October 16, 1969. Mike grew up in Bradfordville, Florida. His father Jerry worked as a bus driver for Greyhound, and his mother Cheryl was a daycare provider. Mike had an older brother, Nick.
The boys grew up in a double wide trailer. Their parents chose to live in it instead of building a house so that they could afford to send their sons to North Florida Christian High School.
Mike excelled at the school. He was student council president and loved playing football. He was voted by his peers as ‘best personality.’
He took up duck hunting at the age of 15. While at the school, he became involved with another student, Denise Merrell. Denise loved cheerleading and had been voted ‘best dressed.’
Mike went on to attend Florida State University after he graduated from high school. He majored in political science and urban planning. Before he graduated from university, he got a job with the Ketcham Appraisal Group as a property appraiser.
According to Find a Grave, Mike’s father Jerry passed away in September 1989 at the age of 51.
Mike married Denise in 1994, when he was aged around 25. The couple had one daughter together in 1999 named Anslee.
Mike’s employer said that he was the ‘hardest working man I ever saw.’ It’s been said that Mike would go home and have dinner with his family before going back to work after they went to bed. His boss Clay Ketcham said ‘He was an unbelievable worker. It was not uncommon for him to do 15-hour days. I mean, he would be in there early, work until 1:00 or 2:00 in the mornin’ and then be right back. He had incredible energy.’
By 2000, Mike was making $200,000 per year. That is equivalent to $366,426.25 today.
Mike and Denise purchased a home on Centennial Oak Circle which was in a small, upscale subdivision on the east side of Tallahassee.
Before he disappeared, Mike and Denise took out a $1m life insurance policy for him. They purchased the policy from Mike’s good friend, Brian Winchester. Brian had known Denise since they were children. Brian and Mike were said to have become best friends.
In December 2000, things were apparently going well for the couple. Mike and Denise told Mike’s mother and brother that they were planning to have another baby. Denise would later say that they had been planning to go on a vacation to Hawaii. Mike also had plans to travel to Jamaica for work.
A friend of Mike’s, Scott Dungey, said that they were a great couple. He said ‘If you knew Mike, he’s the kind of person that uh, is gonna do anything and everything for you. So Denise, you know, found a gem.’
The day that Mike vanished was Saturday, December 16, 2000. Denise said that Mike got up before dawn, and took his boat to go duck hunting at Lake Seminole.
The lake was around 50 miles or 80 kms from their home.
This is some info about the lake. Lake Seminole is a reservoir located in the southwest corner of Georgia along its border with Florida, maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Chattahoochee and Flint rivers join in the lake, before flowing from the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam, which impounds the lake, as the Apalachicola River. The lake contains 37,500 acres (152 km2) of water, and has a shoreline of 376 mi (605 km).[1] The fish in Lake Seminole include largemouth bass, crappie, chain pickerel, catfish, striped bass and other species. American alligators, snakes and various waterfowl are also present in the lake, which is known for its goose hunting.
Denise said that they had plans to celebrate their wedding anniversary that night.
At noon on December 16, Denise called her father to tell him that Mike had not returned from the hunting trip.
Brian, Mike’s friend, was also made aware that he had not returned. He drove with his father to the area of the lake that Mike was known to hunt at.
They found Mike’s 1994 Ford Bronco parked near a boat launch in a remote area of the lake. Investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) were called and the search for Mike began. They were unable to search for long on the first day as the weather turned to a storm.
The search was handled by the FFWCC. Mike’s disappearance was reported to them as a missing hunter. Searchers quickly found Mike’s boat abandoned on the lake. The boat was found around 225 feet or 69 metres away from the boat ramp. A helicopter pilot spotted the boat and assumed it was one being used in the search.
An officer who worked on the search said “We didn’t have a whole lot to go on except there was an empty boat and the guy didn’t show up. There was nothing there that we had from the scene that suggested foul play at all.”
Mike’s shotgun was found on the boat, still in its case. There was no sign of Mike.
Deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff were present during the search, but worked in a support capacity only.
The search focused on an area of around 10 acres/ 4 hectares, near where Mike’s truck was found. The boat was found in an area of the lake known as Stump Field. The area was called that because there were many tree stumps that protruded above and below the water level.
Searchers first assumed that Mike had hit a stump while driving his boat at speed and that he had been ejected from it. The water was around 8-12 feet/ 2.5-3.7m deep. The theory was that Mike fell overboard, his waders filled with water and he then drowned as he was unable to get out of the waders.
One of Mike’s friends, Scott Dungey took part in the search and went up in a helicopter to survey the area. “And, you know, one of the things that I noticed – there were no less than 15 to 20 very large alligators swimming all around this area.” he said.
