Rotten Mango - #116: Eaten by Alligators or Murdered at Lake Seminole (Case of Mike Williams)

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

Alligators are one of the world’s oldest predators. Their bite is 3x stronger than that of a lion. So it was a no-brainer to police when they were told Mike Williams went missing at Lake Seminole. ���He was eaten alive - maybe they took his body to their dens for later food.” - they thought. But when pieces of clothes that presumably belonged to Mike surfaced - people were confused. There were in pristine condition. Practically new. The dark waters and mystery at Lake Seminole will haunt 4 families for over 20 years. But the truth will eventually come to shore. Book Rec: “Evil At Lake Seminole” - by Steven Epstein (such a good deep dive and amazingly written) Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. We are inhaling and long exhale out. Peloton is for all of us, Wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today.

Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Better being better. Welcome to this week's mini-soda rotten mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. And let's talk about the king of the swamp. Have you heard of them? Alligators.

They're big, they're fast, and they're pretty scary looking. Would we all agree? Yes, we would. We've all heard the myth, if you zigzag and alligator can't catch you, because it's alleged that they have a blind spot in front of their nose.

But even with the heaviest bodies, they can run up to 30 miles per hour. Can they really? Yes, and that's on land. In water, not only are they fast, they can run 30 miles an hour? Yeah, so this is his toxic trait. I was like, oh yeah, we're talking about alligators today

and he's like, yeah, I could totally outrun one. And I was like, what? What do you mean you could outrun one? And that's on land. In water, not only are they fast, but they're sneaky. Their eyes are on top of their head, so they can stalk you, watch you until dinner time approaches and when they grab you just by snapping their jaws closed it can break and shatter every single bone on

impacts of even the largest animals. Lions and tigers bite typically with a force of 1000 psi, alligators bite close to 3000 psi. Don't ask me what that means because I only know that my tires are like 40 psi. Okay, but 3,000 psi, that's 3 times harder. That's all you need to know. 3 times harder than a lion's bite. And at Lake Seminal in Florida, there was a huge alligator population. Most of them were as big as 15 feet long. They lurked under the water surface watching the visitors, the hunters, the fishermen. Were the alligators watching?

Or were they waiting for something? So of course when Mike Williams vanished, while out on his boat in the middle of Lake Seminole, the police were pretty quick to believe, well, yeah, he probably got into a fight to the death with an alligator and he lost. Well, where's the body then? Now there's no body. We believe that the alligator took his body to their dens. We think that they're storing his meat for future consumption, like a freezer. Even when scientists came forward to say it's highly unlikely for alligators to feed during

the winter, especially here, police still pushed on. No, no, no. Mike Williams was eaten by an alligator hole. I don't know why you guys can't just move on. No, no, no, Mike Williams was eaten by an alligator hole. I don't know why you guys can't just move on. Months later, Mike's body is still not found, but a fisherman finds a pair of heavy rubber boots. And another person finds a camo bucket hat. Now Mike's wife and his friends confirmed that these were the brands of these boots in the hat that he liked.

They even showed the police pictures of Mike wearing very similar looking items. Case closed, right? Alligator dev. Wrong. The pieces of clothing that were found months later that had presumably been left in the lake for six months, if not more, they looked brand spanking new. Not a single tear to indicate that an alligator had disregarded it. Nothing. They didn't even look like it'd been soaking in water for six months. How does that make any sense? Maybe, alligators are not the evil ones. Maybe they weren't the real danger that

Mike had to watch out for at the lake. Maybe there was something else, or rather, someone else. What really happened in the alligator-filled lake would take 20 years to uncover, and it would rip apart four entire families, generations of these families who had known and loved each other for decades. As always full sources are available at RottenManglePodcast.com but there's a really good book on this case it's called Evil at Lake Seminole by Stephen Epstein. Now Stephen Epstein is actually a attorney in North Carolina. He's

been practicing law for 30 years and it shows in the way that he writes his books. Not that it's super technical or legal or boring, but he just has this really good understanding and a lot of just unique perspective that he adds to the case. He also wrote another book about Michelle Young's case in 2019 and that one was hard breaking. I mean both of these books are incredible deep dives. This one is so meticulously researched that I think you'd be missing out if you didn't give it a read. And I think once you listen to this podcast,

you're gonna realize that this doesn't even scratch the surface. And this story needs to be heard. It's gonna rip your heart out. So who are all these people involved? Because there's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of people that get into the mess of things. So let's talk about Jerry,

Michael Williams, otherwise known as Mike Williams. He was born to dad, Jerry, that they call JJ, mom, Cheryl, who will become super important later on in this case, and he was born in Tallahassee, Florida. Now the Williams family, they were a lower income family, but they did not skimp on their kids. I mean, Cheryl, the mom. She was a super warm, loving, maternal person. The type of person that you'd be like, I know she's a good mom. You just look at her and she gives you this, like, I feel safe around her vibe. She's great with kids. She almost always wore her blonde hair in these cute little pigtails on the sides of her head. I mean, it was almost her brand at this point. Like, if she's

sold pigtail extensions, I would be buying it. She would even do this when her hair was gray. When she's in her 70s and she's got gray hair, she would have these cute little gray pigtails. It was so cute. Then JJ the dad, he's working as a bus driver for Greyhound. Now, a lot of the times he'd be gone for weeks, sometimes months.

But I know what you're thinking. Okay, so he's not in the kid's lives. No, no, no. JJ, at no point, was an absent father. He was really there for his two boys. He wanted to teach them to grow up to be good men, be honest men, work hard, pull your own weight. And like I said, the family really isn't making a ton of money, but they have these big goals. So they gather up all the money that they could save. They live super frugally, and they send both their sons to private school. One of the best in

the area in terms of education. So public schools there were not that great and they just did not want them to have the education honestly. So North Florida Christian school is where they end up going. Now site note I just want to say there's a lot of there's a lot of history around this school. This school was started by a pastor who decided to give, quote, refuge to white students when public schools were no longer segregating. So the pastor was like, come on white kids, come over here. Yes, so the origin story of this school is all sorts of forks up.

I mean, even the white's only policy was gone by the time that Mike was attending, but I mean, there was only one black person in this class. So, I mean, that just shows you a lot. The parents did not care for the race of the students. Like Mike's parents were like, yeah, let's go here because we're white and we only want to see white people. They didn't even care for the religious aspect of the school. Strictly, they just cared about the curriculum.

Now, the Williams were a super religious family, but they didn't seem to like organized religion. Like, they didn't go to church. They just believed in God and prayed in their family, but they didn't seem to like organized religion. Like they didn't go to church. They just believed in God and they prayed in their house, but they did not believe in like, oh, we're gonna gather money and give it all to this minister. I'm just saying, okay, that was the vibe. They lived in this super modest house. Well, it wasn't a house, it was like a trailer.

So they bought a 2.3 acre lot of land and they just threw a trailer on there. They did not want to spend a lot of money on our house I mean this was a really good childhood for the children think about it like Nick who is Mike's older brother and Mike They just I mean they have a blast every day after school. They come home their backyard is literally their oyster They've got essentially a national park in their backyard because 2.3 acres when you're a kid feels like a park in their backyard because 2.3 acres when you're a kid feels like a semity at this point. There were so many things to do, so many things to explore. Cheryl would always joke, something's bound to happen. You guys better be careful.

Mike even at six years old, he learned how to hunt small game with a bow and arrow. But he was still a kid at heart, so he was terrified to sleep alone in the dark. He honestly didn't sleep alone till he was like 13 years old. I don't know if that's an embarrassing detail, sorry. But um, yeah, he was kind of like this learning to do all these things, but also still young at heart. They had all these friends to play with because Cheryl ran a daycare. Straight out of that trailer.

Sometimes it'd be just like six kids hanging out at the trailer. Parents loved Cheryl. This out-home daycare, I mean, it was so cute. It was so cute that these kids would beg their parents to stay longer after daycare hours and Cheryl would let them, she wouldn't even get paid for it. And to show you just kind of how wild Mike was, he's like, mom, I got a great idea, okay? A lot of kids have this idea, but I think mine's better. Mom, we need a pet. Oh, okay, like a dog. No, no. You want like a hamster or something?

No, no, I want a horse. I think we need to buy a horse. So he's like selling his mom, doing these PowerPoint presentations. You know, the parents were not feeling this. Yeah, no way. Do you know how big horse poop is? Who's gonna be cleaning up the horse poop?

Why don't we start with a dog? Let's humor Mike. Start with a dog, a big black lab named Ginger. And if you can do it, maybe one day we'll graduate to a horse. Now they get this dog, and Ginger was wild. His favorite thing to do was to tackle Mike onto the ground, steal his hat off of his head, and would run with the hat in its mouth

across the 2.3 acres of land, okay? Now the only bad thing is he did not just do this with Mike, he did this with anyone that wore a hat into the tracer. It was like, this is my favorite game I gotta go. If you drop a pen on the ground, she would eat the whole pen, just eat it whole. Okay. Wow.

So you're telling me Mango is actually an angel? Mango is an absolute, yeah, she's a queen. So the parents save up all the money that they could. They send them to private school. They even build the boys a 30 foot above the ground tree house with a rope ladder, a trap door. I mean, it was beautiful. They saved enough money to build an in-ground swimming pool for the boys.

That's expensive. The parents did anything that they could for the boys to be happy, to explore, to be curious. I mean, just have a good childhood. But they weren't necessarily spoiled. So Mike had chores. He had to go feed the neighbor's chickens, collect some eggs for the neighbor, and harvest peas, and squash. They worked hard, but they also played hard.

Mike's grades were not the best thing in the world, but he was incredibly social. So by the time that he's 15 years old, he's obsessed with hunting. Now, okay, I know what you're thinking. I'm not sure what type of hunter Mike was. I'm not a fan of hunting at all, but I'm also not knowledgeable in the world of hunting. I do know that there's essentially two types of hunting,

one, there's trophy hunting, which is, you know, you literally kill to kill as a sport. You go to all of these different countries and you kill all of these animals that you're not even going to eat or use like lions just so you can be like, I conquered the biggest predator in the world. And then there's sustainable hunting. So this is kind of more like what a indigenous people participate in. They will hunt an animal population that would otherwise literally take over the ecosystem Carlos havoc wreak havoc they actually need to be contained like they need to be Not eliminated, but they need to be controlled and then they they consume every single part of the meat

They use every part of the skin even the fur like everything they use as much as they can and if you are a sustainable hunter It's said to be a lot more human than just buying like ground beef at the grocery store. Like even whole foods, yes, even whole foods, okay. So I'm not really sure what type of hunter Mike was, but he was specifically obsessed with duck hunting. He would head out to Lake Seminole, named after a native tribe right on the floor

of Georgia border, and it's massive. I mean, the three different bodies of water flow into it, the dam holds a ton of water It generates hydroelectric power for the area a lot of people go there to fish and hunt Especially during the colder winter because duck and goose hunting is super popular during the colder winter at lake seminal Anyways high school Mike spends a lot of time hunting and dating the girl down the street her name was Denise This is like that pure high school puppy love and Mike's parents hated it. They hated it because Denise was a public school kid. They had

spent all of this money every single penny that they earned to send Mike to private school and now now he's just, you know I don't know I don't agree with this sentiment so I don't really know what's backing up this idea that they had, but they were just upset. So as he's dating Denise, his relationship with his mom starts struggling, and it just kind of drives a wedge between him and Denise as well. It's not like she can just come over, it's not like he can just go over, like, hey mom, I'm going to my girlfriends, because his mom hates his girlfriend, so he quickly moves on to another girl by the name of Kathy Aldridge and she's super important later

Kathy was also more accepted by Mike's parents She was also from a private school, but it didn't work out It seemed like he always just had this soft spot for Denise He would send Denise flowers when she was broken up with by later boyfriends Denise said that he was the most genuine nicest person that she's ever met Now near the end of freshman year of high school, Mike falls in love with another girl. I mean this is what teenagers do, right? He's just moving on boom, boom, boom, onto the next.

