Trying to Quack the Case

Horrific accidents happen often: electrical wires could become exposed, someone could get hit by a vehicle, someone could drown. Like many cases that take place by the water, an automatic assumption, if someone never comes back from said body of water, that somehow the person drowned.

The podcast Crime Junkie, with Asheley Flowers, delved into a crime case with this scenario in the episode “Murdered: Jerry Michael Williams.” The set up was simple. Jerry Michael “Mike” Williams went out one morning one morning on a boat to go duck hunting. He never returned. People thought it was a freak accident, with the body unable to be found, Mike’s mother wouldn’t let the case go to rest despite Mike’s wife already preparing a funeral. (as seen in the cover image for this post). After many years, the police reopen the case and have suspicion that Mike was in fact murdered. After 20 years, Mike’s best friend Brian confesses to murdering his friend, in cahoots with Mike’s wife. They had been having an affair together and the wife, out of pride, refused to get a divorce. In a twisted end, Brian ends up shooting and killing Brain in the darkness of the morning and hides the body before anyone knows.

Although extremely messed up, it’s interesting to hear the “logic” that the murders came to into order to rational the harsh act they would be committing against a close friend, and husband. Ashley states that:

  “When they originally talked about [killing Mike], the original plan was to go out and go hunting together, and then get [Mike] in the water, and it will look like Brian survived and he didn’t. But Brian will not doing anything, he will just push him in and leave it up to God.” (31:05)

Specifically, the phrase “leave it up to God” intrigues me. These people, while wanting to rid Mike from their lives, were aware of the weight of their actions. So much so, that they were beginning to dissociate and remove themselves from the situation. I learned about dissociation is psychology as a means to cope with a stressful or otherwise difficult idea to come to terms with. It shows a small amount of rational in the murderers, that they weren’t complete psychopaths. It doesn’t redeem them, but it’s a significant distinguishing trait from other murders in the podcast series. Most of them don’t seem to show remorse for their actions.

The fact that they also chose to commit the act by the water shows meticulous planning. Water would hide the body underwater, making it harder to discover the body. And if enough time were to pass, the body would start to deteriorate faster. Although the offenders were not seasoned criminals, they were pretty thorough in their approach. If thing’s didn’t go as plan, Brian and Mike were out hunting. This means guns would be easily accessible to shoot with. I’ve learned a lot about methods of murder from these podcasts, so in comparison to most gruesome murders, it was different to see one of wife and best friend.

 

Citations

“Disappearance of Jerry Michael Williams – Alchetron, the Free Social Encyclopedia.” Alchetron.com, 12 July 2018,

Flowers, Ashley. “Murdered: Jerry Michael Williams.” Crime Junkies, 8 Apr. 2019.