It was assumed that Mike’s body would float to the surface of the lake within three to seven days. Investigators thought there was a chance it may take slightly longer due to a cold front that had moved in after Mike disappeared.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Officer Alton Ranew said “We done a grid search … very slow, meticulous grid search, back and forth over the search area.”
One search method that was used involved a PVC pipe pole. The pole was put in the water and used almost like a prong. Alton said ‘If it’s a log, it’s kind of a thump, kind of a hard thump, if it would’ve been … a body, you hit it, it’s kinda like a pillow.’
Cadaver dogs were also brought in, to no avail.
Ten days after Mike vanished, a camouflage patterned hunting hat was found, but it was determined to not be related to the case.
The search for him continued on until February 2001. “Nothing in investigative or search and rescue efforts has produced any definitive evidence of a boating accident or a fatality as of this date,” read the final report, issued in late February 2001.
After no remains were found, it was suggested that Mike’s body may have been taken by alligators. A private search firm had been engaged to offer help and the head of the firm said “With the wildlife around, I would guess that the alligators have dismembered and have stored the remains in a location that we would not be able to find,” he wrote in a report. Early searchers had reported seeing many of them, and some of the officials were willing to accept the possibility. “Everyone knows the lake is full of alligators,” said the FFWCC’s David Arnette. “You look for other answers: ‘Why hasn’t the body appeared?'”
Another suggestion was that Mike’s body had become entangled in beds of weeds/plants that were in the lake. Along with the alligators, turtles and catfish could have destroyed anything that remained.
On February 11, 2001, Denise held a memorial service for Mike at the Thomasville Road Baptist Church. The service was held the day after the search concluded.
Some people questioned if Mike had possibly run off of his own accord. Patti Ketcham, Clay’s wife (Mike’s boss) said “We knew Mike had not run off. I mean, he loved his family and he adored his daughter. Adored her. So Mike did not run off. This was not some elaborate ruse.”
In June 2001, a fisherman discovered a pair of waders floating in the lake near Stump Field. Searchers returned to the area and found a hunting jacket and a flashlight at the bottom of the lake. In the jacket pocket was a hunting license that belonged to Mike. There were no animal teeth marks on any of the items. Investigators also said that none of the items appeared to have been in the water for the length of time that Mike had been missing.
There was also no DNA evidence found on the clothing that could link it to Mike.
After the items were found, Denise petitioned to have Mike legally declared dead. A Leon County judge granted her request, based on the items being recovered and the probability that Mike had been eaten by animals. In Florida, there is usually a five year wait to declare someone dead.
The judge said that the cause of death was: “Accidental drowning while duck hunting on Lake Seminole — body has not yet been recovered.”
After Mike was declared dead, Denise immediately claimed on the life insurance policies that Mike had. He had three in total, with a value of around $1.75m. Scott Dungey spoke again about Denise’s financial situation after Mike disappeared. She had apparently had to sell some items to make ends meet before the insurance policies paid out. “I was helping her with some of the items that needed to be sold and to generate some cash until the insurance money came.”
The amount of insurance did seem to be quite a lot for such a young man – $1.75m is equivalent to around $3.2m today.
Patti Ketcham said of the amounts “Mike wanted to make sure his family was taken care of because Mike hunted and fished and did some pretty high risk activity … And Clay really encouraged him to load up.”
Cheryl, Mike’s mother, has said that she never believed Mike drowned in the lake. Reporter Jennifer Portman said of Cheryl “She didn’t know. All she knew … was that her son was not in that lake. She just knew it, knew it like a mom knows something just deep inside of her. And she was absolutely committed to finding out what happened to him.”
Cheryl started keeping detailed notes about the case. Eventually, she had 27 single spaced pages of information collated.
Denise did not help Cheryl with the notes, According to CBS, Denise completely cut her off. Clay Ketcham said that Denise was adamant that there be no further investigation into the disappearance and that she threatened to cut off her granddaughter from Cheryl. She said, “If you continue to press for this investigation, you will never see your granddaughter again.”
In 2004, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agreed to reopen Mike’s case, at Cheryl’s urging.
It does not normally have jurisdiction in missing-persons cases and cannot get involved in investigations purely on the basis of a citizen’s request, although it can offer assistance to local agencies, as it did in this case.
Many law enforcement officers agreed with Cheryl that the circumstances surrounding Mike’s disappearance were unusual. These are some main points from their investigation:
The boat launch where his Bronco was found, which he would presumably have used to put his boat in the lake, was an undeveloped patch of mud. Yet nearby were finished concrete launches that he was known to have used in the past.
The storm the night after he was reported missing had westerly winds that should have blown the abandoned, unmoored boat across the lake to the Georgia side.