Now this girl's name was also Denise. But her name was Denise Merrill and she would actually be his future wife. His high school sweetheart would be his future wife. She was born in this massive family. The Merrill's had four daughters. All of their names started with the D. Yeah, they were the Kardashians before the Kardashians. So we had Diana, Denise, Debra, and Darla. Denise's dad was an engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation. Her mom was a stay-at-home mom. Now Denise's mom was super strict. I mean, she

just... the Williams family did not have a lot of money. They had a lot of kids. Denise's mom was incredibly into appearances. She wanted the girls to be perfectly dressed, well groomed. Every single morning before school, they had to look nine out of 10. They were super religious. They had to go to church twice a week. They sat in the front pew every single service.

And I think the the mayoral family, they just kind of believed they were righteous people. They also kind of wanted everyone to think that about them too. It wasn't just enough for them to feel righteous. They needed everyone to be like, oh damn, they're so righteous. So Mike and Denise, they meet up at school and there's this instant connection. Denise was on the cheerleading team. Mike was voted best personality.

He was actually known to be a natural leader. Like, great at leading other students and clubs. He was athletic. People loved him. He was a popular guy Denise was also popular I mean it kind of feels like that it couple in high school She would also later win best dressed Mike was so inspired by her fashion that he came home one day And he said mom. I'm not duppin it anymore. I'm not wearing these came aren't close stop buying clothes at sears It's despicable. I can't to it. I want to wear Polo. Polo. I will

only wear brand name shirts from now on. Thank you very much. Now you would think that this is going to throw off my experience. We're incredibly frugal. They're going to be like, wow, Denise is not a good influence on you. Ralph Lauren, my butt, you're going to target, right? You would think, but kids are kids. Their first impression of Denise was amazing. She was beautiful, she was blue, and she was friendly, she was crazy about Mike. Cheryl was actually quick to treat Denise like the daughter that she never

had. So for Denise's birthday every single year, Mike would get her his own gift, but Mike's parents would also send her a bouquet of flowers. This is a tradition that lasted long into their marriage, like for decades, so it's super cute. Denise loved hanging out with Mike's parents. Her parents were strict, but at Mike's house, they had Doritos. Her parents never bought brand-name snacks. Mike's parents lay splurged on Doritos. So she'd go over and eat Doritos.

Listen, I will date someone for Doritos as well. I kind of agree with this. At this point in Mike's life, he's a busy guy. He's got school. He's got two part time jobs so he can save up for college. He's working at a grocery store. In the summer, he's roofing houses. Literally, he's on the football team, the track team. And somehow, he makes more time for more friends.

He had a best friend in high school. His name was Brian Winchester. That's a really fancy name, okay? He was one of his best friends. The book describes Brian Winchester as being tall, dark, handsome. He would stop his female classmates dead in their tracks just by flashing his killer smile. He would raise her sharp K-9 teeth, which easily could have given Dracula a run for his money.

So imagine. I think I'll be. Yeah, I mean, those are really big. Is that a compliment though? Because if someone's like, dang, you have some sharp K-919. I think I might cry. Now this is Mike's best friend, but Brian does not come from a family like Mike,

or Denise's. No, in fact, he comes from a very wealthy family. His dad owned Winchester Financial Group. Yeah. Brian was the epitome of a rich private school kid. He wore expensive clothes. He went on super exotic vacations. They owned a ski boat.

His family went water skiing like on a random day like you would go bowling you know like you want to hit the skis like what are you what are you saying they accepted Mike with open arms Brian's dad would actually take the two best friends duck hunting all the time he became like a second dad to Mike nothing could break this friendship Even when Brian started dating Kathy. I know, high school drama. Kathy is Mike's ex-girlfriend, do you remember? Oh yeah. Yeah. But if anything, that made the whole group more inseparable. Mike and Denise, Brian and Kathy, they would go on these double dates. I mean, they were the epitome of best friends. They all even enrolled into

the same college, Florida State University. FSU. FSU? Why'd you say that? Do you know someone who goes to FSU? I think I've been there or something. Okay, I'm like, wait, did you go to FSU? Do I know nothing about you? And so Mike is thinking this is going to be the best college experience. I mean, my best friends all at the same place, but out of the blue, Denise breaks up with him. No explanation, nothing.

I just don't wanna do this anymore, Mike. I don't think we're a good fit. This hits him so hard. Mike would just mope around for months. He never changed out of his bathrobe. He didn't hang out with his friends. He didn't even go hunting. He genuinely felt like my life is over.

I mean, what am I doing with my life? I gotta- Ah, what care about college? And that's when he sees her. Shelly. A beautiful blonde student that was just so sweet. She was just walking by with her blonde hair flowing in the wind. Wow. He falls in love. She was beloved by everyone. I mean, she's great with children. Shelly spent a lot of time visiting Mike's family Which Denise really didn't do anymore. So of course Mike's family loved loved shelly

Shelly even showered Mike with thoughtful sentimental gifts and even though it was love at first sight and Mike really felt like this is the one He slowly couldn't help himself. He kept thinking about Denise Mike can just, he just can't move on for anyone. Oh no, no. And when Denise finds out about Mike's new girlfriend, that everybody loves including Mike's family, potentially more than they loved her, no, Denise was ready for her spot back.

Mike, do you wanna hang out? And immediately, they start kinda, kind of as friends going on these little dates. And after a few months, Mike breaks up with Shelly and goes straight back to Denise. Oh yeah. So Mike, unlike Brian at Florida State, still needed to support himself. So he starts looking for these odd jobs here and there. Someone had mentioned there is a family owned real estate appraisal firm. They pay well, they hire college students, and the owners are super cool. Like they will, they're flexible with their schedule, they're amazing. Their names are clay and patty, they're so great to work for.

So Mike applies and he gets the job. His bosses love him. They said that he wasn't like the other college students. Mike never drank. When other people did toast, he pretended to take sips of alcohol. He saved all of his money. He graduated college without a single penny of debt, and he wasn't afraid of hard work.

I think that's what they really loved about him. This guy was not trying to party, he was down to look for more jobs to take on more responsibilities. Clay says that he's a type of guy that you tell him to get something done, he gets it done fast and competently. So Mike really becomes a man in college. I mean he's humble, he's kind, he even has a soothing voice to go with it, and he's there for his friends, he's there for his girlfriend, he would even go to Sunday church, with Denise's family, every weekend. He didn't have to do that. But with all that going

on, of course, there's some not so great things about his life understandably, or maybe about his personality. Mikeably, or maybe about his personality. Mike was never on time. I mean, he was so busy with everything. He was practically late to everything. Or maybe it was just in him. People would tease him because he was even late to his own birth.

He came out later than they expected to do date. So people would be like, ah, you were even late to your own birth. So of course, you're going to be late to dinner. Mike would always forget to fuel his gas tank all the time. These are all kind of important later. It's weird, right? But it's important. Mike forgot to fuel his trunk tank all the time. So many times, in fact, that during his dad's precious off-time, he'd get a call. Dad, I'm on the side of the highway. I'm between exit 32 and 33, and I need you to bring me some gas. So JJ would get out of the house. He'd go pick up some gas, bring it all the way to a

random little stop in the highway, and then he'd be off on his merry way. I mean he was just so upset, Mike, why can't you get it together? Speaking of Mike's truck, there's a mess. All the time, clothes, backpack, shoes, hunting gear, I mean you could barely find things in there. And Mike was incredibly frugal, which makes sense. I mean nothing's wrong with it, but maybe if you were his friend or his family, maybe it wouldn't convenience you, maybe it would even annoy you a bit.

Anytime he was out and he got thirsty, instead of buying a drink, he'd find a garden hose on the side of buildings, and he would just kind of like drink from garden hoses. He had gotten into an accident that crushed the driver's side door of his truck all the way in. It couldn't even open anymore. So instead of getting it fixed, he decided to climb in through the passenger side every single time. Which again is fine, but it bogged old people because he did file an insurance claim and

the insurance company paid him out money to fix his car. But instead of fixing it, he decided to spend money on things that he liked, like a new shotgun, a fancy Beretta shotgun for hunting. So once Mike graduates, he starts working full time at that real estate appraisers office. Clay, his boss, was also like a second father figure. Just really, he always said that Mike was the hardest working man that I ever saw. Meanwhile Denise, she graduates, passes her CPA exam and starts accounting at the State of Florida's Board

of Administration. The other half of the friend group, Brian and Kathy, they started working too, both at their respective parents' companies and because Brian's family company sold life insurance, who's Brian going to self-life insurance too. Of course, this friend's, that's the first people you call up after you get a new job. You're like hey

You need some like insurance So Brian convinces them. Come on. Please just do it for me like my dad's gonna be disappointed if I don't hit my numbers this week Come on come on. So Mike gets life insurance and he actually paid Brian's company to do all of the financial planning for him and Handle all future investments So he really trusted his friend. After 10 years of dating, Mike bought Denise. He saved up so hard for this, a two-karat diamond ring from Tiffany's. What? And he proposed. I know so sweet. No way. Yeah!

That's crazy. And everyone was so ecstatic. I mean, both sides were ecstatic. So immediately, the wedding planning starts and the night before the wedding that everyone was anticipating. At two in the morning, JJ wakes up to what he said felt like 20 elephants on his chest.

Mike's dad had a heart attack the night before the wedding. And of course, Mike is like, do you want us to postpone the wedding? And he's like, no, no, no, no, you guys invested the money. Everyone's already coming. It's in like seven hours go go have your wedding besides his dad was gonna be his best man he said besides your brother Nick he can stand in for me as best man to make matters worse it started raining on the

day of the wedding so everyone looked at Mike and was like are you sure you just don't want to postpone like your dad's not here and he said no I'm marrying her today let's go he really loved Denise so Kathy who is now married to Brian was a bridesmaid and Brian was a groom'sman I mean everyone was like wow this these high school buddies have been together through thick and thin it's super cute it was the same setup at Brian and Kathy's wedding less than a year ago and at the same time that Mike and Denise were wed Jerry was undergoing open heart surgery.

And thankfully, it was successful, and so was the wedding. Everyone who knew the couple said Mike worshiped the ground Denise walked on, treated her like a fairy princess. Denise would say, jump and Mike would say, okay, but like, how high? Let me jump higher for you. And it wasn't just one way. Denise loved him a lot too. And their married life was intense. Mike was such a hard worker. I mean it's so admirable he would work all day, rush home to help Denise cook dinner, eat dinner with her that was their quality time together every single night, and then he would rush back out to the office.

Where he would stay till like two in the morning, every single night, and then on weekends he would wake up before the sun came out to go hunting or fishing with his best friend Brian. Cheryl was worried for Mike. Mom is like listen, you're burning the candle on both ends. You would always tell her mom asleep is a waste of time. Now that they both had good jobs they could afford to, you know, live a little, they would go to the movies, they would take these small trips, they would go to their favorite restaurants, they loved going to football games with their best friends, Kathy and Brian, they would even go out to

local nightclubs. Now after Denise and Mike get married, they get pregnant with their first child, which is insane because Kathy gets pregnant at the same time. So it's like these two best friends do practically everything together. And now Brian, he ups his life insurance and he's talking to Mike and he's like, yeah, I mean, I'm gonna own my life insurance. Now that I'm getting a kid, that's a lot of responsibility. He's like, okay, well, maybe I should up my life insurance. I have like a hundred thousand dollars of life insurance right now, but, yeah, why don't you own my life insurance to 250,000? I'm gonna give Denise 80% beneficiary and my parents 20%. Now, unfortunately, J.J. would never get to see his first grandchild.

Jerry and Cheryl were at a local fish fry with their friends. They're like, I don't know what a fish fry is. I get to start frying fish with friends. Maybe like a cookout with fresh, food with fish. And Jerry had not been on a motorcycle in years, and one of their coworkers had gotten one as a gift. So he couldn't resist. He's like, can I get on the bike? Can I just take it for a spin?

But almost immediately, the bike crashed on top of him. He was sent in an ambulance on the way to the ER. He had broken collarbones, broken ribs, and injuries all over his body. And he was immediately operated on. He caught pneumonia afterwards. He does eventually get discharged from the hospital. But there was a lot of pain still.

He said that his stomach was just completely swollen, like it looks like he's pregnant. He's having these major breathing problems, and at home they measured his oxygen levels, which was at 50%, that's alarmingly low, and I don't know why the doctors just kind of hyped him up. They're like, you got it! No big deal! You just need some rest, and they had him leave. So what happened was that the motorcycle incident had caused a stress ulcer.

