5 Killers a Fitbit Sent to Prison

A killer can wipe away fingerprints. They can destroy evidence, stage a crime scene, and rehearse their story until every detail sounds believable. But they cannot always silence that one witness wrapped around their victim's wrist. In each of today's cases, investigators were confronted with a carefully constructed lie, a mysterious intruder, a home invasion, a timeline that appeared to explain everything. [music] And then detectives examined the victim's fitness data. Hidden among ordinary records of footsteps, movement, and heart rates were the final moments of a human life, captured second by second. [music] And when those digital records were compared against the killer's stories, the truth became impossible to ignore. These are five killers who were exposed by smartwatch data. Karen Navarro had built a life that was quiet, predictable, and entirely her own. At 67 years old, she lived alone in San Jose, California, inside the home that she'd inherited from her grandmother in the late '90s. It was more than simply a place to live. It was where Karen tended to her garden, spent time with her beloved cats, and returned each day after work to the peaceful routine that she'd created for herself. Karen had spent much of her life in healthcare. She first helped at her father's pharmacy, handling prescriptions for customers, before starting to become a pharmacy technician herself. And she eventually began working at a local hospital, where her coworkers came to know her as a private but kind and polite and dependable person who greeted people with a smile and took her work very seriously. >> [music] >> Karen had never married, but she also wasn't isolated. She remained close with her family, several of whom lived nearby and regularly checked in on her. Her father passed away in '96, and her mother Adele later married a man named Tony, who also became a part of Karen's life. By every indication, Karen was content. She had a stable career, a comfortable home, a family that cared about her, and the companionship of the animals that she adored. There was no obvious turmoil surrounding her. There was no public feud, no dangerous lifestyle, no reason to believe that anyone would want to harm her. But in September of 2018, something happened inside the home where Karen had always felt the safest. For several days, no one realized anything was wrong. And when police finally entered the house, they discovered that Karen's peaceful routine had ended in a way that no one could explain. It was just a normal, unassuming day in 2018 when everything turned on its head. Karen was at home on September 8th, and it was a Saturday. So, she was just enjoying her weekend like any other person on the street that she lived on. She didn't have any plans for that day. But what you should know is that her stepfather Tony, who was 90 at the time, was planning on surprising her by dropping off some lunch and dessert for her. But Karen wouldn't get to enjoy that lunch. Saturday passed, and then Sunday came and went, too. Then Monday rolled around, and everyone was expecting Karen to walk through the hospital door and clock in for her shift at work. But she was a no-show. In all of her years working at the hospital, which was decades at this point, this had never happened. And this was very unlike her. Now, I know you're probably thinking, she's in her 60s. She may have had a terrible fall or an accident. She might have gotten dizzy, or she must have come across some sort of medical emergency. There are a million ways a person could interpret Karen's absence from work. So, although everyone was worried, >> [music] >> they didn't think too much of it, and they decided to wait for a while. When Wednesday rolled around, and she didn't show up once again, this was when everyone took her absence seriously. This was now two times in a row. She was not the type of person to just skip work and not give prior notice. She'd never done this before. So, this was extremely worrying for everyone at the hospital. So, they immediately contacted the police. They didn't report her missing or anything. They just wanted officers to conduct a welfare check at her house because of her age and well, there was a possibility of some sort of accident. The welfare check ultimately took place on Thursday. So, one more day had now passed and there was not even a peep from Karen. And officers reached the address given yesterday by her co-workers. From the outside, nothing looked even remotely alarming. [music] Doors were closed. Nothing was suspicious. Nothing stood out of the ordinary. But when they knocked on the door, there was no answer. This led the officers to gain entry into the house by force. And when they stumbled inside, they saw a devastating scene. An unconscious and clearly injured Karen was found slumped in her chair at the dining table. She'd been injured with a knife, which was found in her hand, and she also suffered from blunt force trauma to her head. The scene was very disturbing for every witness inside the house. And they were honestly at a loss as to what to think. Investigators initially considered whether the death could have been self-inflicted, but this just didn't align with who Karen was. But that only left one hauntingly dark possibility. Karen had been murdered. So, Karen didn't live with anyone. And even though the area she lived in was relatively safe, you can't be too sure. Anyone can target a vulnerable person. Karen's body was taken away for further examinations and an autopsy. Meanwhile, the police scoped out the house looking for anything out of the ordinary. Well, it was quite apparent when they got there that the house was in disarray. Chairs were knocked over, drawers in the kitchen were taken out, and things were thrown around on the floor. It was a mess inside this house. This led the investigators to believe that a struggle had taken place. Add to that the impact injuries on her head and the case was now viewed in a completely different light. Investigators also suspected a robbery at first, but they quickly ruled that out when they looked at all the belongings and valuables that were still in the house. Everything was there. Nothing of value that was in plain sight was taken. It was as if whoever had done this to Karen, if it weren't for Karen herself, came in with the sole purpose to end her life. Well, her parents and friends were informed of the news >> [music] >> and they were utterly floored. They were in shock and could not believe that something like this could happen to one of the most wonderful women in their lives. The police also talked to her family about her having troubles with someone or having any potential enemies. They needed a lead in the case, something that would help crack the case and lead to a breakthrough. And they also needed to know who the last person was to see her alive. And not long after, they did find that out. See, Tony, her stepfather, was making a surprise visit to Karen's to drop off some pizza and dessert. Since it was a surprise, I'm assuming Karen wasn't aware that he was going to roll by her house, and from this information, the investigators concluded that Tony, the 90-year-old stepfather, was the last person to have seen her alive. Now, detectives were not viewing him as a suspect or anything. They just needed information from him to fill in the gaps of what exactly happened that day. According to Tony, he arrived at the house and he greeted an alive and well Karen. And they even sat and chatted for about 15 minutes or so. Nothing unusual stood out to Tony. Although he did remember Karen mentioning meeting up with a friend or friends afterward. The details were a bit hazy, but he's 90. He's going to have a hard time remembering the specifics. But he did point out one peculiar detail. He told the police that as he left the house a couple of hours later when he drove by the same area, he was honked at by a car that looked similar to Karen's. And there was actually someone inside the car in the passenger seat that didn't look like Karen. Now, this immediately perked up the police's ears. This could be their big lead. It wasn't very specific, but it was something. So, they investigated it, and they reviewed door camera footage from multiple houses on the route that Tony claimed he saw the suspicious car. But they found nothing. [music] There was no sign of a car matching the description given by Tony passing any house on that route. And unfortunately, there weren't a lot of surveillance cameras in that area, either. Because as I've said, the area was generally safe, and the crime rate was very low. So, the police had very little to go off of. That was until they came across something Karen was wearing that day. A Fitbit on her wrist. She was a very active person, and she loved taking walks on a regular basis and just keeping in check with her overall health. This is why she bought the fitness tracker just to keep on top of her health. But now, this seemed like the only hope investigators had in trying to solve this case. Her fitness data was eventually reviewed in the days leading up to her tragic passing. [music] On regular days, she had a normal heartbeat and a decent amount of activity. And it was pretty much the same trend as days went by. But on Saturday, >> [music] >> the fateful day when she was found deceased in her own home, well, that day told a different story. See, throughout the day until 3:00 p.m., Fitbit had tracked regular activity, which meant that she was going about her routine as she did any other day. But the tracker stopped tracking her steps at specifically 3:13 p.m. Investigators assumed that this was when she stopped walking and sat down at the dinner table. Then 7 minutes later her heart rate spiked. And I'm not talking about a regular spike. It was extremely high, as if she was in a state of panic or distress. Then, just a couple seconds later her heart rate dropped as quickly as it had risen. [music] And then her fitness tracker stopped recording it at all. The quickening in heart rate suggested some sort of a struggle because it was too high, even higher than intense cardio or even someone in the midst of taking their own life, as initially suggested by the police, which by the way was thrown out the window very quickly because things just didn't add up. She'd suffered trauma to her head as well, and all of her injuries were far too severe to have been self-inflicted. And on top of that, there was nothing to suggest or point to the fact that she'd been having any dark thoughts about ending her life. She was content with the way she lived. She was content with her job, with her lifestyle. So, all of this was just very confusing. But this, along with the crime scene and how it was just completely trashed, just didn't add up to investigators. They