Transcripts For MSNBC Dateline : vimarsana.com

Transcripts For MSNBC Dateline



>> the thought is the alligators have eaten mike. >> but this lake was hiding more than gators. >> mike was the only hunter that are gone overboard in that lake that had never been found. >> something don't add up. >> people were saying,"well, i bet he ran off." >> there have just been so many wild stories. >> two lovers share a secret. >> he had this desire to have her. >> there was an affair happening for years. >> they can choose each other. >> you're waiting for that crack. >> he was going to kill you to make you go away. >> obviously she knew what she had to know. >> or choose the truth. >> finally we're gonna find out what really happened. maybe justice will be served. hello and welcome to "dateline." mike williams doted on his wife and baby girl. the perfect husband. he had a successful career, cooked and cleaned, and friends joked they would like to have a mike williams of their own. suddenly mike disappeared. was it a tragic accident? one of the people who knew him best believed something more sinister was at play and would stop at nothing to uncover the truth. here is dennis murphy with "secrets of lake seminole." >> reporter: lake seminole. an hour outside florida's state capital is deep south. fishing, hunting country with spanish moss on the oaks. in season, the duck hunters are out before dawn. and it was there in the year 2000 on a december morning, an experienced outdoorsman named mike williams went duck hunting. it was the 30-year-old hunter's sixth wedding anniversary and there'd be a stay at a romantic b&b that evening. but the morning hours were his to hunt. >> that was his outlet. that was what he enjoyed. >> reporter: the thing is, he never came back. seemed to simply vanish. his wife, denise, called around to family. it was already late afternoon when mike's brother nick got the worrying news. >> there was gonna be a search already starting over at lake seminole. so we called a friend of ours and we went together. >> reporter: mike's co-worker, christie garrett. >> mike is very skilled. i mean, he is a very skilled hunter, and we thought maybe he's had an accident. >> reporter: as a cold front moved in, a formal search began on the 30,000-acre lake. one member of the search party arrived early and stayed late. it was mike's best friend going back to school days, brian winchester. he and his dad using a spotlight, made the first big discovery. >> brian winchester had found the boat. mike wasn't in it. his decoys were all in the boat, which of course led everybody to think obviously he'd never got started hunting that morning. >> what picture came together for you at that point? >> well, i think i was like everybody else. worried that he might have fallen out. >> it's clay. >> reporter: mike's boss, clay ketcham. >> brian stood with me and any time they would come up with a potential hit, brian said, "i just don't wanna be here when they find mike." >> reporter: man-made lake seminole can be treacherous for boaters. it was a one-time peach orchard before it was flooded and tree stumps lurk just below the surface. >> at night these are very hard to see. >> reporter: fish and wildlife officer david arnette. >> you hit a stump and it -- you could be thrown out very easily. >> reporter: they didn't have a body, but there was an early theory among seasoned hunters about what might have happened. mike, in the predawn hour, had hit a stump and been thrown into the weed-filled lake. like most duck hunters, he was known to wear chest-high waders and they could turn deadly just like that. >> waders are bulky, they're basically like putting two buckets on your legs. you've got problems with them filling up with water and taking you down. >> reporter: and what was down there, everybody knew, were alligators. hard to think of such an awful end for a nice hard-working husband and father like mike williams. >> popular mind the gators got him, huh? >> yes. your heart is kind of -- and your stomach is kinda gripped by that. just the sheer awfulness of it. >> reporter: but there was a big problem with the gator theory. with such unusually cold temperatures, fish and wildlife officers like alton ranew knew the alligators weren't stirring much. >> his metabolism is down so low he don't wanna eat. they're like a bear. they go into hibernation. >> reporter: then on the tenth day of searching, officer ranew found a hunter's hat floating on the water. brian, the best friend, thought it looked familiar. >> he comes up out here to the tent and shows us a photograph with mike with that hat on. >> reporter: surely that hat was as good as evidence that mike had had an accident and drowned in lake seminole. mike's co-workers liz boyette and christie garrett felt hope slip away. >> when did you both realize that this was it? >> i think we all knew that something had happened. >> true. after a few weeks had passed, we knew that mike wasn't coming back. >> reporter: months went by with no sign of mike. and then, in june, something of mike's did literally surface that made people wonder. his chest-high waders. they were as clean as this new pair and showed no sign of a gator attack. >> we found no indication of any bite marks on the waders, no indication of any human remains whatsoever. >> reporter: traces of mike, but still no body. and how unusual that was for a lake not to give up its dead. >> mike, at that point, was the only hunter/fisherman that had gone overboard in that lake that had never been found. >> reporter: fish and wildlife officers were confounded. eventually the case of the missing boater was handed off to local sheriff's detectives to investigate. >> i remember telling some of the guys, investigators we might wanna look into this a little deeper, 'cause something don't add up. >> one year after mike goes missing, his wife denise visits the lake for a final goodbye. coming up -- >> >> she had a flower with her and she had written mike a note. >> and there is growing suspicion this wasn't an accident. >> no, huh-uh. something is wrong here. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues when eye allergens attack, the itch can last 24 hours. but with pataday once daily relief extra strength you get fast, 24-hour relief in one drop. make it a pataday with the drop that's right for you. now without a prescription. everywhere. these are real people, not actors, who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. i'll be observing your safe-driving abilities. play your cards right, and you could be in for a tasty discount. 