So he was bleeding internally for days without anyone noticing. The blood had pooled into his stomach, hence the swelling, and he passed out near a labor day. He was rushed to the hospital and ironically the same hospital on the same day that Mike and Denise had an appointment for their baby update. So they were in one room of the hospital doing like a sonogram and JJ was in the other room, hooked up to monitors and machines and he was unconscious. He died a day later at just 60 years old.

I mean, Cheryl was devastated. This was her husband. She loved him. I mean, they were so happy in their lives. The only thing getting her through was the idea of having a grandchild to share this memory with, you know, the share stories of JJ. May of that year, her first grandchild is born, Ansely Merrill Williams. Mike was a love. He said it was unbelievable. I have a whole new respect for my wife and women in general for what they

go through to bring a child a new life into this world, he was just so stoked, Anzli, according to everyone, was said to be Mike's exact doppelganger when he was young, like they looked the same as babies. You could even see some of JJ's features on baby Anzli, and she would tell her friends, share with tell her friends, I think I got my JJ back. I feel like God gave me JJ back. But Denise, she wasn't as thrilled. She was understandably struggling with postpartum depression, and Mike was worried about her. He would come home multiple times a day to check on on her, like not even just for dinner, but for breakfast lunch and dinner. He made dinner after work.

He read to Anzli, put her to bed, helped as much as he could than he went back to the office for another long night at work. Denise went back to work part-time after giving birth and she just, when she wasn't working, she would call Mike while he was at work with just random requests. If she was hungry, she demanded that he bring her food. If her car needed gas, she would drive to the gas station near Mike's work, sit in the car while he filled it up, and then went back to work. If someone would ever tell her, like I get it, or you get it, postpartum depression is a lot. It's hard taking care of kids,

but don't you think that's a bit much because technically it would have saved you time and energy to pump your own gas, no? She would say, it's my husband's job to get his hands dirty, not mine. And Mike never said no. He always dropped everything and ran to her. His co-workers were a little stunned.

They tried to tease him. We should all marry Mike, guys. We all need a Mike in our lives. Hey Mike, you got a twin? Even when he went back into the office after dinner, a lot of the times he would bring Ansela to the office rock her in her car seat with his foot so she could sleep while he would go through his stacks and stacks of paperwork. And it all paid off, literally, because the couple soon bought a two-story three-bedroom house in an upper-class area of town. I mean, it off, literally, because the couple soon bought a two story three bedroom house in an upper-class area of town. I mean, it had this huge wooded backyard.

The house was massive, it was 3,000 square feet, the whole place was super modern. Mike and Denise decorated all over the house, just framed pictures of their wedding everywhere. And Mike was so stoked! He didn't need sleep, he had a beautiful family, a great job, a mentor, a financial plan for his future, hobbies, hunting, and now he has his family. But the only thing that was urking at Mike was that his dad had died so suddenly and left Cheryl a widow. What does something happen to him?

Denise only works part time. What does she need help with the baby? So he wanted to up his life insurance from $250,000 to $500,000. Denise did not like this idea. She was like, why are we wasting our hard-earned money on life insurance? We're so young, this is so stupid. He also went to Brian and said, hey, listen, I got a $500,000 policy, but I got it at your competitor.

Your rival company. And Brian's like, what the heck, dude, why'd you do that? And he's like, oh, it's just a thing, like, work was using them anyway. But yeah, I opted to $500,000. What do you have on your life insurance? And Brian's like, oh, well, I like work was using them anyway, but yeah, I updated to $500,000 What do you have on your life insurance and Brian's like, oh, well, I've got like a million dollars in life insurance He's like shit. I should get a million dollars. He's like, okay You run me a policy for a million dollars in life insurance. So collectively, I mean my cat close to like two million dollars in life insurance I didn't know you can have multiple policies. I didn't know either, but you can.

That's...narly. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No. Who's gonna catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers,

some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%.

I save my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. So 2000 rolls around, and either it's the age or time is starting to get to Mike because he's working these 15 hour days, he would stay in the office till 2 a.m. Denise is always complaining all the time. She's working part time. He's really worried. Mike in the heat of this frustration. He confides in a female coworker. More so it's like a not I know some people might judge this but he really did it as I don't know what else to do.

So he said I have an ad sex and sandsley was born. Do you think that Denise hates me or something? Now the female coworker didn't want to say it and she said, well how long has it been? I mean, months close to a year? The coworker's thinking, I don't know. I mean, it just feels like it doesn't feel like it's post-partum depression. As, you know, a mom herself, she felt it was more so. Maybe Denise was getting some action on the side maybe she didn't need Mike that's

how she felt but of course she didn't mention anything because there's literally no proof she doesn't even know Denise like that so it's just a speculation that she's just having right so she says I'm sure it's fine like maybe it's all the work that's taken a toll on you guys and Mike said okay okay but it didn't seem he was content, because he starts drinking a lot of alcohol for the first time in his life. He starts drinking his sorrows away. He even confides in his boss, and he says, hey, my marriage is a little bit strained.

We have this agreement. I mean, tell me if this is weird. So we have this agreement that neither of us are going to spend more than $50 without the other one approving it. Now, I'm not saying like both of us are evil, we're going to not let the other person buy things, but if it's a big purchase, we both want to know about it. I mean it makes sense. But I checked our statements and Denise has withdrawn $3,000 in cash. And she never mentioned it to me. What do you think it is? So then he comes back and he's like, so I confronted her. She said it was for weed.

What? $3,000. Yeah, and Clay's like, weed. I mean, you guys seem like such straight-laced people. What are you talking about, weed? Yeah, she wanted to make herself weed brownies. I mean, the whole thing is weird. I've never even, I didn't even know that she did weed.

A few weeks ago, she even left Anzaly at her parents' house to go on vacation with Brian and Kathy. And she didn't even know that she did weed. A few weeks ago, she even left Anzaly at her parents' house to go on vacation with Brian and Kathy, and she didn't even tell me they just went to Panama City. They were hitting up these crazy clubs that have reputations for being, you know, for hardcore drug users. I feel like she went to Panama City to do drugs. Maybe it's her postpartum depression? She never went through a rebellious phase growing up.

But this is kind of the worst timing don't you think? I mean we have this child now. This is the last thing you want to do Clay's like oh, that's pretty bad, Mike All right, well, I think the worst case scenario. I'm gonna get an attorney Tell the courts and get custody because she is being an unfit mother Clay was shocked. I mean he knew something was going on with Mike But he didn't know how bad it was. He tried to console him. Besides Mike, I get it. We're going to support you. You have a whole life ahead of you with or without Denise. You want to

make partner at Ketchima Paisal, our company. You're taking an exam right now. You're trying to get the highest certificate in the field. You also have a dream that you want to run for a political office. Your main goal is to retire as a millionaire by 50 years old and guess what, Mike? You're on track! So yeah, you got to do what you got to do. So December 14th, 2000. It was a Thursday night. Every Thursday night was friends night at Mike's house.

Everyone would gather, Brian and Kathy, even Cheryl would show up. Nick would go, which is Mike's brother, that he would pick up Cheryl, take his way to Mike's house. I mean, it was just kind of a weekly ritual to keep Cheryl busy, but also for everyone else to have fun. And Mike was ordering pizza, Ansely was so excited to see Cheryl. She was like screaming up and down,

Grandma! And while all the other guests, the friends, they're slowly making their way to Mike's place. He's talking to his mom. And he mentioned for Christmas, he had bought Denise these very expensive, very lavish pair of gold earrings. And Cheryl's like, oh, I guess what I'm spending all my money on, huh? Not gold earrings, but on this one, and she's pointing at Ansely, and everyone's like,

stop it, don't! She's not even gonna remember! And she kept arguing, this is my only grandchild, and I'm gonna spoil her for Christmas if I want. And Mike says, well, mom, are you ready to be a grandma again? What? Nick. Is there something you're not telling me? Are you dating someone who should pregnant?

Are you pregnant? And Denise interrupted. No, Mrs. Williams. It's us. We're gonna start trying to have another baby in the next month or two. What? Cheryl kept her cool in front of everyone, but she was confused, just like Clay. Because she knew that they were having marital problems.

I mean, it just didn't make sense, but I guess it was going great. It was probably just the most part of depression and now they're gonna try for another beautiful baby. They were also gonna celebrate their six wedding anniversary. Wait, it's this month, right guys? Oh yeah, Mom, our anniversary's in a few days. What are you guys gonna do? Wow, we're gonna go to the Gibson Inn. It's a historic hotel. It's beautiful.

We're dropping Anseliaw at her at Denise's sisters and we're gonna go to this hotel. But before I go to the hotel, I'm even gonna go duck hunting. I know, you said I haven't gotten duck hunting in a while, but I'm going with Brian. We're gonna wake up early before the sun even comes out, go to lake seminal, and Lee and Denise are gonna sleep in, and it's gonna be great.

It's gonna be like the Beth Anniversary ever. Now, the rest of the friends night went well. Sheryl and Nick had a great time with Mike, but they had no idea that it would be their last. December 16th, Mike wakes up early for his one hour drive to Lake Seminole. Now, he believes he's going duck hunting with his best friend, Brian. That's what he told Sheryl. That's what he told Nick.

No, by the time that it's 2pm, he should be home by now. He left before the sun was even out, like four in the morning, he woke up and started his drive. So what does this mean? Denise immediately starts freaking out. Why is he not home? Did something happen? Did something happen at Lake Seminole?

So she starts freaking out. She calls her dad. She calls one of Mike's other hunting buddies by the name of Damon. He's been out to Lake Seminole a ton with Mike. So she's like, can you please come with me? I don't even know where to look. I don't know where he parks. Do you even go duck hunting. What part of the lake? Please so they drive out together and immediately they feel like something's wrong

They see his car parked so he made it there He didn't get into an accident and they see that the boat is not attached to his truck So at least at the lake he got on his boat But neither the boat nor Mike were anywhere to be seen. So they called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Yeah, that's a long name, okay. And they say, hey, Mike went down counting alone. And now he's missing. I don't know what to do. Everyone sprinting into action. And by this point, it's past 3 p.m. which means in winter time, the sun is going to set like in a second. So this is the time to find someone

before it's dark. They gathered multiple agencies together and they have an insane search and rescue operations. Helicopters, volunteers, they're trying to cover at least 10 acres of lake seminal. Even though there's this effort being put in there, lake seminal is not an easy place to search. It's described to be a hostile environment, so it's the type of lake that has dead trees and roots Just coming out of the water protruding. So when you swim in there I mean most of the parts of the lake aren't even swimable You're gonna get caught with the dead tree branches. Some areas are covered in dense green plants

It's almost like a thick carpet. Some areas where the tree stems are up to 25 feet long And they form just like this Tangley living object underneath just swaying with the current swimming there is virtually impossible and it makes you wonder What lives underneath the surface like it's a very creepy unsettling place? But it's not just the water. I mean it just feels like there's a lot of things to get tangled up in because of that Even the most skilled boaters they have a hard time if not a dangerous getting around the submerged tree stumps, I mean you're asking to hit something. They even named that part of like a stump field, because there's just stumps everywhere, and that's very close to where Mike had parked his truck. That's not the only thing that the surgeon rescue are worried about though, because you

need to keep your eyes peeled, you have to be very careful of alligators. I'm talking 12 foot alligators, and this is something that Cheryl has always been worried about. She would say, Mike, but what about the alligators? I read online that some hunters were completely devoured by alligators. What about the crocs? It's like, oh my god, mom, calm down. Alligators are really only active in warmer seasons and they're very cold blooded.

They don't feed in the winter and I go duck hunting in the winter. So you need to calm down mom like it's fine. The only thing that calmed Cheryl was that Mike was not an irresponsible guy. He always put safety first when he was hunting. So she's like okay maybe he knows what he's doing. So now the FWC, their theory at first during the search, is that well, he was in stump field. He probably got caught on an underwater stump. He rocked off the boat from the impact and he went overboard, which is not insanely uncommon, but the burning question

and everyone's mind was, why didn't you just get back on the boat? Why didn't he just swim ashore? And where's the boat? And where's the boat? Where's Mike? Maybe he got tangled? Maybe the alligator's got him. But I mean, it was just weird. The whole thing didn't make sense. They continued the search, but before they could even really make any headway, a rainstorm hits the area. The winds were stronger than 50 miles an hour.

