Mike Williams // 415
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Today's case was recommended by Kira and Jesse. So thank you guys so much. The initial conclusion of this case is so insane that it's not even a case.

Something we have never seen on this show before. And this one actually had some very recent resolution. Or not very recent, but pretty, fairly recent resolution. Fairly recent, yeah. I mean, it definitely took years. I mean, well, it took decades, technically, to get this one to justice. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. This is an incredible story.

And I guess we don't have anything else, so we can just dive right into it. Yeah, let's dive right into it. All right, guys. This is episode 415 of Going West, so let's get into it. ♪♪♪

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Work. You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow. Wherever you are, tap the banner to go to Monday.com. In December of 2000, a 31-year-old man headed out for a duck hunting trip on a Florida lake and seemingly drowned with his body believed to have been eaten by alligators.

Years later, the case was reopened when his mother pointed out many inconsistencies, such as the fact that alligators wouldn't have ravaged his body in the winter. Instead, something sinister was done to him by someone in his own circle. This is the story of Mike Williams. ♪

Jerry Michael Williams, better known as Mike, that's what we're going to call him today, was born on October 16th, 1969 in Tallahassee, Florida to parents Cheryl and Jerry. And he joined an older brother named Nick. Nick and Mike were raised just north of Tallahassee, though, in the small community of Bradfordville, which is in the panhandle of Florida.

Growing up, Mike's mom worked in a daycare center, his dad was a bus driver, and his parents highly valued their boy's education and were able to send them to a prestigious private school called North Florida Christian. There, Mike became a very accomplished student and athlete and has been described as an all-American teenager. Like

Like he was student council president, he was active in the key club, and played on the football team. He was even voted best personality by his student body. When he wasn't working on school stuff or extracurricular activities, he worked part-time at a supermarket so he could help his family pay the bills.

He also nurtured his passion for the outdoors when he could, particularly in his favorite pastime, which was duck hunting. Now, this is a focal point of the story today, and he was a duck hunter for a very long time. So keep that in mind. And it was at North Florida Christian where Mike met his future wife, Denise Merrill.

Just 15 at the time, the two fell for each other. And again, they kind of had that like picture perfect teenage situation. Denise was a cheerleader, Mike, a football star, and Denise was also secretary while he was student council president. So it was perfect.

It was also in high school where he met his best friend, Brian Winchester, and where Brian met his wife, Kathy. So remember, they're also a part of this story, and they all met in high school together. So these four became fast friends, and they would be close for years to come, often taking trips together and going out on double dates.

After graduating from North Florida Christian, Mike headed to Florida State University in Tallahassee. Home of the Seminoles. Indeed, to major in urban planning and political science. And before he even graduated, he had a job offer from the Ketchum Appraisal Group as a property appraiser, which is a position that he excelled in after accepting.

Yeah, Mike's boss, Clay Ketchum, who Mike grew very close to, remembered his work ethic with awe. Clay actually worried that Mike was sometimes working too much, once taking the keys away from him so that he couldn't sneak back into the office after hours. I mean, this guy was just like a workaholic.

Now, Clay recalled proudly, quote,

So as Mike built his career of his dreams, quickly climbing to a salary of around $200,000 in his 20s, which by the way, this is like late 90s, early 2000s, so he's making very good money, he was also getting more serious with his high school sweetheart, again, Denise. And despite his heavy workload, Mike was still a present and doting partner to her, and eventually husband to her.

Oh, that's really sweet. I mean, yeah, he just seemed like one of the most kind people you could possibly know.

So Mike and Denise got married on Saturday, December 17th, 1994, and they purchased a beautiful home on Tallahassee's east side, hoping to one day fill it with kids. And just under five years later, in 1999, they got their wish. On May 8th, 1999, the day before Mother's Day, their daughter was born.

Mike and Denise were actually interviewed on the local news segment about babies born on or around Mother's Day, and Mike proudly shared, quote,

Making the occasion even more worthy of celebration was the fact that the couple's closest friends, Kathy and Brian Winchester, who we've already mentioned, had their first baby around the same time as well. So they were excited to take family vacations and just kind of watch the kids grow up together. Yeah, I mean, that's like everybody's dream, right? It really is. So nearing the end of 2000,

31-year-old Mike was excitedly telling his friends and family that he and Denise were planning on trying for their second baby soon and that their daughter, who is now 19 months old, would soon have a younger brother or sister. And this was really exciting for Mike because he was described as a doting father who loved stepping into the role of a family man and provider.

