True Crime Campfire - Material Girl: The Murder of Greg Williams

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

The Rolling Stones told us “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” but some people DO get what they want…just not necessarily what they need. This week’s story is about a woman with a tempestuous life who got just what she wanted—wealth, stability, and love—and then took a wrecking ball and smashed it all into pieces. This one has some strange twists and turns! Sources:CNN's Vengeance: Killer Millionaires, episode “Murder in the Mansion” CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-michele-williams-trial-temptation-in-texas/Court Papers: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/tx-court-of-appeals/1762304.htmlInvestigation Discovery's Deadly Women, episode “Making a Killing”Lifetime's Meet, Marry, Murder, episode “Michele Williams” Oxygen's Snapped, episode “Michele Williams”Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. The Rolling Stones told us you can't always get what you want. But some people do get what they want. Just not necessarily what they need. This week's story is about a woman with a tempestuous life who got just what she wanted. Wealth, stability, and love.

And then took a wrecking ball and smashed it on to pieces. This is Material Girl, the murder of Greg Williams. So, Camper's. for this one, we're in Keller, Texas, a well-to-do town just north of Fort Worth, October 13th, 2011. At around 4.40 a.m., 9-1-dispatch received a.m. 9-1-dispatch received a.m. from 42-year-old Michelle Williams about her husband, Greg. When the dispatcher asked her what was going on, Michelle gasped out, I don't know, he was shot. Somebody was in the house. He's bleeding really bad. He was shot in the head. Police and paramedics arrived to find Michelle crying on the porch.

A big lump on the side of her face was already starting to bruise an ugly color. She told them the intruder had run out through the back door. All she could say about him was that he was a man in dark clothing. Greg was in their bedroom, she said, and their young daughter Michaela was on the couch in the living room. Despite what Michelle said about the intruder running away, three officers checked the house to make sure the guy wasn't still there. The paramedics spent most of their time checking on Michelle and Michaela. It had only taken them a few moments to see that Greg William, was dead. Shot in the right temple as he lay in bed, blood soaking the covers and the floor

beside the bed. Between the bed and the open door that led out to the backyard, police found a gun, a shell casing, and a big wrench. The outside of the door had scratch marks all around the lock where somebody tried to pry it open, and an officer found a screwdriver in the yard that matched the marks. At the police station, Michelle told detectives she had been asleep on the couch in the living room with Michaela when she heard a noise from the bedroom. She ran in and was terrified when a man in black jumped out in front of her and swung something at her, smacking her in the face and briefly knocking her out. When she came to, she saw the awful gunshot wound to her husband's head. So at first glance, this looked like the classic robbery gone bad, leading to a

tragic and violent murder that shattered this happy family into pieces, right when things were really taking off. The very next day, Greg and Michelle were supposed to close on a gorgeous new $4.5 million home. Greg Williams grew up in Dallas in the 70s and 80s. His family were just about middle class. His dad was an electrician, his mom worked in retail, and money was always tight, which caused a lot of arguments between the parents, but they looked after their kids well. Greg's first wife, Kathy, would later tell investigation discovery, he had a very good upbringing. His parents didn't divorce until he was an adult, which sounds kind of grim to me, but I guess they meant well. For kids who grow up in houses where money is a big problem, it's not unusual for them

to be determined that their own families will never have to worry that way, and that was definitely the case with Greg. He was ambitious and determined. He'd often worked 12 or 14-hour days. Like a lot of young people do, Greg initially bounced between a few different jobs. When he met Kathy in 1993, he was a martial arts instructor. They hit it off right away and got married and moved into the house Greg's parents had owned when he was a little kid. Their daughter Taylor was born there. Greg was a doting, protective dad. Taylor would always remember that if her dad said he'd do something or be somewhere, he would always follow through. In addition to being a dynamo when it came to work, Greg was real smart. He started his own IT company, and it certainly wasn't an overnight success. It

would take years of hard work, but his diligence eventually paid off. He landed a big client and did such a good job that the client recommended him to somebody else, and after that, the dominoes just kept falling. It took 10 years, but Greg built his company into a successful operation that made him around $800,000 a year. Damn. But while grinding out 14-hour days might be good for your business, it tends to not be so great for your relationships, especially when you're already kind of starting to grow apart. We're just two different people, Kathy said. I'm a homebody. He likes going places. And, you know, those introvert, extrovert relationships can work sometimes, but they often don't. And at the start of 2002, Greg and Kathy split up.

