A distraught wife claimed that her husband had been eaten by alligators during a duck-hunting trip, however, things turned suspicious when she immediately started dating her husband's best friend . The crazy tale began when Denise Williams had reported that her husband, Mike, had been eaten by an alligator.
The couple, who shared a daughter and resided in Tallahassee, Florida were supposed to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary on 16 December 2000. According to Denise, Mike had promised that he would be back home from duck hunting around noon so they would have ample time to get ready for their plans.
However, when Mike did not return home that night, Denise raised the alarm about her husband's whereabouts. A group of volunteers — including the couple's best friend Brian Winchester — set out to find Mike. During the search, some of the volunteers discovered Mike's parked truck Lake Seminole while Brian discovered his empty boat with his shotgun still in it.
The search then escalated to include the murky waters of Lake Seminole, however, their search was hindered due to the large alligators that roamed around the area. After 44 days of searching, it was assumed that the boat had capsized and that Mike had, sadly, been eaten by one of the roaming predators.
Denise was left to raise her 18-month-old daughter alone and claimed that she was desperate for cash. Within weeks of her husband's disappearance and even before the search for him had ended, Denise reportedly applied for his $1.75 million insurance policy, which had been set up by Brian just six months earlier.
However, Denise was met with opposition from the insurance company because Mike had yet to be officially declared dead. In what appeared to many to be suspicious timing, a local fisherman found Mike’s waders in Lake Seminole six months after his disappearance. Shortly afterward, his fishing jacket, hunting license and torch were also found. According to authorities, the waders bore no signs of an alligator attack and looked like they had only recently come into contact with water, the torch was also still working.
The bizarre appearance of Mike's items prompted a judge to declare that Mike had suffered a hunting accident and Denise was rewarded with the money. However, not everyone was satisfied with the outcome. Cheryl, Mike's mother, didn't buy that her son could have been so careless.
In an effort to keep her son's disappearance at the forefront of people's minds, Cheryl went around town putting up missing flyers and even wrote to the local governor every day for almost a decade. During this time, the town enjoyed a scandal when Brian and his wife Kathy divorced and Brian started dating Denise.
Investigators, who had always been suspicious of Brian and Denise, quickly sought to interview Kathy who said that she was convinced that the duo were having an affair at the time Mike went missing but didn't have any evidence. The pair later married in 2005 but only lasted for seven years before they divorced in 2012.
Things for the duo began unraveling in 2016 when Brian was arrested after threatening to kill both Denise and himself in the back of a car. Police booked Brian on kidnapping and aggravated assault charges. One year later, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assaulting Denise.
"He will finish what he’s started no matter what age he is when he’s released", Denise told the court during the sentencing. "I am asking you to sentence him to life in prison for the crimes he has committed – it comes down to my life or his, and I’m asking you please, choose mine."
Brian, who got 20 years for the attempt, retorted: "Never ever did I have any intentions of harming Denise, nor would I." He added: "Nonetheless I do know that she was hurt by my actions and again I am truly sorry."
The truth is revealed
Days later, local police announced that they had a massive break in the case of Denise's missing husband. According to officials, they had just recovered Mike's body and it was apparent to them that he had been murdered. Before his sentencing, Brian had confessed to killing his best friend in a deal to escape murder charges.
"I met Mike at a gas station. I followed him to the lake," he was recorded saying. "We launched the boat. It was just like a hunting trip was supposed to be – I got him to stand up and I pushed him into the water. He was in a panic, obviously. I was in a panic… I didn’t know what to do and I ended up shooting him."
The story matched up with what investigators discovered when they located Mike's body. Investigators found Mike’s skeletal remains in a shallow grave in a remote marshland, his wedding ring was still on his finger. Brian said in his statement that it had been Denise's idea as she wanted to be a widow, not a divorcee as well as collect on the insurance money.
"She would not get divorced, so she basically said there’s only one solution", he told police. "We’d end up together, we’d live happily ever after, oh, and as a side note, we’ve got all this money to enjoy a wonderful life together."
In May 2018, Denise was arrested by police and charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact. Denise was sentenced to life in prison without parole while Brian will be eligible for parole in 2033 when he is 63.
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