So what we know about this guy so far is that he's such a great dad. He works really hard to provide for the family, but he's also a very present husband. So kind of like everything that you want, right? I mean, yeah, just that quote where he was talking about how he has so much respect for women for bringing children into the world. Like, yeah.

this guy is just such a catch, right? Yeah, and there's no back end to this. Like, there's no reports anywhere throughout our research where friends said anything otherwise. Yeah, like, oh, you know, he was nice on the outside, but he had his secrets and was kind of the bad dude behind the scenes. Yeah, like, oh, he said that to the news, but that's not how he really felt. Like, no. No, that wasn't him. So on Saturday, December 16th,

The day before Mike and Denise's six-year wedding anniversary, they planned to get away for a romantic evening together. They had booked a room at the Gibson Inn in Apalachicola, which is a Florida beach town on the Gulf of Mexico. But that morning, a few hours before they were to head out, Mike wanted to work in a couple hours of duck hunting at sunrise, promising Denise that he would be back by midday so that they could celebrate together.

He left very early before his wife and daughter were even awake, headed for Seminole State Park, located about an hour northwest of Tallahassee on the border between Florida and Georgia. And actually, the lake that he's on that day borders Georgia and Florida as well. And this is a huge lake, as we're going to talk about. So again, he promised to be back just a few hours later. So when noon came with no word from him, Denise was kind of starting to panic.

She started calling around to friends and family, asking if they knew where Mike was, but no one had seen or heard from him. Brian Winchester, again, Mike's best friend, and Brian's father, Marcus, who loved Mike like a son, agreed to head to Seminole to search for him together.

Just wanted to mention real quick, if you do hear some snoring during this episode, that is our puppy Dewey in the background. He's sleeping on his bed. He's being so loud. Yeah, he just snores so loud. So sorry for the inconvenience. Yeah, hopefully you can't hear that. But anyway, so Brian and his dad Marcus were headed to Seminole and actually so is Denise's father Warren. So they went over there together. They're looking for him. They're not seeing Mike anywhere. So at 3 p.m.,

Warren reported Mike missing to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation because they're there. They're not seeing him. They want to get, you know, outside forces involved to help them on their search. So Warren, Marcus and Brian met officers there about 10 minutes later and their combined search began from there.

At 6 p.m., a helicopter was requested to search the lake from above, but the stormy weather delayed its takeoff until 9 p.m. But in the meantime, so, you know, that they didn't lose time searching, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers walked the shoreline just looking for any sign of Mike. And after sweeping the lake's perimeter, they discovered Mike's truck parked where he had left it with no sign of disturbances.

So this is alarming because now they know that he didn't leave and, you know, take off to do something else or go get a gift for his wife or whatever. Like they know that something had to have happened to him at this lake. Yeah. So their search really intensified because they know he's got to be somewhere in this area. Right. So like I had mentioned that, you know, they wanted to get the helicopters going. Well, at nine o'clock,

They finally were able to. They were up in the air for three hours until midnight, searching from above,

But they found nothing. Now, obviously, it's super dark. They had a light shining down. So, I mean, they were searching for three hours. They were really looking. But even with this intent searching in the dark, they're not seeing Mike anywhere. Then, a couple hours after the helicopter search ended, at around 2.30 a.m. on Sunday, December 17th,

Mike's father-in-law, Warren, and Mike's best friend, Brian, came upon Mike's empty boat floating about 100 yards from the boat ramp. The gas tank was still full. The engine was switched to the on position. And most of his equipment, including his shotgun, was still inside the boat. So at this point, it's really as though Mike was just like plucked

straight out of his boat there is no sign of a struggle the boat is still on all of his stuff is still there his truck is still on the shores it's so weird yeah and of course this is one of the most eerie things that you could possibly discover at 2 30 in the morning you know you've got this floating boat there's nobody in it it's empty it's on but of course mike is still nowhere to be found

Now, Mike's mom Cheryl claimed that her son was a safe, sensible hunter, having been a duck hunter for more than half of his life.

So she maintained that he would not have gone out on the water alone knowing the risks if something were to go awry. So the idea that he had gone out alone and that something had happened was really confusing and also really strange to her. But disturbingly, local law enforcement meticulously searched five acres surrounding where the boat was found. And still, there was no sign of Mike.

Now, Lake Seminole famously contains many sharp, jagged tree stumps sticking out of the water, which made for choppy boating. So with this observation, the assumption was growing that Mike had been accidentally tossed overboard and was met with injuries due to unseen tree stumps or drowned in the water, which could reach as deep as 10 feet.

