On December 16, 2000, which happened to be his 6th wedding anniversary, he went out to pursue his hobby. Promised his wife he’d be back in time for the celebration, he never returned.
Search and rescue team found his boat and shotgun the next day, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Initial reactions were that he may have drowned, but his body could not be found. Since the lake inhabited alligators, the blame was on cold-blooded animals. It was assumed that he fell off his boat and was eaten by the gators. Mike remained on the ‘missing list’ though.
Six months later his waders, torch, hunting license and safety jacket were found floating in the lake.
On his wife Denise’s request, he was declared “dead by accidental drowning.”
She married another man, Brian Winchester, in December 2005. He was Mike’s high school friend and an Insurance agent.
Thousands of letters from Mike’s mom and the case was reopened. She just didn’t feel her son had disappeared and was eaten by the gators. By then, it was clear to the investigators that alligators don’t eat humans as a whole, and they don’t even eat during winters.
So, this pointed towards some serious foul play. There was no evidence to arrest anyone, however.
Sixteen years of no evidence, the police arrested Brian Winchester in August 2016 for allegedly kidnapping Denise. He did so because she wanted to divorce him.
On Denise’s request, the judge agreed to turn down Winchester’s bail application. She said he would kill her and her daughter.
On December 19, 2017, Winchester was sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed kidnapping of Denise. The very next day, on December 20, Mike’s remains were found.
In May 2018, Denise Williams got arrested under the charge of first-degree murder. Three months later, in August, she was charged with insurance fraud worth $1.75 million.
The matter got into the trial phase, and Winchester testified against Denise for plotting the murder. He told the court he pushed Mike into the water to make it look like an accident, but it didn’t work. So, he shot him in the head and buried his body in the mud near Carr Lake.
Denise, in February 2019, was sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree murder and an additional 30 years for conspiring the crime. There is no possibility of parole.
Winchester, though the killer, remained immune from murder conviction because he testified against Denise.
(fox news)
The only flaw in this crime was planting the evidence six months later. All of that was intact. No signs of gators' tooth or blood on any of the recovered items. The torch worked absolutely fine.
And then asking to declare him dead within six months of his disappearance. Usually, it takes five years to get it done.
It took about 2600 letters to the authorities from a loving mother to find the killer(s) of her son after more than 18 years of his disappearance. Continue reading
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