00:00:00
[Music] they're saying here in Minnesota Minnesota nice and that Minnesota nice only goes so far and
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Heidi Fus she went all away she was genuine and she loved deep she definitely lived a life of love that was
00:00:25
the mark that she left and that's hard to let go you know this is a a terrible terrible
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incident you know we're hoping to find other physical evidence that might help us lead us in a direction toward a
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suspect the morning of April 25th 2010 at 6:30 a.m. Heidi fcus calls 911 someone's trying to break into my house
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she tells the state patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to give her
00:00:56
address 1794 many haha every while she's on the phone you can hear a loud noise and the phone goes dead well I
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don't know where she went there approximately a minute later Nicholas Fergus calls 911 says that he and his
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wife have both been shot brok okay are you in St Paul sir St Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to the
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ambulance and transported him to Region's hospital he had been shot in the leg Heidi was struck in the back
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back as she was trying to flee towards the kitchen it was a shotgun blast that killed her right away the shotgun was
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laying inside front door area there's a little foyer Nick gave a brief story he heard
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somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the Intruder
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struggled over the shotgun the responding officers uh went up and down the block try to talk to
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neighbors I was next door house sitting when the crime happened really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell
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of you shot her you shot me it never felt right the story never made sense to me he tells investigators
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that he grabbed a shotgun loaded it with two shells and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the stairs in front of him
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towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at why you would send the unarmed person down in front of you is
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beyond me to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and
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Heidi in order to believe that Nick killed Heidi you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
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killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get
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there [Music] [Music] while this area of St Paul where Heidi and Nick fcus lived I would characterize as generally
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a quiet neighborhood back in 2010 n years before she took charge of the fcus case
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detective Nicole cyes of the St Paul police department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood do you remember
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first hearing about the fcus case I do broken okay it was early on a Sunday morning the 911 call was at 6:30 Nick
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fergus's Story of a burglar didn't make sense to cypes most people are home at 6:30 on a Sunday morning especially in a
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family neighborhood like that the last thing that most burglars want to encounter are people did police ever
00:04:35
have any luck tracking down the Intruder that Nick described no you know I'm looking I didn't see
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anybody come out of that house Brandon ' Conor was housesitting next door to the
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fasses and taking care of kittens I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around some noise caught my attention so
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stuck my head out the window kind of listen Brandon said says he recalls hearing a muffled argument coming from
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the fergus's house listening through an open window that's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots
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around this time Brandon said he also heard that voice crying out kind of this agonizing yell
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of you shot her you shot me uh please please no something along those lines and then then it was done
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First Responders rushed to the scene there was nothing they could do for Heidi she was pronounced dead Nick was
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rushed to the hospital and treated for a Grace gunshot wound to his leg he seemed
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not to be sure whether or not Heidi had been killed like I said we'll do our best to find out how how Heidi's doing
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pleas hours later Nick was transported to the St Paul police department then Nick and I started have our conversation
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in the conference room Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement you know I know this is a very traumatic situation okay
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and I'm just going to try and ease into it okay so Nick said the couple ordered in food the night before and watched the
00:06:15
movie Avatar they went upstairs to their bedroom around 11:00 p.m. the next morning Nick got up around 6:00 a.m. to
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get a drink of water from the bathroom go back to sleep and just kind of fitfully sleep for 10 or 15 minutes and
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then I heard the screen door open trying to let it go for a little while but then
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I started hearing fing with her door knob and is Heidi still sleeping then yeah okay like a rock Nick said he
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retrieved his shotgun from the closet I keep two shells for it just in case things go weird so when I heard things
