Mike Williams was shot dead on December 16, 2000 by his best friend, Brian Winchester — who had plotted the murder with Mike's wife, Denise.
Tallahassee DemocratA photo of Mike Williams that was distributed following his disappearance in 2000.
On Dec. 16, 2000, 31-year-old Mike Williams, a real estate appraiser from Tallahassee, Florida, vanished during what was supposed to be a morning duck hunting trip on Lake Seminole. At first, police thought Mike had drowned — and had perhaps been eaten by alligators. But the truth was much more sinister. Mike Williams had been murdered by his best friend.
Brian Winchester, who had known Mike since high school, met him at the lake that morning. He went out in a boat with him. And then Brian pushed Mike into the water and shot him in the face with a shotgun.
Why did Brian Winchester kill Mike Williams? For almost two decades, no one was sure that Mike had been murdered at all. But when the truth finally bubbled to the surface 17 years later, it involved Brian, Mike’s wife Denise Williams, a love affair, and millions of dollars in life insurance policies.
The Disappearance of Mike Williams In 2000
Jerry Michael “Mike” Williams, his wife Denise, his best friend Brian Winchester, and Brian’s wife Kathy, had known each other since high school. The four of them had attended North Florida Christian School in Tallahassee, where they became part of the same social circle and formed two sets of high school sweethearts: Mike and Denise, and Brian and Kathy.
In 1994, Mike and Denise got married and, by all accounts, they had a seemingly picture-perfect life. They later welcomed a daughter, Anslee, who quickly became the center of Mike’s world. Friends and family described Mike as a devoted husband and father who worked hard to provide for his family. But everything changed on Dec. 16, 2000.
Russell GraceMike and Denise Williams seemed to have the perfect marriage until he went missing in 2000.
Mike was an experienced outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing. On that fateful morning, he left early, but assured Denise that he would be back by noon so that they could celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary.
But Mike Williams never came home.
Denise began calling around — seemingly looking for him — and word quickly spread that Mike had gone missing. A search party descended on Lake Seminole that included Brian Winchester and Brian’s father. They eventually found Mike’s boat and his car, but no sign of the missing man.
State Attorney’s OfficeMike Williams’ boat contained some decoys and his shotgun, but no sign of Mike himself.
After 44 days, there was still no sign of Mike Williams. When, six months after he disappeared, investigators found Mike’s waders, his fishing jacket, his hunting license, and his flashlight at Lake Seminole, some began to theorize that Mike Williams had fallen out of his boat and been eaten by alligators. With no sign of him, Mike was soon afterward declared dead.
But Mike’s mother, Cheryl Williams, refused to accept this explanation. Believing that something more sinister had happened to her son, she began to put together her own evidence, eventually compiling 27 pages of notes. Williams also wrote to the governor of Florida every day for nine years — writing some 1472 letters, per CBS News — to get the case reopened.
One thing that Cheryl found out was that alligators did not feed in cold winter months. Another had to do with Mike’s life insurance policies.
Denise Williams had collected $1.75 million from three separate life insurance policies. And one of them, for $1 million, had been written by Brian Winchester, an insurance agent, just a few months before Mike went missing.
To Cheryl Williams and others, what had once seemed like a tragic accident was beginning to look a lot more suspicious. Their suspicions only deepened in 2005, when Denise Williams and Brian Winchester got married.
The Love Affair Between Denise Williams and Brian Winchester
State Attorney’s OfficeBrian Winchester had been Mike Williams’ best friend for years — and had been having an affair with his wife, Denise.
Though they weren’t married until 2005, Denise Williams and Brian Winchester had been involved romantically for years. As Brian later testified, their affair began on Oct. 13, 1997, after they had attended a “Sister Hazel” concert with their spouses.
While Mike and Kathy parked the car, Brian recalled, according to reporting from the Tallahassee Democrat, Brian and Denise shared their first kiss inside the club. They returned to their respective homes after the concert, but spent the night talking and having phone sex.
Their relationship quickly escalated. Denise and Brian met in secret whenever Mike was at work or away for conferences. They even went on trips together, with Brian sometimes tagging along when Mike and Denise traveled for business. Kathy later revealed that she, Denise, and Brian had been involved in a sexual encounter shortly before Mike’s “disappearance.”
Before long, Denise and Brian began to talk about how they could be together. Brian claimed that they discussed a couple of ideas, including staging a boating accident that killed both Mike and Kathy. But he didn’t want to kill the mother of his child. And Denise absolutely refused to get divorced. It was against her religious beliefs, and she did not want to split custody of her daughter with Mike.
“She would not get divorced,” Brian Winchester said in his confession, “and so she basically said there’s only one solution.”
The Murder Of Mike Williams
As Brian Winchester later confessed, he and Mike met up on the morning of his death. They went to Lake Seminole and got into a boat, at which point Brian told Mike he wanted to show him a “secret special spot.” When Mike stood up, Brian took the opportunity to shove him overboard.