Once that's done, a tornado hits the area. Actually, three tornadoes touched down not too far from stompfield that day, so all the search and rescue they had awaited out. There's nothing else they could do. 9 p.m. is when they're given the go ahead to continue the search. Now things have changed though. First of all, it's pitch black now, outside. It's dark. There's no really street lights nearby. It's a lake. It's not like a park either. They lost time. There's a disturbance from the horrendous weather. The water temperature is now falling into the fifties.

All of Mike's friends and family, they start joining in on this search. Denise was the only one not there, and she was at home watching over Anzaly. At around 2.30 in the morning, Marcus, Brian's dad starts screaming. It was about 75 yards from Mike's truck. Guys, come over here! Guys! And they come and they see a motorboat sitting upright behind some stumps in the water. Now the gas tank was full with fuel. The boat wasn't even in the water long before something flipped

it over. That's what that's insinuating. So Brian rushes over to the FWC officers and is like, oh my god, I go duck hunting with Michael Lawton and he always wore these chest high waders. Do you guys know what those are? So they're like these long loose fitting boots, they're rubber and they're completely waterproof think rain boots but really long and because they're so heavy and they're loose, you have to join them together above the waist and strap them on over the shoulders like overalls. But these overalls are essentially these thick, heavy rubber boots.

What's the purpose of that? So the purpose of this is it's common for fishermen or hunters, because it keeps you dry even when you're standing around in water. It also keeps you warm, right? So Mike would squat in the boat while he's firing his shotgun.

Sometimes he would even get off the boat to get a good shot, need deep in the water. And it's very cold. It's like a really good footing. I mean, it's very common. So to the FWC, this just confirms what they thought that they already knew. Oh, well, this, of course, was a very, very sad, tragic accident.

And because of these boots, now we know why you didn't swim back onto the boat, or maybe back to short. Because, I mean, imagine, the water's pooling in those boots is it's so complicated to take off. It's like taking off overalls, but you're soaking wet, you're panicking in water, you have nothing to hold on to. Of course, that's what happened. Where did they find the boots?

They didn't find the boots yet. Brian just came up to them and was like, oh my god, now that you guys find the boat, I think maybe this is what happened. He always wears these boots. Oh, I see, I see. So nothing proved this theory other than the boat being found, but even the boat being found doesn't prove that theory in any way shape or form. We don't even know if Mike was wearing his boots that day, or if he even got off the boat.

Just at the end of the day, it's a theory. A theory that Cheryl absolutely hated. She would tell them, my son is a smart hunter. He's been doing this since he was like 6 years old. He would never wear his weighters into his boat. No smart hunter would. That's dangerous. It's the basics.

Everyone continued searching. There was no need to argue theories. But day after day, the search party was only growing and they're not getting any closer to finding Mike. Everyone was starting to realize that they're probably searching for Mike's body. And the feeling was only strengthened because during the search a lot of volunteers fell overboard. Like the boats that they were on would run into these tree stomps and they were just thrown into the icy waters. And it would just be silent after. Because everyone's like,

ah, this is what I think happened to Mike. They also came across a lot of alligators. A lot of them were like 12 feet long, 15 feet long, just lurking, just hanging out, just watching them. Finally, a week later, December 30th, there was a little bit of hope. Kind of. A camouflage bucket hat literally appeared out of nowhere near a small island on the lake. Now this is across the shore from where Mike's truck was found, so it seems like, okay, maybe this was the direction that Mike was headed in in that day. But the hat was a good sign, right? Maybe they were onto something.

But there were some weird things. The hat looked super new for one. It wasn't covered in slime, it wasn't covered in anything. It didn't look anything like a hat that you would leave behind at a lake for two weeks. Let alone like even in your backyard. It's gonna get thrown around, there's gonna be a lot of just residue on it. But nothing. Oddly enough, the next day, Brian comes up to the officers with a picture of Mike, and in that picture, what do you know? Mike is wearing a similar looking hat. So it's kind of like,

okay, maybe it is Mike's hat. Everyone had the same feeling that once Mike's body was filled with gas as it decomposed, it would eventually surface again. 80 people had died in the past from drowning at Lake Seminal and they all surfaced. So what would be different about Mike? Nothing. He's gonna surface, but week's past still no sign. Mike's family and friends, they were out there searching for Mike nearly every day,

including his high school friends Brian and Kathy. The only two people that weren't really there were Denise and Cheryl. Denise couldn't go because of Ansela and Cheryl Cheryl just, I mean, she was already a wreck. She, you could not even walk her around her own house. You think that she's going to go to Lake Seminole and be a productive contributor to this search right now? No. The longer that time passes without any side of Mike, I mean, people are freaking out. Like, we need something. Anytime search and rescue would find a promising lead or a potential clue

I mean a lot of his friends would just be in shock because they're all helping with the search So imagine you might potentially witness your best friend floating ashore after weeks and weeks of decomposition This is not something that you might want to see so they'd start kind of panicking like God do we leave do we stay but like if you leave it's it's weird Mike wouldn't want us to leave, would he want us to leave? Like, it just bizarre. Denise never physically searched,

but her dad Warren was out there every single day to searching, and he would call in Denise to tell her what's going on, fill her on on if they found Mike, if they found any more clues. And I think that's when a lot of the search and rescue team and the public in general noticed a huge difference in energy between Camp Merrill, which is Denise's side of the family, and camp Williams.

Now I get it, they're just in-laws, right? But at the end of the day, if you and I went missing, you or I went missing, I feel like both of our families would come together. They would have the same energy of just pure panic, of just pure depression, and just grief. But the Williams had their hearts ripped out. Their Meryl family, on the other hand, including Denise, were heard just excited for the holidays. Like talking about Christmas. They were dressed in Christmas clothes, like Christmas sweaters. They had cookies. They

would have punch at the dining table. I mean, it was just kind of a little bit weird. I thought you'd say she was really sad. I mean, don't give me wrong. Denise was a wreck. A lot of the times. She cried a lot. She was miserable but her entire family seems so festive like it's just bizarre Like the whole family was festive like all her sisters her parents Just weird like maybe they're just horrible in laws. I have no idea Meanwhile, Cheryl and Nick they spent every waking moment of their lives trying to figure answers They were very gracious to anyone who gave their time They wrote thank you letters to all the search and rescue volunteers. A lot of people thought it was strange that Denise

never wrote thank you letters. This is pretty customary. You know, these are the people keeping the investigation alive. These are the people that might get answers for you one day. And if you're incapable of being out there searching with them hand in hand, then at least you could do is write some letters. You couldn't look at Cheryl or Nick's faces and not believe that they were an unimaginable pain. Cheryl would try to cheer up and say, well, my son's pretty good at surviving. Maybe he's made it somewhere. He's going to be found soon, guys.

And it was heartbreaking, but also kind of hopeful to everyone, because if Cheryl's going to believe, then maybe I should too. The first time Cheryl went to Lake Seminole was on Christmas Eve. How long has it been? Like, month and a half? When was it? No, December 16th. So like 10, nine days.

Okay. And she didn't understand, but she just knew that there was no way that Mike was eaten by alligators. This was the most popular theory going around that was even adopted by the police officers. Everyone believed it. Even Denise, other searchers, all of his high school friends, Brian, Kathy, everyone believed this theory.

It just didn't make sense. So she closed her eyes at Lake Seminole, and she said that she had this powerful gut-wrenching sensation that came over her. It felt like God was communicating with her and said, Cheryl? Micah's not at Lake Seminole. He did not drown. He did not get eaten by alligators. You need to find him and you need to bring your baby home. And from that moment forward, Cheryl had a fire burning drive to find her son. And there was, I mean, she knew something happened. This was an accident.

She had this mother's intuition, she had a gut feeling that we drive her for the next like 20 years in this fight. She hires a private search firm from Alabama, Montgomery Search and Rescue, and they brought in professional dive teams, K-9 units, and they told Cheryl that alerts from the dogs were consistent with human remains. So they're kind of like, hey, maybe you should be on the lookout because we think Mike is dead. Their theory was that alligators had dismembered and stored Mike's remains in their nest, like they're done as a food storage for winter. Well, of course we can't find their body because the alligators

hid it away in their houses. That's kind of what they were insinuating. Then in February of 2001, just a couple months later, the FWC report comes out saying that there has been 735 hours of searching, 400 by boat, 285 by land, 50 by air, and that doesn't include volunteer searches, and they still don't know what happened to Mike. I mean, at this point, we're back to square one. There's no answers. There's no closure, but Cheryl does not let this get her down. She couldn't help but notice that Denise wasn't involved at all, and she kept thinking,

well, maybe it's Ansela. Maybe she's just taking care of her at this rough time. Maybe everyone responds to grief differently, but Cheryl found out that most of the time Denise's mom was watching Ansela, or even her sister, or even Kathy. Denise was just holed up in her room only coming out to eat. So Cheryl's thinking okay, well maybe Denise is depressed, but a lot of people were grateful that Mike worked hard because he had about $20,000 that he still needed to be paid out from work, and Denise was gonna get that over the next couple of months.

So of course, you didn't have to worry about working. And then one day, show gets a knock on the door. It's Denise's dad, Warren. He says, listen, it's time for our daughter to move on. We will be holding a memorial service at our church. You're more than welcome to come, but we're gonna hold a service for Mike. And she's like, what are you talking about?

There's no body. How are you going to have a funeral without a body? We don't even know that he's dead. What's wrong with you guys? February 11th, 2001. Hundreds of Mike's friends show up to the memorial. He was loved. Denise was a wreck.

She had to be helped out of the church. She couldn't even walk on her own. Cheryl and Nick were sad because would people even volunteer to look for him now? It feels like everyone else is getting closer. They're moving on with their lives. They're the only ones that has hope. Denise had a few people in her close inner circle that she would lean on during these tough times. One of them was Brian's dad Marcus. So Marcus had known that his unBrian had sold Mike to different life insurance policies, totaling upwards of a million dollars, and he felt like it was his obligation to get that money in Denise's hands immediately.

I mean, she was a grieving widow after all. Which is kind of odd, because even with all of this going on, if you talked to Denise, you felt inclined to give her some cash. Like, you felt like you should open up your wallet and give her some cash or buy her something, because she talked as if she was in financial ruins. She started selling all of Mike's things like his fishing boat. Not because she wanted to move on from him of course not, not because she wanted to get rid of his stuff of course not, but she needed the cash. Which is a little weird because she had just gotten $20,000

and she was about to get close to $2 million. The only problem is the state did not give them a death certificate yet. They would have to do two things. Denise would have to show. Have a memorial without a... Yeah. That's kind of odd. I guess the memorial is more social. But then legally speaking, you need a death certificate.

Still, I would think that's one of the requirements. Yeah, like step number one. So she has to do two things. She has to show the court reasons why Mike would not willingly run away, how much he loved his family, but also his mom and his mom and his brother. How he also made plans for the upcoming week. I mean, none of that makes sense. That even the day that he went missing, he had surprised her with a trip to the hotel.

All of that, you know? That would later be very alarming, that little detail that she included. That the day before he went missing, he surprised her with a trip to the hotel, all of that, you know? That would later be very alarming, that little detail that she included, that the day before he went missing he surprised her with a trip to the hotel, because we all know that Mike told his mom and brother about the anniversary trip two days in advance, and Denise was there. So how did he surprise her with it the next day? I mean, I don't know, maybe the dates just got next stop. They were planning on having more kids, and a reason for why his body hasn't been found yet is because, you know, Denise and her attorney hypothesized, it's because the Alligators ate every single part of him. Now while they're waiting for that to come through, the death certificate, a huge discovery is made.

June 21st of 2001, six months since Mike had gone missing, a fisherman comes across a big rubber boot, the waiters. The one allegedly Mike had been wearing that day. Now this would have been a massive break through. Might have even closed the case. Only! Why did the boots look new? Why were they in pristine condition if they were in the water for the past six months?

They'd be pretty beat up. There were no tears, no punctures, no nothing. If the alligators were eating him, you don't think they would have tried to claw through that boot or something? I mean, just nothing. If the alligators were eating him, you don't think they would have tried to claw through that boot or something? Mm-hmm. I mean, just nothing. Brian and the hunting best friend from high school were asked to ID the shoes, and he said,

it does look like Mike's shoes. Are there hunting friends of Mike's? We're a little bit confused, though. I mean, it's said that the boots were found in the deepest area of the search grid, where he wouldn't be wearing the boots, because if he's that deep in water, why would you wear the boots you're not getting out of the boat?

