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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
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the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and I
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am excited today because I am starting a brand news series,
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Fatal Fortune, will tell the stories of the wealthy and
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how money became the motivating factor in their death.
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So today I'm going to tell you the.
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Tragic story of the murder of Mike Williams, who was
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a wealthy business person in Florida. Now in the year
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two thousand, Mike was presumed to have drowned and been
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eaten by alligators of all things, due to the lack
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of a body ever being recovered when he went miss
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during a hunting trup to Lake Seminole, which is a
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large reservoir and it's kind of located on the Georgia,
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Florida state line.
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Now, due only.
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To his mother's insistence that police continue investigating, was the
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case eventually reopened in ruled a homicide, which led to
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many years later eighteen years to be exact, that this
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case gets solved in those responsible being placed behind bars.
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So a little background on Mike. He grew up in
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a town called Bradfordville, Florida, which is north of the
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college town of Tallahassee, Florida, home of Florida State for
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you football fans out there. And he was raised by
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some amazing parents who were normal, everyday hard working people.
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His mother, Cheryl Williams, she was a daycare provider. She
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actually ran a daycare out of her home, and his
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father was a greyhound bus driver. Now, it was very
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important to both his mom and his dad that he
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and his older brother they had more opportunity than the
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parents did growing up as all of us as parents
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want out of our children, and education was key. So
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his parents sacrificed. They saved money, They chose to live
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in a double wide trailer rather than building a house,
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and they did all this so that they could send
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Mike and his older brother.
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Nick to private school.
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They felt like they could get the best education possible
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at a private school, and Mike excelled in high school.
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He was involved in all types of clubs, He played football,
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he was the president of the student council, all the things.
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In addition to that, he and his older brother worked
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at a grocery store after school and that helped pay
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for the tuition to the private school. He tells you
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the work ethic of he and his older brother and
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how they were raised.
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You know, you got to kind of contribute to the family.
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He also fell in love with hunting in high school,
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and in particular duck hunting, which he took up as
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a hobby at the age of fifteen. And it was
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also during these formidable years that he became in love
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with a girl by the name of Denise Merrill, who
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he would later marry. And Denise was a cheerleader, she
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was the homecoming queen. He was the star athlete. It
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just made sense that they would get together. So after
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high school, he attended Florida State University and he would
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major in political science and urban planning. And he was
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an absolute rock star in college. Very hard working, which
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is no surprise to me. That was something obviously his
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parents had instilled in a very early age, and he
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and his brother and even before graduation, he was hired
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by very large property appraisal group in the area. Now
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the company's owner later on would say that Mike was
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the hardest working man he had ever seen, and that's
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no surprise to me. He graduates and then he marries
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his high school sweetheart, Denise. This was in nineteen ninety four,
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and they started life together. And it's hustle time for
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this guy. Right, You're in your early to mid twenties,
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you're nearly married, and it's time to bring home the bacon.
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And Mike was not afraid to earn it. He would
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often go home for dinner, then go back to the
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office and work for hours. He excelled quickly, and he
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started making money and seeing success and really no time,
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a quarter of a million dollars a year he was making.
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Denise she was no slouch either as it relates to income,
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and she did well for herself.
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She was a CPA.
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And it wasn't long before he and Denise bought a
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house in the rich area of town, if you will.
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And this is in nineteen ninety nine, and that's also
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the same year that his daughter was born.
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And from all accounts, Mike.
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Was absolutely in love with his only daughter and he
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was as devoted to her as he was his work.
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At this point in time, life just was picture perfect
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for Mike. Then in the year two thousand, some heartbreak
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for Mike. His father passed away. He had a heart attack,
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and that got him thinking about how precious life was
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and how his family would need to be taken care
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of should anything happen to him, and he already had
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some life insurance policies, but he upped and added a
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few more policies, bringing his policies up to a million
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dollars of coverage, which that sounds like a lot, but
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considering how much he made per year, it kind of
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makes sense to me. It only replaces what the family
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would lose in his death for about four years if
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you're making a quarter million dollars.
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A year now.
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He purchased all these policies through his best friend, Brian Winchester,
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and they had been bestie's pretty much forever. And not
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only was Brian Winchester Mike's bestie, but he and his
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wife Kathy had been friends and classmates with Mike and
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Denise throughout both high school and college, and they would
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get together as couples often. Mike and Brian would duck
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hunt together all the time, just typical best friends hanging
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out after marriage, et cetera.
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And that was the dynamic.
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So Mike's anniversary was on December sixteenth of the year
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two thousand. It was his sixth anniversary. It was a Saturday,
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and he and Denise, they had plans to go to
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nearby Apple at Chacola to celebrate, but Mike wanted to
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do some duck hunting that morning and it was the
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same morning as his anniversary, so he look.
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He loved the duck hunt.
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He goes to his wife, he says, do you mind
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if I go duck hunting in the morning. I'll be
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home well before noon and we can get started on
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celebrating our sixth anniversary. So, according to Denise, on the
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morning of December sixteenth of two thousand, her husband wakes
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up early. He leaves the houses as well before dawn
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bowed in tow and he goes duck hunting at Lake Seminole,
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which if you're a duck hunter, this is what you do.
