{"id":1572120,"date":"2022-07-26T16:52:02","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T20:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1572120"},"modified":"2022-07-26T16:52:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T20:52:36","slug":"the-murder-of-mike-williams-conspiracy-betrayal-and-a-mother-who-never-gave-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-murder-of-mike-williams-conspiracy-betrayal-and-a-mother-who-never-gave-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The Murder Of Mike Williams: Conspiracy, Betrayal, And A Mother Who Never Gave Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-murder-of-mike-williams-conspiracy-betrayal-and-a-mother-who-never-gave-up%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1572120&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Mike and Denise Williams were high school sweethearts who met when they were just 15 years old and attending North Florida Christian High School in Tallahassee. Mike, the student council president, a football player, and avid duck hunter, took a shine to his future wife, a cheerleader who received the yearbook title \u201cbest dressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two went on to attend Florida State University together, with Mike majoring in political science and urban planning and taking a job as a property appraiser. The couple made good money and bought a home in an upscale subdivision in East Tallahassee. To the outside world, they seemed to have the perfect marriage, especially after the couple\u2019s daughter, Anslee, was born in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>But that all changed on December 16, 2000.<\/p>\n<p>It was Mike and Denise\u2019s sixth wedding anniversary, and Denise would later tell investigators that her husband woke up early, as he often did, to go duck hunting at Lake Seminole. By noon, however, he had not returned, so Denise called her father.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after that, Mike\u2019s best friend, Brian Winchester, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2018\/12\/12\/police-thought-he-was-eaten-by-alligators-in-2000-now-his-high-school-sweetheart-is-on-trial-for-his-murder\/\">Winchester\u2019s father<\/a>, drove out to the lake to look for Mike. There they found his 1994 Ford Bronco near a boat launch, but found no other signs of Mike.<\/p>\n<p>A search team was sent to the lake, but found only Mike\u2019s hunting license, jacket, and waders, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2019\/02\/07\/police-thought-he-was-eaten-by-alligators-his-high-school-sweetheart-was-just-sentenced-his-death\/\">according to The Washington Post<\/a>. It would be 17 years before Mike\u2019s body would be found.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, however, investigators believed that Mike had drowned following a boating accident and was eaten by alligators, the Tallahassee Democrat<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tallahassee.com\/story\/news\/2018\/10\/19\/mike-williams-murder-denise-williams-brian-winchester-chery-williams-lake-seminole-alligators\/1687512002\/\"> reported<\/a>. Though his body wasn\u2019t found, Mike Williams was declared legally dead, allowing Denise to collect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2018\/12\/12\/police-thought-he-was-eaten-by-alligators-in-2000-now-his-high-school-sweetheart-is-on-trial-for-his-murder\/\">$1.75 million from multiple life insurance policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Within five years of Mike\u2019s disappearance, Denise married Brian Winchester, who, it turned out, had sold Mike some of the insurance policies just a few months before he disappeared. The couple also lived in the house Mike and Denise had previously shared.<\/p>\n<p>While most people moved on, Mike\u2019s mother, Cheryl, refused to believe that her son had drowned and conducted her own investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the minute he disappeared\u2026I knew the police\u2019s explanation wasn\u2019t true,\u201d Cheryl <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/fla-man-strange-disappearance-draws-attention-16-years-article-1.2756350\">told<\/a> the New York Daily News in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, she was able to lobby the Florida Department of Law Enforcement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tallahassee.com\/story\/news\/2018\/05\/08\/17-years-after-mike-williams-disappearance-wife-charged-his-murder-tallahassee-denise-winchester\/587671002\/\">to reopen the case<\/a>, assisting local agencies as they re-investigated. Investigators soon found numerous issues with the original conclusions about Mike\u2019s disappearance and alleged death. For one thing, his boat was found with the engine off with a full gas tank, but if he had fallen off the boat while the engine was still running, it would have continued to run until the gas ran out. It was also odd that Mike had allegedly gone duck hunting by himself that day, when he usually went with friends.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, the alligator theory \u2013 that Mike had drowned and his body was eaten by alligators \u2013 was debunked. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.evergladesfoundation.org\/post\/9-amazing-things-you-didn-t-know-about-alligators\">Alligators become dormant in the winter<\/a>\u00a0when the temperatures drop and the water is too cold. Even if a gator had acted contrary to its normal behavior, some part of the body would have been left behind, yet nothing was found.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this information, the case was closed again. Years went by, but Cheryl Williams refused to give up on her son. Then, in 2010, when police were made aware of the insurance money associated with Mike\u2019s death, the case was reclassified as \u201csuspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Things finally started to unravel in 2012, when Denise and Brian Winchester separated. Three years later, in 2015, Denise filed for divorce, which Winchester opposed. Winchester was ordered to comply with the divorce, and was told to submit an appraisal for the couple\u2019s house by August 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Denise later told police that on the day the appraisal was due, she was sitting in her car outside her accounting job at Florida State University when Winchester climbed over the back seat of her car and started yelling at her to drive, producing a gun. She drove to a CVS parking lot, ignoring where Winchester told her to go. He then told her he was going to kill himself, insisting he had nothing to live for if Denise went through with the divorce. She calmed him down and dropped him off at his truck, promising not to go to the police after he apologized. She then headed straight for the police to report the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Winchester was charged with kidnapping, domestic assault, and armed burglary, and Denise obtained protection orders against him. Cheryl expressed hope that the new development would find the answers to what happened to her son 16 years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Winchester\u2019s] not going to let Denise run around alone with all that money,\u201d Cheryl told the Daily news, referring to the life insurance money Denise collected after Mike disappeared. \u201cI\u2019m praying he doesn\u2019t commit suicide, I\u2019m praying he\u2019ll tell us what actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Winchester did tell.<\/p>\n<p>In October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike and Denise Williams were high school sweethearts who met when they were just 15 years old and attending North Florida Christian High School in Tallahassee. Mike, the student council president, a football player, and avid duck hunter, took a shine to his future wife, a cheerleader who received the yearbook title \u201cbest dressed.\u201d The &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1575830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1572120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1572120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1575830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1572120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1572120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1572120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}