Because we're a true crime podcast, most of the divorces we cover tend to be of the wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire kind. But things between Greg and Kathy actually stayed pretty amicable. They shared custody of Taylor. Kathy would even bring Greg computer parts he needed sometimes because the store was right by her office. A few years later in 2004, Greg dipped his toes into the

brand new world of online dating. And that's where he met Michelle Zahn. Pretty, apparently successful, and they got on like a house on fire. It didn't take long for Michelle to move in with Greg, and they made it official in 2007. Michelle was a couple years older than Greg and had three kids of her own.

two boys and a girl. Michelle was born in New York, but her family moved to Texas when she was just a little girl. And even as a young teenager, she developed a pretty loose relationship with the truth. She always started lying.

Her sister Laura told Oxygen, just about anything and everything, just stupid little lies. She got in trouble for shoplifting and began what would be a lifelong addiction to dramatic relationships. She got pregnant when she was 16 and had her first son leave,

the next year. But the relationship with her baby daddy, surprise, surprise, didn't last. Next came husband number one. And by the time she was 22, she'd had two more kids. That marriage fell apart, and so did the next one. Lee remembers Michelle picking him and his siblings up early from school one day, the car packed with boxes and bags, and for a few years, the family started what Lee described as their homeless trek. Michelle would stop in a town, find work in a strip club, then end up with some guy. When she wanted out of the relationship, she'd just stuff everybody in the car again and hit the road.

According to Michelle, all her relationships ended for the same reason. The guys all cheated on her. But not everybody remembers it that way. Her younger son Andrew summed up his mom's romantic life to 48 hours. She cheated on my dad, got remarried to another man, cheated on him, left him for another man, cheated on him, and then got with Greg. Michelle.

Honey, pick a lane. Right. I think we've all had the misfortune to come across women like this or just people like this whose type is taken. And once they get what they were chasing, they drop them like a bag of rancid manure. Yeah. They value the chase more than the prize. Absolutely. Yeah, that ain't gender specific.

No, it's not gender specific at all. It's like you see a ring on their finger and it's like, awuga. And as we'll see a little later on, Michelle had no trouble. burning bridges with her family. These were tough times for the kids. Michelle's younger son Andrew remembers them picking up donated clothes from churches and feeding themselves from food drives. Michelle eventually got her feet under her with a steady job as a dental assistant. And when she met Greg, she could finally see the possibility for a truly comfortable life. Michelle had never been shy with her sexuality, which can obviously put some people off. Although, you know, we protect

sluts in this house, so y'all do what you got to do. We're not on here to judge. But not everybody's going to feel that way, and that was especially true 20 years ago. On Michelle's first date with Greg, they finished off the night at a strip club called Elegance Cabaret. Greg's brother, Michael, came along and saw more than he wanted to. She was doing some things in a bar to my brother that I just don't think, well, most people get a room, Michael said.

What he was talking about was Michelle going down on Greg. Greg, right there in the club. Oh, wow, yeah. That's classy. So, you know, maybe when it comes to public fallacious, let's not necessarily do what you're going to do. That's just, yeah, nobody wants to see that. Another time, she climbed halfway up the steps to Greg's attic,

then called for Greg's brother-in-law and best friend Bryn to come help her. Michelle was wearing a short skirt and no undies and had clearly engineered the situation just so she could flash the guy. Girl. Yeah, let's take a quick foray into my esteemed kinkshaming corner. Okay? I know you're, I know you felt it coming, campers. If you're into...