theorized that maybe she was attacked elsewhere, and then the scene was staged, and she was placed in the chair where the cops eventually found her. The investigators also tried to tie this new found data with the mysterious car driver as seen by Tony a couple hours after his visit. But things just weren't matching up. According to the Fitbit data, she didn't move at all. She couldn't have gone with someone in her car and then been attacked. It just didn't make sense. So, it was ultimately deduced that she was attacked in her home possibly in the same chair she was found in while she was simply eating lunch. Soon enough, the police managed to get their hands on some doorbell camera footage that picked up a Toyota arriving at Karen's house at 3:12 p.m. Now, the footage was hardly good quality, so the driver of the car wasn't identified. And it wasn't even a doorbell camera directly across the house in question. But it was enough for the police to connect some dots. See, in the footage, there was only one car in the entire timeline that they were focused on. At 3:12, the car arrived in Karen's driveway, and at 3:35 p.m. it drove off. Someone in Karen's life had that same car. And the police had even talked to this person. And he was the last person to have seen Karen alive. Her stepfather, Tony. The same person who had surprised his stepdaughter with a nice lunch. But was that visit really all that nice and uneventful? That's what the police wanted to find out. Well, at the end of September, Tony was arrested for the murder of his own stepdaughter. He maintained his innocence throughout the interrogation, stressing that she was alive the whole time that he was there, and that the data that police retrieved must have been wrong or something else. While he was being questioned, a bunch of police officers executed a search warrant at his house. And they found some pretty alarming things. First of all, they found the same set of knives. I'm talking same brand and everything as the one found with Karen and the one used to attack her as well. A shirt and a jacket with stains around the sleeves were also found in the laundry hamper. And they were sent for forensic lab testing. They also found questionable stains and DNA in the bathroom sinks around the house. And this was all really disturbing. Everyone in Karen's family was dumbfounded. They couldn't believe that Tony was the killer. And they actually sided with him and stood by him through this whole ordeal, including his wife and Karen's mother. Ultimately, the case was booked in court, and everyone's preparing for the trial. The state and the defense alike. And it was alleged that Tony was a greedy man who just wanted to get his hands on Karen's wealth. Since she didn't have any family of her own or any next of kin, all of her assets, including her grandmother's house, would go to Adele and ultimately Tony, too. Now, this is all speculation, and I'll explain more about that in just a bit. The prosecution's smoking gun was the DNA evidence. See, the results had now come back, and they were disturbing. The DNA found on Tony's shirt sleeve and camouflage jacket was Karen's. This contradicted his side of the story from that day. But, he stressed that he saw Karen alive and well and uninjured, so where could the DNA have come from? The defense was quick to rebut these claims, and they argued that an unknown attacker had already injured Karen before Tony's arrival, and the DNA must have transferred when he went to the door and she greeted him inside. All the while, the attacker was still inside the house? And if we believe that Karen was injured before Tony arrived, what, he didn't notice anything weird about her at all? She must have been beside herself in pain or in distress, but surely he would have noticed something. And the fact that she didn't think to alert Tony to even call for help? As you can probably tell, the argument was a complete and utter waste of time. Their only strong point was the fact that the Fitbit data can sometimes be inaccurate. But, the state wasn't just riding on the Fitbit data in this case. They now had incriminating evidence in the form of DNA on the defendant's clothing, the same clothing he was wearing when he went to visit his stepdaughter. The most difficult part for the state to prove was Tony's [snorts] motive, especially as a man in his 90s. Now, I'm not downplaying anyone's age or what shape they're in or anything, but a 90-year-old man just wouldn't have the same strength as that of a 20, 30, or 40-year-old. Of course, there are always exceptions, and we can't really judge anyone solely because of their age, but it was going to be difficult for the prosecution to argue this bit, especially if they didn't have a convincing and incriminating motive. It was also reported that neighbors heard a woman's screams coming from the direction of Karen's house, clearly in trouble, but no one thought to call the police then. It was only 5 days later when she was discovered. It's highly frustrating, not to pin responsibility on anyone, but if someone had just called the police sooner, maybe this case could have been solved and not left in some sort of weird lurch. Because a year into waiting for the trial, Tony was hospitalized for his ailing health in August of 2019. He didn't make it, and he passed away at the age of 91 on September 10th of 2019. To this day, Adele still believes that her husband wasn't the one to kill her daughter, and that the police had the wrong guy. Unfortunately, at this point, the truth will likely never be fully known. But the evidence, it's all there, and I think we can all assume for ourselves what likely happened here. To anyone looking in from the outside, the Debates appear to have built the kind of life most families hope for. Richard and Connie lived with their two sons, R.J. and Connor, on Birchview Drive in Ellington, Connecticut, a quiet suburban neighborhood where nothing particularly frightening was supposed to happen. At the center of the family was Connie. She was [snorts] the kind of person who could turn even the smallest occasion into something worth celebrating. Whether it's birthdays, holidays, reunions, or an ordinary dinner with friends, Connie always found a reason to try to make things special. She was remembered for her smile, her generous heart, and the effort that she took to keep the people she loved close. Even if years had passed, Connie rarely allowed a friendship to just completely disappear. She loved filling her home with people. And with Christmas approaching, she had once again thrown herself into decorating, buying presents, planning meals, and preparing to bring all of that together. Years earlier, Connie had met Richard, a computer technician with a cheerful and kind of quirky personality that seemed to really match her own. The two quickly fell in love, and Connie believed that she'd found the person that she'd spend the rest of her life with. They married in 2003, settled into their home, and began raising their family. For more than a decade, that life was secure. The Debates were well-liked. Their children were growing up in a comfortable home, and from the street, there was little reason to believe that anything was wrong behind that front door. But appearances can preserve a secret for only so long. On December 23rd of 2015, just 2 days before one of Connie's favorite holidays, an alarm suddenly began sounding from the Debate home. By the time the police arrived, Richard would describe a terrifying encounter with a violent stranger. And Connie would never have the chance to tell them what really happened. It was the 23rd of December, 2015, and the Debate house was decked out in Christmas decorations. The house literally looked like a beautifully wrapped gift, and all thanks to the enthusiasm from Connie. She and Richard had gotten gifts for everyone, wrapped everything up all nice, set up the tree, and they were planning all sorts of gatherings and dinners. It was just an overall good time. She'd gotten her kids ready for school and was about to go off to her spin class, but she tragically would not make it there. Because sometime before 11:00 a.m., the neighborhood's peace was pierced by wailing sirens. Police cars were speeding by houses, and everyone rushed to their doors and windows to see what the commotion was all about. It was just before Christmas, so everyone was on edge about what could be going on. I mean, what could have happened before this joyous time of year? Was it a robbery or maybe a break-in? Well, everyone initially thought so because the police were notified of a house alarm setting off in the neighborhood. [music] The fateful house was the Debates. As the police reached that house and they gained entry, right away they found an injured and bound Richard tied to [music] a chair. But he was alive, albeit in a bad state. He was immediately taken care of by the paramedics, whereas the police searched the rest of the house. Their search led them to the basement where they made a devastating discovery. A woman was found lifeless with wounds to her body unmistakably caused by a firearm. Unfortunately, this was 39-year-old Connie Debate, and she could not be revived. The police were left wondering what had happened at this house. Their only bet was a robbery gone wrong at that point, but they needed to know exactly what had gone down within the walls of this home. Who triggered the house's security alarm? Who had done this to Richard and Connie? Well, the police turned to who was currently in the hospital getting treated for his injuries. The police had to wait for a bit though to get the full bearings of what they were actually dealing with. When the hospital gave the investigators the all-clear to talk to Richard, they couldn't move fast enough. They had a crime on their hands and they needed to get to the bottom of it before it happened again. According to Richard, he'd come home after dropping the kids off at school at about 8:30 that morning. Everything was fine until then. He saw his wife getting ready for her spin class and preparing things around the house. >> [music] >> He then left for work, which was about a 40-minute drive from where they lived. But as he was about 10 minutes or so away on that drive, he realized he'd forgotten his work laptop at home. So, he made a U-turn and went back to get it. As he was making that drive back, his phone lit up with a notification. And it was about the house's security alarm being triggered. Now, at that point Richard thought of two possible scenarios. Either someone had broken into the house or Connie maybe just accidentally triggered the alarm while doing something. Regardless, he was only about 10 minutes away, so he decided to check things out for himself. And to be safe, he also emailed his boss from his phone informing him