When the boat was recovered, its engine was off, yet the gas tank was full. According to a representative of the manufacturer, if the engine had been running when Mike allegedly fell out of the boat, as investigators had theorized, it should have stayed on, with the boat running in circles until its fuel was exhausted. “Something sounds fishy on that deal,” the representative said when the situation was described to him.
Investigators also learned that Mike didn’t usually hunt alone. “Some things looked unusual right off the bat,” said Officer Arnette from the FFWCC. “Then after a couple, three days and after the weeks went on, those first things looked even more out of place.”
One of the original theories regarding an alligator attack was also looked into more. Alligators do not generally feed during the winter months due to colder temperatures.
The water, already at 58 °F (14 °C) the day of Mike’s disappearance, dropped to 46 °F (8 °C), and the lake iced out to as much as 20 feet (6.1 m) from shore.
In those conditions, “it [i]s highly unlikely an alligator would have been active” said Matt Aresco, a local herpetologist authorities had consulted. “All they are doing is maintaining their body temperature … Fifty-eight degrees is too cold for an alligator to be interested in food at all.”
A friend who used to hunt with Mike also spoke about his usual practices. He said he never put his waders on until he had reached the area that he wanted to hunt in. “As much as he preached that to me,” the friend said, “why would he be wearing his waders while driving the boat?”
In a twist, in 2005, Denise married Brian Winchester. This was the man who had been one of Mike’s best friends, and the one who had sold him the $1m life insurance policy. It would later emerge that Denise and Brian had begun having an affair in 1997. You can see where this is heading now.
“I had a good wife, I had a kid and I had Denise on the side. This is messed-up thinking, but in my mind, I had it pretty good,” Brian would later say.
As we mentioned earlier, Denise and Mike seemed happy on the surface of their marriage at the time he vanished. The reality was very different. It has been claimed that Denise was unhappy with Mike but did not want to divorce in case she lost custody of her daughter. Mike wanted to have another child and Denise did not agree.
In 2006, Ronnie Austin, an investigator for the FDLE said “My gut feeling is Mike did not die in Lake Seminole”. I would say this is a suspicious missing person.”
It was also determined that the scene where Mike apparently disappeared from had not been preserved. His Bronco and boat were turned over to the family without proper investigation.
In 2007, Cheryl spoke to the media and said that she hoped Mike was alive. “I get criticized a lot for not admitting that Mike’s dead,” she told the Tallahassee Democrat. “All I know is I can’t stop looking for him until I find him.”
That same year, the FDLE closed the case again. They said they were convinced the alligator theory was wrong, but they had nothing further to investigate and no leads to follow.
Denise and Brian made a statement on the case in 2007. “For seven years we have prayed and hoped to find out with certainty what happened to Mike,” Brian said in an email to the Democrat, and “Nobody wants Mike found more than we do.”
The Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Insurance Fraud began investigating the case from that angle in 2008.
“The circumstances surrounding this case raise many serious and troubling questions,” said DIF’s lead attorney, Mark Schlein. Perry, the FFWCC officer who had been heavily involved in the original search, added at the time that if he or any other person investigating had known that there was a large life insurance policy on Mike and who the beneficiary was, that search might have been handled differently. It was noted that Denise’s court petition to have her husband declared legally dead mentioned only the Kansas City Life Insurance Company policies Winchester had sold him, omitting policies through other companies that Mike had obtained through other sources.
The case would end up being closed in 2008, without anything further happening. “Our job was extremely difficult, and we were simply unable to develop enough evidence to proceed with the investigation,” Schlein said. He added that if new information were received, the investigation could be reopened. “We have suspicions, but what we need is evidence.”
Denise and Brian’s marriage was tumultuous. They separated in 2012. The reason for the separation was reported to be Brian’s sex addiction.
Denise filed for divorce in 2015. Brian opposed the divorce and had to be ordered to comply.
On August 5, 2016, Denise left her home to drive to her job at the Florida State University. She was sitting in the car and was on the phone to her sister, when someone climbed over the back seat. It was Brian. Brian took her phone away and began yelling directions at her. She refused to comply until he pulled out a gun. Brian apparently went to this extreme as Denise was not taking his calls and had blocked his texts.
Denise drove to a CVS parking lot and pulled up by the door. Brian told her that he was going to kill himself with the gun because he had nothing to live for if they divorced.
Denise managed to calm him down and took him back to where his own vehicle was parked. He got out and went to his truck. He pulled up next to her car and apologised for his actions. Denise promised him that she would not tell police, but she drove there straight after leaving the scene.