Oh, yeah, I can smell it coming to my phone. Ew, what a gross smell. If you're into being caught, don't get unconsenting parties involved. It's not hot and you'll be forever cemented. into the witness's minds as the gross perv couple that couldn't keep it in your pants. Like, even heavy petting in front of your friends is gross. Go rope your partner at a sex club or something. They have those.

Shame. Shame. Don't make me get the rolled up newspaper. But Greg, he might not have minded that too much. He and Michelle had a pretty kinky sex life, which included swinging and BDSM and all that, with Greg in the submissive role in Michelle and the Domain. one. So Michelle was kind of a wild child, but like so many of the sentient red flags we've covered in the past, she could also be vastly charming, with an intensity of attention and

megawatt smile that could captivate people. She tended to only pour on the charm with men, though. She was never nice to me, Greg's sister Michelle Fletcher said, I didn't like her from the very beginning. And Greg's siblings felt that Michelle's charm came on extra thick once she found out how much money Greg made. Neither his brother or sister felt good about Michelle, but what could they do? You ever try telling a sibling they're dating the wrong person? How far did that get you? I won't even tell you about my own brother's checker history, a pattern he's thank God has broken out eventually. I love my sister-in-law, but it was rough going for a while. And you could talk till you dropped. He was going to do what he was going to do. It did not matter what you said or how

right you were or how right you knew you were trying to get somebody to cut off a toxic partner can be like farting into the wind. You know, all you can really do is let them know you're there for them and then get your popcorn. Marshmallows? Marshmallows, absolutely, and just pull up a chair to the dumpster fire. Greg and Michelle had a daughter, Michaela, shortly before they got married, and despite his siblings' gut feelings, the new family seemed to be doing well.

They were happy and lively, two classic extroverts just living it up together. They went on cruises, through a ton of parties. They were always taking trips. Man, I'm worn out just thinking about it. it but you know that's the kind of life they wanted. Greg and Michelle might have been getting along well together, but that didn't mean everything was rosy at home. Michelle, not necessarily the most normal and well-adjusted person in the world, was immediately jealous of the attention Greg gave to his 12-year-old daughter Taylor. So toxic. And when Michelle ended up hospitalized for an overdose of

antidepressants and narcotics, she said Taylor had slipped the drugs into her Coffee. Taylor, the 12-year-old. Now, this was a ridiculous lie, but Greg, bless his heart, trusted his wife, and bought it. He also bought Michelle's claim that Taylor was addicted to painkillers, another blatant lie, and the poor kid was shipped off to rehab and out of Michelle's hair. Can you freaking imagine how scary that would be at 12, I mean at any age, but this was just a little girl like she's probably still playing with barbies absolutely bonkers and you want to kind of shake Greg at first when you hear that but you know if you think about it for him not to believe his wife he would have to think she's a total monster because who else would lie about something like this

and it's just really really hard to think like that about the person you love right so my guess is a lot of us probably would have been taken in just like he was i think we can see here just how quickly and how completely Michelle had gotten a hold of Greg. She managed to talk him into sending his own daughter to a rehab she didn't need. And with 2020 hindsight, it's easy to see how dangerous it could be to get between Ms. Michelle and something she wanted. She was willing to fuck up a 12-year-old's life just to make herself a little more comfortable. That is some straight-up sociopath shit. Unfortunately, when Taylor got out from her summer of unnecessary rehab, she went to live with her mom full-time, with no protest from Greg.

Greg was always spoiling, Michelle. She wanted to start a frozen yogurt business, and Greg happily financed it for her. They lived in a gorgeous 5,000 square foot home, which they leased rather than owned. I don't know how much they were paying for the place, which is fine by me,

because I think I might start bleeding out my eyeballs if I saw the monthly payment. Just for a little context, right now a slightly smaller place in Keller, the same town, would set you back over $5,000 a month, to rent. Just Oh, thank you. They weren't going to be leasing for much longer, though.