Believing that he was down in those waters dead, searchers dove for days, scouring the water for any sign of him.

After a few days of searching, even his family members acknowledged that it was pretty likely that a fatal accident had occurred. But still, it was strange that the lake hadn't given up his body because typically, you know, the body would float to the top of the surface. But just to give you guys an idea of the size of the lake, its surface area is 700 acres and the shoreline is 376 miles long or 605 kilometers. So it's pretty big.

especially when you have to search it, you know, across and top to bottom. Yeah, this was going to be no easy task for divers or investigators. But a few days after Mike vanished, his hat was recovered floating on the surface of the water, which was another sign pointing to a fatality.

Some people openly wondered if he had departed his old life for a new one, you know, using this boating accident as a red herring, but for a hard-working businessman and devoted husband and father, the starting over theory just really did not fit here whatsoever. Not at all.

Then there was the possibility that he had been attacked by an animal. Indeed, because the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation acknowledged that Lake Seminole was rife with alligators and, Heath, you're going to hate this, water snakes. Oh my God, I fucking hate snakes so much. His biggest fear is snakes. That's my worst fear.

Yeah, especially the ones in the water, right? Because you love to swim. That's true. But the alligators were, of course, the bigger concern here because...

The ones in this lake could grow to be some of the biggest in the entire state here at Lake Seminole. Like I'm talking 14 feet long and weighing up to a thousand pounds. That is nightmare fuel. Have you seen the movie Lake Placid? Of course. I'm getting that picture in my head right now. That giant alligator. Which also makes me think of the sci-fi movie Anaconda, which you also hate. Horrifying. But yeah, I mean, alligators, we can all agree there.

So thus, law enforcement began to suspect that perhaps Mike had fallen overboard and been consumed by one of the lake's many alligator inhabitants. Again, Heath said this lake gets up to about 10 feet deep at its deepest.

So if you're, I mean, you're not to swim in this lake. Think about, you know, your body straight in the water and how little space that would leave for an alligator down at the bottom, right? Sure. If you're six foot, you've got about four feet between you and a monster. Yeah. Or, you know, unless they're next to you. But this, again, just goes to show you that if you fall into this water, that could be extremely fatal.

And because of this theory, sadly, it became a foregone conclusion that Mike would not be found. So after 44 days, the search for Mike was called off.

Now, in early 2001, just a couple months later, Mike's wife and daughter were, you know, trying to make peace with the fact that he was not coming home. So in February of 2001, against Mike's mother's wishes, Denise began the process of having him legally declared dead.

Cheryl, again, Mike's mom, was furious at this because she never believed that her son had drowned, been eaten, or simply disappeared. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of...

It just feels like really soon. I mean, he's only been missing for not very long. Not even two months. Yeah. This is a hasty decision. Yeah. And you're like, well, he's dead. Yeah. So she's really upset about this. But at the same time, the official investigation was concluded to claim that Mike had likely been tossed overboard and eaten by a giant alligator or drowned or drowned and then eaten by an alligator. Right.

So Cheryl was pretty much on her own with these thoughts of something else happening. But because she was so staunch in her beliefs, she actually embarked upon a journey that is now credited with solving her son's case.

Calling it mother's intuition, Cheryl began compiling details and inconsistencies that she felt required more investigation, eventually amounting to 27 pages of notes. She also interviewed wildlife and animal experts who found it strange that alligators had been a possible explanation.

In her conversations with the alligator enthusiasts and experts, Cheryl discovered that, like many other animals, alligators hibernate in colder months. So with obviously December 16th bordering wintertime here in the U.S., temperatures were hovering around 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius.

Meaning the alligators were resting, staying at the bottom of their respective bodies of water, and they were not particularly interested in feeding. One expert from the region added that a body was more likely to be ravaged by turtles or crawdads than an alligator during this time of the year.

So Cheryl told a reporter covering her son's case, quote, it's never out of my head. Where is this child? He may be dead, but he's not in that lake. And if somebody did hurt my child, I want him found and I want him punished. God, I love this woman. I love her too. She is just straightforward. She is unwavering and honest.

the seek for justice for her son. I mean, she is stopping at nothing. And she won't stop. Like, this is going to continue. And again, like, she is the reason that this case does see resolution. And Mike's boss and close friend, Clay Ketchum, confirmed, quote, she was absolutely possessed with finding this out. What happened to Mike? He didn't just fall out of the boat. This wasn't just a hunting accident.

