Disclaimer: This text incorporates mentions of homicide. Reader discretion is suggested.
CBS 48 Hours episode “Chilly-Blooded Killer” reexamines Mike Williams’s homicide, whose now-convicted killers evaded justice for practically 20 years. The upcoming episode will premiere on the community this Saturday, August 3, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. A synopsis states, “A father goes looking in a Florida lake and vanishes. Many thought he was eaten by alligators – not his mom. Seventeen years later, gorgeous courtroom revelations: it was homicide.”
In December 2000, Mike Williams, a married Florida father, went on a solo duck-hunting journey to Lake Seminole and by no means returned. For years, investigators speculated Williams tragically drowned within the swampy lake as his stays weren’t discovered. They believed the heavy alligator exercise in and across the space urged reptiles ate him.
Whereas Mike Williams’ household continued preventing for justice, authorities made a break 17 years later and realized about his actual killers. Williams’ greatest good friend, Brian Winchester, confessed to murdering him in trade for immunity. Moreover, Winchester implicated the sufferer’s then-wife, Denise Williams, with whom he was having an affair. Denise stood trial in 2019, which resulted in a conviction.
The place are Mike Williams’ killers Denise Williams & Brian Winchester now?
In keeping with the Florida Division of Corrections, Mike Williams’ killers, Denise Williams and Brian Winchester, are in jail now. Denise is serving a 30-year sentence in Florida Ladies’s Reception Heart on costs stemming from Williams’ homicide. In the meantime, Winchester, who by no means confronted costs within the decades-old homicide case, is within the Madison Correctional Establishment on unrelated counts.
Tallahassee Democrat acknowledged that Mike Williams left for a duck-hunting journey on the morning of December 16, 2000. A seek for the 31-year-old property appraiser embarked when he did not return from Lake Seminole. Authorities searched the world and located Williams’ board, automobile, and waders however failed to find him. Moreover, they discovered heavy alligator exercise in and across the lake. This led them to consider that the younger father drowned and that the reptiles probably ate him, leaving no stays.
In 2001, a decide declared that Mike Williams died in an unintentional drowning incident, per The Cut. Following this, Williams’ widower, Denise, collected $1.75 million in life insurance coverage claims. However, Williams’ mom, Cheryl, refused to just accept the crocodile concept, and upon her insistence, authorities opened a lacking particular person’s case in 2004.
Throughout a decade-long investigation, detectives ultimately decided that Mike Williams’ disappearance was suspicious. They started specializing in his then-wife Denise Williams, who had claimed a hefty sum in life insurance coverage payouts after the incident. 5 years later, Brian Winchester and Denise received married, and it could be years till they got here out as Mike Williams’ killers.
In 2012, Denise Williams and Brian Winchester separated, and the previous filed for divorce three years later. Nonetheless, in 2016, Winchester kidnapped Denise and held her in her automotive at gunpoint. She then reported the armed kidnapping incident to authorities, which resulted in Winchester’s arrest. Oxygen acknowledged that detectives, who had been nonetheless investigating Mike Williams’ disappearance, prodded the duo when questioning them. Winchester in the end confessed to the homicide in 2017.
Brian Winchester admitted to capturing Mike Williams within the head in Lake Seminole. He additionally advised detectives about his long-term affair with Denise Williams, which started in 1997. Winchester claimed Denise was unwilling to divorce Mike, fearing she may lose her daughter within the course of. He additionally agreed to testify in opposition to Denise in trade for immunity within the homicide case and solely confronted kidnapping and aggravated assault costs. He obtained a 20-year jail sentence.
Solely one in every of Mike Williams’ killers, his then-wife Denise Williams, stood trial in 2019. She was dealing with costs together with conspiracy to commit homicide, first-degree homicide, and accent after the very fact. A jury convicted her in December of that 12 months, following which she received a 30-year time period in jail.
CBS 48 Hours episode Chilly-Blooded Killer will air this Saturday, August 3, 2023.
