The murder trial for Denise Williams has started. She's accused of conspiring to murder her former husband, Mike Williams, with ex-husband Brian Winchester. Here's how we've gotten here:

The initial search at Lake Seminole

On Dec. 16, 2000, Mike Williams, 31, went missing following an early morning duck hunt at Lake Seminole on the Florida-Georgia state line. A search effort was organized by land, water, and air.

In the middle of the night the following day, Brian Winchester, Mike Williams' best friend, and his father, Marcus Winchester, discovered Williams' boat. By daybreak, authorities were able to take photos of the boat and the scene.

Denise Williams gets kidnapped

By January 2001, search efforts were reduced and by June of that year, Williams' wife, Denise Williams, requested for her husband to be declared dead. Leon Circuit Judge John E. Crusoe complied with the request, declaring Williams dead by "accidental drowning."

Denise Williams then collected on two life insurance policies totaling more than $2 million, one of which had been sold to her late husband by Brian Winchester. Almost five years after Mike Williams' disappearance, Brian and Denise married. But the union didn't last forever.

Timeline:From a duck hunting disappearance to a murder charge

The marriage officially ended in 2017, a year after Brian kidnapped Denise at gunpoint. Court documents showed Brian's fear of what his wife may tell authorities concerning Mike's disappearance were what drove him to kidnap her.

He was sentenced to 20 years for that crime in December 2017, but two months earlier, Brian struck a plea deal for immunity in the death of Mike Williams with authorities in exchange for details about the case.

Brian Winchester's confession

Brian testified that he pushed Mike out of the boat at Lake Seminole and after he surprisingly surfaced in the water, shot him in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun.

“He went under the water and — so I found him in the water and I drug him to the shoreline,” Winchester said.

He said he transported his body in the back of his Chevy Suburban, and pushed his boat back out to the water on Lake Seminole.

He told authorities he buried him at the edge of Carr Lake off North Meridian Road, then went home. Almost 17 years after Mike's killing, authorities located the burial site, finding him in a jacket, waders, and wedding ring.

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'2 million reasons for this to happen'

Brian said that he and Denise had been having an affair long before Mike's death. In discussions with authorities, he said Denise "had two million reasons for this to happen," suggesting the pair plotted the crime together, with plans to make it look like a boating accident.

“We would be together and live happily ever after and, as a side note, we’d have all this money and enjoy a wonderful life together,” Brian said from his prison cell at the Wakulla Correctional Institute. "Stupid, stupid 30-year-old."

In May 2018, Denise was arrested.

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

Questions and a trial for Denise Williams

Two years prior, after her kidnapping by Brian in 2016, Denise spoke with authorities. Officials focused the conversation on Mike Williams' disappearance.

"Do you think he's (Brian) responsible for Mike's disappearance?" the unnamed official asks.

"I do not, and I never have," Denise responds. "I would have never married him if I thought that."

Denise's murder trial began and ended with her being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree murder and accessory after the fact in December 2018. She was sentenced to life in prison in February 2019.

Nate Chute is a producer with the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter at @nchute.