Mike's wife Denise, however, seemed to want to put the whole ordeal behind her, which is a decision that totally baffled Cheryl. So Cheryl's activism in the case began to drive a wedge between herself and her daughter-in-law and granddaughter. But unready to admit defeat and accept the fact that it was an accident, Cheryl said that she knew something was wrong with the way the details of her son's disappearance were shaking out.

But according to Clay, Denise was adamant about the investigation ceasing and said that it was making everything harder and more disturbing for both her and her daughter. So eventually fed up with, you know, the questions and the dogged research and analysis of what happened at the lake that December day, Denise threatened to cut Cheryl off from her granddaughter if she continued her digging.

Not a good look by any means. So Cheryl, however, was undeterred, as we mentioned. So Denise kept her word and severed ties with her mother-in-law and forbade her from seeing her granddaughter. Just for trying to find justice for your husband? Seems a little crazy and also suspicious. So Patty Ketchum, who's Clay's wife, said that Cheryl, quote, "...took the energy that she would have spent loving on that child and tried to find her daddy."

Then, in June of 2001, six months after Mike's disappearance, the investigation received its first piece of evidence in months.

A fisherman on the lake came upon a pair of waders floating in the water, which were determined to belong to Mike. But strangely, the detectives who removed and inspected them noted that they were in pristine condition, which they would have not been if they had just spent six months submerged in water. Remember, this is lake water in Florida, so it's probably, you know, marshy, and if they were in there, they'd probably be, like, a little bit slimy or something like that.

And for those who don't know, waders are those heavy and tall water boots that are attached to overalls. They're often used for duck hunting, they can be used for fly fishing, so yeah, if you didn't know, that's what they are.

So recovery divers were called in to search the area in which the waiters were found in hopes of pulling his body from the water. Yeah, because they're thinking if the waiters are here, did his body somehow slide out of them and his body is, you know, in this area? Exactly. So two days after the boots were found, they also stumbled upon his camouflage jacket, hunting license, and flashlight, but there was still no body.

And surprisingly, the flashlight was not waterlogged and it was also not damaged. It still worked. And none of the clothing looked as if it had spent six months in a lake, and none of it had damage from animals or a possible struggle. Now, this added more fuel to Cheryl's guerrilla investigation, so she continued investing every last cent into putting up billboards in the area, just pleading for more information.

I mean, she hung signs, handed out flyers, and talked to anybody in the community who would listen about the strange circumstances under which her son disappeared. She was absolutely relentless in her quest for justice. Four whole years passed following her son's disappearance, with no sign of him or his body. So she continued to push for an investigation, while Denise seemed to shy away from the spotlight and focus on moving forward with her daughter.

Then finally, in 2004, Cheryl managed to get her son's case reopened. And as police dug a little bit deeper, she would be shocked at what they would find.

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Now, although Mike had been bringing home a handsome salary, Denise stopped working when they brought their daughter home and she needed to get her hands on the life insurance money that her husband's policy would leave behind, which was around $1.75 million. So Mike had three active policies, one of which had been taken out a few months before his death.

But what Denise claimed was pure luck and coincidence, their close friend Brian Winchester was an insurance adjuster, and he had sold the family another life insurance policy on Mike just before he disappeared.

But she would need to have Mike declared legally dead to obtain the money first. Now, a county judge granted her request and she started the process to obtain her payout. But interestingly, Denise actually filed her claim just three weeks after Mike vanished. You

you know, because his death was listed as accidental drowning. So that's why she was able to do it so quickly and why a county judge granted her request so fast. Obviously, in the eyes of the judge, you know, this is what life insurance policies are for, right? Your spouse dies unexpectedly. You need to keep supporting yourself and the family. So you take out that money. On its head, that's not supposed to be suspicious. This is supposed to help people, right? But of course, to us,

It's looking a little bit weird that she did it so quickly and that his death was ruled as such when Cheryl and many others did not believe that this was an accident.

So that same year, Brian and his wife Kathy divorced, which, you know, this happened in 2001 after engaging in extramarital affairs. So this happened not very long after Mike went missing, which is very weird. But to the shock of all those who knew them, as well as anyone who had been following the story of Mike's disappearance, Denise and Brian began dating. Ugh.

That's so cold. I love that sigh. It's so cold. Also, remember, Mike is their best friend and their life insurance adjuster. So not only does this look really weird, but also like you were Mike's best friend. And then months after he disappears, you start dating his wife. It's kind of messed up. So more shocking than that, five years after Mike disappeared, Denise and Brian got married.