In October of 2011, they were ready to close on a ridiculous $4.5 million house that sat right on the blurry line between mansion and palace. But Greg would be dead before he'd ever get the chance to live there. It was quickly apparent to investigators that the crime scene at the Williams' house was a weird one. On the carpet between Greg's bed and the door to the backyard, were a 45 caliber handgun, a single shell casing, and a long wrench, presumably the weapon Michelle had been whacked in the face with. All three objects lay close together on the floor,

kind of like the intruder had dropped them as he fled from the scene, but not really. The gun was just inches from the objective shell casing. What are the odds that that casing, bouncing God knows where in that room, would end up right where a dropped gun happened to fall? Pretty damn long. And the wrench was so close to the gun that if the intruder had dropped them, he'd have to be carrying them in the same hand, which makes no sense unless the killer was some kind of juggler assassin, which are surprisingly rare. It looked like gun, shell, and wrench had all been carefully placed there on the carpet beside the open door. We mentioned earlier that the outside of the door had prime marks on it, like somebody had tried to force it open.

But an officer noticed right away that the lock and deadbolt still worked. fine. If someone had tried to pry the door open, they'd failed. There were no signs of forced entry anywhere else in the house. So how had the intruder gotten in? The door from the bedroom to the patio had glass inset. Some of the glass had been smashed, but the fallen shards were on the outside of the door. And if you ever watched a single episode of Law & Order, you know what that means. The glass was broken from the inside. Suspish. Yeah, that's your Dennis Reynolds in the car eating cereal. You dumb bitch.

You dumb bitch. Every time. There's always one. Nothing in the house had been taken or disturbed. Even 20 grand in cash sitting in a bag right in Greg's bedside cabinet. It was still there. And police soon discovered that the gun and wrench hadn't just been weirdly placed. They'd been cleaned too.

There was no trace of a fingerprint on either. And they'd soon learn this was. true for the rest of the scene. The cleaning method became clear when an officer found an empty bottle of chlorox wipes in the yard. That was no good in a couple of ways. Chlorox removes DNA evidence as well as fingerprints. The mysterious intruder had been extremely thorough.

There were no fingerprints in the bedroom at all, not Greg's, not Michelle's, not little Michaelis. The gun turned out to belong to Greg, which just added another couple of strange wrinkles. How had the intruder gotten a hold of it, and why had they taken the trouble to wipe it down at the scene? For that matter, how had they had time to wipe things down? Michelle said she rushed to the bedroom as soon as she heard the shot that killed Greg, and she said she'd only been knocked out for a few minutes before coming to

and seeing the man in black run out the back door. Unless Mr. Clean had hit hard times and taken knocking off wealthy homes in Texas, nobody's wiping down a scene that fast. The whole situation was looking fissier than the cat food, at Petco. And it didn't get any less sketchy when police took a look at security camera footage from the neighborhood. In the couple of hours before Greg was killed, they only saw one vehicle, the guy delivering the early morning newspapers. There were also some questions about Michelle's condition. She did have a nasty swelling contusion on her cheekbone, but was that enough to knock her

unconscious even briefly? Real life isn't like the A-team, where one good sock to the jaw is enough to put bad guy out for the count. The history of true crime is littered with the corpses of dipshits who tried to knock somebody out cold with one hit and then had to confront reality when the victim didn't immediately collapse in a swirl of stars and little birds like a cartoon character. Yeah. Point is, it's hard to knock somebody out. Michelle's injured cheek didn't look like enough to do it. Sergeant John McGrew, which is a great cop name, it's like so close to Sergeant McGruff, you know, take a bite out of crime. So Sergeant McGrew was interviewing Michelle at the police station while his colleagues tried to piece together the weird evidence from the crime scene.

He started the way these interviews usually start. Were there any problems in the marriage? Any problems with money? No, no problems with either, Michelle told him, her voice breaking with tears. They'd never been happier. And, you know, they were about to buy an enormous new house together, a huge joint commitment. It was Greg's income that made the purchase possible, and a smart guy like him, wasn't likely to go forward if he didn't think his marriage was on stable ground. The next obvious question was, did Greg have any enemies?