that he was going to be late for work. When he reached the home, it was now about 8:45 a.m. And his instincts told him to investigate. The house alarm had just gone off and it may be something serious. So, alarmed, he went inside the house and immediately heard a ruckus upstairs. When he made his way up to the source of the noise, he came face-to-face with a tall man wearing camouflage clothing going through his and Connie's stuff. A burglar had broken into their house and now he had Richard pinned and was demanding all of the valuables that he had. As he handed his cards and cash to the mysterious burglar, they both heard the front door open. Connie had returned home, too. Richard immediately warned his wife to run, who supposedly ran to the basement to retrieve her own firearm to protect herself. But the assailant was too fast. He immediately went after Connie and after a few seconds or maybe even minutes, Richard heard two loud sounds and then nothing. He was terrified and extremely shaken. There was no doubt that this masked assailant had attacked his wife. He then saw the man approach him and proceed to injure him as well using a knife and a blowtorch on his legs. He then tied him up to a chair and he just left. Everyone was honestly dumbfounded at this whole ordeal. And the police needed to catch this guy without wasting any more time. So, they decided to spread the search and ask neighbors of the Debate family if they saw anything or anyone suspicious around the time that Richard claimed their house was broken into. According to Richard, the man was hard to miss. He was a tall guy with a stocky build and had a deep voice like Vin Diesel. And he was wearing peculiar camouflage clothing. He had to have been seen by someone in the neighborhood. This was not some secluded or remote area by any means. Someone would have heard the struggle, they would have heard the sounds, and they would have heard the commotion. Now, this area had had a couple of unexplained incidents before this tragic one. Cars had been vandalized, houses were broken into, and threats were passed over mundane issues. This worried Connie a lot, especially regarding her family and her kids' safety. Even though she was terrified of firearms, the couple decided to get two for their own safety. But here's the first thing that stood out to the police. The firearm used on Connie was one of their own. And the one from the basement, to be exact. Investigators theorized that during the struggle, the masked man maybe got a hold of her gun and ultimately used that to attack Connie, but they needed to prove this, and this would take time. In the meantime, shortly after Connie's passing, her wake was held. And hundreds of people showed up to offer their condolences to the grieving family. A mother of two had left her husband and two young kids alone in the world. A mother who was so excited for the upcoming holiday, and all the hustle and bustle, and someone who loved making everyone smile was now gone forever. Friends and acquaintances of Connie's were heartbroken, but even in their grief, they noticed a couple of weird things, specifically about their deceased friend's husband. He was very blank and emotionless throughout the wake, whereas everyone else was having a hard time keeping their emotions together. Now, it could be shock, it could be Richard reacting differently to grief, or it could be that he was composing himself to get through the wake. But then, people at the wake, specifically Connie's friends, noticed the lack of injuries on Richard. Now, by no means were they expecting Richard to be in some very grave state, but he was attacked pretty seriously though, at least from what they'd heard. I mean, they had said that he had used a blowtorch on him. So, this it all just seemed excessive. But, his injuries in person seemed kind of minor. Also, these were Connie's friends, women who constantly socialized with her on a regular basis. But, when they went to pay their respects to Richard, he had a hard time even remembering who they were. And that's saying a lot for being a husband of a woman who regularly hosted friends at their home, and friends who dated back all the way to their high school days or college or even beyond. [music] So, this behavior was unsettling and bizarre. But, then things got even weirder when Richard left his deceased wife's funeral early, and in the days following this bereaved incident, [music] he was going out to clubs, he was throwing parties, and he was not acting like his wife had just been murdered by someone. All of this was unsettling for everyone, especially the police. But, speaking of the police, they were busy scoping out the house, trying to look for evidence of a break-in. But, they didn't find anything that could corroborate Richard's story. There were no signs of forced entry. The valuables that Richard claimed were stolen were then found discarded in the backyard. I mean, if a robber was going to go through all of this trouble of robbing someone's house, wouldn't they make sure they actually took the stuff with them? Especially if they gravely injured a person in that process, too. This looked unlike any robbery the police had ever seen before. And the firearm also had no fingerprints on it. There was no sign of another person other than Richard and Connie in that house. This, combined with Richard's behavior of being nonchalant, vague, and undisturbed about his wife being murdered, drove the investigation into a new direction. Suddenly, investigators started seeing the husband as a suspect rather than a victim. The way he was found conveniently with one of his arms and legs unbound as well, and the way he didn't suffer from any serious or life-altering injuries as compared to his wife, and the way that he verbalized the whole accident with little or no emotion as time went on did not sit right with the police. On top of that, almost a day after his wife's passing, he contacted a lawyer and even filed for a claim on her hefty life insurance policy. >> [music] >> This was when the police started to dig into the couple's supposedly perfect marriage. Even though everything seemed perfect and peachy and fairytale-like on the outside, nothing was the same behind the curtain. And soon the secrets, the deceit, and all the dark things about Connie and Richard's marriage would come out in the open. The police gathered a bunch of digital evidence from the couple's respective phones, and Richard's computer and internet activity on the day of the incident, as well as a very unusual and at the time unheard of device, especially in true crime cases, a Fitbit. If you don't know this already, a Fitbit is basically like a diet smartwatch. It's used to track your heart rate, your activity, your steps, all kinds of health-related metrics. Well, Connie was a really active person, and she wore a Fitbit regularly. And this showed the first hole in Richard's armor that was his version of events. Connie was not attacked before 9:00 a.m. as Richard claimed. According to her Fitbit data, she was alive and well an hour or so following the time that Richard claimed she was attacked. Her movement tracking data showed that she was active all the way from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. And that was her last movement registered on her fitness band. This was a bit haunting in hindsight. To think that a smart device was used to track one's health and actually showed their last movements. Laptop and email login activity showed that Richard was also lying about going to work at the time that he claimed he did. He was at home checking his emails, going on Facebook, and just killing time before his wife got back home. Also, remember that email that he sent to his boss from his phone stating that he would be late to work? Well, it was found that he sent that email from his home Wi-Fi. The IP address was tracked by the police and they narrowed it down to him being at home when he sent that email, not out in his car somewhere. But speaking of phones, Connie's was also checked. And in her notes app, she made a pros and cons list of divorcing Richard. And she wrote this list all the way back in 2014, a full year before all of this took place. She wrote about how she knew nothing about her husband and what he did outside of work, how he wasn't a good dad to their kids, and how much of a spender he was, and how his actions never matched his words. On top of it all, he was also having an affair with a woman by the name of Sarah. And if that wasn't enough, she was now pregnant with his child. And at the time of the incident, she was weeks away from giving birth. Things just got a lot more complicated. When investigators questioned Richard about this, he initially claimed that Connie knew about Sarah's pregnancy and it was actually an understanding between the three of them. What kind of understanding you may ask? Well, Richard claimed that Sarah wanted kids of her own and the Debates graciously stepped up to help her out in getting pregnant the traditional way with Richard. But not long after he changed his story claiming it was actually Connie who wanted another child but couldn't conceive due to complications and this time Sarah stepped up to offer herself as a surrogate mother. As you guessed it, the police did not buy this story. And in the end, he came clean that the affair was a secret and it was months long and he also got Sarah pregnant unexpectedly. This was also confirmed by Richard's friends with whom he confided in after he found out about the pregnancy just out of the blue. Text messages showed that Richard claimed to love Sarah and He her the idea that he was in the midst of divorcing his wife to start a new life with her. He also used secret credit cards to pay for dates with Sarah and gifts for her, too. I mean, this guy was a walking cliché when it comes to cases like this. Just the very textbook definition of a fraud. With all of this, it was alleged that Richard wanted his wife out of the picture so that he could start a new life with his pregnant mistress. And the only alleged way of doing that was not by just getting a legal divorce, but by doing something inexplicable. It's seriously unbelievable, especially if you consider the kids were in this whole mess, too. He's their father, and instead of taking some awkward but civil way out of the marriage, prosecutors claimed he chose to murder his wife rather than just pursue a divorce. Almost 2 years after the incident, now 2017, Richard Dabate was arrested and charged with Connie's murder and for tampering with evidence as well as lying to the police. But the trial would be pushed back all the way to 2022. And during this time, Connie's dad unfortunately passed away due to failing health. The fact that he couldn't see his daughter's killer getting the punishment he deserved