On December 4th, 2005, almost 11 years exactly since her wedding with Mike, Denise and Brian married at a local church, which really raised the eyebrows of the entire community. I mean, fair. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd say. And both Clay remembers Mike's old boss and his good friend and Clay's wife, Patty, were in attendance for the wedding. And Patty remembers, quote, the minister at some point said, I've counseled with the couple and they have no secrets I don't know. And then Clay added, quote, we kind of nudged each other like, well, there might be one little secret you don't know.

So, I mean, to say to have that feeling and thought and kind of nudge your wife during the ceremony and think that at the time is really says a lot because, you know, this was fishy to everybody. Yeah. And then to add some insult to injury here, the couple moved into the home that Mike bought for his wife and daughter and Brian became their daughter's new father figure.

Two years later, Mike's brother Nick had another piece of the puzzle that he wanted to pass along to law enforcement. Denise had returned all of Mike's weapons and all of his hunting guns, except for one: a .22 caliber Ruger pistol.

Now, Denise claims that the gun had been lost, so this then raised the suspicions of law enforcement once again, and the case was reopened. But with no forward movement, it was closed again. So there's all this back and forth of, should we reopen this case? Should we close it? Is it worth it? Yeah, they don't have that kind of smoking gun, so to speak, or literal gun. Right. Right.

But Cheryl was so unwavering in her search efforts and her suspicions that her son had been met with foul play that law enforcement stopped accepting her phone calls and tips, just writing her off as a grieving mother unable to accept her son's fate. So she forged ahead on her own, just continuing to talk to anybody who would listen about her son's case. The billboards and the flyers stayed up, and she even made a point of putting posters up at the church where Brian and Denise attended.

Cheryl wrote the governor a letter every day for nine years. That's nearly 1,500 letters in total. That, I mean, you got to think about how much time that takes. Like she cares so much about finding the truth for her son. Yeah, but the shitty thing here is that she actually had to write 1,500 letters to get. Yeah. And she, at the end, she didn't even get a response from this guy. So finally she reached somebody in the police department who would listen to her.

And when she did, they found the details suspicious enough to release an indictment. Derek Wester, an investigator with the Jackson County Police Department, claims that he originally took a meeting with her to simply appease a grieving mother. But when he did, the suspicious nature of the case was just too much to ignore. One incident that had not been publicized in the days following his disappearance was a report of an abandoned vehicle at a church down the street from Denise and Mike's home.

And when the Tallahassee Police Department investigated this, they discovered that that truck belonged to Brian Winchester. When the police department called his home, Kathy answered and claimed that she was under the impression that Brian had been out of town for a hunting trip. Puzzled that it seemed like he wasn't on this hunting trip after all, she contacted Brian's father Marcus, who went to check on the truck and pick it up. But when he arrived, the truck was gone.

So, this was very strange, and the timeline of Denise and Brian's relationship was called into question as well. And, like Cheryl, investigators wondered if they were part of the reason that Mike disappeared in the first place.

Both Denise and Brian were, of course, questioned in connection to Mike's disappearance, and officers noted that Denise was cold, aloof, and denied any involvement, offering very little information into her husband's disappearance. But Brian Winchester had more details to share.

So first off, he offered detectives what he said was an airtight alibi for the morning of December 16th, 2000, explaining that he was 60 miles or 96 kilometers away in bed at his home.

He planned to go hunting with his father-in-law that morning and apparently overslept, or so he said. But weirdly, a witness placed Brian at Lake Seminole early that morning, hours before Mike was reported missing.

Then Brian's wife, Kathy, was interviewed and she debriefed them on something that they had not been privy to. That she suspected that Denise and Brian were having an affair even before Mike was killed. And then, you know, there's the whole thing about Kathy knowing that Brian was gone that day, supposedly on a hunting trip. Meanwhile, he's lying and saying that he was home in bed, right? Yeah.

Well, meanwhile, after seven years of marriage, Denise and Brian's relationship was on the rocks and they were headed for divorce. According to Denise, Brian was struggling with sex addiction and for four years on and off, they had been attempting to, you know, get back together as Brian sought help. But in 2016, Denise was not able to get back together.

Denise had had enough and filed for divorce because this wasn't the only problem in their marriage. Denise had also claimed that Brian was abusive and threatening. Brian, however, was not giving up on their marriage without a fight. In August of that year, so 2016, as she was commuting to work, Brian hid in the back seat of Denise's car and attacked her from behind.