Brian thought that Mike might drown, pulled down by the weight of his waders and heavy hunting jacket. But Mike was able to grab onto a tree stump. As Mike struggled in the water, Brian Winchester shot him in the face.
Denise Williams was not with him as he murdered her husband, Brian later stated, but she was “in my head, behind me.”
Leon County Detention CenterDenise Williams’ mugshot.
Brian then hauled Mike’s body onto the boat and into his vehicle, covering it with a tarp for the long drive home. Hours later, he buried Mike in a muddy patch near Carr Lake, nearly 60 miles from the murder site. He then returned to Lake Seminole and joined the search efforts — pretending to look for his friend, all the while knowing exactly where he was.
Brian later stated that he and Denise decided that “if God wants this to happen, then it’s going to happen.”
But he and Denise allegedly went to great lengths to keep the murder a secret. Investigators suspect that Brian planted Mike’s waders, fishing jacket, hunting license, and flashlight, six months after Mike vanished, so that Denise could make a stronger case that he was dead and not missing — and thus collect his $1.75 million life insurance policies.
Their “perfect murder,” however, would fall apart alongside their relationship
Denise Williams and Brian Winchester’s Relationship Falls Apart
Soon after Mike Williams vanished, Kathy and Brian Winchester divorced. Brian then married Denise in 2005. But their relationship started to crumble. Not only did Denise and Brian feel paranoid and anxious that they were being watched, but Brian’s sex addiction purportedly caused problems as well.
Leon County Clerk of CourtBrian Winchester’s mugshot.
By 2010 — the year that the police decided to reclassify Mike’s disappearance as a suspicious death — Brian and Denise were estranged. In 2012, they separated, and in 2015 Denise filed for divorce. But Brian was desperate to keep her. And in 2016, he put a desperate plan into action.
On the afternoon of August 5, 2016, Denise Williams walked into the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and reported that her estranged husband had held her at gunpoint inside her car. He had hidden in her truck, tried to kidnap her, and told her that he was going to kill himself. Denise was able to talk him down and escape, and Brian was subsequently arrested for kidnapping, domestic assault, and armed burglary.
But Brian Winchester’s arrest turned out to be the break investigators needed. They were already suspicious of Brian and Denise because of their marriage, and because of Mike’s life insurance policies. Hoping that either Brian or Denise would crack, they began to question them about Mike’s disappearance. Denise refused to say anything. But Brian agreed to cut a deal with the prosecution.
Before he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attempted kidnapping, Brian Winchester agreed to confess to Mike Williams’ murder — and to implicate Denise in Mike’s death. In exchange, prosecutors agreed that they would not use his confession to charge him with Mike’s murder.
Finally, almost 17 years after Mike Williams went missing, the truth came out. Brian led investigators to Mike William’s body at Lake Carr, and began to confess to what had happened back in December 2000.
State Attorney’s OfficeItems recovered from Mike Williams’ remains, including his wedding ring, shirt, and gloves.
“I went and met Mike,” Brian said. “I followed him to the lake… We launched the boat. It was just like a hunting trip was supposed to be.”
The Aftermath Of Brian Winchester’s Confession
Alicia Devine/Tallahassee DemocratBrian Winchester testifies in court, admitting to the murder of his best friend, Mike Williams.
Brian Winchester claimed that he and Denise Williams had planned Mike Williams’ murder together. They wanted Mike dead so that they could marry, and collect the life insurance money.
“Her story that she needed to believe,” Brian said in his confession, “was the story that we created for her, which was that she was at home with her baby, Mike went hunting and she has no idea what happened.”
In May 2018, Denise Williams was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and accessory after the fact. Though her lawyers argued that she hadn’t known anything about Mike’s death, Brian insisted in court that they had planned the murder together.
“We had an agreement that she would never say anything about me and I would never say anything about her, because we felt like as long as neither one of us talked that nobody would ever find out what happened,” he said.
Leon County Sheriff’s DepartmentBrian Winchester and Denise Williams conspired to murder Mike Williams, disguising it as a tragic accident.
Denise pleaded not guilty, but the jury didn’t buy it. That December, she was found guilty on all counts.
She has since maintained her innocence, and even her daughter has spoken up in her defense. But ultimately, Brian Winchester’s confession proved too damning for them both.
And to Mike Williams’ mother, who always felt that there was something off about her son’s disappearance, it feels as if justice has finally been served.
“Michael has justice,” she stated in 2021. “I believe he can rest in peace now.”
After reading about the murder of Mike Williams, discover the sad story of SNL star Phil Hartman’s murder at the hands of his wife, Brynn. Or, go inside the story of Susan Wright, the “Blue-Eyed Butcher” who stabbed her husband 193 times.