was devastating for everyone. But the truth is, where Connie's dad likely is now, I'm sure he will be able to see Connie's death avenged. Maybe not in this life, but in the next. But at trial, according to the prosecution, Richard and Connie were the only ones in the house at the time. And Richard being a compulsive liar, lied about everything. He was barely injured. He had enough time to stage the scene, and he had a very convincing motive. And this led to utter tragedy. As soon as Connie returned home, she was fatally attacked. And the person behind the trigger was the same one she fell in love with over a decade ago and who promised to love her for better or worse. In May of 2022, Richard was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 65 years in prison. You know, the thing that always troubles me with cases like this is that we've all heard that phrase it takes two to tango or whatever it is suggesting that it takes two people to wreck a marriage. And let's be honest, at large we all do play a significant role in deciding how our futures unfold. But sometimes all it takes is one liar, one fraud, one manipulator, and one murderer to fully derail our life's trajectory. Dr. John Delony says it best when he uses the phrase not by my hand but in my lab. No amount of prison is enough to ease the pain Connie's family feels to this day. But thanks to a Fitbit she wore every day, the police saw through the lies of this deceitful man, and this case was ultimately brought to a close. Caroline Crouch was just 19 years old when a trio of criminals broke into her home that she shared with her husband. These criminals ambushed Caroline, tying up her husband and leaving him to watch the crime unfold. After the crime took place, Caroline and her beloved 7-month-old puppy had both lost their lives, leaving only Caroline's husband and their infant daughter behind. The crime that was left behind shook the entire country of Greece, and investigators couldn't understand what the couple could have been in possession of that would have been so valuable to warrant such a vicious and heartless crime. But that's when they realized there was much more to the story than meets the eye. [music] Investigators and prosecutors soon uncovered a plethora of evidence that no one could have expected, landing one man in prison for the rest of his life. Caroline Crouch was born and raised in the UK for much of her childhood. Her transition to Greece isn't very well documented, and her parents haven't shared too many details about Caroline's personal life and upbringing. One source stated that Caroline moved to Greece when she was just 8 years old, but we don't know what prompted such an unexpected move. Some sources suggest that Caroline's father remained in the UK for much of Caroline's life. So, it's probably safe to assume that her father and mother must have split up at some point, but other sources claim that Caroline moved to Greece alongside both her mother and father. So, what caused Caroline to end up in Greece? Well, we really don't know. Most of the sources I found claim that she moved there with both of her parents. So, that's the version of events that we'll run with here. Just know that that may not be completely accurate. But, either way, Caroline spent the majority of her childhood years in Greece, following Greek customs and being raised in a traditionally Greek lifestyle. And this, believe it or not, is what caused things to get a bit weird, at least from an American's perspective. See, Caroline was the daughter of a retired engineer, with some sources claiming that this engineering experience was spent working with oil and gas companies, suggesting her father had quite a reasonable income for much of Caroline's life. And when looking at some of the photos of Caroline's later years, it certainly seems that the family lived a pretty comfortable lifestyle. And that's what makes this next series of events seem rather unusual. I'm sure most of us are familiar with two things. The first being that love has no age limits. That's just a simple fact. The second is that around the world, many cultures will marry for financial or political gain. Keep both of these things in mind and we'll get back to this in just a moment. When Caroline was entering her teenage years, she began considering what she planned on doing for the rest of her life. She'd been actively attending school and was doing quite well for herself, but that's when she met a man named Babis. Caroline met Babis when she was just 15 years old, sometime in 2017. The two hit it off, but I can't, for the life of me, understand how. Like I said, Caroline was 15 at the time, still presumably living with her parents, but Babis was 29 when they met, twice her age, and Caroline was still a minor. Now, there may be some sort of cultural difference here that I just don't understand, hence why I suggested that this just seems a bit odd, specifically from an American perspective. But, keep in mind, in Greece, just like in America, you can't legally marry until you're 18. So, by all means, Babis was in an intimate relationship with an underage girl, and her parents were totally fine with this. We know that her parents were aware of this unusual relationship because in 2019, just 2 years later, the two got married. Even at this point, Carolyn was still underage, meaning her parents needed to sign the documents to allow this marriage to take place. Now, I'm not going to judge someone for situation I don't fully understand [music] due to potential cultural differences, but this just seems a bit off to me. As mentioned, love has no age limits, but if you want my opinion, that rule only applies if you're of a legal age, not still considered a child. Either way, Carolyn and Babis were married, and everything seemed great afterward. The two appeared to be very happily in love, and everything was going well, at least to the outside world. See, behind closed doors, things were not at all what they seemed. Allegations of abuse had begun to run rampant, and to this day, we still don't know whose allegations were more closely aligned with reality. But, things were about to change for the Crouch family, and in ways no one could have ever seen coming. >> [music] >> The following version of events has been told from the perspective of David Crouch, Carolyn's father. This story has been passed along by him as being completely truthful. So, for the sake of this video, I'll be presenting it in the same way. But, in the interest of full transparency, [music] this exact series of events has not been proven, at least not as far as I can tell. David says that Carolyn and Babis would frequently go to a local restaurant near Athens. They'd been to the restaurant countless times in the past, and it was one of their favorite places to visit. As time passed by, Babis had become close friends with the owner of the restaurant, a man who's never been named publicly. [music] At this same point in time, Babis was a helicopter operator, and it was a job he seems to have been quite proud of. Babis was a very confident pilot, [music] seemingly with many hours under his belt, and anyone who knew him knew that being a pilot wasn't just a job for Babis. It was part of his identity. Naturally, as Babis and the restaurant owner spoke time and time again, Babis's time spent working as a pilot was a frequent topic of their conversations. But one [music] day, these conversations took a dark turn that no one could have seen coming. According to David Crouch, the restaurant owner began to speak to Babis about his secret business that involved smuggling illegal goods all around the country. This restaurant owner was deeply, deeply involved in this business. In fact, it may have been the whole reason behind him owning the restaurant in the first place. After all, what better way to clean dirty money [music] than to funnel it through a highly profitable business? David says that the restaurant owner approached Babis and told [music] him about a gang that he'd been involved with. The gang had recently been dealing with some pipeline issues, so to speak, and he felt that Babis would be the perfect man [music] to fix these issues. With Babis's easy access to helicopters, there would be no better way to smuggle goods around the country than through the air. This would keep the police off the trail of any potential drops, [music] as sniffer dogs and drug enforcement agents can't really patrol the air, at least not very easily. Babis, whether willingly or by coercion, allegedly agreed to this business endeavor, >> [music] >> and in the process, struck up a deal with the devil. Babis seemingly had no idea that this job would take everything from him, including his wife and daughter. >> [music] >> According to David Crouch, Babis was quote very stupid. While Babis may have been an excellent pilot, he didn't have a good sense of business nor did he know about keeping people on a need-to-know basis. So, instead of keeping his mouth shut about his new shady business deal, he told Carolyn about it, essentially sealing her fate. Now, I'm sure most of us are familiar with this idea, but anytime someone conducts shady business deals, it's always the best practice to never tell anyone about it. That's just common knowledge. This isn't usually done in an attempt to lie to the people you love, but rather to keep them safe. After all, if they don't know anything about your crimes, they won't be the ones to go down when the ship inevitably sinks. This keeps your family and loved ones at a safe distance from anything going on, so that if things do start to go south, you're the only one that has to atone for what you've done, not them. But Babis didn't seem to have understood this concept, because as soon as he struck up the deal with the restaurant owner, Carolyn was the first person that he told. Naturally, being a good person, [music] Carolyn wasn't okay with this new line of work. Yet, it was going to bring in a massive sum of money for the small family, but it wasn't money that Carolyn was interested in accepting. She fought back against these plans [music] every chance she got, but there was little she could do to stop her husband. Worse yet, there was even less that she could do to stop her husband's new employers. When Carolyn realized that her words had no weight in the eyes of her husband, Carolyn's father says that Carolyn started to walk out on Babis. Babis couldn't stand by and watch this happen, but the problem was Babis's new employers weren't willing to sit by and watch this happen, [music] either. Thus, they forced Babis to silence his wife once and for all. David Crouch says that all of this was revealed to him in a handwritten [music] letter that was given to him by Babis while Babis was incarcerated. David says that Babis wanted to set the