He pleaded with her not to leave and said that he no longer had anything to live for and that if she wouldn't take him back, he was going to kill himself.

So in her interrogation, Denise relayed what happened during this terrifying situation. She said, quote, he was screaming and I'm just like shaking. And he's telling me to stop crying that people are going to notice. I was like, are you planning on, you know, ending both of our lives today? Well, I mean, I'm planning on ending mine, he said. And then he would say, I want to kill myself. He must have said it a million times. I want to kill myself.

I was just kind of agreeing with whatever he was saying. And I was like, I know that you love me.

I mean, this is obviously a very telling event that happened, even though it was years and years after Mike disappeared. It just shows the level of desperation and kind of insanity that Brian is showing here. And manipulation. Absolutely. So Denise appeased him in the moment and managed to persuade him to get out of the car before heading to the police station for help.

Brian was arrested from his car and inside they found a tarp and bleach.

So putting two and two together kind of makes us feel like there was a reason why he had this bleach and this tarp in his vehicle. He was probably planning on disposing of Denise that day. Yeah, I mean, that's why even she said in the moment when she was in the car, she was saying, are you planning on killing both of us? Are you going to kill me? Like, what is going on? I mean, for him to hide in her backseat and attack her while she's driving is really scary. Yeah, absolutely scary.

So, he was actually charged with the kidnapping of Denise, of course, domestic assault, and burglary. With that, the marriage officially ended. Still suspecting Denise of involvement in Mike's disappearance, police attempted to eke out a confession from her. Because at this point, they finally felt like they knew what actually happened to Mike here. That Denise and Brian were having an affair, and that they worked together to get rid of him.

Tallahassee Police Department Detective David McCraney told her, quote, That is the truth. 15 years ago, he walked in and told you that he had done something, didn't he?

Well, Denise continued to deny that she had known anything about Mike's death or had anything to do with it. When asked if she knew that he was involved, Denise fired back, quote, So, without concrete evidence tying her to her husband's death, Denise walked free.

At the sentencing for Denise's kidnapping, she gave a frightened and tearful testimony, claiming that she would fear for her life if he were ever to be free again. She said to the court, quote,

For the kidnapping, domestic assault, and burglary charges, Brian was given 20 years in prison. But now that Brian knew he would never have Denise back, he was finally ready to admit what had happened so many years earlier.

17 years after Mike disappeared, the police department announced that they had found Mike's body. And this only happened because Brian struck up a plea deal after his arrest due to the kidnapping and threatening of his wife, in which he led police to where Mike's body was buried.

But he added another shocking piece of information that he may have killed Mike and stashed his body. But Denise was the one who orchestrated all of it. This is truly mind blowing. These two people who had known Mike, you know, for a very long time since high school, one of them, his wife, one of them, his best friend. And these two callous people are,

Yeah, I mean, unbeknownst to their families, Mike had not been alone duck hunting that morning. So the night before Mike vanished, he and Brian had agreed to go hunting early the next morning. And they met at the boat ramp early on December 16th. They got into the boat together. And while they were on the boat, Brian asked Mike to stand up. When Mike did, he shoved him overboard.

Now, Brian admitted, quote, I went and met Mike at a gas station. I followed him to the lake. 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. And he was in a panic, obviously. I was in a panic. I didn't know what to do. And I ended up shooting him.

So Brian assumed that Mike's boots would flood and hold him down in the water and that he would just drown and be unable to free himself. But Mike was obviously very experienced with the terrain of a lake and knew how to remove the waders while keeping his head above water.

So he, I guess, like latched onto a stump and kept himself upright that way. And then Brian claims that Mike yelled for help while he panicked and Brian circled him in the boat.

So this is a different gun than the one that Denise claimed got lost. Yeah, it's not that Ruger that actually took Mike's life. So that really makes you wonder. So

So then Brian pulled his best friend's lifeless body into the boat, desperate to cover his tracks before anyone spotted them. He headed back to the dock, backing his vehicle toward the water and loaded Mike's body into his truck.

He left the boat where it was later found floating in the water, walked to the shore, returned to his truck, and drove back to Tallahassee, only to be back to that very lake hours later to search for his missing best friend. That afternoon, Brian took Mike's body to Carr Lake, which is just over an hour southeast of Lake Seminole, and buried it in a shallow grave along the water.

