had disappeared on lake seminole, and his wife, denise, was alone with a young daughter to raise. their 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. 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 meanwhile had become an ace real estate appraiser in their hometonw of tallahassee. mike s boss was amazed despite the 15 hour days mike put in at office,
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 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. the thing is, he never came back. seemed to simply vanish. his wife, denise, called around
they found the boat. mike wasn t in it. we thought maybe he s had an 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 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 denise and their baby girl. the perfect husband. he had a successful career, cooked and
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 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. 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. 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. 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
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. 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. 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