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[ tires screech ] well, that came out of nowhere. advil dual action fights pain 2 ways. it's the first and only fda approved combination of advil plus acetaminophen. advil targets pain. acetaminophen blocks it. advil dual action. fast pain relief that lasts 8 hours. >> reporter: duck hunter mike williams had disappeared on lake seminole and his wife, denise, was alone with a young daughter to raise. their life story began as high school sweethearts. he, the football star and student council president. she, the cheerleader and homecoming queen. patti ketcham, the wife of mike's boss, got to know them both. impressions of her, patti? >> just this nice -- just absolutely delightful. absolutely delightful. >> reporter: after attending a private christian high school, the two graduated from hometown florida state university and got married. their baby girl, anslee, was born on mother's day. denise was a cpa. mike's boss was amazed despite the 15 hour days mike put in at office, he made time to take care of the home front. >> make sure that dinner was ready, laundry got going. >> reporter: so he's mr. mom? >> he's mr. mom. we all said we wanted to be married to mike williams. i mean, we all needed a mike williams in our life. >> reporter: mike's co-workers took mischievous delight in wondering what denise had in store for him when she called him at the office. >> "i'm across the street. please-- >> "come -- >> "i need gas -- >> reporter: "come pump my gas"? >> yeah. >> he worked upstairs so you'd hear the bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam down the steps. >> i guess denise needs gas -- >> i guess denise needs gas. >> reporter: but now with mike gone, denise would be the sole provider for their young daughter. fortunately, mike had several hefty insurance policies. >> you have a small child and a wife to take care of, sure. yeah, you need to get insurance, you know? >> reporter: brian, mike's best friend, and an insurance broker himself, helped denise navigate the claims process. for as long as most people could remember denise and mike, and brian and his wife kathy had been couples together. they all attended that private christian high school, married their high school sweethearts, and had children about the same time. and then came lake seminole. after a year had gone by since mike disappeared, denise asked patti to take her to the lake. >> she told me how she had been going to a christian counselor, and he had encouraged her to do this. and she had a flower with her and she'd written mike a note. and i guess probably 30, 45 minutes later she came back. she'd been crying. >> reporter: the flower and the letter in particular. >> those were left at the lake. >> reporter: gone but definitely not forgotten according to becky mass, denise's friend and co-worker. >> she loved him like a woman would love your life partner, your soul mate. >> reporter: the official death certificate said mike drowned while duck hunting, but for mike's family and friends, doubts started creeping in, spurred on by little things that just didn't add up. like those waders found six months after mike disappeared. they looked almost pristine. >> no. huh-uh. something is wrong here. >> reporter: staged? >> i thought staged because i know that anything left in a lake for any period of time is gonna have algae on it. >> reporter: speculation gave way to suspicion. could mike's disappearance be the result of foul play? enter the wild card, the squeakiest of squeaky wheels, mike williams' mother, who simply was not buying the official story that mike, an experienced outdoorsman, had an accident on that lake. >> mike is not in lake seminole. he did not drown. he did not get eaten by alligators. >> reporter: some called cheryl williams, with her pigtails, eccentric, even crazy. but she demanded answers, appealing first to the media. and when she didn't get any results she opened her purse and spent money she really couldn't afford. >> i take out an ad in the "tallahassee democrat" and i ask the public to help me find my son. it was a $1,200 ad. >> reporter: earnings from the daycare center she operated out of her home. >> you have to change a lotta diapers to pay for an ad that expensive. but it got publicity. >> reporter: some of the day care center kids, now all grown like marya denmark, remembered making missing person posters. >> i was only 6 years old when mike went missing. i remember somebody would draw out mike's name and missing, and then we would fill it in with like a black sharpie. >> reporter: miss cheryl, as she became known, was a one-woman campaign. she wrote letters to the governor every day for years, 2,600 in all. she paid for billboards and stood outside churches with posters. >> the ministers would get mad because i was outside their church. "miss williams, why don't you leave?" >> reporter: cheryl didn't. you were getting a reputation around town as this kind of batty lady with the pigtails out there with her signs and the billboards -- >> everybody -- >> reporter: -- and the letters to the editor, and you became famous. >> everybody called me crazy. >> reporter: but not everybody. police began to take cheryl seriously after years of her struggling to draw attention to mike's case. >> miss cheryl is a straight-shooter and she tells it like it is. >> reporter: will mickler is an agent with the fdle, the florida department of law enforcement, a top cops agency with statewide jurisdiction. four years after mike went missing, they agreed to take the case. >> if it wasn't for miss cheryl this case would have never gotten into the hands of criminal investigators. >> reporter: but mike's widow, denise, didn't appreciate what cheryl was doing. >> she's upset because she and her daddy said it was an invasion of their privacy. >> reporter: denise's friend, becky mass, in her defense, said denise told cheryl to stop all the noise because it was confusing her daughter. >> mrs. williams had very strong feelings that mike was still alive. and she was telling that to the little girl when by all accounts he was not. >> nick and i never told anslee that her daddy was alive. never. >> reporter: then, denise upped the ante, laying down a demand to her mother-in-law -- stop raising a ruckus or cheryl would never see her granddaughter, anslee, again. >> so she followed through with her promise. >> reporter: and your granddaughter's gone. >> totally out of my life. but i couldn't stop. i had to find out what happened to mike. >> reporter: and that smoldering stalemate between cheryl and denise held fast as the years went by. in time, denise williams began dating, even thinking about marriage with one of her suitors. but soon the rumor mill would be abuzz with a more sensational take on denise's love life. coming up -- >> all of a sudden we find out she's dating brian winchester. >> shocking to some. suspicious to others. >> it's just -- it's so creepy. >> when "dateline" continues. 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