That's why he wouldn't wear the boots until he got to the point where he wants to get out of the water, because if you were to fall overboard while your boat is driving, the boots are only going to kill you. And they said, Mike was always like that, like he never wore his boots unless he got to the destination, he had like parked his boat, and he was ready to get out into the water. Why would he be in the deepest area and just be like having these rubber essentially cement breaks that are just gonna bring you down

when you drown? That doesn't make any sense. So these friends also happen to be scuba divers. So life tip, get some talented friends, okay? So they dove in that area to see if they could find anything else and they find a yellow flashlight that's still working perfectly fine. They find a lightweight, camo hunting jacket.

It looked like someone had tried to rip it off while they were underwater, the sleeves were inside out, otherwise it was in good condition, there were no tears, no rips, nothing that would suggest someone having a battle to the death with an alligator. But inside the pocket, that's where it gets even crazier. There was a laminated piece of paper with a temporary Arkansas hunting license on it, and the name was Jerry Michael Williams. I mean, the whole thing just felt so unnatural to the friends. I mean, it's...

Wait, what do you mean? You're saying that they found a jacket? Yeah. That was taken off. Yes. And in the pocket has his license inside? A hunting license. I mean, it just all felt kind of staged. Ah.

Like someone had driven out recently and like thrown these in. Because six months ago, it'd be a different story if they were in there for six months. I mean, the whole thing was weird. And right next to that area was like a hardened pile of alligator poop near the shore. It was just like, oh, look at that. That's alligator poop. He was probably eating my alligators. I mean, just what?

But still to the police, this is more evidence than they ever had. And because most people believe that Mike was eaten by alligators, Denise was given her death certificate, accidental drowning while duck hunting in Lake Seminole. Now, Denise was able to collect her life insurance, but also started receiving his social security benefits. Meanwhile, Cheryl was left completely in the dark about this. It was actually Brian who broke the news to her. They ran into each other one day and Brian said, hey aren't you surprised the judge declared Mike's dead so quickly? Now she didn't want to let on, but she said, oh? Oh yeah, I mean not with all that evidence such as popped out of nowhere you think that they're still gonna get this Duster to forget he said what do you mean?

The stuff that was planted Brian All of the things like the the jacket the freaking boots all of that that was planted Brian and he said No, it wasn't is a miracle from God Now this made Cheryl immediately susped out about Brian like what do you mean? Because Brian had always been on her radar She knew that Mike had plans to go hunting with him that day when he vanished Cheryl immediately sussed out about Brian like what do you mean? Because Brian had always been on her radar. She knew that Mike had plans to go hunting with him that day when he vanished. But now Denise and Brian were telling the police and everyone who listened that Mike went

alone because Brian cancelled last minute. Very last minute. Only a few hours before they were going to head out fishing. Because he had to go to his wife's Christmas party in Georgia. I mean it's just weird. So I think at this point both sides are not trusting each other. Cheryl and Nick, they were allowed to see Ansely once a week for 90 minutes at Denise's house.

Denise refused to leave Ansely alone with her own grandma. She wanted to listen to everything that they talked about. Denise had already told Ansely, Daddy's in heaven. And in front of Ansely, I get it. But sometimes when Cheryl had hope or spoke as if Mike wasn't gone, Denise treated her like she was mentally insane. Like you're crazy, you're unstable lady, get it through your head, he's gone. I mean Cheryl and Nick are confused, they're desperate, so they contact the local papers

and have an article published about Mike's disappearance, August of 2001, close to a year since he'd been vanished, and Denise was pissed. She yelled at them, I don't ever want to see Mike's picture in the paper again. I don't ever want to know anything you're doing about Mike again. I have to move on with my life. Charles, like, is that where Anseli and the lake? You would just leave are there? No, Cheryl.

I would believe the authorities. If you keep this up and you try to get a criminal investigation going, you're going to lose your grandchild. So she said that? Yeah, she's threatening Cheryl with Anzli now. And Cheryl and Nick, they love Anzli, but they couldn't back down. So I think that this is like,

see, I don't know. Do you think like this point, she knows that the grandma's after her? Yeah, for sure. There's some suspicion there. So they're both kind of like playing this weird game. So there's suspicion, the other ones like, you better stop now.

But they're not really saying anything out loud. Yeah. So, you know. But that only makes her more suspicious. Exactly. Because why can't she be like, why are you acting like I did something? I didn't do anything.

Yeah. Now, there were too many things. Once the police were done searching Mike's car, Denise's dad took it from the station and gave it to Brian's dad, Marcus. Why would he give it to Marcus? Why would Denise as dad pick it up first of all? So technically it belongs to Denise because they were married when he vanished, but why would his dad pick it up and why would they give it to Brian's dad?

Yeah, why is there so many dad getting involved? Yeah, exactly. So Cheryl calls Marcus, which is Brian's dad, and says, hey, can I see the truck? Why on earth would you want to do that? Because I'm his mother and I haven't seen his truck since he disappeared, so I want to see his truck So when they get there, Mike's car had the most pungent disgusting smell that they had ever Smelt in their life. Everything was soaked in mildewt. She all found clothes that were all soaked in liquid And she's like, what's going on? Why are these clothes wet? Did someone spray down the truck with water on the inside? Oh, it's probably condensation.

What? So Cheryl takes a bunch of Mike's things, didn't want to wash them, so she had them sealed in garbage bags because what if they were important one day? The day after seeing the truck was their scheduled visit with Anne's L was a Monday, but they get a knock on the door. It's Denise's dad Warren. He's right in the face. He's angry and he's screaming. You'll never see them again. Denise and Ansela, I will not allow it. Every time you get around Denise, you and your big mouth upset her. I won't have it anymore. Do you understand? What are you saying Warren? Do you want to come inside and talk? No, you're crazy. You need help. Meanwhile, he's the one screaming with his eyes bulging out of his face. Your son is dead in the lake. I told you so. I told Denise is in the lake. That's where he is. So get over it. Listen Warren, you can tell your wife and your daughters

what to think, but you can't tell me what to think. If you were a real Christian, you would believe in the church. You would believe that your son is in the lake. What? What kind of logic? I'm a Christian! There's no proof that he's in the lake! If you know my son is in the lake 100% then you put him there. I want Mike's clothes back. So now at this point, I mean, Cheryl and Nick felt like they had to give the clothes back because technically it did belong to Denise.

So Nick starts grabbing the clothes in the garbage bags and Warren screams under no circumstances. Are you allowed to call Denise? You are no longer welcome in her home and don't call us either. My wife hates you too. Don't call her. So they hand over Mike's clothes and she tells them you better have these available if the police need them one day as well as the boots and the hunting jacket. They were given to you after they were found. And she said, oh, and Warren goes, oh, so I guess you're gonna accuse me of planting those, aren't you? Now, this is when Cheryl kind of thinks,

there must be something going on, because the only person that she had ever said that, she felt like those things were planted, were Brian. Mm-hmm. So are they talking? Why would Brian be talking to Denise's dad? Uh-huh. That's all weird.

So Warren snatched the bag from Nick and left. He did not know that Cheryl had kept a bag of clothes for themselves, just in case. Now these were not the only souring relations after Mike disappeared because Brian and Kathy's relationship had taken a turn. It was already a little bit rocky before Mike disappeared, but you know, they were sleeping separate rooms. It was only getting worse. Brian was super sensitive.

He never wanted to talk about Mike. He didn't even want him to be mentioned in their house. And Kathy's thinking, what? My best friend is also missing. Like, we were all best friends in size school. I'm devastated. Shouldn't we be helping each other through? And if you really don't want to talk about it,

why are you going out to the search party every single day? I'm just so confused! September 11th of 2001, less than a year after Mike vanishes, Kathy packs up her things and moves in with her parents. They were going to co-parent their child, Stafford, their son Stafford, and they were going to have equal custody. Kathy remarried and so did Brian. Now meanwhile Denise is living that rich, single life. Literally. She has Brian's dad Marcus for financial advice.

She invested most of her money into stocks and real estate. Marcus managed a huge chunk of her wealth. I mean so many parents are getting involved. It's so weird. I don't like it. I just don't like it when parents get involved in like full grown adults business when they really don't need to be involved. It's just weird.

Gives me like that small, like generational protection vibe, like a lot of secrets. So her first official date was in 2003, Valentine's Day. She dropped off Ansely with Cheryl for once to watch over her, and she was going on a date with one of Mike's old high school friends, Jimmy. Jimmy also went hunting with Mike here and there. I mean, the whole thing was a little strange.

Cheryl was particularly confused because Denise had always complained that she hated Jimmy. That Jimmy was one of Mike's friends that she'd just thought was creepy. She didn't like him. So why is that her first date? I mean it's bizarre. But it didn't last long anyway. Denise quickly moved on to another man named Chuck. It was a little bit of a scandal because Chuck was Denise's boss. So June of 2003, Denise and Chuck were in Atlanta on a conference for work together as employee boss but also girlfriend and boyfriend and they're walking through the hotel lobby holding hands and they run

into a red-faced drunk super angry Brian. And Denise was shocked. What are you doing here? We need to talk. Now Chuck remembered that he just had this crazy look in his eyes, Brian did. And they all head outside the hotel and Brian proceeds to threaten to kill the couple. He says, I've a gun in my pocket and I'll do it. I'll kill you guys right now. What in the world? Chuck you better leave. And Chuck's like, okay, bye.

He didn't help out of there so quick. He was like, you two have fun. See you later. I'm going back to my room. So he rushes into the hotel. Meanwhile, Denise stays with Brian and they talk. Now, things only get weirder because that year, Denise's child and Brian's child, they were both enrolled in the same school as their parents, the private school.

And all of them would bump into each other. Denise, Brian, and Kathy. Now, after Brian and Kathy divorced and Mike disappeared, they had all really drifted. It didn't seem like they were friends anymore, so they had these awkward moments, but the real awkward moments were when people would see Bryan and Denise outside of the school together, just like having family dinners literally, with Denise and Anzaly and Bryan and Stafford, his child.

It just looked like a cute blended family, but it was weird once you knew the details. People were gossiping a bit, Even Cheryl was shocked because Brian and Denise would start picking up Ansely together in Brian's new truck. They never officially told Cheryl that they were together but it was pretty obvious. They started dating? Yeah.

But what really bothered Cheryl was that Brian would scold Ansely. He would snap at her. Like she was his own child. It's not worse. It seems like he specifically snapped at her. At one day Ansely even told Cheryl. Stafford in her are sharing a room, and Stafford's daddy is staying in Mommy's room.

Cheryl tried to be understanding, tried to be positive. It was a good year for her. She was seeing more and more of Ansely. Things were going somewhat back to normal. So Brian finds his way to Denise's bed. Denise finds her way to religion. Yeah, she like is obsessed with religion now, she is watching all these religious videos, she starts going to the lake and leaving letters for Mike. I mean, it's just bizarre. So January 8th of 2005, there's still no body. And everyone's trying to come to terms with closure. That's when Cheryl and Nick get a call.

Hey, it's Denise, I want to come over. Okay. The status part is it was Cheryl's 61st birthday that was coming up soon and she assumed that Denise was bringing Ansely to celebrate it with her. It actually been two months since she had seen Ansely, so this is perfect. But instead Denise and Brian show up alone. She's like, where's Ansely? She's taking a nap. Listen, you know that Ansely and I love you, right? But Brian and I don't like these lies that you're telling about us. What? What lies are you talking about? Why don't we sit down?

All the lies that you're telling about me and Brian? I'm not telling any lies. All I want to know is what happened to Mike and where he is, and both of you know. And Denise said, if you'll just stop this investigation, you can see Ansely again. So you're thinking, what does that mean? Okay, so the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had opened up an investigation in 2004 because Cheryl kept writing the letters. The investigation was hard.

Cheryl worked like hell to get this case looked at. She had written 27 page documents of all the things that didn't make sense in her son's disappearance. She said, I do not believe my son is in like seminal. I don't want to believe that he walked off. I believe that Mike is dead because of something he found out or someone he knew. Please help my son! She even saved up $1,200 to pay for a space in the magazines about Mike's disappearance.