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this morning I did load it and then I wake up Heidi okay according to Nick he told Heidi someone was trying to break
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in and to call 911 as she spoke with the dispatcher someone tring break into my house they
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headed downstairs so they could get out of the house what address are you at all
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right so you going first down the stairs or is she is she behind you or is she in
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front of you or what um she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to move her along quickly Nick said as they pass by the
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front door it burst open guy that was there I think he he grabbed the barrel I don't remember exactly what happened
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with the gun when off so my finger slipped on the trigger Nick told Sergeant gray during the struggle over
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the weapon the gun fired striking Heidi who he said was in the kitchen okay so the guns guns here
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chest High yep you and I are like this yeah and then the gun goes off mhm I I mean I know it hit Heidi I just I know
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it did she was running away so it definitely hit her in the back hit in the back
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yeah I couldn't believe it I I didn't want to believe it it can't be true that's there's no way CA and Marcus
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sarzen mentored Heidi at Calvary Church I think she's one of those uh people that you can't not like everyone liked
00:08:14
Heidi she genuinely loved people she was the life of the party always finding fun
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ways to engage people and uh she was very loyal the couple met at the church and in 2005 Heidi 20 and Nick 22 got
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married Nick ferus had a very warm and engaging personality always smiling he carried
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himself with confidence and he had High character high integrity in the church that was the reputation he' built for
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himself but just a few hours after Heidi's death Sergeant Jim Gray found himself questioning Nick fergus's
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account he couldn't figure out why the couple would leave the safety of their bedroom you come upstairs you know I
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hate to tell you this but my house you know I'm Justified and killing you if you can come break it in my house yeah
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and I guess Nick explained that the couple had a plan in place if they were ever in a precarious situation they
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would avoid a confrontation and escape to their car in the garage and get away if we can save ourselves let's let's do
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that instead of getting into a situation where his story didn't make a lot of sense to me Sergeant gray started
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probing into their marriage you guys uh have any problems or anything like that most just the normal stuff like um you
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know stresses about finances and quality time and vacations and all that stuff yeah
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but you guys aren't behind in the bills or like we have behind in the bills um which is a little stressful in fact we
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were planning on moving tomorrow who be where well we hadn't figured that out yet we were and and
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this is a a hard it's a hard place for us we were foreclosing on WE foreclosed on our
00:10:05
house Nick revealed they were behind on their mortgage payments and just 24 hours away from being evicted from their
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home well that's kind of I mean kind of close notice it is and I think the reason is cuz we're both kind of dealing
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with the shape of the whole thing gray says his suspicions were raised and minutes later he was struck by the way
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Nick asked about hiding well I just want to know the final answer on the final answer on
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he she didn't make it I figured that I mean is that typically how someone asks if their
00:10:47
loved one or spouse has been killed not only is that not typical but that's how they'd ask it but they wouldn't wait an
00:10:55
hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question I've watched the interview obviously
00:11:01
numerous times and I understand people react to trauma differently but this was different than
00:11:09
what I'd seen anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck by Nick's demeanor during it and that
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Dem meter was this was just another day this was something he had to get through
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skeptical of Nick's story Sergeant gray confronted Nick about what happened that
00:11:26
day Nick you know part of me want to ask you this question did you have anything
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to do with this no absolutely not okay absolutely not all right why is there a party that
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wants to ask that well Nick I'm I'm a police officer okay I got to ask I got to ask the tough questions all
00:11:48
right after the interview Nick left the police station that day investigators returned to the fcus home with a search
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warrant gray says it did did not look like anyone was planning to move out the next day nothing was packaged up at all
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the closet was still full of clothes we noticed that there was still food in the
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refrigerator and there was something else that investigators questioned we didn't see any signs of forced entry
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into the house based off of the physical evidence at the scene his version of the
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incident couldn't be plausible what do you think of Nick's story about the Intruder chat now with
00:12:28