record straight once [music] and for all, and he felt that Carolyn's father deserved to know the truth. But for many people, this so-called truth was just a bit too much to believe, especially considering that Babis had told a dramatically different story [music] up to this point. In fact, Babis's attorney says that this entire story is nothing more [music] than a fabrication on the part of Carolyn's father. And he even goes on to claim that such a letter was never handed over to David because that letter doesn't even exist. And according to Babis's public statements, he wasn't involved in the crime at all. In reality, he was just another victim. It was May 11th, 2021. It was a day like any other for Babis and Carolyn. That is, until night time rolled around. At some point in the middle of the night, a trio of armed robbers broke into the couple's home, which at the time was occupied by Carolyn, Babis, their 7-month-old husky puppy, and their infant daughter, Lydia. When the three broke into the home, they immediately grabbed the puppy and heartbreakingly ended its life using its own leash. Once this was done, the three made their way upstairs where they pulled out weapons and demanded all the money that the couple had to offer. Babis told the men that they had about 10,000 euros and even told them where to find the money. But Carolyn wasn't going to let them take it without a fight. Carolyn had been trained in martial arts, and she began to fight back against the robbers. But when they began to resist, they threatened little Lydia, who'd been in the room with the couple that evening. The leader of the three robbers managed to overpower Carolyn after making threats against her child, then ended her life by restricting her breathing, leaving her on the couple's bed and fleeing the home. But before they left, they tied up Babis and gagged him, with him fainting just a few minutes later. This all took place around 4:30 a.m. And when Babis eventually woke up, he managed to free himself from his restraints and called the police for help. When officers arrived at the scene, initially everything that Babis had told them seemed to have been true. Unfortunately, when they checked the home security camera for evidence, they found that the robbers had stolen the SD card, meaning that nothing was left behind outside of an obvious mess and a disturbing crime scene. The Crouch family and Babis would later mourn the loss of Carolyn with photos from the funeral showing Babis embracing Carolyn's mother as she wept. But just a few weeks later, police would reach a breakthrough in the case, finding new information that would turn the investigation on its head and paint Babis in a much different light. As investigators were doing their best to get to the bottom of the awful crime that transpired in the couple's home that night, they began to notice some inconsistencies in Babis's story. Police requested access to Carolyn's phone on the night of her passing in an effort to better pin down her final moments and what took place leading up to the crime. Likely in an effort to find out if she'd been in contact with anyone suspicious in the days or weeks leading up to her demise. It was when searching through her phone that they gained access to her fitness data. This is when things get very interesting. So, if you have a modern smartphone or smart watch, you should know that your devices are always collecting data on you. Most of us think of this as purely being your location data, but if you have a smart watch such as an Apple Watch, then your phone is also documenting things such as your heart rate, your physical movements, and in some cases even your temperature or other details about your health. When investigators looked into Carolyn's health data, they found something interesting. According to her health data that was pulled from her Apple Watch, which documented her sleep patterns, Carolyn had been fast asleep immediately before losing her life. Worse yet, her location data showed that she never once got out of bed, which was inconsistent with what Babis told investigators about Carolyn doing her best to physically fight off the assailants using martial arts. To make matters worse, Babis also claimed that the attack had taken place sometime around 4:30 a.m. But, investigators learned from their home security system that the memory card had been removed at precisely 1:20 a.m. More than 3 hours before Babis claims that the crime began. Carolyn's Apple Watch also showed that her heart stopped beating at about 4:20 a.m. Again, disputing the timeline that Babis had claimed. With all of this information taken into account, police theorized that from 1:20 a.m. to 4:20 a.m., Babis had been staging the scene of the crime. They believe he made multiple attempts on Carolyn's life during this time, making sure to cover his tracks along the way to make sure that things appear as though there was a break-in. But, the bigger question here that many of us are wondering is why? Well, that's the problem. There are multiple answers, depending on which version of events you believe. Was Babis truly threatened by an elusive gang member? If so, then he probably took his wife's life because he was told to. Did Carolyn truly find out about Babis's smuggling crimes and threaten to leave, sending him into a fit of rage? Well, that's certainly possible, too. But, in more recent accounts from Babis during his trial, he even claimed that the marriage between the two had been filled with physical abuse. He claimed that his reason for taking Carolyn's life was because he was sick of her assaulting him, referencing several occasions in which she would punch and kick him when things didn't go her way. He says that he grew so tired of this that he smothered Carolyn with her own pillow while she slept. But, if this were true, then why did he also take the life of her dog? That part just seems excessive. If you want my personal opinion, I think the guy's just a cold-blooded monster. He likely had a million different reasons that he was able to justify in his own mind, none of which hold water when you look at them from a logical perspective. Ultimately, though, none of these theories matter. The only thing that we know for sure is that Babis was, in fact, responsible for taking the life of his wife regardless of his reasons. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 11 years for the crimes against Carolyn's dog. Though, unfortunately, his so-called life sentence only lasts around 20 years. He's expected to remain behind bars until he's in his 50s, at which point he'll be eligible for parole. In the aftermath of the crime and Babis's conviction, Carolyn's family has been highly critical of the investigation and the allegations that Babis has made. Carolyn's father, in particular, believes that there's much more to the story than Babis is letting on. And considering Babis has changed his version of events at least three times since his initial interrogation, there's a good chance that Carolyn's father may be right. And we may never know just how deep this rabbit hole really goes. Time, 10:10 a.m. Area, Bunbury Terrace, Valley View, northeast of Adelaide, Australia. A neighbor called the police after she heard a woman groaning in pain outside of her house, clearly in distress. She was unable to speak. It was found in the front yard of the house, tied up and gagged. The police swarmed the place in a matter of minutes and freed the woman, who claimed to be 26-year-old Carolyn Dela Rose Nelson. But this was not a scene anyone saw every day. It was a quiet and peaceful neighborhood. Well, at least until this happened. The police asked of Carolyn about who had done this to her, and what exactly happened in the house, to which she replied that it was the doing of a bunch of men disguised as tradies or tradesmen. According to Carolyn, her mother-in-law, Myrna Nilsson, was followed from her workplace to the home by a bunch of men in a ute, and they ambushed her home. She claimed that the mysterious men argued with the older woman outside the house for about 20 minutes or so, but she didn't hear it because she was in the kitchen with the doors closed. But then, the men escalated the danger. They pushed Myrna inside the house. They restrained Carolyn and left her to fend for herself while they went after the mother-in-law. Carolyn doesn't remember or know what happened afterward. She only tried to escape once she knew the attackers were gone for good. She managed to get to her feet and fled the house, walking past the mess that was their house and into the front yard where she waited for help. And now she was surrounded by police. She didn't know if Myrna was safe and to make matters worse, her kids were also inside the house. The police knew that they had to go inside and check for the other residents to see if they needed help. So, inside the house they went. But what they walked into no one could have expected. The cops made their way to the laundry room in the house and that's where they discovered 57-year-old Myrna Nilson unconscious having suffered severe blunt force trauma. She was clearly past the point of safety. She endured a very violent attack and sadly she lost her life in the middle of it all. A doorstop was also recovered nearby and it was believed to have been the murder weapon. But after this discovery, the cops had to find the kids. They were also top priority. They needed to ensure that they were unharmed. So, they went upstairs and searched room after room until they found them. Two of the three kids were in their beds and fortunately they were all alive, but they looked out of sorts. Their eyes were glazed over and they looked like they just woken up from a nap or sleep. This was kind of bizarre because according to Carolyn, the men were shouting really loudly and they were also really hostile and angry. But it seemed like the kids were none the wiser about the whole situation. The cops also found Carolyn's young son out in the hallway of the house and he also looked out of it. Like he just wasn't mentally here at the moment. But the kids were taken to a police car immediately because the house was not a scene where young children were to roam freely around. Their grandmother had just been murdered and their mom had been assaulted and bound outside the house. Everyone was confused and in disbelief. How could this have happened? Who could have done this to someone who kept to herself? Well, Myrna Nelson was originally from the Philippines and her husband had tragically passed away pretty early on. She had a son named Mark and when he was still young, she made the move to Australia. There, she settled and worked until Mark grew up and met a woman by the name of Carolyn. They had actually met in the Philippines and then got married, after which they also moved to