She is said to have attended Florida State University and is well-liked by her classmates. She said later that he claimed this was necessary since she was not taking his calls and was blocking his text messages. [13], After North Florida Christian, he attended Florida State University, where he majored in political science and urban planning. "It's a burden lifted," she said. [13], According to Denise Williams, on the morning of December 16, 2000, a Saturday, her husband awoke early, leaving the house on Centennial Oaks Circle[2] well before dawn, boat in tow, to go duck hunting at Lake Seminole. "[8], In 2012, Denise and Brian Winchester separated, reportedly due to his sex addiction; she filed for divorce in 2015. Cheryl Williams' emotional statement at Denise Williams' sentencing. [3], Investigators suspicions' were further raised by the waders' conditionundamaged, without any tooth marks, and lacking any of the residues that would be expected to accumulate on an object submerged in the lake for as long as the waders had supposedly been. In particular, she came to believe the investigation was hampered by the involvement of agent Mike Philips, a friend of both her son and his then-wife. During the hearing Thursday, Denise Williams' sister, daughter and friend testified asking for the minimum sentence of 21 months. Michael had inherited it after his father's death, and after Michael was declared legally dead it was the only one of his firearms that Denise Williams had not returned to her former in-laws. He added that that belief was shared by all the investigators at that point. A year later, after Brian testified to shooting Mike at Denises behest,she was found guilty of all charges. Denise Williams, 49, was sentenced to life in prison in Florida on Wednesday . After four days of testimony, the jury took eight hours to convict Denise of all the charges. [7][8] The Investigation Discovery channel series Disappeared devoted an episode to the case in 2012. Photo of Williams circulated since his disappearance, Arrest and subsequent trial of Denise Williams, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, "First-degree conviction overturned 11/2020", "Court records: Fears over Mike Williams case drove 2016 kidnapping by Brian Winchester", "FDLE special agent: Mike Williams 'was murdered', "Portman: Mike Williams' disappearance continues to perplex", "Mother of missing man sends 240 letters to Scott and not a single reply", "Mystery on Lake Seminole: Mike Williams", "Man with ties to cold case in jail on unrelated charges", "Nice guy, hard worker, avid hunter, devoted dad", "Where is Mike Williams? They did say that they would seek to have her denied bail. [3], The FDLE closed its case, convinced that the alligator theory was wrong, but without any leads or evidence that could allow it to further investigate. [14] Before graduation, he was hired by Ketcham Appraisal Group as a property appraiser. I will honor Mikes memory by fulfilling my purpose.. 5 years after that, they even happily welcomed their daughter into the world. Anslee Williams, the only daughter of the late Mike Williams, was open to media and gave interviews on her father's murder case. [23], On May 8, 2018, Denise Williams was arrested at Florida State University as she left work to celebrate her daughter's 19th birthday, minutes after a grand jury had indicted her on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and accessory after the fact. Suzanne Santo and Husband Nic Pizzolatto Got Married At A Beautiful Wedding At The Backyard, Kritika Khurana (That Boho Girl) Height, Age, Boyfriend, Husband, Family, Biography & More, Diipa Khosla: Age, Height, Education, Biography, Boyfriend, Family and more. Prosecutors dropped the charges and agreed to not seek financial penalties as part of a settlement agreement blessed by Mike Williams' mother and brother, which shiftedall of Denise Williams' assets to the couple's daughter, Anslee Williams. [3], Searchers focused on the 10 acres (4.0ha) of the lake surrounding the cove where Williams's truck was parked. According to the documents filed in the case, Winchester, who worked for a company that provides financial services, eventually confessed to the authorities that he had an affair with Denise beginning in the year 1997. No other details were provided. The accessory charge suggested that sometime between August 2014 and the day Winchester was sentenced, Denise had allegedly helped Winchester avoid prosecution or arrest for the crime. After rejecting plans for a murder at Mike's office meant to look like a robbery, Winchester hit on the idea of an apparent hunting accident after he saved Mike from quicksand when the two were hunting in Arkansas. The assets given to Anslee Williams include four pieces of Tallahasseereal estate valued at about $877,000, including her home on Centennial Oaks Circle, purchased by her parents when she was a baby. Two DNA tests matched the remains to his mother's sample. Perry, the FFWCC officer who had been heavily involved in the original search, added at the time that if he or any other person investigating had known that there was a large life insurance policy on Williams, and who the beneficiary was, that search might have been handled differently. [28], Prosecutors also played a taped phone conversation in which Kathy Thomas, who was working with police at the time, had told Denise she knew the truth about the crime. TPD pulls over car near FSU and finds gunshot victim, TPD responds to questions about recently terminated officer, Car crashes into R. Frank Nims Middle