the 48 team on Facebook and x 48 hours after Nick ferus said an intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi
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police went back to the crime scene to check out his story he told us that there was a life and death struggle
00:12:51
inside the house but Sergeant gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't match Nick's account there was a vase
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some receipts a beer bottle and none of that was knocked over so that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was
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such a struggle why wasn't any of this stuff knocked over Sergeant gray says he examined the front door for signs of a
00:13:13
Breakin and did notice some markings but it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that uh the door had been
00:13:20
forced open the day of the murder in his interview Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door from
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upstairs and like what are they doing are they just come like this yeah kind of like that yeah just shakeing the KN
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and shoving the door that day sergeant gray and his colleagues did a reenactment morning April 27th 2010 to
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determine if they could hear the front door shaking from the bedroom we're in the bedroom looking Sergeant shackle and
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Sergeant Wright were upstairs in the bedroom I'm at the front door so let me know when you guys are ready I'll I'll
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try to KN for 15 seconds then we are ready they could not hear me filling with the
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door sorry Sergeant gray says he also doubted Nick's story about the couple's eviction and a scheduled move the day
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after Heidi was shot there didn't appear to be anything boxed up or packaged up to
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go there were a few empty boxes in the dining room area there was not a grand stack of boxes or anything for that
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matter that would lead us to believe that they were going to pack up all in one day meanwhile Heidi's mentors from
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calary church Marcus and ktina were learning the details about her death and the eviction it it just an add up it
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just something wasn't right with that story it seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have
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notified anyone not have anything prepared for that because she planned things out and she liked things to be
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orderly on April 30th 2010 5 days after her passing Marcus and ktina attended Heidi's
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funeral yeah the atmosphere at the funeral was there was a lot of emotion at the funeral Marcus and CA say they
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were struck by Nick's demeanor I remember going through the receiving line and shaking his hand there was no
00:15:27
grief showing it just felt like he lacked emotion Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the couple's friends if
00:15:36
Nick could have shot his wife and the answer I got was no there's no way that Nick killed Heidi he loved her there
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there's just no way he could have done that and I just wasn't so sure about that from what we gathered during our
00:15:51
investigation Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship there was no problems or issues that anybody saw your
00:15:59
first impression upon meeting Nick ferus is no way in the world could he have committed a violent act the day after
00:16:08
the shooting Nick's Family hired attorney Joe Friedberg who advised Nick to stop talking to the police it didn't
00:16:16
take long to realize that he was being looked at as a suspect when investigators asked Nick to sit down
00:16:26
with their artists to draw a sketch of the in fredberg advised him not to they were
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going to use it as an opportunity to further interview him instead Nick and his attorney hired their own sketch
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artist it was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist and brought that drawing to police the
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original and at that point we were basically told that Nick would not be answering any more questions with
00:16:56
regards to our investigation investigators released Nick's sketch to the public but it didn't generate any
00:17:04
leads they kept working the case Nick moved out of their home a few weeks after Heidi's
00:17:12
death 2 months later he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best friends Rachel Sanchez who
00:17:20
is going through a divorce at the time I thought because we shared something traumatic there was a deep connection
00:17:27
there because I had come out of something traumatic myself in a relationship I think Nick seemed to be
00:17:35
handling things well it felt like he was very grounded he was with his friends a
00:17:41
lot and they were processing together so I think just his his steadiness was an attractive quality Rachel says the two
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bonded over their faith they began dating in the spring of 2011 at the time God played a big part in my life and I
00:18:00
think that's another quality that I saw in him that he he loved God like I did one year into their relationship
00:18:08
Nick proposed I knew it was coming we had looked at rings beforeand so it wasn't really a huge surprise and a few
00:18:15
months later the couple married they started a family we did have kids pretty quickly and soon were the parents of
00:18:24
three children he absolutely loves his kids so much Andrew and Emily Ericson are friends of Nick they say for a long
00:18:33
time Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder yeah it just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief
00:18:40
during that time but they say when he did talk about it his story was always the same what did he tell you same thing
00:18:48
he's always told everyone from the first day same thing he'd tell you today that
00:18:53
someone was breaking into the house and they were going to try to get out and there was an altercation and
00:19:02
tragically Heidi was killed investigators still did not believe that story but 5 years after
00:19:10
