Listen Now - Over My Dead Body: Gone Hunting

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Wonder. He's shocking true crime podcast
Over My Dead Body is back for a

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fourth season, Gone Hunting, with
a twisted story about a relationship built on

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a dark secret and what happens when
that secret begins to destroy everything. It

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was Mike Williams's sixth wedding anniversary when
he set off on a hunting trip into

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the gator infested swamps of North Florida. He figured he would be back in

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time to take his wife Denise out
to celebrate, but he never came back.

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Friends and loved ones feared that he
met his fate through bad luck and

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a group of hungry alligators, leaving
his wife, Denise and their young daughter

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behind. Except that's not what happened
at all, and only one person,

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his mother, wanted to keep the
case alive. She knew the real answer

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to Mike's disappearance had to be much
closer to home. After seventeen years,

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a kidnapping, a betrayal, and
finally the discovery of her son's body,

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she would be right. I'm about
to play a clip from Over My Dead

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Body, Gone Hunting. Enjoy Over
My Dead Body on the Wondery app or

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wherever you get your podcasts. You
can binge. All episodes of Over My

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Dead Body Right Now ad free on
Wondery Plus, Join Wondery Plus and the

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Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts Today. It was a freezing December morning in

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North Florida, peak duck hunting season, but no one was hunting that day.

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On the west corner of Lake Seminole, the mists that shrouded the normally

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serene shoreline was lifting. As a
crowd of game wardens, sheriff's deputies,

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and locals gathered near a boat ramp. A sense of urgency hung heavy in

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the air. More boats were showing
up, more officers were showing up.

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Scott Dung stood at the lake's edge, looking out into the murky waters when

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he spotted a helicopter clear the tree
line so it landed hundred yards away from

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where everybody was gathered on the side
of the lake. The rotor blade slowed

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to a standstill. The door swung
open, and a man in a green

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flight suit stepped out. Violet came
over, introduced himself. I just told

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the violot I'm going in the helicopter
with you. Scott wasn't a policeman or

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an emergency worker. He was out
there looking for his friend. Mike hadn't

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come home yet from duck Hunt.
It had been over twenty four hours since

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anyone had heard from Mike. Something
was definitely wrong, and in these freezing

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temperatures, Scott knew they had to
act fast. I was kind of excited,

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how that we're an the helicopter.
We're going to find him and everything's

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going to be fine. I'm gonna
be the one to find my buddy.

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I'm want to be a hero.
The chopper lifted up into the pale blue

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sky and lake seminoles stretch out below. Search boats zigzagged between patches of thick

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weeds covering the surface. Scott had
spent his life in North Florida swamps just

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like this, hunting ducks and pulling
fish out of the water. But this

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corner of the lake was different.
It was an old, flooded pekan orchard

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that was probably six hundred yards long
and maybe two hundred yards wide. Stumps

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of sunken trees rose up from the
water like tombstones, and just as many

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trees that were standing above the water, there was just that many stumps underneath

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the water, Hundreds of tree stumps
that you can't see from the boat,

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and they were slowing down the search. We had people fallen out of the

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boats just because they'd hit a stump
and he didn't know it was there,

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and that gave Scott a hunch about
what had happened to his friend Mike.

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I said, okay, if he's
gone out and he fell overboard. You

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know, the water's super cold now, the weather's cold. It didn't look

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good. Looking out over the lake, Scott spotted an island. It was

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nothing more than a patch of mud
covered in gray, dead grass. Maybe

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that's where Mike was, you know. Hopefully he got his waiters off and

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he was able to swim to the
other side and maybe catecly cushion and was

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knocked out somewhere on their island.
Scott told the pilot to hover above it.

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It was overgrown so it was hard
to see. I couldn't see much.

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Then Scott spotted something not far from
the island. There was something moving

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just beneath the surface of the water. The water was very clear because it

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was in the winter, so you'd
see the full body a dark shadow.

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And there were six or eight o
them, you know, just swimming all

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around the boats. Eight ten twelve
foot alligators. The people in the boat

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had no idea that there was a
gator even remotely close to him. That's

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when he realized. I thought,
Okay, he did fall out somewhere.

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Time was running out. We gotta
get him before the alligators get him.

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As the helicopter turned back, Scott
looked at the dark waters below him.

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He knew it was going to take
more than a helicopter ride to find his

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buddy. But what Scott didn't know. As the chopper land of that freezing

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floor to day, there were other
unseen forces at hand, other figures in

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the shadows looking close by who did
know where Mike was, and they were

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more vicious than any alligator. You
can binge all episodes of Over My Dead

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Body, Gone Hunting Early and ad
Free on Wondery Plus. Get started with

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