It was a picture of Mike and the words, my son is missing, please help me find him. Cheryl would later say, you have to change a lot of diapers to come up with $1,200, but she never complained. This was her baby, and the hard work that Cheryl put in, it paid off because investigator Stevens came to talk to Cheryl and soon she was reading with more detectives and more. And they agreed, yeah, something's just don't add up.

Yeah, the things that you found. I mean, that does make sense. Why does everything look so new? Why does everything look so weird? Why did he go hunting alone? Why did he wear those boots? Nothing's making sense. But the detectives found some other details. So first of all, there was a boat ramp near Mike's trap. Now, a boat ramp helps make it easier for you to get your boat in the water. And it was like a concrete metal ramp. It was a nice ramp, it was a good ramp. But it seems that he had walked past that ramp and just stuck his boat in the water. Just didn't make sense, it's not easier, it's not better for the boat.

There's no reason for a hunter to do that. Especially because knowing Mike, he was a pretty frugal person when he liked his stuff. He liked his stuff. He didn't, he wasn't just trying to bang up his boat. So why would he, it seems almost like planted. Why would he not use the concrete ramp? Like the boat was found near where there was no ramp. And also, I mean, if he had been duck hunting, you have to bring a lot of duck decoys. So you put them in the water and the ducks are like, wow, there's more ducks over here.

Let's go. Let's go hang out with my duck friends. No way. Yeah, to make the ducks feel safe. But they were all neatly packed on his boat. Why didn't he start scattering some of the ducks? Like at the decoys, why was his gun found in the boat zipped up in its case?

It just seemed really weird. The boat was turned on, but the gas tank was full, which doesn't make sense. So if he fell out when the boat motor is on, he would have drained the gas. And on top of that, the boat was found after the storm passed through, and the direction of the storm where the boat was found was the opposite.

So the storm's winds should have pushed the boat in the opposite direction. So now that Cheryl knew that there were investigators who believed her mother's intuition, she reached out to a herpetologist in the Department of Biological Science at Florida State. I mean, this is essentially a professor that studies alligators and he said that the attack of an alligator was slim in this chance because alligators are ectothermic which means that they get all of their body

heat from the environment and the metabolic rate of alligators drop when the water temperatures drop which means the colder it is the less hungry they are and sometimes they just seize to feed for weeks if not months and, in this part of Florida, they won't feed till March. And the day that Mike was out there, temperatures were below normal. A few days before he went out, it had gone below freezing. So this alone would have caused the alligators in the area to become inactive. So he wrote to Cheryl, although attributing the disappearance of your son to an alligator attack, maybe a convenient explanation for authorities, the scientific facts surrounding this case indicate

that this explanation is virtually impossible. Even if it was attacked, it's even more unlikely that the attack would have been fatal. So with all of this, you think that Cheryl is going to stop the investigation? No. So she tells Denise. Denise, I can't stop this. And I wouldn't if I could. And Brian jumps up across the table, eyes bulging out of his face, and screams, you shut

your mouth and let her talk. Let's get out of here, Denise. We're not getting anywhere with this. And this time Denise was serious. Cheryl would never have time with her grandchild ever again. She would never see grandchild ever again. She would never see Anzli ever again. But now she wasn't the only suspicious one. A lot of people were noticing that the Brian's family was too involved with Denise. They were speculating that Denise and Brian were dating, which is just weird.

There were some inconsistencies in her forms when she undervalued the amount of insurance that she had on Mike. Like just she would lie to the state of Florida being like, oh, I only have like $500,000. And life insurance policy, I mean, just overall, it was bizarre. So April 21st of 2004,

she owes on her way back home when there's a weird car in her driveway. And she's like, ah, what the hell is this now? Is this like Warren, Brian, Denise? What is it? It was Kathy. Brian's ex-wife. She says, I'm so sorry, Cheryl. I should have come to see you sooner. It's just a lot. But I wanted to talk to you about something. The day that Mike vanished, Brian didn't cancel. He didn't have an alibi. Remember Brian said that he had to cancel because we had a Christmas party at my parents place in Georgia? Well, he told me to go without him because he was gonna go duck hunting with Mike. Oh no, she just came forward. He wasn't home when I woke up. Nor was he home when I left for Georgia,

which was around 2.30 pm, and there's more. I've always felt like Denise and Brian were having an affair, before Mike disappeared. Brian was also acting so strange during the search he was on edge, he was irritable, he also told me to not talk to Denise at all till after the memorial, which I thought was weird because we were all super close friends. Why shouldn't I give my condolences? And then this letter. Kathy had gotten a letter from Chuck. Yes, Denise's boss and ex-boyfriend from Atlanta,

that Brian had threatened to kill in Atlanta. Remember that one? We had written Kathy a letter saying, Denise and Brian have been leading a double life that very few people are aware of. You need to be watchful of their behavior because for the past two and a half years, they have been dishonest with you.

Chuck said that the two were exhibiting shocking behavior and Denise had cheated on her husband with someone that she met in a class in Atlanta. So she had cheated on Mike with somebody else, just on conferences in Atlanta. So of course, it's easy for Denise to move on after Mike's death. Denise's affair was not a normal affair. Denise was cheating on Mike and it wasn't a normal affair, if you could call any affair normal,

but it involved deviant sexual behavior with various people, strippers, and a lot of other soredid acts. So Chuck is just saying, Denise cheated on Mike a lot and it wasn't just, you know, a work affair. Like, she had some wild sex parties and stuff like there was some weird stuff going on so we really don't know these people is what he's telling Kathy like we have no idea these people i don't know so chuck claimed that brine had taken pictures and videos of these crazy experiences that they had of Denise performing in different sexually explicit situations over the past two and a half years and brine has now threatened to send them to everyone Denise's parents also the internet Brian is threatening

Denise so it's like weird. I mean it's so confusing. I know I'm sure this is exactly Yeah, I'm sure this is exactly how Cheryl felt and Chuck says I wanted to tell you Kathy this so that you understand how false and Denise, how false Denise and Brian have been with you and the type of atmosphere that your son is being exposed to, watch out for these two. Now, she was terrified. So because of this, she decided to contact Cheryl and she started talking to the police. Now, November of 2004, police finally talked to Brian.

It's been like four years. And he claims that the whole day to December 16th, he spent the entire day with Kathy. Bold of him to assume that his ex-wife would still cover for him, so the police don't show their cards. They just ask him, do you want to take a polygraph then? He says sure I've got nothing to hide, but I got to do it another day of a meeting coming up. And three days later, an attorney says otherwise, listen officer, Brian got a little ahead

of himself. On my advice, he's Her's Brian got a little ahead of himself. On my advice, he's decided to not take the polygraph after all. But no matter, the police had found two witnesses who saw Mike with another person at Lake Seminole that day. They were able to ID Brian. And they said, yes, that's him. That's the guy he was with. Even with all of this going on, Denise and Brian got married December of 2005. What?

When you really think about it, Denise got married to the man that sold her husband life insurance. That she is paying this wedding with, which by the way is a huge wedding. It's a fairy tale wedding, if you will. They rode down the island in a horse-drawn carriage. What? Yeah. So of course, Nick and Cheryl were not invited. I mean, Denise was barely talking to them. The only connection Cheryl had was that Denise's sister would still drop off her kids,

with Cheryl for daycare. And her name was Deanna, the sister, and they were kind of friendly, I guess. And Cheryl begged her, if you know anything, you need to tell the police. And surprisingly, Deanna went to the police. She said December 16th, she was expecting Mike and Denise to drop off Ansely on their way to the hotel, right, for their anniversary. But Denise called in a panic that Mike didn't come home at the range time and she was terrified. And just Deanna thought it was weird.

Mike was always late. That's always been his thing, it's been his personality. I mean, nobody really jumped to action when Mike was always late. That's always been his thing. It's been his personality. I mean Nobody really jumped to action when Mike was late. So why is she jumping to action now? She's overperforming. Yeah, maybe you could say oh, well wife has a connection to husband But you know, it's a little weird Deanna went over to the house to help and she said that nothing was packed No suitcase, no bag for this trip that they were allegedly going on, nothing was even packed for Ansely to stay at her aunt's house. Which kids need a lot of things. You can't just send a kid with nothing, right?

So she straight up tells the police all of this and she just keeps saying I just think that a lot of things just don't add up. She even dropped another bombshell. I wouldn't be surprised if Ansely isn't even Mike's kid. I mean, yeah, I guess Ansely does look like Mike, but it wouldn't be below my sister to do something like that. I mean, their marriage was not happy, as some people might say, or as it might have seen, and I think Mike might have guessed that Denise was cheating. I think he was maybe trying to get evidence to get custody. At one point, Mike told me, straight up, as a sister in law, he told me, I'm going to

give your sister six months to straighten up or all some leaving. The police are like, do you think your sister Denise could have anything to do with Mike being killed? I don't think that she could kill him, but I think she knows something about the circumstances of his disappearance. Do you think Denise would have known something before or after Mike disappeared? I hope after. I'm not sure.

The reason I'm sitting here is because a lot of times she doesn't act like my sister. I don't know. I just would hope after. But I don't know. I feel like Brian killed Mike. And I don't like him married to my sister. I'm scared for my niece. I don't want him anywhere near my niece and I don't want him near my sister.

He's conniving. He's manipulative. I guess what I'm trying to say is, my sister might have lived a different type of life that I just don't know about. That's crazy because these were all best friends growing up. Yes, and it's such a tight-knit community. Like the same, I mean, even their kids are going

to the same private school. They're going to go to the same college. Like, but nothing appears to be real. And everyone's involved. Like why are parents involved? The sisters you're getting involved. I mean, it's just not a very typical crime if that makes sense. It's just the energies we are in this group.

So the investigators, they had a lot more to work on and a week later, Kathy comes to see them. Brian emailed me again. So they read it and it says, I know you're under a lot of pressure to blame me and blame Denise for it, but we all, you, me, Denise and Mike, we've made a lot of bad decisions and committed a lot of sins, but none of us ever committed murder. I do not know what happened or where Mike is, but I know that he would not want our kids to suffer and pay the price

in this hunt for quote unquote justice. A lot of lives would be devastated if the police tried to make a case against me. I know how much they want you to believe that I'm guilty of murder, but it's not true. Your memory and these recent quote-eye witnesses are the deciding factors of their case. And you're the star witness, which terrifies me, Kathy, because based on statements you have made in the past, I know you wish I were gone. But please think about Stafford, and Ansely. And in your mind, if you're not 100% certain of facts, please say so. This is a life or death serious situation. I have made a lot of bad choices, but murder is not one of them.

Talk about gaslighting. So now he's saying, are you sure you're 100% sure because you're the star witness. This whole case is about you. You have the power. What about our kid? It's terrible. Cause she probably knows her pretty well. Yeah. Like she knows that these are her weaknesses. So meanwhile, Cheryl's ad got the attention of a journalist named Jennifer Portman, who is intrigued by the whole case and wanted to do a deep dive on it. So she interviewed interviewed Cheryl and on the six year anniversary of Mike's disappearance, a trilogy of stories were published in a local magazine. Six years ago, this hunter disappeared.

Did Mike Williams walk away, drown, or get killed? Frustrated investigators can't say for sure. A quote from the police was included. My gut feeling is that Mike did not die at Lake Seminole. My God Feeling is that Mike did not die at Lake Seminole, which is a shared feeling of all law enforcement working this case. Brian and Denise were infuriated. They refused to comment.

Brian responded in an email. We love Mike and miss him terribly, and we ask that our privacy be respected through what continues to be a very difficult time. Hunting friends were interviewed and they said it didn't make sense that Mike would wear his boots on the boat I mean, he's experienced. He's obsessed with safety He always would put them on when he reached his hunting spot I mean, he did this to avoid the very accident that the officials first presumed killed him like it doesn't make sense There's no way he could be that careless. Jennifer even wrote about Cheryl She said that if it weren't for Cheryl her son's disappearance wouldn't have gotten a second look.

In the absence of an investigation, she didn't even have money for a private investigator. She became her own sleuth. She tracked down her own leads. She crossed track stories. She uncovered inconsistencies. And she woke up and wanders. And she has for the past 2,000 mornings now. What has really happened to my son. Jennifer did not think that Cheryl was crazy, like a lot of people. She thought Cheryl was a mom desperate for answers.