Heidi's death with little movement in the case they finally got a break someone called in a tip there was
00:19:18
somebody that looked exactly like the sketch and put a name to Nick's sketch somebody called said I have an
00:19:24
experience with this guy I think I know who it is [Music] after 5 years without a break in Heidi
00:19:43
fergus's murder case out of the blue a tipster called police with a name after seeing this sketch of the
00:19:52
suspect but there was a problem says investigator cypes he was already in prison
00:19:59
on the date of Heidi's death Nick's second wife Rachel says her husband rarely talked about the case
00:20:09
being solved but I had asked him are you going to put effort into seeing if you can find the person that did this he
00:20:15
didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know I know that from his lawyers he was told to just stay silent police found it
00:20:23
odd Nick never checked in your four investigators and this case he never contacted one of us to ask the status
00:20:32
was this case ever considered a cold case it wasn't ever considered a cold case because prosecutors Rachel Crocker
00:20:38
and Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015 there just was not a lot of new information coming in
00:20:46
Heidi's family would check in on her birthday is there anything new development and there would be new
00:20:54
developments when detective cypes took over Heidi's case in 2019 seems her fresh set of eyes really made a huge
00:21:02
difference it was absolutely critical I think cypes definitely restarted something cypes dug deep reviewing the
00:21:10
entire case File including an examination of a financial timeline she compiled with the help of the FBI I had
00:21:18
the luxury of looking back on all of these things several years later cypes learned Nick worked at his
00:21:25
family's carpet installation business they were contractors for Home Depot Heidi was a clerk at a financial
00:21:32
services company in St Paul their combined income was about $70,000 a year they seem like they were on top of
00:21:42
all the bills before they bought the house but Lawman says the home purchase in 2007 strained the couple's
00:21:51
finances and that home was just too much for them by the time Heidi died in April
00:21:57
of 2010 the couple was deeply in debt he had not paid the mortgage in 22 months in fact the couple had lost their home
00:22:07
to foreclosure and would be forced to move out but cyes discovered Heidi apparently had no
00:22:14
idea after reviewing the couple's texts and emails Cy saw no evidence Nick ever told Heidi they were in financial
00:22:23
trouble there was no communication between the two of them to indicate that she had any idea the depth of their
00:22:30
financial issues I was able to determine through the foreclosure and eviction attorneys
00:22:37
that there was no paperwork Heidi had signed that nobody had ever talked to Heidi nobody met Heidi Heidi didn't go
00:22:44
to the eviction hearing on March 8th 2010 Cy says Nick and Heidi's family and friends didn't know the couple had to
00:22:52
relocate and if she was serious about moving she would have gotten the day off so she was playing to go to work
00:23:00
yes why do you think he kept her in the dark so long shame I believe he was concerned about the shame of what he had
00:23:07
done how it would look that he couldn't complain with her you know it had gotten
00:23:11
too big at that point and when cypes talked to the couple's friends she learned why Nick
00:23:19
wanted to hide their financial situation he was described by his friends as being wise and being the
00:23:25
person that they would go to for advice Nick ferus really presented as somebody who had some of those bigger tougher
00:23:33
life questions figured out what kind of person do you want to be what kind of relationship do you want to have with
00:23:40
God what does that tell you as you're investigating the case and you see someone in that type of Personality it
00:23:48
just became easier to see that this was someone who did not want his friends his
00:23:53
family to know the extent to which he had failed Cy says she discovered more of Nick's
00:24:00
Lies when she learned about a conversation Heidi had with a friend just the day before she died Heidi had
00:24:08
talked to us about how Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft
00:24:12
it was somewhere around $180 to $200,000 worth of identity theft wasn't true they weren't the
00:24:20
victims this was all un true but as cypes tried to figure out if there was a connection between Nick's
00:24:27
live and Heidi's death she learned Nick and Rachel had divorced I remember very well when Nikki sypes came to my door
00:24:37
and that Nick had also kept secrets from her did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved she did
00:24:47
there were Financial issues between the two of them Nick was lying about a lot of things this is a story that's
00:24:54
happened before and it didn't end well that that terrified [Music] me could there actually have been an
00:25:21
intruder after spending 19 months digging deep into the fcus case File reviewing crime scene
00:25:29
photos 911 calls do you remember what he was wearing and Nick's video interview she was running away so he definitely
00:25:36
hit her in the back investigator Nicole cypes had come to one conclusion what really matters is what happened in that
00:25:44
firey and there was no third person you never found anyone else's DNA no no DNA evidence no physical evidence no sign of
00:25:53
a struggle to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick
00:26:01
and Heidi as part of the new investigation cypes reached out to Nick's second wife
00:26:08
Rachel what did she know in 2020 she came to my door and I was like why are you here and she was like to talk about
00:26:18
Heidi Fergus at first Rachel then divorced from Nick says she was reluctant to talk you're asking for a
00:26:26
lot when you get involved in something like this and I didn't want to but I also knew that it was the right thing to
00:26:32
do and it was for truth Rachel told cyes Nick had lied about their finances during their marriage I found a letter
00:26:41
saying that we hadn't paid our property taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them
00:26:47
and when I saw that I was like oh no like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me
00:26:58
during that time Rachel says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's
00:27:06
death and I said we got to sit down and talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions
00:27:15
have caused me to just distrust you completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that
00:27:21
I could prove that he said it and the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front
00:27:28