Anyone who'd want to hurt him? Michelle's answer to that was a kind of vague, maybe. Greg, she said, had some pretty sketchy friends, some of whom sold him non-prescribed steroids. Greg was a big, powerful guy, who, according to Michelle, took steroids to stay in the shape he wanted. Sure enough, in a refrigerator in the master bedroom closet, right where Michelle said they'd be, police found vials of anabolic steroids. Now obviously, this hardly made Greg Scarface,

but he was regularly buying illegal drugs in not insignificant amounts. That's definitely going to get the attention of police when somebody dies of violent death. As Sergeant McGrew interviewed Michelle, he got periodic updates from investigators at the crime scene, letting him know about all the strange things they'd found, which added up, as I'm sure you've already guessed, to a belief that the scene had been staged. Michelle's story of a masked intruder didn't make sense at all. So what was going on here?

Michelle stuck firmly to her guns until McGrew floated an interpretation of the crime scene that would make it make sense. Had Greg taken his own life and then Michelle cleaned up the scene so people wouldn't know? On the surface, the pieces fit together. Michelle wouldn't have to tell Michaela that her daddy had chosen to leave them in such an awful way, and Michelle would dodge the suicide clause in Greg's $650,000 life insurance policy. Greg had a high-stress working life and steroids can have psychological effects, including depression. With this prompting, Michelle revealed that Greg recently had been more aggravated and yelling,

but asked straight up if Greg had hurt himself and Michelle had covered it up, she said no. But if that was the case, and with the evidence clearly showing there had been no intruder, there was one obvious alternative which McGrew laid out for Michelle. The only other thing that could have happened, honestly, could have happened, is if you might have done it, he said. But Michelle stuck to her story. There was a man in my house, she insisted. But as the interview went on and McGrew laid out more evidence from the scene, Michelle finally cracked.

Yes, her husband, Greg, had shot and killed himself. He'd been depressed off and on for a long time, something he hid from everybody else in his life. She just panicked, she said, and when she found Greg dead, she cleaned up the scene so the cops wouldn't figure out he'd taken his own life. She'd just wanted to protect her baby girl, Michaela, Michelle said. weeping, I'm sure, very convincingly, she thought, she told Sergeant McGrew, I couldn't let her know that her daddy killed himself. And then to try to add more realism to the story, Michelle said, she'd bashed herself in the face with a wrench as hard as she could. And she came clean that she was also motivated by Greg's hefty life insurance policy, which I think certainly helped her story. If you're

willing to admit to something that makes you look bad like that, you're going to be a lot easier to believe. So Michelle was read her rights and charged with tampering with evidence, but she wasn't arrested and she was free to go home. That, of course, didn't mean the investigation was over. Drying her eyes, Michelle said, I knew I wasn't going to leave here without being able to tell the truth. But was she telling the truth? Well, it would take a little while for that to shake out. Greg's family and friends definitely didn't buy it. They'd never seen anything that would suggest that possibility. Greg was a happy guy. It's true that some people hide things from their loved ones, especially perceived weaknesses like deep depression, but Greg was close with his family,

and he had a particular aversion to suicide. His friend and brother-in-law had taken his own life just the previous year, and it had shaken Greg to his core. He'd sat his daughter, Taylor, on his lap, and told her, do not ever do that. That is the most selfish thing you can do to the people that you leave, which I disagree with, for the record. It's not selfish, it's sickness. It's a kind of pain most people can't imagine. But the point is, that's what Greg believed, and his family couldn't see him taking his own life, not in a million years. Michelle didn't know it, but despite only charging her with evidence tampering, the police had serious doubts about her story. And those were confirmed when the medical examiner's report came in. The gunshot wound to Greg's temple wasn't a contact

wound, unusual for a suicide. In fact, the county's firearms expert determined that the bullet was fired from between six and 24 inches from Greg's head. The barrel of the gun was five inches long, so the hand holding the gun had to be at least 11 inches away from the head. Imagine someone putting their hand about a foot from the side of their head with the grip of a large, heavy gun in it. They might just be able to turn it in toward themselves, but it's weird and uncomfortable. You'd have no guarantee that the shot's going to go where you want it. So why do it like that? It made no sense. At least it made no sense if Greg took his own life. And at the start of November, the medical examiner ruled that Greg's death was a homicide.

