Mother a driving force as jury finds answers to Florida man's 2000 disappearance

This story previously aired on June 20, 2020. It was updated on Aug. 3, 2024. DENISE WILLIAMS : We're just totally overwhelmed. She was due Tuesday and she would have made me wait a whole 'nother year for Mother's Day. CHERYL WILLIAMS [WCTV-TV REPORT]: 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 'em found and I want 'em punished. MATT ARESCO [WCTV-TV REPORT]: Cold weather, um, causes water temperatures to drop so alligators don't feed in the winter time. CHERYL WILLIAMS [WCTV-TV REPORT]: And it's horrible not knowing what happened to him. CHERYL WILLIAMS [WCTV-TV REPORT]: Until God tells me in my heart that that child is dead, I cannot give up looking for him. IN THE INTERROGATION ROOM:  IN THE INTERROGATION ROOM:  DET. DAVID MCCRANIE:  I know Denise, he did it and you know exactly what I'm talking about … and he was gonna do it again. DET. DAVID MCCRANIE: Fifteen years ago he walked in and told that you he had done something. Didn't he? SPECIAL AGENT MIKE DEVANEY: Do you think he's responsible for Mike's disappearance? SPECIAL AGENT MIKE DEVANEY: Where do you think Mike's buried at?  TIM JANSEN [in court]: My client would like to address the courtroom. BRIAN WINCHESTER [in court]: Never ever did I have any intentions of harming Denise, nor would I. Nonetheless I do know that she was hurt by my actions and again I am truly sorry. DENISE WILLIAMS [in court]: I start each day, with the memory of him jumping out of the back. And I end each day feeling the gun shoved in my ribs when I turn on my right side trying to sleep [cries]. DENISE WILLIAMS [in court]: He will finish what he has started no matter what age he is when he is released … DENISE WILLIAMS [in court]: 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 am asking you please, choose mine. Thank you. FDLE PRESS CONFERENCE: Standing here now, I can tell you that we know what happened to Mike Williams. He was murdered. BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION: 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. BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION:  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 … (cries). BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION: I backed my Suburban down to the edge of the lake and put his body in the back and pushed his boat back out into the water. BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION: She would not get divorced and so she basically said there's only one solution. BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION: We would end up together, we would live happily ever after, oh, and as a side note, we've got all this money to enjoy a wonderful life together. WCTV-TV ANCHOR: This woman is behind bars at Leon County tonight, a grand jury indicting her for allegedly killing her husband nearly 18 years ago. BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION: Her story that she needed to believe … was the story that we created for her, which was that she was at home with her baby, Mike went hunting and she has no idea what happened. PROSECUTOR JON FUCHS [in court]: Denise likes the sound of being a widow much more than being a divorcee. Obviously, you can't be caught with a murder. So, they had to make it look like an accident. BRIAN WINCHESTER CONFESSION: You know …I committed this horrible crime to be with her. ETHAN WAY: When you shot Mike Williams at Lake Seminole with a 12-gauge shotgun, was Denise Williams standing with you? PROSECUTOR JON FUCHS: The initial theory was that he was missing and possibly eaten by alligators. JUDGE JAMES C. HANKINSON [to Denise Williams]: This is a strategy decision … You understand it's a little bit out of the ordinary. I guess for want of a better word it's a little bit of a gamble. If convicted as charged on first-degree murder … my hands are going to be tied … on sentencing, you understand that? ETHAN WAY: This is not a case about trying to get, quote, "Justice for Mike." …This is a murder case. … There's no evidence that supports any of the allegations against my client. … We are counting on you to return a verdict that speaks the truth and that verdict is not guilty. JUDGE HANKINSON READS VERDICT: As to count one of the indictment, the defendant is guilty of conspiracy to commit first- degree murder. As to count two, we the jury find the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder. As to count three … the defendant is guilty of accessory after the fact of first-degree murder.

Produced by Josh Gelman and Jaime Hellman MIKE WILLIAMS: It was unbelievable. I have a whole new respect for my wife and women in general and what they go through to bring a, a new child, new life into the world. DENISE WILLIAMS: He's screaming and I'm just like shaking. And he's telling me to stop crying that people are going to notice. DENISE WILLIAMS: I was just kind of agreeing with whatever he was saying. And I was like, "I know that you love me…" DET. DAVID MCCRANIE: He wasn't gonna kill himself Denise, he was gonna kill you so that you couldn't talk about him later. That is the truth. DENISE WILLIAMS: No. DENISE WILLIAMS: I do not and I never have, I would have never married him if I thought that … I mean in my mind and in my heart, no. DENISE WILLIAMS: Oh, I - I have no idea. INVESTIGATOR: Where did you shoot him? BRIAN WINCHESTER [in court]: We wanted to be together and we weren't going to let anything stop that. BRIAN WINCHESTER: No, she wasn't, she was in my head, behind me. CHERYL WILLIAMS: Right. DENISE WILLIAMS: Yes. PROSECUTOR JON FUCHS: Think back - three days ago, Brian Winchester's on the stand, describing how he shot his best friend. …Everybody in this entire room was moved by … the sheer horror of that situation. Except for one person. That one person sat here … absolute stone-faced. Didn't bat an eye. Didn't shed a tear.  …That lady right there, Ms. Denise Williams is guilty.

Mike Williams, a successful 31-year-old real estate appraiser, left home to go duck hunting on Lake Seminole in Florida on Dec. 16, 2000. His wife Denise said he set out early and promised to be back by noon so they could celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary that evening. When he didn't return home, Denise started calling around looking for him. Six hours later, a massive search was underway. DENISE WILLIAMS:  I was like, "are you planning on, y'know ending both of our lives today?" "Well, mine. I'm planning on mine." And then he would say "I want to kill my – " he must have said a million times "I want to kill myself." DET. DAVID MCCRANIE: Denise.  SPECIAL AGENT MIKE DEVANEY: Any speculation on that?  BRIAN WINCHESTER: In the head. BRIAN WINCHESTER [in court]:  We had an agreement that she would never say anything about me and I would never say anything about her, because we felt like as long as neither one of us talked that nobody would ever find out what happened. ETHAN WAY: Is it fair to say that over the years you've been obsessed with Denise Williams? PROSECUTOR JON FUCHS: You never believed that, did you?