Australia to be with Myrna. Carolyn was defined as a sweet, nice young girl. Myrna was also defined as a fairly family-oriented person and a smart woman. She was quiet, sweet and friendly with her neighbors and she worked hard to provide for her family. She also had a stable financial situation. She was known to vacation lavishly, but she also loved her son and his family. She'd bought an apartment and a BMW for her young grandson in the Philippines and she was also quick to provide help and support to Carolyn when Mark went to work as the two women would look after the kids and the home. But speaking of home, Mark, Carolyn and their kids actually moved in with Myrna in Valley View. It was a newly renovated home and she opened her doors and her arms to her family. She was supportive, but she also kept her finances in line. By all accounts, she wasn't some reckless spender outside of the occasional fancy vacation here or there. Overall, the family was close and there was no apparent animosity between them. And now, this loving grandmother of three had passed away, [music] leaving behind a bunch of questions that needed answering. Who could have done this? Why? And what could be the motive to take down such a caring elderly woman like this? Well, the police were about to find out. Part the problem with this case was that the descriptions were very vague. Carolyn didn't have a license plate number of the vehicles the alleged murderers followed Myrna in. She couldn't give convincing descriptions of the men, either. She was basically defining the general population of men in Adelaide, which was going to make it really hard for the police. And then they noticed that nothing of value was even taken inside the house. It seemed like the scene was staged, ransacked to make it look like the assailants were going through something. But their sole purpose was to attack Myrna. The investigators needed something more concrete. >> [music] >> And in the meantime, hair samples from the kids were sent for testing. And the results came back and shocked everyone. It seemed the kids were given a high dose of tramadol, a pain reliever as well as a sedative, before the attack. This explained why they were all out of touch and not mentally [music] there. Then when the police informed Mark of his mother's passing, he didn't even have an emotional reaction to it. He asked the general questions of how, why, when, and who, but he just didn't have that obliterating, soul-crushing, dawning reaction of a son losing his mother. Again, everyone processes grief differently, so it's not something to harp over for too long, but it was bizarre nonetheless. And then what really caused the police to drive the investigation into another direction was the lack of evidence pointing to two or three men being in the house. There must have been some DNA or evidence left by the assailants, no matter how slick they were. Only Myrna was targeted, and Carolyn was mostly unscathed. And yes, she was restrained, but she didn't really have any serious injuries. It seemed as though the attackers had it out for Myrna alone. This seemed highly suspicious to the police. So they went over the digital evidence that they managed to find at the house, and they checked Carolyn's and Myrna's phones. And in the former, they found something contradictory. See, at around 6:57 p.m. that evening, Carolyn had sent [music] two text messages to her husband, Mark, and her internet activity showed that she was on eBay buying bicycle supplies for her husband at around 7:08 p.m. Now, this may sound like useless information, but we'll get back to this in just a moment, because now the police had just found something. See, it turns out Myrna had been wearing a smart watch at the time of her passing, and the information they pulled from this watch turned the whole case on its head. See, according to Carolyn, her mother-in-law was ambushed by mysterious men shortly before the police were called. If you remember, the neighbor called the cops a little after 10:00, so Carolyn claims the attack took place somewhere after 9:00 p.m. But Myrna's smart watch data showed that her heart had already stopped beating hours before the supposed time of the attack, at about 6:41 p.m. to be exact. [music] Well, further delving into the data showed that Myrna arrived at home around 6:30 p.m. that evening, and it's believed that she was attacked right after because her car Bluetooth disconnected several seconds after she came home. Then, there's this high connect activity from 6:38 p.m. There's a record of distinct, quick, and successive movements and a sudden increase in the heart rate at that time. As a total, the watch recorded 65 movements in a span of just 39 seconds. This, according to the state, was consistent with Myrna struggling for her life before her heart ultimately and unfortunately gave out at 6:41 p.m., plummeting until the smart watch no longer recorded it. Then, you have Carolyn's phone activity after this, from 6:45 to 7:08, in which she's texting her husband in a very chirpy tone and buying supplies from eBay. If the attackers were in the house during this time, wouldn't Carolyn have been restrained and scared and unable to use her phone? Why would she be sending happy texts to her husband, shopping online, when there are literal intruders in the house? So, did she get the timing wrong? Was it a fluke or something that she did out of stress or anxiety from the incident? Or did she do it on purpose? Well, it's too soon to say anything, but the police found one more thing. They found out that Carolyn owed her mother-in-law $4,000, and she'd also asked her time and time again about giving her a loan, which she denied. Investigators questioned whether this coder couldn't be a possible motive. And ultimately, 2 years after Myrna's passing, in March of 2018, the investigators had enough evidence to charge Carolyn with a count of murder, and she was arrested and awaiting trial. This trial was held in August of 2020 and lasted 2 months. The prosecution presented the data from the smart watch and the discrepancies in Carolyn's story, claiming that she staged the home invasion ruse and carried out an attack on Myrna to get rid of her forever and allegedly get a hold of her finances. The jury spent 40 hours to reach a verdict, but in the end, the trial ended with a hung jury. They could not reach a unanimous decision on the charges. So, a second trial was held in September of 2021, and the defense's strong point throughout this trial was the lack of motive to kill Myrna. They maintained the two women had a very cordial and very close bond. She literally had no reason to do something like this. In the end, Carolyn was found to not guilty of her mother-in-law's murder, and she was acquitted of the harsher charge. But the jury couldn't come to a unanimous decision on the lesser charge of manslaughter, either. So, there's that. A few months later, the state announced they would not be pushing for a third trial. And that was essentially the end of the investigation. >> [snorts] >> Carolyn, the person who was suspicious in the eyes of the police, was found innocent by a court of law and she was free to go. But what's really tragic and heartbreaking is that even 5 years after the second trial, there were still no answers as to who actually attacked Mirna and led to her death. While many people point the blame towards Carolyn, twice the jury decided there just wasn't enough evidence. Now, it's super easy to play the he said, she said game in all of this and follow the circumstantial evidence rather than the court's decision. But until more evidence is found, this case will unfortunately remain unsolved, at least in the minds of many. For some people, there's already enough evidence to give them the answers that they were looking for. Nicole Vanderheyden was a mother of three who had a lot of potential and a lot of life ahead of her. With a 6-month-old infant at home, Nikki and her boyfriend Doug scheduled a much-needed night out. Anyway you cut it, parenting an infant is difficult. But when the drinks started flowing, the uglier side of the couple's relationship clearly revealed itself. Rather than having a relaxing night out, the couple's evening spiraled into a heated argument with one of the two storming off into the night, never to be seen again. Nicole Vanderheyden, or Nikki as her friends called her, was a mother of three. She had two children from a previous marriage that had unfortunately ended in divorce. She and her ex-husband shared custody of the children and by all accounts, they had a pretty good co-parenting situation. Nikki and her kids lived alongside her boyfriend Doug Detrie. The two had met, started dating, and moved in together within a matter of months. It all happened shockingly fast. It wasn't long afterward that Nikki became pregnant with their first child, Dylan. Of course, the pregnancy was sudden, but they were excited about it and were ready to take the next step in their relationship together, shared parenthood. Nikki worked as a substitute teacher for the Green Bay Area Public School District. In particular, she loved teaching science. She had a passion for teaching kids about nature and exploring the great outdoors with them, helping future generations learn what it feels like to touch grass instead of glass. From the outside, it seemed like Nikki was an upstanding all-American woman with no secrets to hide and the perfect relationship. To everyone around her, it probably appeared like she was living the dream. But looks aren't always what they seem. See, Doug and Nikki had been experiencing some turbulence in their relationship. If [laughter] you think about it, Nikki and Doug hadn't been together long before she got pregnant, and she brought two children from her previous marriage, whom she shared custody with. That means that not only were there three kids involved, but her ex was around, too. A lot. None of that's a bad thing on Nikki's part, but Doug just wasn't sure he was ready for it all. In fact, he wasn't even sure that the family life was even for him. Though he probably should have thought about that before the whole pregnancy thing. Nikki was also guilty of frequently accusing Doug of wanting to get with other women, but it seems like her accusations had a bit of truth to them. Doug did truly miss the single life, and because of his soul-searching and trying to figure out what he wanted, Nicole had started to feel like she'd been left on the back burner. When you combine all of these complicating factors into the lives of these two, you can't help but feel like it's a recipe for disaster. And in due time, that would turn out to be true. On the night of May 20th, 2016, Nikki and Doug went to a Steel Panther concert at a local bar called The Watering Hole. The two had been urged