However, he maintained that he may have pulled the trigger, but again, Denise was the mastermind. And disturbingly, by admitting to what he had done and giving up Denise in the process,

Brian actually avoided a murder conviction. Which is crazy on so many levels because especially if he were the one to do it, he should suffer the consequences. I do understand it from a legal standpoint in some regards that obviously they had no other evidence and proof against Brian other than

confessing and showing them where Mike's body was like they gained a lot from Brian just deciding to come forward but he still did it and now it's kind of shitty because he's like oh well now you can put all the blame on Denise but where we need in my head I would like some more evidence regarding Denise's involvement I do think that she was involved she was clearly in a relationship with Brian but

There's not really a smoking gun on her end. Yeah, it's kind of just like, well, she was the mastermind and that's basically all we get here.

So on May 8th, 2018, the day of Mike and Denise's daughter's 19th birthday, Denise was arrested while at work on the campus of Florida State University, and she was escorted off the premises in handcuffs for orchestrating the first-degree murder of her husband Mike 17 and a half years earlier.

Denise, however, continued to proclaim her innocence, saying that she was just as shocked as everybody else, and that she assumed that her first husband's death had been a boating accident for the past 18 years. According to the one investigator who would listen to Cheryl again, Derek Wester, these arrests were the, quote, Hell yeah. As Brian explained to the police, their affair began three years before Mike disappeared.

Absolutely sick and insane. Yeah.

you know, she was planning on divorcing Brian. So that's a very good point. Yeah. And they did get a divorce. Right. So it really just kind of goes back to that insurance money. She was greedy and she just wanted this money.

So for years, they carried on their affair in secret, in cars and in hotel rooms. And Brian even claimed that they would kiss and make physical contact when on double dates with their spouses, just like in private. Yeah, it's also important to know, we should have mentioned this earlier, sorry, but Brian and Denise had apparently dated in high school. So they had dated for a little while and then she was dating Mike and then she and Mike went off together.

And they were together. And Brian and Kathy were together. And then they married different people. But apparently, according to Brian, their relationship kind of never really ended. Like they were always interested in each other. They would kind of hook up on and off until, you know, 1997 ish.

They really picked up that affair again, and it lasted for three years until Mike died, and then Mike died, and then they really got together. Yeah, exactly. So after Mike's disappearance, Brian took both Denise and his wife on a vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida, and the three are pictured in what were described to the court as sexual photographs, including one of the women kissing...

Kathy also divulged that the three had engaged in a threesome before Mike was murdered. Poor Mike. I mean, just such a supportive and loving husband and dad. And all of this is going on behind his back at the hands of his wife and best friend. Like he deserved so much better. Yeah. And I'm sure that he was very good friends with Kathy as well, because it seemed like the four of them were always going on vacations together. So he got stabbed in the back by his wife, his best friend,

and his best friend's wife, who was also a good friend of his. Well, now that we're talking about Kathy as well, you know, apparently, according to Brian, a lot obviously came out during this trial. He, Brian claims that he and Denise had many conversations about how they were going to kill Mike, you know, what they were going to do. Denise apparently was the one who brought up the idea of a boating accident, but that was supposed to happen on the Gulf of Mexico. And

During doing that, actually, they had decided that they wanted to throw both Mike and Kathy overboard. Brian was the one to veto that because he didn't want to kill his wife, Kathy, and the mother of his children. Now it's just like, well, I don't want to kill my wife. Let's just kill your husband. It's kind of insane that...

this plan was, you know, stirring for a very long time. They were having conversations about it and they... I mean, Kathy really got out of this situation unharmed and it's... Thankfully, you know, because they were planning on killing her too. But so... I mean, I can't imagine...

how she felt when this all came out and she's kind of looking back and saying, yeah, you know, I did think that, that they were having an affair and then they got married and she had to deal with that. And then knowing that, that you could have been killed along in this horrible plan as well.

But they also had apparently come up with the idea to maybe kill Mike at work and make it look like a robbery gone wrong, which is very similar to a case that we covered recently on Going West. That was the murder of Robert Lamone. So very similar in that way. But then, you know, eventually, apparently they settled on this idea to do it.

that day that it happened. And it's kind of crazy also that these pictures exist where it's Brian, Kathy, and Denise apparently having a threesome together. And this was, you know, after Mike went missing, but it just kind of goes to show you that...

there was a weird dynamic going on here for a long time anyway. Well, yeah. Also, let's talk about that because Brian, he's like, oh, well, I don't want to kill my husband. I don't want to kill my wife. Let's kill your husband. And then he's having a threesome. So he's like living it up. He's like, now Mike's out of the way. I can hook up with Denise and Kathy, kind of have it all. And then he decided to get a divorce from his wife.

and be with Denise and get married, which is what they did. But I also want to talk about something else that came out in the trial, which was this tape.