And because of this story and because all moms, all dads, were out there reading this story thinking, yeah, why is Cheryl crazy? Are you kidding? There's no way. There were a lot of pressure on the investigators. So during 2007, they start working with Kathy, like really aggressively. She would tell them all the strange things that happened with Brian recently.

Like one time, he came over to drop off their kid and Brian said, why do you think Denise killed Mike? She was like, what? And she confronted him, listen, I know you guys were having an affair while we were married. And he said, well, I'm scared that're going to testify against me for something I didn't do anything with. That's going to ultimately hurt our child's effort.

Do you not get that? If I go down, our child is going to go down because of your principles. With the steam of the articles in the investigation, Cheryl had a second rush of adrenaline, she started picketing. So she got a giant sign with a huge photo of Mike that said missing since December 16th 2000 and every Sunday she would sit outside the churches of Denise and Brian's parents, sometimes even Denise is straight and she timed it well, she would be picketing when church goers were arriving or leaving and the minister even threatened to call the police on

her and she says, well I'm on public property aren't I? I'm not on your private property, I'm on public property and there's nothing you can do about it. She had thousands of printers printed with Mike's face all over them, hurt and some of her teenagers from her daycare that she was babysitting that were loyal to Cheryl. Went out and pinned them all over town, especially on the street that Denise and Brian lived in, even at grocery stores and restaurants that the couple went to, and they had to do this every single week because people on Denise and Brian's side they would constantly tear down the posters. Eventually, with the help of the public, she saved enough money for billboards, usually

around Anselis birthday, Mike's birthday, or the anniversary of his death. But it wasn't any use, because by 2011 the investigation was going cold again. And she was upset they wouldn't even take shows, calls anymore. Most of the investigators that were working really closely with Cheryl, they were either retired at this point or they had been yelled at and they had been reprimanded for spending so much time on a case that wasn't going to get solved. So Cheryl felt really upset about this, you know? Like, what are you doing? So she wrote letters to the newest elected governor,

Rick Scott. She wrote to him every single day for 1,500 days. And she never got a response. 1,500 days? Yes. And at 71 years old, she was able to gather enough money to pay for an ad in the newspaper, an open letter to Governor Rick Scott.

You do not see my letters because they are sent over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the very agency that I am complaining about. I want a special prosecutor from another part of the state to investigate my son's disappearance. As a parent yourself, can you imagine the undying agony of not knowing where your daughters are for the past 15 years, while simultaneously being lied to, ignored, being called crazy by law enforcement officials, but where are the facts to clearly prove otherwise? Cheryl at 71 years old, she worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 12 hours, and then she used the rest of her time to write letters, put up posters, and keep up hope, and keep her son's

name in the papers. From the outside, Denise and Brian's marriage seemed to be holding up well. They had recently bought a $650,000 house in front of the lake. Brian was happy there. This is a house that he dreamed of his whole life. His career is going great. He has a family. He's going to use his ski boat on the lake. But just three months of moving into their dream home, Denise demanded Brian move out. She did not want to live with him anymore until he gets counseling at her church and he needs to attend 12 step meetings to address his sex addiction. Brian tried but it didn't work and Denise

filed for divorce August of 2015. She said that the marriage was irretrievably broken and she wants to go back to her former name, How dare she, back to Denise Merrill Williams. Now Brian's in this deep depression. He starts drinking non-stop. His favorite was to go to TGI Fridays and sit at a secluded bar and just take shots. Honestly, he was pretty confused. Denise files for divorce in August. They go on a couple's trip to New Orleans in November. New Orleans, she said New Orleans in November. And a few months later, Denise hires an aggressive divorce attorney, and even though she went

into the marriage with $2 million, she didn't want him to have a penny of it. She also wanted to keep some of the property that they bought while they were together. So Brian feels like he's at rock bottom of his life. He's spending all of his days wasted and that's when he gets a call. It was his dad. He was pissed. You get over here right now. So he rushes over and he sits down in Marcus's office and Marcus says,

Stafford got into your phone and he saw a bunch of pictures of you and women. A lot of women sex workers. It was really bad. Stafford was 17 years phone and he saw a bunch of pictures of you and women, a lot of women, sex workers. It was really bad. Stafford was 17 years old at this point and he saw a lot of alarming pictures. Stafford, you went ahead and told his grandpa? And his mom and Denise and Ansely. I mean, he's 17. Can you blame the kid? And Stafford said that he doesn't want to stay with you. He's moving in with his mother for good. Brian tried calling Stafford and Slate Denise nothing. He just kept thinking about how his life was over.

A month later, his mom died of stomach cancer. And so all he would do from then on, he couldn't even work. He just laid on his office ground sobbing. He would drink higher sex workers. His income started to take a hit. Denise's divorce attorney was bleeding him dry. Denise wanted money, okay? And he started googling the best ways to commit suicide. He bought a gun from a local sporting good shop,

and he kept it around thinking about once the best time to do this. And that's when he sees a package from Denise. It was filled with their pictures and lingerie that he had bought her. And a letter written by Denise claiming he is the reason for her horrible life, and she hates him for everything he did to her. So Brian starts drinking, but he feels like he needs to apologize. So he starts writing his suicide letters

and drafting up a will. He said, to Denise, enjoy your riches and your daughter. I hope they make you happy. You were my best friend. I wanted to grow old with you and I realized too late that I wanted kids with you. I have so much regret in pain and remorse. I can't take it. So Thursday, August

2016 he gets drunk at TGA Friday's and he decides get I'm gonna try to talk to Denise at least one last time and he shows up at her house But he couldn't remember the gate code because he was that drunk So he waits for her in his car for her to get out of the house in the morning and head to work And that's when he jumps into her car while she's literally backing out of the driveway and puts a gun up to her and says, drive. Drive or you're going to get hurt. She drives to a CVS, hoping the cameras are going to catch the gun in the car.

And she's like, what are you doing? I just want to talk, you blocked my text, you blocked my calls, you don't answer my emails, I just want to talk to you Denise. Okay, well, I'll talk to you. Stop crying. my calls, you don't answer my emails, I just want to talk to you Denise. Okay, well I'll talk to you. Stop crying. I want you to call off the divorce, please, I'll do anything, I'm so miserable. My life is in shambles, I have nothing left to live for. Please don't do this Denise. Okay, okay, that's fine. I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you, I bought the gun so I could kill myself.

Now imagine being served that, bombshell, and she goes, did you plan on killing both of us? She's like, what's the plan? Where am I? And he's like, no, just myself. I swear to knees, I've lost everything. I've lost my son, I've lost to you, and soon, you're gonna take the house.

My mom's dead of cancer, your lawyer keeps dragging me to court and I have nothing. So she tries to persuade Brian out of this, and she says, listen, why don't I go to work because when people find out that I'm not at work, they're gonna call the cops and it's gonna be very suspicious. And then after work, we'll meet at your dad's office and we'll all talk together.

She says, your dad can calm you down, your dad can walk us through this. Maybe you'll go to rehab for sex addiction and then you can come out and we can be together again. Why don't we try that? So she drops him off at his car and she heads to work. Now Denise had every intention of going to work that day, but her sister kept calling her.

So her sister had been on the phone with Denise when she was backing out of the driveway and Denise had hung up screaming because Brian had jumped into her car and put a gun up to her. So her sister's been blowing up her phone like, are you okay? Now Debra, her sister, her husband is a veteran at the Tallahassee Police Department Suspicious so Deborah's like Denise you got to you got to go to the police just go to the Tallahassee Police Department

You know my husband's there your brother-in-law's there he can help you through it You got to file a report or something because if something happens it's good to have police reports filed So instead of going to work Denise ends up at the police station an hour later, and she's texting her friends about the situation. She had no idea that there was a tiny camera capturing her every move. Where? In the interrogation room. So Denise tells the officer the story of being abducted.

At gunpoint, she was held hostage for nearly an hour. She would count it everything. Even Denise's brother-in-law helped interrogate. At first, he felt sympathetic. I mean, this Denise's brother-in-law helped interrogate. At first, he felt sympathetic. I mean, this is his sister-in-law after all. But he was a 20-year veteran in the force and he immediately went into cop mode and some things were tingling his senses.

And they immediately went from talking about Brian to Mike's disappearance. Denise, do you think that maybe he's not just a kidnapper, but a murderer, too? She didn't respond. Denise, I know he did it. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. He's held that over your head forever. He didn't respond. Denise, I know he did it and you know exactly what I'm talking about. He's held that over your head forever. He wasn't going

to kill himself Denise. He's going to kill you. So you don't talk. That's the truth. Denise is bawling. 15 years ago, Brian walked in and told you he did something, didn't he? She was sobbing, she was shaking her head. I'm telling you, he killed Mike and he's going to kill you to make you go away. The person you saw today, he killed Mike didn't he? He calmed you. He tricked you. Okay, just to get it straight right now, what he's doing, is he just trying to make her

talk? Yeah. He's not actually believing it was Mike or her or- No, just trying to get her to talk. Okay. Now, he killed Mike and I'm pretty sure the reason he was gonna kill you today, was he afraid that you would say something? This isn't gonna go away.

He's gonna keep trying to kill you. Meanwhile, Bryan is not waiting for Denise to get off work. He calls up his addiction counselor who happened to be a doctor, an anesthesiologist, okay? So because of this, Mike believed that he had some sort of doctor privilege, like you would an attorney client privilege, right?

So he was like, well, because you're my doctor, this part is completely confidential. So instead of talking about mental health or addiction, Brian brought up Mike and said, I'm worried because once the divorce is final, the police will hound Denise because they don't have the benefit of being husband and wife. And she's going to tell them that I threatened her at gunpoint. And this isn't even the first time I did it in Atlanta when she was with Chuck, anyway. Why don't you just forget that we had this conversation? And the doctor's like, yeah.

Of course, you're my friend, of course, so... I don't even know what we talked about, I already forgot it! And they drive off and he immediately calls 911. And they show up at Brian's work and they arrest him without incident. He was charged with kidnapping, domestic assault, with a deadly weapon, and armed burglary. Now, Denise begged that Brian be offered no bond. And in May of 2017, the divorce was granted. Brian wasn't over it, and prison he kept looking for hitmen to kill Denise, but he'd

kick in doubt the last minute. He was hoping for a deal. The prosecutors would entertain the idea that it may be if he talked about Mike Williams he'd have immunity. And that's kind of what happened. The attorney was able to get him a proper agreement, which essentially means that Brian has to answer questions about the case of Mike, but any and all information provided from Brian will not be used against him. And the prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty.

So it was a deal with the devil. Now for the trial for the Denise incident, I mean it was hidden from the public and the prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty. So it was a deal with the devil. Now for the trial for the Denise incident, I mean it was hidden from the public and the jury that Brian had made this agreement in terms of Mike's case. And he wrote this 13-page letter just apologizing to Denise. 40 people, hunting friends, fishing buddies, business partners, coworkers, neighbors, extended family members, all wrote the judge letters asking for leniency on Bryan's behalf.

Why? Because they believed he was just, you know, going through a mental break. Denise testified against him, said that she had been diagnosed with PTSD and extreme anxiety, and asked the judge to choose her life because it comes down to my life or his. The judge gave him 20 years with time served, so he would be eligible for release at the age of 65. Now, after this trial, now they want to catch Mike's killer, and they start interviewing Brian, and he starts giving the details about what happened with Mike, because he has

immunity, essentially. He's not going to get arrested for Mike's murder, so he tells them everything, even where Mike's murder. So he tells them everything even where Mike's body is. So here's the story. That morning, Saturday morning, December 16th of 2000, Mike woke up early. He didn't sleep much the night before he had a lot on his mind. He was dealing with his impossible work schedule. Denise and his marriage was falling apart. They weren't having sex anymore. He kind of thought that she was cheating on him, which is why he was so excited for their vacation. It was going to rekindle their romance, they're love for each other, and he was going to start

the day right by going hunting with his best friend, Brian, his best friends inside school. Brian had talked to him recently about a secret, special spot. There's a ton of ducks out there, dude. We got to get out there, but you, it's kind of a little secluded area. So why don't you meet me at the gas station about 50 miles from the border of Georgia, and I'll show you how to get there so you can follow my car

and make sure to bring your boots, your waiters. So Mike left with his decoys, life jackets, paddle, anchor, hunting jacket, gloves, waiters, and Brian tells Mike, well, my battery's dead, so I can't talk to you on the way. Do you have your waiters? Yeah. Okay, we'll meet you at the gas station. So Brian said that because they were running late, they needed to put their waiters on before

getting into the boat. That's what he told Mike. So both of them slipped on their thick, heavy rubber boots. They both jumped onto the boat, headed into Stompfield. Brian was steering and Mike was sitting at the front of the boat being look out. When they had gotten into the deeper part of the water, Brian said, wait, something's wrong with the motor. Can you please help? So he stops the motor.