Brian was arrested and charged with kidnapping, domestic assault, and armed burglary, with two of the charges being felonies. Denise requested protection orders, saying she feared for her life and her daughter’s. After a hearing the next week at which she said she could neither eat nor sleep since the incident, the court decided to hold Brian without bond.
Brian would speak to investigators about Denise and Mike’s marriage at the time of the disappearance.
“Denise and Mike, on the other hand, they were at each other’s throats and she had 2 million reasons for this to happen.” he said.
In December 2017, Brian was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the kidnapping. He was given credit for 502 days time served, to be followed by 15 years’ probation. His attorney told the court that he was suicidal that day, due to not only the divorce but also his mother’s recent terminal cancer diagnosis and the decision by his teenage son from his first marriage to move in with his mother, and argued for the 10-year mandatory minimum. Prosecutors countered that Brian’s actions that day indicated he planned a murder-suicide that was only averted by Denise’s quick thinking.
No mention about Mike’s case was made at Brian’s sentencing. It was hoped that following the sentencing, there may be some resolution in Mike’s case. It is believed that Brian may have made an agreement with prosecutors in exchange for a lesser sentence, because the day after he was sentenced, Mike’s body was found.
Police said that Mike was a victim of homicide, but they released very little other information. They said they were withholding information from the public since only the guilty parties would know the details.
It was later revealed that Mike’s body was found in northern Leon County in Florida. The remains were tested against Cheryl’s DNA and were confirmed to belong to Mike.
Cheryl held a funeral for Mike in September 2018.
“I want everyone to come who loved Michael and want to honor him, they are welcome to come,” said Cheryl. Cheryl said that it was Mike’s wish to be buried, not cremated.
“Michael was a Christian and I know he’s been in heaven all these years, and it’s not him they are burying in the ground but it is his earthly remains, and that’s the least I can do for my child,” she said.
Denise was arrested in May 2018. She was charged with murder, conspiracy, and accessory after the fact. Her defense attorney, Ethan Way, said she had nothing whatsoever to do with the killing.
After the arrest, FDLE said they had received information as to the whereabouts of Mike’s remains in October 2017. A team of search dogs found Mike’s remains in piles of dirt, stacked on plywood sheets. 98% of his remains were found and he had been very well preserved. Clothing including gloves and booties were found at the scene.
After Denise’s arrest, the indictment documents were released.
It revealed that prosecutors believed Denise allegedly began conspiring with Brian in March 2000, nine months before her first husband disappeared. Brian is alleged to have killed Michael with a gun. The accessory charge suggested that sometime between August 2014 and the day Brian was sentenced, Denise had allegedly helped Brian avoid prosecution or arrest for the crime.
Denise went to trial in December 2018. Audio of Brian’s interview with LE was played in court. He admitted to pulling the trigger to kill Mike, but said it was all Denise’s idea.
Brian said that they had begun to consider killing Mike after they began their affair, so they could marry. Denise had an idea to stage a boating accident on the Gulf of Mexico, so that they could throw their respective partners at the time overboard.
Brian rejected this as he did not want to kill the mother of his children.
They also considered planning a staged robbery at Mike’s office which would have resulted in murder.
Brian came up with the idea of a hunting accident as the cover up for Brian’s murder. Brian got Mike out to the lake. He had gotten Mike to put the waders on, then pushed him out of the boat, assuming he would drown. Instead, Mike managed to swim to a tree stump. Brian shot him in the face. As the death could no longer be passed off as a boating/hunting accident, Brian buried the body. He went the same day to a Christmas party and that is where he found out the search for Mike was underway.
He and Denise cooled off their relationship after Mike’s disappearance, in order to let the insurance money earn interest and to stop any suspicion being raised.
Brian said that the kidnapping incident happened in reaction to his fear that Denise would tell police what happened to Mike.
In February 2019, Denise was sentenced to life in prison. Cheryl spoke in court and said that justice had finally been served and that Denise had taken both her son and her granddaughter from her.
Mike and Denise’s daughter Anslee was given her late father’s estate. The assets were signed over to her by Denise, who did so to avoid insurance fraud charges.
As part of the deal, Anslee may not use any of the money on her mother’s legal fees; if she did, she would owe the state a US$150,000 penalty.
Denise appealed her conviction in January 2020. In November 2020, the murder conviction was overturned. The conspiracy to commit murder conviction was upheld including the 30-year sentence that accompanied it.
In April 2021, Florida’s Attorney General appealed the reversal of Denise’s murder conviction to the state’s Supreme Court. It cited conflicting precedent and state constitutional provisions. The court declined to hear the appeal.
SOURCE LIST –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Mike_Williams
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/08/25/after-17-years-mike-williams-laid-rest/1087867002
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-williams-murder-tallahassee-florida-cold-blooded-killer-48-hours