Murder of Mike Williams

Overview

Jerry Michael "Mike" Williams, a 31-year-old Tallahassee property appraiser, disappeared on December 16, 2000, during what was reported as a solo duck-hunting trip on Lake Seminole, a reservoir on the Georgia–Florida border. His truck and empty boat were found near a remote boat launch; a search failed to recover his body, an outcome authorities said was unprecedented for drowning cases on the lake. Investigators initially theorized he had drowned after his waders filled with water and that alligators had consumed his remains. Six months later, waders and a jacket containing his hunting license were recovered from the lake, and a Leon County judge declared him legally dead at the request of his wife, Denise Williams, allowing her to collect on life insurance policies.

Doubts and reinvestigation

Williams's mother, Cheryl Williams, never accepted the drowning explanation and spent years lobbying authorities, taking out newspaper ads, and writing letters to Florida's governor. In 2004, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) reopened the case after concluding that alligators typically do not feed in cold winter water temperatures, undermining the original theory. Investigators also noted inconsistencies, including the boat's full gas tank with its engine off and questions about why Williams would have been wearing his waders while driving the boat. However, the original search had not preserved a crime scene, and the case stalled for lack of evidence. A subsequent 2008 insurance-fraud investigation by Florida's Division of Insurance Fraud also closed without charges. The case received national attention through a 2011 Investigation Discovery episode of "Disappeared."

Break in the case

In August 2016, Brian Winchester — Williams's longtime friend, an insurance associate who had sold him policies, and later Denise's second husband — was accused of holding her at gunpoint in an incident tied to their pending divorce. He was convicted of kidnapping and related charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison in December 2017. The day after his sentencing, the FDLE announced that Williams's remains had been located near a dead-end road in Leon County, and that he had been the victim of a homicide. FDLE later disclosed the remains were found on October 18, 2017, after county crews dug at a site for several days; DNA testing matched the remains to Williams's mother.

Charges and trial

In May 2018, Denise Williams was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and accessory after the fact. At her December 2018 trial, Winchester testified as the prosecution's key witness, stating that he and Denise had conspired to kill Williams so they could marry, and that after an initial plan to stage a boating accident failed, he shot Williams in the face with a shotgun. The jury convicted Denise Williams on all counts, and she was sentenced to life in prison in February 2019. In November 2020, a Florida appellate court overturned her murder conviction, finding no evidence she directly participated in the killing, but upheld her conspiracy to commit murder conviction and its accompanying 30-year sentence. The Florida Attorney General's appeal of that reversal was declined by the state Supreme Court in 2021. As of the source reporting, Denise Williams remained imprisoned, and Brian Winchester remained imprisoned on the kidnapping conviction.