Michelle was busy. Right after Greg's body was released, she had him cremated, with no funeral service whatsoever. His family had to set up their own service for him. Michelle, Didn't come. Oh, my God. Greg was a high earner, and he and Michelle had been just about to make a huge investment in a new home, so investigators took a close look at their finances, and they hit paydirt. Michelle had forged a document for buying the house that showed about $145,000 in their bank account. On the day Greg died, the actual amount was $34,000.

The down payment on their new house, due the very next day, was $91,000. They wouldn't be able to buy the house. Michelle was handling the finances for the deal, and Greg had no idea what was going on. Holy shitballs. So where had all the money gone? In today's terms, Greg was making just over a million dollars a year. They had some ridiculous expenses. They leased their huge house, and they each had a Mercedes, also leased.

But the real expense was Michelle. She spent money like her plane was going down, almost like a compulsion. In the year before Greg's death, she'd managed to spend around $160,000, with nothing but clothes, jewelry, and bags to show for it. She theoretically had an actual job, running the frozen yogurt shop Greg had bought for her, but the shop lost money, in part because Michelle treated it like an ATM. She'd just walk in, open up the register, and take out some cash, then walk right back out. I feel sorry for the poor manager who had to do the books for that place. Greg and Michelle were going to fail to buy that new house, and Greg was going to find out just how crazy Michelle's spending was. At the very least, he'd keep tighter control over their money after that.

He might even leave her, and Michelle would have to try and find another millionaire husband. And all that added up to a pretty decent motive for murder. And there might have been another one, too. Michelle had a new boyfriend, and we don't know just when this romance started, but it's fair to say they began openly dating suspiciously soon after Greg's death, like within a couple of weeks. This new beau was Jean Wallace, a fitness instructor at Michelle's gym, and the best friend, or rather former best friend of Michelle's son, Lee. Just like that bitch on Milf Manor for my fellow reality TV girlies.

I still cannot believe that's a real show that people agree to go on. Geez, oh, Pete's. I know. I remember when they made that joke on. 30 Rock, you know, Milf Island. It's an actual show now. Miltf Manor, check it out. It's God awful. Anyway, to step over a very low bar, this wasn't quite as bad as it sounds. It's still horrendous, but Michelle was 42 and Jean was 30. So it's not like she was robbing the cradle, maybe just holding up the school bus, but still, ew. Lee, bless his heart, found out about the

romance when Jean came up to him at Michelle's house and said, quote, I just want to wanted to come up like a man because you're my friend and let you know I'm probably going to sleep with your mom tonight. It's not, God, it's not even funny. It's just, I have to laugh because it's so outrageous. I love how this guy, like, clearly thinks he's being a good dude here, you know, like sticking to some kind of gentleman's code. Like, prithee, good sir, honor dost compel me to unburden myself and admit that I wilt most assuredly bang thine mother this good night. Straight out of Shakespeare. Side note, if your friend says that to you, you're allowed to punch them in the face.

Like, it's not legal. This isn't legal advice, but it is moral. It really should be legal. Oh, God, that poor guy. Michelle and Jean moved to the nearby town of Bedford and opened a gym together, and their ad is still up online, and you can watch Michelle with the kettlebells, like, advertising the gym. Michelle started going by Shelly just in case any new neighbors had itchy Google fingers. They didn't have long to enjoy their fairy tale, though.

