Accident. The thought is the alligators have eaten mike. But this lake was hiding more than gators. Mike was the only hunter that has gone overboard in that lake that had never been found. Something dont 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. Youre 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 were gonna find out what really happened. Maybe justice will be served. Hello and welcome to dateline. Mike williams doted on his wife denise and their 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. Lake seminole. An hour outside floridas 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 30yearold hunters sixth Wedding Anniversary and thered 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. The thing is, he never came back. Seemed to simply vanish. His wife, denise, called around to family. It was already Late Afternoon when mikes 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. Mikes coworker, Christie Garrett. Mike is very skilled. I mean, he is a very skilled hunter, and we thought maybe hes had an accident. As a cold front moved in, a formal search began on the 30,000acre lake. One member of the search party arrived early and stayed late. It was mikes 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 wasnt in it. His decoys were all in the boat, which of course led everybody to think obviously hed 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. Its clay. Mikes boss, clay ketcham. Brian stood with me and any time they would come up with a potential hit, brian said, i just dont wanna be here when they find mike. Manmade Lake Seminole can be treacherous for boaters. It was a onetime Peach Orchard before it was flooded and tree stumps lurk just below the surface. At night these are very hard to see. Fish and wildlife officer David Arnette you hit a stump and it you could be thrown out very easily. They didnt 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 weedfilled lake. Like most duck hunters, he was known to wear chesthigh waders and they could turn deadly just like that. Waders are bulky, theyre basically like putting two buckets on your legs. Youve got problems with them filling up with water and taking you down. And what was down there, everybody knew, were alligators. Hard to think of such an awful end for a nice hardworking 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. 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 werent stirring much. His metabolism is down so low he dont wanna eat. Theyre like a bear. They go into hibernation. Then on the tenth day of searching, officer ranew found a hunters 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. Surely that hat was as good as evidence that mike had had an accident and drowned in Lake Seminole. Mikes coworkers 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 wasnt coming back. Months went by with no sign of mike. And then, in june, something of mikes did literally surface that made people wonder. His chesthigh waders. They didnt have slime that the lake would produce. 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. 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. Fish and wildlife officers were confounded. Eventually the case of the missing boater was handed off to local sheriffs detectives to investigate. I remember telling some of the guys, investigators we might wanna look into this a little deeper,cause something dont 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 wasnt an accident. No, uhuh. Something is wrong here. When dateline continues. 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She, the cheerleader and homecoming queen. Patti ketcham, the wife of mikes boss, got to know them both. Impressions of her, patti . Just this nice just absolutely delightful. Absolutely delightful. 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 mothers day. Denise was a cpa. Mike meanwhile had become an ace Real Estate Appraiser in their hometonw of tallahassee. Mikes 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. So hes mr. Mom . Hes mr. Mom. We all said we wanted to be married to Mike Williams. I mean, we all needed a Mike Williams in our life. Mikes coworkers took mischievous delight in wondering what denise had in store for him when she called him at the office. Im across the street. Please come pump my gas . I need gas yeah. He worked upstairs so youd hear the bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam down the steps. I guess Denise Needs Gas i guess Denise Needs Gas. 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 . Brian, mikes 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 shed written mike a note. And i guess probably 30, 45 minutes later she came back. And shed been crying. The flower and the letter in particular . Those were left at the lake. Gone but definitely not forgotten, according to becky mass, denises friend and coworker. She loved him like a woman would love your life partner, your soul mate. The official Death Certificate said mike drowned while duck hunting. But for mikes family and friends, doubts started creeping in, spurred on by Little Things that just didnt add up. Like those waders found six months after mike disappeared. They looked almost pristine. No. Huhuh. Something is wrong here. Staged . I thought staged because i know that anything left in a lake for any period of time is gonna have algae on it. Speculation gave way to suspicion. Could mikes disappearance be the result of foul play . Enter the wild card, the squeakiest of squeaky wheels, Mike Williamsmother. 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. Some called cheryl williams, with her pigtails, eccentric, even crazy. But she demanded answers, appealing first to the media. And when she didnt get any results, she opened her purse and spent money she really couldnt afford. Id 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. 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. 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 mikes name and missing, and then we would fill it in with like a black sharpie. Miss cheryl, as she became known, was a onewoman 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 dont you leave . Cheryl didnt. 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 and the letters to the editor, and you became famous. Everybody called me crazy. But not everybody. Police began to take cheryl seriously after years of her struggling to draw attention to mikes case. Miss cheryl is a straightshooter and she tells it like it is. 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 wasnt for miss cheryl, this case would have never gotten into the hands of criminal investigators. But mikes widow, denise, didnt appreciate what cheryl was doing. Shes upset because she and her daddy said it was an invasion of their privacy. Denises 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. Then, denise upped the ante, laying down a demand to her motherinlaw stop raising a ruckus or cheryl would never see her granddaughter, anslee, again. So, she followed through with her promise. And your granddaughters gone. Totally gone out of my life. But i couldnt stop. I had to find out what happened to mike. 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 denises love life. Coming up all of a sudden we find out shes dating Brian Winchester. Shocking to some. Suspicious to others. Its just its so creepy. When dateline continues. Day long. sniff still fresh. Still fresh mmm, still fresh get 6x longerlasting freshness, plus Odor Protection with downy unstopables. Inez, let me ask you, youre using head and shoulders, right . Only when i see flakes. Then i switch back to my regular shampoo you should use it every wash, otherwise the flakes will come back. Hes right, you know. Is that tiny troy . The ingredients in head and shoulders keep the microbes that cause flakes at bay. Microbes, really . Theyre always on your scalp. Little rascals. But good news, theres no itchiness, dryness or flakes down here i love tiny troy. Hes the best. 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Long after Mike Williams illfated hunting trip, denise was working for the state as an accountant. A young widow raising her daughter anslee. Shed started dating again, and one day there was a new man in her life. Someone with a very familiar name. Then all of a sudden we find out shes dating Brian Winchester. Brian, mikes best friend and fishing and hunting buddy. Since their days as a happy foursome in high school and beyond, brian and his wife kathy had gotten a divorce. Friend becky maas said brian wasnt denises first relationship after mike. Denise dated other people. So she