A Florida woman whose husband was feared eaten by alligators after he went missing during a hunting trip in 2000 has now been charged with his murder.
Denise Williams, 48, was arrested Tuesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at her Tallahassee accounting office at Doak Campbell Stadium at Florida State University in connection with the death of her husband, Jerry Michael Williams, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. She was booked into the Leon County jail on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and accessory after the fact.
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Jerry, 31, who went by Mike Williams, disappeared in December 2000 after he had reportedly gone duck hunting on Lake Seminole, located near Tallahassee. After his boat and car were found, he was presumed to have drowned and been eaten by alligators. However, in 2004, authorities began to reinvestigate the case.
His body was eventually discovered in six feet of mud near a boat landing at the end of a dead-end road near Tallahassee in December 2017. Law enforcement called the location a “nasty, wicked” place.
A grand jury indictment, which was unsealed Tuesday night and obtained by PEOPLE, alleges that Williams and her future husband, Brian Winchester, conspired for nine months to murder Jerry. It is believed that Winchester fatally shot Williams on Dec. 16, 2000, though he has not yet been charged in connection to his death.
It is alleged that Winchester helped Williams take out a $1 million insurance policy on her husband before marrying her in 2005, though they split in 2016. After Williams convinced a county judge to declare Jerry accidentally dead less than six months after his disappearance, she collected $1.75 million in life insurance.
The indictment further states that Williams covered up the crime between Aug. 1, 2014, and Dec. 19, 2017.
“I am surprised the grand jury indicted her,” said Williams’ attorney, Ethan Way. “There’s been a drumbeat against her for years, but she has nothing to do with Mike Williams’ death. We will be mounting a vigorous defense and we are going to fight this.”
Winchester, who has not been charged, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after he kidnapped Williams at gunpoint during their divorce in 2016. The indictment states that the kidnapping stemmed from Winchester fearing that Williams would tell authorities the truth of how Jerry died.
“We don’t anticipate him being charged. If he’s subpoenaed or granted immunity, he will cooperate and testify truthfully at any hearing,” said Tim Jansen, the attorney for Winchester.
Williams is currently being held without bail.