Three months after Greg Williams died, as she showed up at the gym in the morning, Michelle was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutor Jack Strickland described Michelle as stoic as she was cuffed and led away. She didn't seem surprised in the least. Her bond was initially set at just over half a million dollars, but Michelle's attorney successfully brought that down to 85,000, and Michelle was released, but with an ankle monitor. The prosecutors were very confident of Michelle's guilt, but less confident in their ability to prove it at trial. Most of the evidence they had could also fit Michelle's story that Greg killed himself and she staged the scene, both to shield their daughter from the truth and for her own financial benefit. And there'd been a

major fuck-up at the scene, with Greg's body wrapped in the sheet from the bed for transfer to the medical examiner. This created the possibility of cross-contamination of the body from everybody at the scene, as well as the paramedics transporting the body. It was just a hot mess. The average murder rate in Keller is pretty much a big fat zero, and I guess the cops just didn't have a lot of experience handling scenes like this. So the prosecutors offered Michelle a deal, and honestly a pretty sweet one. She would plead guilty to a felony charge of tampering with evidence, and also to deadly conduct, which meant recklessly, not intentionally, firing a weapon in somebody's direction. The first charge would put Michelle away for 18 years, the second for two, so 20 years

in total, with every reason to think she'd be paroled long before she served the full thing. Compared to what she'd be facing in Texas on a first-degree murder charge, this was a great offer and Michelle accepted it. But as her sentencing approached, she had news for both the prosecutors and our boyfriend, Jean. She was pregnant. A sonogram showed she was expecting twins, because that's just what this peach needs, right, to be a mom again. Yikes. Michelle would start her agreed upon prison terms straight after sentencing, so the prosecutors, very generously, I think, agreed to defer the hearing until the babies were born. Michelle would stay free for a few more months. But being free wasn't enough for our girl. She wanted to be

free. She wanted to go on a little vacay down to Corpus Christi, 400 miles away, but her probation officer put the kibosh on that. It was just too far away. Michelle wasn't having that. What do you mean she couldn't do whatever she wanted, wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, how dare you? So she slipped off her ankle monitor and headed south. Absolutely the type of reasonable behavior we've come to expect out of our girl. Yeah. And when she came back, she got thrown directly in. to jail, where it soon became apparent that her pregnancy was entirely fabricated. Yeah.

A little Googling told the prosecution that the sonogram pictures Michelle had shown to them and to Jean had just been lifted from the internet. So she's lying to her boyfriend, too, not just to the court. The whole thing was made up just to buy Michelle a little more time before heading to lockup. Good gravy. everyone mark big dramatic fake twin pregnancy off of your TCC bingo card the free space is dip shittery yeah also side note did the court not require like a doctor evidently not yeah it's this whole thing is a shit show I know she just could print off a ultrasound picture offline and they were like oh dope thank you

evidently this was you know 20 years ago but yeah it's it's pretty bonkers would someone just lie to the corely not what Michelle's sister Laura who clearly seems to know what kind of sister she's dealing with by now told 48 hours it's one of her things if you will that she'll fake pregnancies she'll fake miscarriages sometimes to get attention I mean there's been a lot of them throughout the years. Color me, shocked, and disappointed. I'm horrified. Because she'd violated her parole and lied to the court,

Michelle's sweet plea deal went, bu-bye. Delightful. Her trial for Greg Williams' murder began in September of 2014, and y'all, prosecutors had a bombshell to drop. Michelle's younger son, Andrew, testified that his mom had tried to get him to frame Greg's ex-wife, Kathy for his murder.

Oh, boy. If we hadn't already decided to give her mom of the year, I think this clenches it, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, send the mug right to her. The idea was that Andrew would buy a woman's sweater, go out into the country, and fire a pistol so he'd get gunshot residue all over the sweater. Then he'd break into Kathy's car and hide it under her seat. An anonymous 911 call would lead police to Kathy's car, and there he go. She'd take the fall for Greg's death.

I mean, she wouldn't, obviously, because this whole plan was dumber than a sack of hammers. But what mattered was why Michelle wanted Andrew to do this. Why set up someone else for the murder unless she wanted to protect herself? Well, yeah. Andrew had originally put this request down to his mom being crazed with grief over Greg's death, but he'd finally come forward to police after he started to suspect that Mommy Dearest was going to try and pin the murder on his older brother Lee. Yeah, Lee and Michelle had had a big argument. We don't know about what, but I'm guessing, you know, bang in my best friend might have been a part of it.