School causing damages, Josh's First Alert Forecast - Saturday, March 4, Cleaver and Cork hosts chef Michael Symon, [email protected] - (843) 402-5555. '"[16], It was suggested that perhaps Williams's body had become entangled in the beds of dense hydrilla beneath the lake surface, and then found by the alligators later, with turtles and catfish finishing what they had left behind. Audio of Brian Winchester's interview with the FDLE was played in court. This resulted in a pretty intense murder trial, where Winchester eventually spilled the beans about what really happened. Our Privacy Policy Creator includes several compliance verification tools to help you effectively protect your customers privacy. Her fate, in which she could have been. He was there for me at all times to offer his protection. "[16], And even if an alligator had "defied all known gator behavior," and eaten Williams's body, as another investigator, Ronnie Austin, then with the state's attorney's office, put it, it would likely have left something behind. Winchester shot and killed Mike Williams in December 2000, according to the indictment, and went on to marry Denise Williams after the murder. [15], However, Brian Jones, an expert in insurance law at Florida State University, told the Democrat that any fraud case would have to rest on more than just those facts already known to have aroused investigative interest. She now attends Florida State University and she also competes in pageants. [6], In 2008, the Florida Department of Financial Services's Division of Insurance Fraud (DIF), in conjunction with FDLE, began investigating the case from that angle. Before we get into the meat of uncovering whatever happened to Deniece Williams, we will take a short look at her life and career. The corporation, on the other hand, reduced its accusations in exchange for Denises property being passed down to Anslee under certain circumstances. Carrie Cox, the psychic and profiler who had identified a possible burial site at which no body was found, published Alligator Alibi, a lengthy book with documents from the investigation, Cheryl Williams's notes, and her own commentary. Denise Williams is appealing her conviction and life-prison sentence. The majority of the specifics of their lives, from their younger years through their time spent together as a college pair at Florida State, are interchangeable. Denise Williams stands trial in Leon County, Florida for the December 16, 2000 murder of her husband, who went by Mike. He grew up in Bradfordville[6] (north of Tallahassee), the son of a Greyhound bus driver[3] and a day care provider who raised him and his older brother Nick in a double-wide trailer. The immunity deal followed a plea and sentencing agreement with prosecutors after Winchester kidnapped Denise in the final days of their marriage because he was afraid she would pin the murder on him alone. [24], Ethan Way, Denise's lawyer, said his client was innocent of all the charges. "Some things looked unusual right off the bat," said the FFWCC's Arnette, who had initially thought the situation was a typical case involving a missing hunter and a possible boating accident. [2], Apart from the condition of the waders was the question of why Williams would have been wearing them when he supposedly fell out of the boat. Denise married husband Lincoln Townley in 2013 and was previously married to actor Tim Healy between from 1988 until 2012. The truth, though, was that Denise had been cheating on Mike with his best friend, Brian Winchester, since 1997. Still, he decided to follow Williams-Winchester's new plan to get rid of Mike Williams by the lake. It revealed that prosecutors believed Denise allegedly began conspiring with Winchester in March 2000, nine months before her first husband disappeared. Deniece Williams was born "June Deniece Chandler" on June 3rd, 1951 in Gary Indiana. She competed for Miss Florida USA and she actually won Miss Tallahassee Teen USA in 2017. Just before Mother's Day in 1999, Denise gave birth to the couple's daughter. He also confessed that he and Williams-Winchester were having an affair since high school. Williams's Bronco and the boat had been returned to his family and friends, the footsteps of the many volunteers and searchers all over the lakeshore had made it impossible to collect any evidence from that area, and the items later recovered from the lake had not been retained. I think something is there. Throughout their time in high school, both of them participated in a variety of extracurricular activities. Winchester is alleged to have killed Michael with a gun. He and Denise took it slow after Mike's "accident", both to let the insurance money earn further interest and to allay any suspicion. Meanwhile, Winchester is serving a 20-year prison sentence for kidnapping Williams-Winchester at gunpoint in 2016. They claim Denise issued an ultimatum: Stop pushing for an investigation into his disappearance or never see Williams' daughter Anslee again. Denise Williams collected $1.75 million from her husband's three life insurance policies after she had him declared dead six months after he supposedly vanished in December 2000 during a. NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE. [8], At noon, Denise called her father to tell him that Mike had not returned; Brian Winchester's (Mike's best friend) father drove with Winchester to the areas of the lake where they knew Mike Williams frequently went duck hunting. "We didn't have a whole lot to go on except there was an empty boat and the guy didn't show up," one of the