to go out by Doug's friend, Greg, probably because he noticed how worn down the two had been acting lately, but with their new found lifestyle surrounded by deeply opinionated kids. The two had arranged for Nikki's mother to come stay with Dylan for part of the night while Nikki's friend Dallas Kennedy stayed with him for the rest of the evening until Doug returned home. Nikki's other two children were with their father for the weekend. Nikki, Doug, and their group of friends had fun at the concert. The Watering Hole is quite large and a hundreds of people were packed into the establishment, so it was a pretty lively concert. What's interesting is that everybody in attendance that night says that Nikki was really pounding the drinks back and quickly. Nikki had also been breastfeeding for months, so she didn't really have a tolerance built up to handle the massive volume of alcohol that she was ingesting. And because of that, things quickly got out of hand. After the concert, Doug bumped into some old friends from high school and they asked if he'd like to have a drink with them. Nikki and the original friend group had planned to head to a second bar called The Sardine Can. Doug told them to go ahead and go to the next bar and he would meet up with them later, saying that he wanted to catch up with his old friends for a while. Nicole was pretty upset about this. After all, they were out that night with his friends, not hers. She was already annoyed when he essentially blew her off for his old high school friends, but then she started feeling as though he may have been chatting up other women who were there that night as well. And that's when Nikki got very upset. When the two were separated, she began drunkenly texting him accusing him of all sorts of things, calling him a cheater, an abuser, and everything in between. Doug, on the other hand, wasn't taking her accusations seriously, which probably just made things worse. From his texts, it's hard to tell if he was trying to de-escalate things or if he was just flat-out blowing her off and dismissing her concerns, but whatever the case was, Nikki was fuming. Somewhere around 12:30 a.m., Nikki called Doug, but he didn't answer her call. She then had a friend call him and he answered that call. That upset Nikki even more. Surveillance footage from the Sardine Can showed Nikki and her friends were there from about 11:15 p.m. until about 11:45 p.m. Police say that it was clear to see that Nikki was on her phone and very upset. After a while, she stood up and stormed off with her friend Aaron Glinsky in tow. According to Aaron, Nikki was having fun and letting loose, but then Doug quit replying to her texts. And that made her upset, and he said she walked out of the bar angrily. He said he was trying to either get her to come back to the bar or call her a taxi to get her home, but that caused an argument between the two. She started getting physical with him, so he walked off and just let her do her thing. Surveillance footage from the bar proved that Aaron was telling the truth. Shortly after Nikki stormed off, Aaron and the rest of the group got an Uber and went home. Doug and his group of friends wouldn't arrive at the Sardine Can until about 12:18 a.m. About 30 minutes after Nikki and the other group had already left. But according to surveillance footage, it doesn't look like Doug was even there for Nikki. It kind of looks like he couldn't have cared less where she'd gotten off to. He and his new group of friends stayed at the bar until about 2:15 a.m. before calling it a night. After Nikki had left, she continued drunk texting Doug, and eventually her phone died. But he did get one last text from her explaining that she'd met a friend, but she never explained who this friend was or where she'd met this person. Doug assumed that he'd meet up with Nikki when he got home a short while later. But when he showed up at 3:00 a.m., Nikki was nowhere to be found. Nikki's friend, the one who'd been babysitting their infant, was a bit worried when Nikki never came back home. But they both just assumed she'd lost track of time and would show up later on, but she never did. The next morning, when Doug woke up at around 11:00 a.m., Nikki still hadn't returned home. Doug texted Greg, Dallas, and Nikki's sister Heather in an attempt to see if any of them had seen her, but they hadn't. Doug texted Nikki all throughout that morning and early evening, but all of these texts remained unread. And it was around that time that everyone realized something had gone horribly wrong. On May 21st, 2016, a 911 call came in from a farmer. He was frantic and said that he just stumbled across a crime scene. >> Uh, we just found a human body laying in the street. >> Okay. Okay. >> Oh my god. >> Is that person beyond help, or do I need to give instructions for CPR? >> No, [music] it's beyond help. >> The scene he'd found was in a wooded area in a field just far enough that it wasn't immediately visible from the road. It was located in Bellevue, which is in the Green Bay area. A blond woman was lying face down in the dirt. Investigators found that she was only wearing her socks and two pink wristbands from the bars she'd attended the night before. And there was what appeared to be a shoe print on her back. Takes quite a bit of force to stomp someone in the back so hard that a shoe print remains on bare skin. But that was only a small taste of the violence that this woman had suffered. Sergeant Richard Lapnow, with the Brown County Sheriff Department, said, quote, "The extent of the injuries that she suffered were pretty horrific. There was trauma to her neck in addition to lacerations and bruising throughout her body. Her fingernails were damaged, indicative of defensive wounds. This tells us she was fighting for her life." Nicole's body wasn't immediately identifiable because of all the excessive bruising. She was instead identified through dental records, and they confirmed this was Nicole. She sustained more than 240 individual injuries. According to the medical examiner, Nikki had 20 abrasions, eight lacerations, eight contusions, a fractured skull, a hemorrhaged tongue, and bleeding around the brain. Most of the injuries occurred before Nicole's passing, although some occurred after. There were so many injuries that it was difficult to tell when some of them had even taken place. There was also some indication that she'd been assaulted, but this wasn't immediately confirmed. Not long after Nikki's body was identified, some bloody clothing was discovered on the side of the road around a mile from the crime scene. It was quickly determined to be Nikki's. A thorough search of the area revealed her purse with her ID and cell phone inside, as well as her shoes. The police turned the evidence over to the crime lab for analysis, but unfortunately, due to a ton of other submissions, the lab was only accepting 10 submissions at a time, meaning they'd have to wait quite a bit of time before all of Nikki's evidence could be processed. Police were baffled. Not only did they not know what happened to Nicole, but now they had to deal with a backlog slowing down important breaks in the case. When Nikki's case made the headlines, the Green Bay community was understandably shaken. Residents never thought such a horrific crime could happen in their sleepy little town. No one could imagine who could have done this to Nikki, a loving mother and a great friend. But even though investigators didn't have a definitive suspect, they definitely had a hunch. >> [music] >> During the initial stages of the investigation, police were suspicious of Nicole's boyfriend, Doug. While police were still at the scene of Nicole's body, they received another 911 call around 4:30 p.m., and they quickly determined this call had come from Doug. He called in to report that he hadn't seen Nicole since the night before. Police were quick to follow up with him and headed to the couple's home, and one officer noted that Doug appeared to be hungover. Doug told the officer about what had unfolded the night before and how Nikki never came home. He hoped she'd showed up the following morning, but when she didn't, he decided to call in a missing person report. One of the officers reported that there were inconsistencies with Doug's level of concern for Nikki, but I'm not 100% sure what he meant by this. I'm assuming he means that it seemed as though he was faking his worry for Nikki, but that may not be completely accurate. The police definitely had questions for Doug when he placed his missing person report. For instance, why did it take him so long? Their infant son needed his mom, especially since he was still breastfeeding. Though admittedly, Nikki certainly shouldn't have been breastfeeding the morning after a night like they had. The same night that Doug filed the missing person report, a warrant to search the home was executed. At the same time, Doug was brought in for a 3-hour interrogation by detectives Brian Slinger and Lee Kingston. When asked why he waited so long to make the report, Doug said that he wasn't feeling good and thought that Nikki ran off with some other guy. He basically said that he just didn't want to deal with all of that, so he just let it slide. Around 2 hours into the interrogation, detectives finally broke the news to Doug about the body that had been found in the field. >> [music] >> They carefully monitored his reaction to the news, then asked him if he had anything to do with her disappearance. He insisted that he didn't and even began to sob saying, "I want her back. She needs to come back." Just a short while later, a big break in the case came when two joggers made a report. They'd noticed a pool of blood on a nearby street curb. Then a neighbor found a cord when they accidentally hit it with a lawn mower. It turned out to be an Android cell phone charging cord. When officers showed up to the scene of these two discoveries, they searched a nearby lawn and found clumps of blonde hair. All of this evidence was collected a very short distance from Nikki and Doug's home. And when everything was sent in for forensic testing, it was found that it all belonged to Nikki. That's when the police arrested Doug. The theory that cops had at the time was that maybe Nikki had gotten home, had another argument with Doug, then the two had gotten into an altercation in the street or the driveway. Then once the deed was done, he used Nikki's car to transport her body to a field. Nikki's back had a lot of shoe prints on it. They had a distinct herringbone tread pattern, which is present on some Air Jordan and other athletic shoes that were popular at the time. Detectives found a similar pair of shoes in Doug's house. Suspiciously, they had red drops on the bottom and some red staining. Doug also didn't have a rock-solid alibi. But that's also