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You have to be ready when the sun comes up
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on the water because that's when the ducks wake up.
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So he leaves, he goes hunting. Noon rolls around that
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day and Mike is still not home, so Denise gets
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worried and she starts making calls. She calls his parents,
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she calls his friends trying to find out where he is,
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and his bestie, Brian's father actually gets wint to this
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and calls Brian and says Hey, man, do you know
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Mike is missing. He went hunting this morning, never came home.
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We need to go out there and see if we
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can find him. And it's important to mention Brian's father
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had known Mike obviously as long as Brian did, and
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that he was like a second son to Brian's father.
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So they take off and they go to that lake,
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Lake Seminole. Brian knew where he typically hunted Mike at
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this lake. So they take off and when they get there,
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there's already a ton of people there, tons of boats
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in the water looking for Mike. Now, one of the
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concerns with what could have happened to Mike was that
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Lake Seminole was more dangerous than most lakes in Florida
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as it relates to boating accident. And that's primarily due
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to the fact that it is just redden with stumps.
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In certain areas of Lake Seminole, it was basically dry
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land at one point that was intentionally made a lake
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for flood control, So tons of tree stumps lie beneath
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the surface, some of them stick.
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Just barely out of the surface.
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And as I said, a ton of people were already
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there when Brian and his father get there to search
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for Mike, and the searchers start focusing on a particular
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ten acres of the lake surrounded by a cove. And
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the reason they did that was Brian's truck was found
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right there at that It was kind of like a
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dirt path that you.
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Would back your boat into.
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Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today?
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Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you
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what happened in New York.
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It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
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you about yesterday in Louisiana.
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You know what, we should do a podcast.
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About it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly
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covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.
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We cover trending crimes from all over the country and
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even sprinkle in a few globally.
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Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to
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your podcasts.
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Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link
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in the description of this podcast. A helicopter is flying
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over the area and although it was really hard to spot,
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they helicopter did spot Brian's boat. It was in some grass.
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It looked like it had floated into a grassy part
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of that section of the lake, and it was almost
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camouflaged in there where you couldn't see it. But they
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did manage to find the boat, and they found his gun,
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which was still in the case inside that boat. But
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those signs of a struggle or anything like that, I mean,
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zero of foul play. So what happened to Mike?
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Where is he?
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Now?
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Initially the thought was Michael hit a stump and he
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was knocked out of the boat and he had drowned.
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Maybe he got tangled up below the surface. Maybe he
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was wearing his waiters and they filled up with water
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and it was heavy and it pulled him down. He
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couldn't get him off. Any drowned, they didn't know. But
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one thing they did know is that if he did drown,
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typically the body will surface three or four days later,
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because as the body decomposes underwater, bodies will fill up
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with gas, they will actually bloat and they'll float to
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the surface. So that was the assumption here. However, four
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days later, a week later, steal, no Mike. Now there
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had been eighty drownings in Lake Seminole at this point,
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and of these drownings, all of the bodies had been found,
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every one of them except for Mike's. So about ten
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days later, searchers are scouring the lake and they do
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come across a camouflage hat in that lake, and that
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hat was identified by Mike's bestie Brian as having belonged
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to Mike. So they're trying to figure out where the
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heck is this guy, and they're searching every inch I mean,
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they're taking sticks, they're sticking them in the dirt, trying
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to feel for a body every inch of this lake.
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And then the alligator theory surfaces. So a private search
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firm they theorize that quote. With the wildlife around, I
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would guess that alligators have dismembered and stored the remains
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in a location that we would not be able to find.
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And it's important to note here that's typical with alligators.
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They will kill somebody, but they don't eat the body
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whole right there. They'll take it and store it somewhere
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and then they'll eat it later on, or they'll bring
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it back to a den, and.
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They typically hide these bodies.
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Underneath sticks and debris to where you can't find them.
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So that was the theory. However, there was a major
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issue with this theory because although alligators do not hibernate
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and sleep like bears do.
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Bears go in.
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A cave and they basically sleep until winter's over and
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then they come out. That's why they get so big
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and fat before they hibernate. Alligators don't do that. They
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pretty much have to do everything they can to regulate
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their body temperature.
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They don't like cold weather.
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They've got to be able to regulate that temperature, and
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that forces them not to eat. Now, at the time
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that Mike went missing, the area was in the midst
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of what would be three weeks straight of below freezing
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and just a freezing temperatures, and it would have been
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unheard of, quite honestly, for an alligator to eat anything
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much less human at that time with it being that cold.
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And even if that were the case, Mike was five
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'ot ten, he was one hundred and seventy plus pounds,
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and it would have been unheard of for an alligator
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to completely eat a full grown man like that with
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absolutely no trace of the person. You would find limbs
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of the person, legs, arms, whatever, none of that, no
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trace of Mike. Also, during this time police they started
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hearing a little bit of chatter and talking some people
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off the racker were saying, Mike was having some issues
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in his marriage and he wasn't happy. So some people
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would theorize.
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That maybe he ran off and went to Mexico or something.