'Oh, my gosh!': 17 years after Mike Williams disappearance, wife is charged in his murder

Denise Merrell Williams was planning to spend Tuesday evening celebrating her daughter’s 19th birthday.

Instead, six law enforcement officers descended on her office at Florida State University, locked her in handcuffs and hauled her off to jail on charges she murdered her late husband and the girl’s father, Mike Williams.

More than 17 years after he went missing, the past caught up with Denise. She met it with dry-eyed, stone-faced silence.

Minutes before her arrest at about 4 p.m., a Leon County grand jury indicted the 48-year-old on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and accessory after the fact.

It was the biggest bombshell yet in the disappearance of Williams, the affable 31-year-old real estate appraiser who never returned after supposedly going duck hunting alone the morning of Dec. 16, 2000, on Lake Seminole in Jackson County.

Five months ago, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement revealed the first major breakthrough in the vexing cold case – the discovery of Mike Williams’ murdered body. Physical evidence, so long always elusive, changed everything.

“Oh, my gosh,” said Clay Ketcham, Mike’s boss and a close friend. “I never thought this day would get here. It’s horrible. But it’s a feeling of coming to resolution.”

For more than 17 years Denise stuck by the story that her high school sweetheart was the victim of a tragic boating accident. She was the grieving widow, who asked after he disappeared without a trace that her privacy be respected. She was the wronged daughter-in-law who dismissed Mike’s mom, Cheryl Williams, for never buying theories he fell from the boat and was eaten by alligators.

And she was the efficient administrator of her husband’s estate. In just six months, absent a body and without any notice to his family, she convinced a county judge to declare him dead. She collected $1.75 million in life insurance and later married his best friend, Brian Winchester, who sold Mike one of the policies six months before he went missing.

Former Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Derrick Wester, one of the first to investigate the case Cheryl Williams pressed to have opened in 2004, will never forget interviewing Denise.

“She’s the coldest person I’ve ever been around,” he said Tuesday. “I hope they’ve got a good case and she gets what she deserves.”

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'Relentless effort'

FDLE officials, who orchestrated the arrest, have not disclosed what happened to Williams, only that evidence proved conclusively he was murdered. State Attorney Jack Campbell also would not discuss the specifics of the case, including how Mike was killed or Denise’s alleged role in his murder.

“I’m going to let the facts come out” through the court system, he said.

Denise will have her first appearance in court Wednesday morning and the state will oppose any effort by her to seek bail.

She is being represented by criminal defense attorney Ethan Way, of Tallahassee, who declined to comment when reached Tuesday afternoon because he had not yet talked to his client nor read any of the charges against her.

Campbell also would not say if anyone else will be charged in Mike’s murder. So far, Denise is the sole defendant in the case.

“It depends on where the evidence and the investigation goes,” Campbell said.

Assistant State Attorney Jon Fuchs, the lead prosecutor in the case, added: “If the evidence reveals other people are responsible and can be legally charged then we will do so.”

Denise’s arrest comes nearly five months after her now ex-husband Winchester was sentenced to 20 years in prison for kidnapping her at gunpoint in August 2016. She’d filed for divorce and he jumped her in her car one morning because she wouldn’t return his calls. According to court records, he was afraid once the divorce was final, she would tell the police what really happened to Mike.

Under Florida law, spouses cannot be compelled to disclose confidential communication between one another in criminal cases. The couple was divorced last May while Winchester was being held in the Leon County Detention Center.

On Oct. 19, Winchester, 47, entered a plea agreement with prosecutors that guaranteed the state would not seek life in prison on the armed kidnapping charges and that certain evidence would not be presented at his sentencing hearing.

The agreement was executed the day after Mike Williams’ body was found after an unprecedented search, buried in six feet of muck near the primitive boat landing at the dead end of Gardner Road.

Winchester’s defense attorney, Tim Jansen, of Tallahassee, would not say if his client, who is incarcerated at Wakulla Correctional Institute, provided any information that led to the revelations in the Williams’ case.

“We cannot comment on the investigation, however, if he is subpoenaed and compelled to testify with immunity he will testify truthfully at any and all proceedings,” said Jansen. “We do not anticipate him being charged with the murder."

Moments after Denise was taken away from Doak Campbell Stadium, where she'd been working at her desk in the controller's office, FDLE Special Agent in Charge Mark Perez praised investigators.

"We’ve had this case for 15 years, and the relentless effort in working with prosecutors and then ultimately the grand jury in bringing those responsible for Mike Williams’ (death) to justice is a great reward," he said. "Hopefully, this will bring peace and resolution to the Williams family.”

'A remarkable woman'

Immediately after the grand jury indictment, Campbell and Fuchs raced to Cheryl Williams' house to deliver the news. More than anyone, she deserved to know.

"She's a remarkable woman," Campbell said.

It was Cheryl Williams who never could get past the cockamamie alligator theory, who would not ignore that mother’s bone-deep certainty her first-born was not in that weed-choked lake.

It was her relentless questioning, her tenacity to keep pushing for answers that kept the case alive, despite condemnation, ridicule and, worst of all, Denise cutting her off from Mike's only child, her granddaughter, Anslee.

But learning Mike was murdered was a brutal blow, one she's been having a hard time taking. She's not been well, her sciatica has been bad.

"For 17 years I thought Mike was alive, then on Dec. 20 he wasn't, and he was dead, and he was dead all this time," she told the Democrat last week.

She was calling to check on the birthday greeting she takes out in the newspaper every year for Anslee's birthday. She always wanted the girl who was just 18-months old when her dad vanished to know no matter what, her Grand Mama Cheryl loves her.

It was an advertisement Cheryl Williams paid for in the Democrat in 2006 that sparked the first media interest in her son's mysterious case. Volumes of stories in the Democrat would follow in the dozen years to come.

Anslee's 19th birthday wishes ran in Tuesday's newspaper, tucked at the bottom of page A2.

"If I don't hear from her next year, I'll know she doesn't want anything to do with me," Cheryl said with an uncharacteristic sigh of fatigue and defeat.

Cheryl Williams didn't answer her phone Tuesday evening to talk about the news of Denise's arrest.

Campbell and Fuchs said she was deeply emotional and appreciative.

Contact News Director Jennifer Portman at jportman@tallahassee.com

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