And the next day, Michelle cornered Andrew and asked him if he thought Lee might have killed Greg. Yeah, red flag. The prosecution also used the words of another member of Michelle's family against her, Michelle herself. A few months before trial, she'd done a 48 hours interview with Peter Van Zan. Because of course she fucking did. Gotta love a narcissist. They are the reigning champs of the self-owned. Just like Jody.

Jody areas. Just like Jody. Who shot Greg? Vansant asked. I have my assumptions, Michelle said. Are we talking a relative? Possibly. So now she'd thrown out three possibilities for Greg's killer. An unknown masked intruder, Greg himself.

and now some unknown person in her own family, most likely Lee. The prosecution played the 48 hours clip in court to highlight just how little Michelle's word could be trusted. The prosecution's physical evidence was limited, but convincing. The medical examiner told the court that in 35 years, he'd never seen someone shoot themselves from the distance the gun had been from Greg's head. The evidence only made sense if someone else had pulled the trigger. The jury took seven hours to reach a verdict. Michelle Williams was guilty of both murder and tampering with evidence.

She was sentenced to 60 years for the first charge and 10 for the second to run concurrently. She'll be eligible for parole in 24 when she'll be 74 years old. And she could have had that sweetheart plea deal if she just hadn't been a lying freaking weirdo. That's the crazy thing to think about. Like 60 years instead of what was it 20 and she wouldn't have even served that? Holy shit. but we're not done yet okay because if you didn't think this could get any weirder you ain't been paying attention so we told you that gregg's brother-in-law and best friend brin fletcher took his

own life at the end of 2010 his wife and gregg's sister michelle fletcher is convinced that his death wasn't a suicide at all brin worked for gregg and on that december day he'd left to start a business trip driving the company pickup truck his wife said he was happy that day, said he couldn't wait to get back home to her. He drove out on Highway 34, following directions Michelle Williams, had given him. This was pretty common. Brin was from England and wasn't super familiar with the Texas roads. After about 45 minutes, he pulled off onto a road beside the highway. Sometime later, police responded to a call about an abandoned truck. They found Bryn dead, shot in the head, a gun beside him like it had fallen from his hand. The

county quickly ruled the death a suicide, which Brin's wife Michelle Fletcher had had to accept, right up until her sister-in-law was charged with Greg's murder. Then she started really thinking about the circumstances of Brin's death. Michelle Williams had immediately made herself the family point person in the investigation into Brin's death. Police shouldn't talk to Brin's wife. She was too distraught. They shouldn't bother her. They should talk to Michelle instead. And Brin's wife was distraught, incredibly so. She didn't even realize what she was doing when Michelle had her sign the paperwork arranging for a quick cremation of Brin's body. Around the time of Brin's death, Michelle Williams made six calls to different members of her family and made a point of telling

all of them that she was shopping at Target. Which is kind of weird, right? I mean, it's not quite calling up people and saying, hi, this is just an alibi call. I'm definitely not at a crime scene right now. Okay, bye. but it's not a million miles from that. Now, why would Michelle want Bryn dead? His wife thinks Bryn was going to tell Greg about Michelle's wild spending. But by the time Bryn's wife Michelle started to get suspicious, I know it's two Michelle's, but, you know, by the time Bryn's wife Michelle started to get suspicious,

Bryn was ashes, and the county was completely unwilling to re-examine their suicide verdict. They'd made a complete cock-up of the investigation, like the medical examiner's report says that Bryn was. was shot between the eyes, the police reports as he was shot from the right-hand side. Pretty significant difference once you learn that Bryn was left-handed. Michelle Williams, of course, denies any involvement in Bryn's death and has never been charged in connection with it. So who knows the truth? But it's definitely an odd collection of

circumstances. So who are we dealing with here? A pretty scary individual, I think, one who might just be guilty of quite a bit more than she's serving time for. Narcissism, folks, is one hell of a drug, and when you pair it with greed, it can take you on a speed run to some very dark shit. I really hope Greg's family and Brins can at least sleep a little easier knowing she'll probably never see daylight again. So that was a wild one. Right, campers? You know, we'll have another one for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire.

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