Episode Transcript
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0:00
Wondery's shocking true crime podcast,
0:02
Over My Dead Body, is back for its fourth
0:05
season, Gone Hunting, with a twisted
0:07
story about a relationship built on a dark
0:09
secret and what happens when that secret
0:12
begins to destroy everything. It
0:14
was Mike Williams' sixth wedding anniversary
0:16
when he set off on a hunting trip into the gator-infested
0:19
swamps of North Florida. He figured he'd
0:21
be back in time to take his wife Denise out to
0:23
celebrate, but he never came back. His
0:26
friends and loved ones feared he met his fate
0:28
through bad luck and a group of hungry alligators,
0:31
leaving his wife Denise and their young daughter
0:33
behind. Except, that's not what
0:35
happened at all, and only one person,
0:38
his mother, wanted to keep the case
0:40
alive. She knew the real answer to Mike's
0:42
disappearance had to be much closer to home.
0:45
After 17 years, a kidnapping,
0:47
a betrayal, and finally the discovery
0:50
of her son's body, she would be
0:52
right. I'm about to play a clip from Over
0:54
My Dead Body, Gone Hunting. Enjoy
0:56
Over My Dead Body on the Wondery app
0:59
or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:00
You can binge all episodes of
1:02
Over My Dead Body right now, ad-free
1:05
on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus
1:07
in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts
1:09
today.
1:16
It was a freezing December morning
1:19
in North Florida. It was
1:21
a bleak duck hunting season, but no
1:23
one was hunting that day on the west
1:25
corner of Lake Seminole. The
1:29
mist that shrouded the normally serene
1:31
shoreline was lifting as a
1:33
crowd of game wardens, sheriff's deputies,
1:36
and locals gathered near a boat ramp. A
1:39
sense of urgency hung heavy
1:40
in the air. More boats were showing up.
1:43
More officers were showing up. Scott
1:45
Dungy stood at the lake's edge
1:48
looking out into the murky waters. Then
1:50
he spotted a helicopter
1:51
clear the tree line. So
1:53
it landed 100 yards away from where everybody
1:56
was gathered on the side of the lake. The rotor
1:58
blades slowed to a standstill. The
2:02
door swung open and a man in a green
2:04
flight suit stepped out. The pilot came
2:06
over and introduced himself. I just
2:08
told the pilot, I'm going in the helicopter with
2:10
you.
2:12
Scott wasn't a policeman or an
2:14
emergency worker. He was out there
2:16
looking for his friend. Mike
2:18
hadn't come home yet from duck hunt. It
2:20
had been over 24 hours since anyone
2:22
had heard from Mike. Something was definitely
2:25
wrong. And in these freezing
2:27
temperatures, Scott knew they had to
2:29
act fast. I was kind
2:31
of excited that we're in the helicopter,
2:34
we're going to find them and everything's
2:36
going to be fine. I'm going to be the one
2:38
to find my buddy. I'm going to
2:40
be a hero. The
2:41
chopper lifted up into the pale blue
2:43
sky and Lake Seminole stretched
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out below. Search boats
2:48
zigzagged between patches of thick weeds
2:50
covering the surface. Scott
2:53
had spent his life in North Florida swamps
2:55
just like this, hunting ducks
2:57
and pulling fish out of the water. But
2:59
this corner of the lake was
3:00
different. It was an old flooded
3:03
pecan orchard that was probably 600 yards
3:06
long and maybe 200 yards wide.
3:11
Stumps of sunken trees rose up from the
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water like tombstones. And
3:17
just as many trees that were standing
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above the water, there was just that
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many stumps underneath the water, hundreds
3:24
of tree stumps that you can't see from the boat.
3:27
And they were slowing down the search.
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We had people falling out of the boats just
3:32
because they'd hit a stomp and you didn't know it was there. And
3:34
that gave Scott a hunch about what had happened to his
3:36
friend Mike. I said, okay, if he's
3:39
gone out and he fell overboard,
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you know, the water's super
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cold now, the weather's cold. It didn't
3:45
look good.
3:46
Walking
3:51
out over the lake, Scott spotted
3:53
an island. It was nothing more
3:55
than a patch of mud covered in gray, dead
3:57
grass. Maybe that's where Mike
3:59
was.
3:59
was. You know, hopefully
4:02
he got his waders off and he was able to swim
4:04
to the other side and maybe had a concussion
4:07
and was knocked out somewhere on their island.
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Scott told the pilot to hover above it.
4:12
It was overgrown so it was hard to see. Couldn't
4:15
see much. Then Scott spotted
4:17
something. Not far from the
4:19
island there was something moving just
4:21
beneath the
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surface of the water. The water
4:24
was very clear because it was in the winter so
4:27
you'd see the full body. A dark
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shadow. And there were six
4:31
or eight of them, you know, just swimming
4:34
all around the boats. Eight,
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ten, twelve foot alligators. The people
4:39
in the boat had no idea that there was a gator even remotely
4:42
close to them.
4:43
That's when he realized. I
4:45
thought okay if he did fall
4:47
out somewhere. Time was running out. We
4:50
got to get him before the alligators get him. As
4:52
the helicopter turned back, Scott
4:55
looked at the dark waters below him. He
4:58
knew it was going to take more than a helicopter
5:00
ride to find his buddy.
5:02
But what Scott
5:04
didn't know as the chopper landed
5:06
that freezing floor today, there
5:08
were other unseen forces at hand.
5:11
Other figures in the shadows lurking close
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by who did know where Mike
5:16
was.
5:16
And
5:18
they were more vicious than any
5:20
alligator.
5:29
You can binge all episodes of Over
5:31
My Dead Body, Gone Hunting Early,
5:33
and add free on Wondery Plus. Get
5:35
started with your free trial at Wondery.com
5:39
slash
5:39
plus.
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