where the evidence against Doug stopped making [music] sense. Surveillance found that Doug left his car at The Watering Hole that evening. Data from Nikki's car revealed that it hadn't been driven on the night of her passing, either. Even though police were suspicious of him, forensics didn't reveal any of Doug's DNA anywhere on Nikki's body. They did find male DNA, but it didn't belong to Doug. When detectives found traces of blood in Doug's garage, they thought they had finally pinned him. But then they found out that this blood wasn't even human. It had come from a turkey. There was blood found in Nikki's car, but this was confirmed to have come from an injury one of her children had recently sustained. Greg was questioned by the police, too. Greg, if you remember, is Doug's friend who'd initially invited Nikki and Doug to The Watering Hole that evening. Greg wasn't exactly forthcoming with information. When they asked Greg for someone who could vouch for where he was during the 60 minutes after he left the bar but before Doug relieved the babysitter, he literally just got up and left the room. Just walked out. >> [music] >> But his story and timeline matched Doug's. When the police retrieved location data from both of their phones, it backed up their claims. Police didn't have anything concrete against Doug or Greg at this point, but things kept looking worse for Doug. Not only were the cops suspicious of him because he didn't seem to have actually looked very hard for his girlfriend after their argument, but her family also accused him of being abusive. Nikki's sister, Heather, said that Doug not only drank heavily, but also used illegal substances. Nikki had also recently admitted to her mother that Doug had been physical with her in the past. Then, Doug's ex, Rebecca Mott, told detectives that he could sometimes be both jealous and violent, saying that he'd broken her ankle once and would repeatedly throw things. 16 days after his arrest, Doug was released simply due to a lack of evidence. The case against Doug was quickly unraveling as they couldn't find any solid evidence that directly tied Doug to the scene of the crime. In fact, at the end of it all, they were able to definitively clear Doug using a bit of technology. Detective Slinger said, quote, "We went back and looked at the videos, and we noticed that Doug was wearing his Fitbit the day that we interviewed him at the house when he called in the missing person report. We started to think about, can we get the data off that Fitbit? Was he moving around that night?" When the Fitbit was brought in for analysis, it was confirmed that Doug wasn't moving around at the time that Nikki had lost her life, proving he couldn't have been involved after learning of the violent nature in which Nikki met her end. As far as his Fitbit was concerned, Doug was immobile from the moment he got home to the moment he woke up, aside from a small amount of activity that would have been consistent with a trip to the restroom. This evidence cleared Doug because he couldn't have gotten up, committed the crime, drove a few miles out, disposed of the body, and then drove back home while only recording a few steps on the Fitbit. It simply wasn't possible. Doug was not their guy. But if Doug didn't do it. Who did? >> [music] >> It took another 2 months before investigators received another break in the case. They were able to pull DNA from Nicole's socks of all things. When running the DNA through their database, they got a hit from a Virginia man named George Burch. Now, you're probably wondering how DNA from a man in Virginia was discovered on a body in Wisconsin. Well, George had actually been living in Green Bay for about 3 months. And George was a really problematic individual. Everybody called him Big Country because of his massive 6' 8" frame. In 1998, he'd been tried for the homicide of a gang leader in Virginia named Joey White. Apparently, George had been assaulted by Joey and some of his crew two different times. This resulted in a big fight and Joey lost his life by the end of it all. George was found not guilty. That same year, George was charged with burglary. He was actually kept in police custody so that the gang wouldn't retaliate against him for Joey's passing during this time. He also had a felony firearm charge. This man was bad news all the way around. From there, he moved to New York with his wife and their two kids to start over and hit the refresh button. But eventually, that marriage ended and he felt the need to move yet again. He moved in with his friends Edward and Linda Jackson in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Jacksons described him as being quiet, charming, and personable man. He was an all-around likable guy in his new atmosphere. He'd become a regular at a bar three blocks away called Richard Craniums. And he had a girlfriend who was 18 years younger than him. And although this was a little odd, everything seemed to be going all right for George. The Jacksons were completely taken aback by George's arrest for the violent crimes against Nicole Van Heiden. They had no idea. In fact, Ed and George actually went on a fishing trip that day that Nicole's crime scene was discovered. Detectives paid George a visit and while questioning him about the evening that Nikki lost her life, they asked George if they could take a look at his phone. George handed over his phone and investigators were able to clone it. Detective Slinger said, quote, "It basically mapped out that night and gave us all of the answers we needed to have." Google location data revealed that George was at Richard Cranium's into the early morning hours of that night. After that, he was outside Nicole and Doug's house from 3:00 a.m. to 3:15 a.m. He was at the farm where Nicole's body was discovered at 4:00 a.m. and the location further down the road where her clothes were found at 4:05 a.m. Then he went home. This man was everywhere investigators suspected him to be at precisely the exact times when they suspected of him being there. On September 7th, George was brought in for questioning, but he refused to talk, so he was immediately arrested. His trial started in 2018 and he definitely had an interesting story to tell the jury. George claimed that he met Nikki at a bar. They started flirting with each other and things got hot and heavy between them. He made the claim that they had relations inside his car outside Nikki's house, but then he said that someone came over to the car and hit him in the head with something which knocked him unconscious. He continued saying, quote, "The next thing I remember was literally waking up on the ground outside the truck." He said that he saw Nikki was no longer alive. At this point, he says that Doug held him at gunpoint, forcing him to drive him to various locations and assist him with disposing of Nikki's body. Once he disposed of the body, he says he pushed Doug down a ravine and sped off, tossing Nikki's belongings out along the way. Now, this story may just sound totally ridiculous and it is, but the police did look into it just in case there was a bit of truth to it. There wasn't. According to investigators, what they believe took place makes a lot more sense. They believed that Nikki ended up at the same bar as George that night and the two struck up a conversation. After the evening had ended, George offered to take Nikki home, believing he was going to be, well, rewarded for making sure she got home safely. Nikki, on the other hand, had no such intentions. This caused George to become incredibly angry, at which point the assault on Nikki unfolded, leading to all the awful and gruesome injuries Nikki was left with that night. Officers say that at some point during the ordeal, Nikki fell out of the vehicle and George continued to stomp on her, eventually ending her life. Now, George's defense team did dig up a little bit of dirt on Doug, Nikki's boyfriend, but all they were able to confirm was that Doug was having second thoughts about being a father and he didn't believe he was cut out for the job. Depending on how you read these messages, Doug may have planned on ditching Nikki and leaving her to fend for herself and the children, but we'll never know as things never got that far. All we can say for certain is that Doug was just terrified. In the end, the jury took only 3 hours to come back with a verdict for George, guilty. The judge had a lot to say about this case, saying, quote, "You dropped the body off in a field and then 12 hours later go on a boat and be smiling like nothing happened. Like you didn't have a care in the world. How can we explain that? That isn't human. That isn't normal in Wisconsin. This is the most brutal case that has ever been committed by one person in the history of Brown County. That's how severe this case is. This is a crime that would, I believe, merit the death penalty and for that reason, you have to die in prison." End quote. George was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And when it comes to cases like this with so many twists and turns, it can be easy to lose sight of what matters and that's the victim, Nicole. According to everyone who knew her, Nicole Vanderheiden was a good teacher with a drive and passion for teaching young children. And she was an exceptional mother who wanted nothing but the best for her kids. What was supposed to be a relaxing night out for Nicole and her boyfriend, well, it turned into something much more than she anticipated. Not only did she feel betrayed by Doug, but in the end, she was betrayed by a complete stranger. All because she wanted a ride back home after an already terrible evening. Now, I didn't know Nicole, so I can't vouch for her on a personal level. But considering what her friends and family had to say about her, >> [music] >> I can't help but imagine that Nicole was just a young mother trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life and who she was going to spend it with. And she was desperately trying to hold together the relationships with the fathers of her children. She probably made a few mistakes along the way. Doug was happy to put all of that out there. But that doesn't mean she deserved this. No one deserves this. If there's anything to be learned from her story, never ever abandon the people you love. It doesn't matter if you're just wanting to hang out with your bros from high school for a little while. It doesn't matter how mad you may be at your spouse or significant other. When you're both in the vulnerable position of being out in public among strangers drinking, look out for one another. Don't just walk off and leave someone after some stupid argument. This whole situation could have been prevented in so many different ways. But the fact of the matter is, it wasn't. And Nicole paid the ultimate price. >> Hey.