agency's officers recalled later, after his retirement. According to Dateline in 2018, Anslee Williams is still residing in Florida because her family is from the state. [17] Portman, who was interviewed, said she could always tell when it got rerun due to the increase in email she got, many of which asked questions she herself had tried in vain to get authorities to answer. [17] In retrospect, many officers agreed with her that the circumstances surrounding Michael Williams' apparent drowning four years before were unusual, and were strongly at odds with that conclusion: Investigators also learned that Williams didn't usually hunt alone. "[3], However, the new investigation was made extremely difficult by the deficiencies of the original search, when criminal activity had not been considered. By the time investigators began to realize that they should have asked some more questions, the opportunity was gone. [34], Near the end of that year, the Investigation Discovery cable channel series Disappeared devoted an episode to the case. The former Destiny's Child singer shared the news Sunday . The couple had plans to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary that night in Apalachicola. Denise Williams has revealed how she rebuilt her life after her two sons were brutally murdered by her ex-partner Credit: BBC Two / Victoria Derbyshire. "[18], Another possible lead that year proved fruitless as well. An FDLE source told the Tallahassee Democrat that 98% of his bones were recovered, all very well preserved, as was some of the clothing he had been wearing, such as winter gloves and booties. Denises initial plan was that while she stays at home with her daughter, Brian was going to push Mike from the boat and into the lake to make his death look like a drowning accident when they go on a duck hunting trip together. Denise Richards Shares Sweet Photo of Her Three 'Beautiful Girls' Captured on Her Wedding Day. [6], Had Williams drowned, his body would have been expected to eventually float to the surface, making it easier to discover. Bruce Cleland Murder: Where Are Rebecca Cleland, Alvaro Quezada and Jose Quezada Now? Both agreed to get rid of their spouses so that they could be together and collect the insurance money. Jerry Michael Williams was known as Michael or Mike. [11], The three-page indictment was released two days later. "[28] Assistant state attorney Jon Fuchs said this evasiveness, as well as Denise's dispassionate response when Winchester told her how he had killed Mike, demonstrated how cold-bloodedly she helped plan the crime that happened on her behalf. What that agreement required of Winchester, if anything, beyond his guilty plea has not been disclosed. At the time of the trial investigators said Denise's motives were to get out of the marriage and collect nearly $2million from life insurance. She has stated[9] that she received threats to discourage her. Offers may be subject to change without notice. She is the eldest child in a family that includes four children. [11] She was found guilty that December, after Winchester testified to shooting Michael at Denise's behest when their original plan to stage a boating accident failed, and was sentenced to life in prison in January of 2019. He added that if new information were received, the investigation could be reopened. Assistant State Attorney Jon Fuchs had no comment on the total dollar figure, though Cheryl Williams said it was about $1.4 million. [15], "The circumstances surrounding this case raise many serious and troubling questions," said DIF's lead attorney, Mark Schlein. For the rest of my life when I try to go to sleep, I will see my son. On November 13, 2020, True Crime Network featured the case in season 1, episode 11, of Meet, Marry, Murder.[35]. "I get criticized a lot for not admitting that Mike's dead," she told the Tallahassee Democrat in 2007. One of the policies, for $1 million, was written less than a year before he went missing by his best friend, Brian Winchester, who 17 years later confessed to killing Mike during the hunting trip after conspiring with Denise so they could be together. She faces two to 30 years in prison for a conspiracy. She gave investigators the coordinates of a location in Wakulla County near another boat launch. In December 2017, Brian was sentenced to 20 years in prison for Denises kidnapping, but the whole incident led to the focus to be on their relationship and their potential connection to Mikes sudden disappearance and death. Court adjourned. The plan was to make it look like an accidental drowning, but when Williams resurfaced and tried to get out of the water, Winchester shot him in the head and buried his body. But it can be extended by three years under certain circumstances. But instead, he managed to get to a tree stump, so Winchester fired a single shotgun blast to the face. QAnon dad who 'spear-gunned his kids fearing they had serpent DNA' could face the death penalty, Cops raid Florida 'drug house' and find enough fentanyl to kill 481k people inside after comic Kate Quigley's overdose. There is no manual to tell a mother what to do when her child goes missing. While limiting your liability, all while adhering to the most notable state and federal privacy laws and 3rd party initiatives, including. The storm the night after he was reported missing had westerly winds that should have blown the abandoned, unmoored boat across the lake to the Georgia side. He helped police recover Brian's body, and testified against his former lover Denise, who had for years escaped justice as a grieving widow.