So he stops the boat and he asked Mike to come back and take a look. And when Mike gets up, Brian shot up and shoved him overboard with all his might. He revved the engine and drove off away from Mike. Now he looks back and he sees Mike as thrashing about trying to take off his weighters, Mike manages to move his jacket and even take off his weighters,

but he was panicked in the ice-cold water. He was holding onto a tree stump because this is stumped field and he was clinging to it desperately. His head was above the water. At this point, he could potentially swim ashore. So Brian's seeing this, he circles back, and instead of helping, he pulls out a shotgun. And Mike stared at him, his best friends in high school, knowing that this is the guy that's going to kill me. And he starts screaming, Brian closes his eyes, pulls the trigger, and Mike had been shot. and Mike had been shot. Brian was able to grab Mike's feet from the water

and he dragged Mike's soaking wet 170 pound body like on the side of the boat. Does that make sense? So he's on the boat driving to shore and he's holding onto one of Mike's legs, just having him literally float dead across the water. When they get to shore, Brian uses all of his strength to get Mike out of the water and onto his truck bed and he places the top half of Mike's body in a dog crate and he speeds off

and this is all before the sun even comes out. As he drove he broke apart his shotgun through piece by piece out the window into the woods and then he arranged to meet with Kathy's dad later that morning to go hunting. That was his alibi but when he got there Kathy's dad already left. So he had planned on going hunting with Kathy's dad with Mike's body and his trunk. So instead of hunting, he drives home, called us in law to apologize, and he went back out to the car and realized that there were blood dripping from the tailgate of his truck. So he sprays down the driveway with his hose, he drives to Walmart. That same Walmart, Mike was there

12 hours ago dressed up as Santa for the kids. And he starts looking for things. Shuffle, tarp, dumbbells, and that's when he runs into a former high school friend. It was a mutual friend of Mike and Brian's, who is now part of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. And they just chit-chat. He drove 50 miles from Lake Seminole, and Rigermortis had already said in he dug a grave near a big willow tree at the edge of a different lake and he He said he was he was digging and the adrenaline had wrung out Every shovel scoop he made his whole body was burning. There were vicious fire ants crawling all over him biting him everywhere And he was he was thinking about how am I gonna explain that to Kathy and finally he dug a hole wide and deep enough and he buried Mike.

Now, police go to drain that portion of the lake and they dig up Mike's body. And his body was well preserved. It's clear that he had been shot in the head with a shotgun. And once his body was ID'd, Cheryl gets a call from her son, Nick. He says, Mom, I don't know what's going on, but police told me to go to your house by 9 a.m.

So he shows up and so do two police officers. Mike's body has been found. Brian confessed to killing Mike. I like seminal and Cheryl was confused. Mike is dead. No, there's no way he's not dead. Man, Mike is dead. No, you have to prove it. You can't just say that. We have Cheryl. We did DNA testing and it's a perfect match to you and Nick. There's no mistake, like none, there's not even a chance of a mistake, because for Cheryl, hope is the only thing that was keeping her alive every single day. It's the one thing that kept

her going in the mornings, and she said that people said that I should be happy, but I'm not. I honestly wasn't looking for a body, and he was found just five miles away from my house. Mike was a good person. He didn't deserve this. Now I have to put everyone involved in prison because that's my next job. So October 2017, 17 years later, Denise pulls up to work in a man approach as her. Denise, my name is Chuck and I just got out of jail. I served time with Brian. Can I talk to you? And she starts screaming, get away from me and she rushes off. She calls the police and they said, oh, we don't know who that could be. We'll be on the lookout. But the next day Denise finds a letter on her car. It says Denise, sorry if I scared you yesterday. I just want to talk.

I was in jail with Brian and he told me everything. I need money to get out of Florida and back to Missouri. So it seems like this cell house inmate was like, hey, I know everything. So you better give me this money. Don't go to the police or I will call the newspaper. Innocent people don't leave their cell phones in the car in the park. So this is kind of like, it's a little interesting. Right? How would he know this detail? Brian and Brian and Denise had this habit where when they wanted to Bond They would drive to a distant park and they would leave their phones in the car Why would they leave their phones in the car if we went to a park would we leave our phones in the car? No, why do they why do they leave the phone in the car because police can wiretap your phones

Oh So he's saying why would innocent people leave their phones in the car? I see. It's a little weird, right? So Denise turns it into the police for some reason. She's like, help! This guy Chuck is trying to kill me! And they said, okay, well, we're gonna escalate it to the FDLE Cybercrimes Unit.

But when the police call her to ask more questions about it, she refuses to pick up. So finally, they get a hold of her. They say, hey, can we take... can we set up a time to talk about what happened in the parking lot? Well, I don't have time. I'll have time after the holidays. But the police aren't gonna wait. Wait, when are they bonding after the murder or before the murder? Brian and Denise after. Oh, yeah. So December 20th, 2017 rolls around and officers are waiting outside their cart in front of Denise's house. Nobody's answering the door.

They call Denise's work, she's not at work, her car's in the driveway, and he's about to leave, but Denise calls and says, today's not a good day, I've been throwing up all morning due to my nerves from Brian sentencing. Okay, well we need to talk to you. I can't wait. So she's like, okay fine. Now they tell her that Mike's body was found and that it was murder.

She says, oh my God, she asked for a tissue, but no tears were coming out, but she was aggressively dabbing at her eyes, nonetheless. Now Denise knew that Mike had been found, but what she didn't know was that Chuck wasn't a jailhouse cellmate. In fact, the police knew him. He was one of them.

Who the police officer? Trying to instigate Denise into saying something. Trying to just kind of put her on edge. Even Kathy was back to working with the police and she tried to get close to Denise to get information out of her. Her phone calls were wiretapped. I mean, in the book, there's the transcript for all of that. It's really good stuff.

Really great read. I highly recommend it. And 2018 was a rough year for Denise. Her parents passed away, all of this was taking place, but May 8th was Anzali's 19th birthday. She had just finished her freshman year of college, they were going to go out to eat dinner together, but Denise would never get there, because she was arrested. Denise was charged with first-degree murder, accessory after the fact, and she was facing

life in prison. She hired the best attorney who claimed that Brian alone murdered Mike, not her. And in front of the judge, Brian's confession was told for the whole court to hear, and Denise didn't react. Even when in the clip, Brian claimed it was Denise's idea, but he was the killer. More stuff came out. Brian claimed the reason that he had to kill Mike was because Denise didn't like the idea of a failing marriage.

This is the motive that... She didn't like the idea of being a divorcee. Oh, and the life insurance also helped. She, Brian claimed that she told him, better to be a rich widow than a poor divorcee. So far, the defense still had a good standing. I mean, there was no evidence that Denise was the killer. Cheater, yes, horrible person, yes, but killer? No! That is, until Brian Winchester took the stand. He talked about their affair that started before Ansely was born. They were meeting at hotels meeting during work.

Anytime they could meet, they would do it. It was easy because Mike worked all the time to provide for his family. Wow. If Mike traveled for work, Denise would go with Mike, and Brian would rent a room in the same hotel. And when Mike was at his conferences or his meetings, they would have sex. They even started having sex at each other's houses, specifically in Denise's bedroom, which by the way, the walls, like I said, were covered in their loving wedding day photos. Even after Mike was murdered, she never took down those photos, and they would have sex

in that room. They made a pact during their affair that they would never cheat on each other even with their own spouses. So that's why Denise stopped having sex with Mike and Brian with Kathy. So Denise felt like she was in a monogamous relationship with Brian and she wasn't going to cheat on Brian with her husband. But why would I trust someone like her? Any promise regarding that?

Exactly. The money Denise was taking out of the air account was not for drugs, but for lavish dates and sex. A whole lot of sex and sex clubs and sex toys. I mean, they had sex 15 times a week. That's a full work day. I don't know how much. I mean, listen, that'd be painful.

I don't know what's wrong with them. They just have a lot of sex. Okay. They would go to strip clubs together. Denise didn't mind watching Brian be danced with. Denise's sexual appetite was wild. Brian claimed she even considered sex with animals. So while they're cheating on their spouses with each other, they start talking about ways to be together. And should say, imagine if all of us

went fishing and Kathy and Mike fell overboard, we would be the survivors. But Brian refused. He said, no, there's no way, I'm never going to kill the mother of my child. But Denise was fine with killing Mike, the father of her child. She liked the idea of being a widow, I mean it's easy to sympathize with them, and it's nice to be a rich widow. So their plan was that Brian would push Mike off about while they were hunting, and it would look more like an accident than murder. And Mike wanted to book a hotel for their anniversary, so the couple felt pressured to kill him ASAP. Because of course, Mike would try to have sex with Denise on this trip,

and well, Denise can't cheat on Brian. No, with her husband, no way, they'd rather murder him. So after Mike is murdered, Brian and Denise had a plan to get together almost immediately, but Brian is cheating on Denise with other people, and she walks in on it. So that's why she started dating random people from their high school, like Jimmy and then her boss Chuck, like just to make Brian jealous, I guess.

So they get back together and they're so paranoid about the murder investigation that they start coming up with codes. They would use their hands into a sea. They would hold up a sea with their hand. And that meant that they were talking about Cheryl. Or when they wanted to talk about the police investigation, they would grasp jail bars, which is very fitting. Because they don't want to be hurt. Yeah, they think like their phone is mic'd, you know, by the police or maybe even their house. They would leave their phones in the car when they went to parks so that they could just

talk freely, like whisper freely. The photos that Brian threatened to release of Denise, I mean, there were some of her shirtless and making out with Kathy, so I mean, it's just all weird. Their marriage ironically ended because Denise felt Brian was a sex addict. Now Cheryl and Kathy, they both testified. Cheryl, she was in a wheelchair at this point. She's 74 years old, but she had a fire burning passion. She remembered every detail and she laid it down for the jury with such conviction, with such emotion that I mean, at this point, like you know where it's gonna go, there's no way a juror could see that and think, nah, maybe she's not guilty.

And with all the evidence. So they find Denise guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, guilty of accessory after the fact of first-degree murder, she did not shed a tear, she had no emotions, February of 2019, she was sentenced to life in prison. After that, there was another memorial service held by Cheryl this time. So this is Mike's real family, for the first time holding a memorial service. None of the marital sisters or any of their family showed up not one, but Sheryl and Nick were excited because they were going to finally meet their estranged granddaughter, Anzli.

It's been that long. That long. And they waited. And they waited. And Anzli never came. Even dozens of Cheryl's former daycare kids, the ones that grew up now, they all came. And Ansely did not. And Cheryl cried tears of joy, and she said, we got justice for Michael. I'm not, I am a fighter, not a victim. I love Ansely, but Mike was my son.

For 18 years, Cheryl never stopped. She was called Crazy. She never saw her granddaughter again. She practically went from being poor to being bankrupt, but she never stopped. She never let any single one of us forget about her beautiful kind, loving son, Mike Williams. And at the end, Ansely was awarded her dad's estate once her mom went to prison, so she inherited the money and she is now in beauty pageants. So she had one misteen telehassy and she had competed in the Miss Florida beauty pageant. So I think Ansely is also a victim in all of this and I hope that she lives a very happy, full life as well. And it's hard to even blame her for not going because I know we're sympathizing a lot with Cheryl. Like,

why didn't you go to the memorial? But I mean, she lived with her mom. Yeah. She was under her mom for all these years. I can only imagine what she is thinking or what she was told non-stop. Or even how to move on or something like this. Maybe it's just like you just cut everything off and move on. Maybe that's the only way. And that is the story of Mike Williams, who was not eaten by an alligator. And I hope you guys enjoyed. Let me know your thoughts.

And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye! episode. Bye!