Now, as we know, Kathy was already aware of their affair that they were having. She had her own suspicions, but she started working with the police before Denise's arrest. And basically she had called Denise. This was a recorded conversation that was played during Denise's trial where Kathy is essentially saying,

I know, you know, I know what you did. I know the truth about what happened to Mike. And every time she's bringing it up on this phone call, Denise is trying to change the subject. Of course. Yeah. She's trying to not talk about what happened to Mike. She's not saying, wait, you know what happened to my ex-husband? What happened? Who did this? Did something happen? She's not inquiring at all. She's just trying to push it away. Yeah.

And then eventually, you know, with Kathy's relentless pushing, Denise finally said, quote, what do you know?

And because of the way that she said it, the way that she acted during the rest of the call, the way that she acted when Mike went missing and during the investigation. Yeah. When she was questioned by police again, she acted so cold. She acted bothered like she didn't care that any of this was happening. That coupled with everything that Brian is telling us.

and the court, coupled with the fact that she was having an affair and the fact that she took out that life insurance policy with Brian on Mike months before he went missing,

And then tried to cash in on that policy and legally declare him dead. These are all of the suspicions against Denise. So that's the thing. There's no physical evidence in this case against Denise at all. But all of these things mushed together, it came to this conclusion of, well, then Denise must have had something to do with this.

Now, Denise's attorney claims that the community convicted her years prior based on assumption and not fact. Of course, they're going to say that they're going to say, well,

They're coming after her because, you know, the community is noticing that she had an affair and then she marries Mike's best friend. So, yeah, everybody is kind of like, what is going on here? Yeah. And of course, there's rumors. There's a lot of talk that goes around town. So the her attorney is essentially saying, well, everybody just likes to think she did it, but there's no evidence to prove it.

Denise addressed the courtroom saying, quote, what I am guilty of is great moral failure. But again, she staunchly denied having anything to do with her husband's death or even any knowledge of somebody killing him.

Denise and Mike's daughter, who is now 25, testified on behalf of her mother, also proclaiming her innocence. And she said this in court. I never once saw him consult with her about anything.

But in December of 2018, Denise was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, accessory after the fact, and first degree murder. And she was sentenced to life in prison. I kind of have issue with this. I do believe that she took part in this. I fully do. I think that this was something that she planned with Brian.

But knowing that Brian was the one that did it, knowing that he was abusive in other ways, so much so that he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for what he did to Denise. And then he gets off scot-free for the murder aspect. And Denise is put in prison for life without physical evidence. Just kind of...

Yeah, I kind of feel like they both should be in prison for life because they both had a part in the murder of a human being. I do wish that there was physical evidence against Denise or again, sorry to say smoking gun for the third time today, but more of a smoking gun on her part.

But I do think, I do really believe that she was involved in this. Well, so does the justice system. So you're safe here. Well, she did try to appeal her case, but her conviction was reinstated in 2021 and she was given 30 years.

Denise was described by the court as cold, calculated, and manipulative, and that she had been at the center and the cause of this entire situation. Again, of course, the victim here is Mike. Mike seemed like an amazing guy. He did not deserve any of this that happened to him, and he deserved a lot better people in his life, a much better wife, and much better friends.

So the family's assets were shifted to their daughter, which Cheryl says that she was content with, saying, quote, Mike would have wanted her to have this. Michael would have wanted her to be taken care of for the rest of her life. ♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you want to see photos from this episode and all the other cases that we've covered on this show, head over to our website,

head over to our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. We are also on Facebook. We have two pages, which is our regular Going West true crime page. And we have a discussion group. Yes. And thank you so much again to Kira and Jesse for recommending today's case. We're so glad in some way that justice was served here, but it's just so disappointing when this happens again that

That excuse of, oh, her parents were really religious and they wouldn't have approved of a divorce is so frustrating. Nobody deserves to die because somebody else wants a divorce. Get a divorce. Get a divorce. I always say it. Yeah, I always say it. And you know what? It's just such a sad and tragic case.

A horrible case of betrayal in this seemingly great guy's life. And what did it end up with? Two people in prison. Yeah, I mean, just stupid all around, right? Very stupid. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. We will see you on Friday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪

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