of me over and over and over makes me think that I could murder my wife that you could lie about something that I
00:27:38
could murder my wife yes when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think
00:27:55
those things or why aren't you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right Rachel later shared the recordings
00:28:03
with investigator cypes the behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel was almost duplicative of how he
00:28:11
hid things from Heidi we cannot let this man be out on the street any longer for prosecutor
00:28:20
Elizabeth lman the time had come to ACT I told Sergeant cyes we're charging them
00:28:26
let's do it 11 years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19th 2021 a St Paul Police SWAT team arrested
00:28:35
Nick fcus at his house and charged him with second deegree murder a grand jury ultimately indicted
00:28:43
fcus on first and second degree murder charges our minds were absolutely blown heidy's friends Marcus and CA were
00:28:54
relieved it's hard to to say I don't know what emotion you even put put to it it's hard to say excited I felt grateful
00:29:00
we don't understand Nick's friends Emily and Andrew you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
00:29:08
killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get
00:29:14
there after remaining free on bail for almost 2 years on January 27th 2023 Nick ferus went on
00:29:25
trial prosecutors would not be allowed to call Nick's second wife Rachel to testify or use her taped conversation
00:29:33
with Nick the judge ruled her testimony and the recording had no bearing on the case I went into it with an open mind
00:29:43
Natalie Michael served on the jury did he appear like a man who would kill his wife no he did
00:29:51
not a lot through the trial he was putting his head down when they showed the photos of the two of them together
00:29:57
you know he seemed like he really was in love with her I think Nick was someone who lived two lives prosecutors
00:30:04
presented an unusual motive they told the jurors Nick Fergus staged a burglary because he was desperate and ashamed his
00:30:13
secrets were about to be revealed to Heidi and everyone else all of his kind of cards of lies are about to crumbo he
00:30:22
would have been exposed as a complete failure a liar um um to his friends and community and instead he's a victim he
00:30:32
walks away from this supported by his friends supported by his family Nick had no reason Nick's lawyers Joe fredberg
00:30:42
and Robert Richmond say that simply makes no sense as a motive there was nothing about murdering the woman who
00:30:50
everyone agreed he loved that would help his situation and they say the state's contention that Heidi didn't know about
00:30:58
the couple's finances simply was not true Nick said she was in on all of the major decisions he would say to us that
00:31:09
they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile at first I was wondering how she couldn't know about the finances or
00:31:18
some of the Foreclosure or some of the things happening but Natalie Michael says the prosecution's case did not
00:31:24
hinge on motive the prosecution said it really is was there an intruder in the house or was there not an intruder it
00:31:32
was our position that there had been an intruder exactly the way Nick described to the police on the 911 call somebody
00:31:44
broken at the scene the information that Nick gave at the scene is that this Intruder came into the house at the
00:31:50
hospital he just came in and to Sergeant gray guy that was there I think think he
00:31:57
he grabbed the barrel Nick's lawyers say police didn't find The Intruders fingerprints or DNA at the scene because
00:32:04
as Nick told investigators in his interview at the hospital what else can you describe from him the Intruder was
00:32:11
wearing gloves gloves he's wearing gloves you don't always leave DNA and especially when your hands are covered
00:32:20
so what am I looking out here but prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides
00:32:26
fingerprints this is a physical model to scale that was created by the FBI they use this
00:32:33
model to show the jurors there was no evidence of a struggle I felt that it was very important for us to be able to
00:32:40
recreate how small that entryway is let's say the Intruder gets in they have this struggle and they have this life
00:32:48
and death struggle right in this area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly and then Heidi gets shot Square
00:32:57
in the back in a very clear shot this animation created by the FBI shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was most
00:33:06
likely shot from shoulder level the height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to
00:33:15
fire Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an intruder in fact there were tool marks
00:33:24
in the door which would be consistent with someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door attorney
00:33:34
Joe Friedberg says fergus's nextdoor neighbor Brandon OK Conor testified he heard a voice you shot her you shot me
00:33:43
uh please please no something along those lines that means there must have been another person in that house Nick
00:33:52
was talking to a third person when he said that but proc utor say Brandon may have misheard Nick while he was on the
00:34:01
phone with the 911 dispatcher broken he is screaming about being shot and he did that over almost s
00:34:13
minutes stay on the phone with me okay Nick Fergus did not take the stand after an 11-day trial the case
00:34:25
went to the jury if there's anything in this case there's Reasonable Doubt [Music]
00:34:33
yeah see more evidence from the case at 48 [Music] hours.com it was a hard fought litigated
00:34:53
trial as the state and Nick fergus's defense team presented their closing arguments on February 10th 2023 we had
00:35:03
great we thought circumstantial evidence that what Nick said happened did not happen attorneys on both sides were
00:35:10
hopeful the jury would make the right decision it's not enough if you have a hunch there was no direct evidence that
00:35:19
Nick murdered his wife in her closing argument prosec computer Crocker said ferus shot Heidi
00:35:30
while she was on the phone with the 911 operator someone's tryant West so that call does end with a very
00:35:40
very loud noise and the call goes dead and we believe that that's the gunshot according to phone records 65 seconds
00:35:48
passed from that moment until ferus made his 911 call pleas somebody this broken
00:35:58
Crocker reenacted for jurors which she believed Nick Fergus did before he made that call I walked over in the courtroom
00:36:06
to roughly as far as Heidi would have been on the ground crouched down turned her over um to check for a pulse to be
00:36:13
sure that she was in fact deceased walked back over picked up the firearm and demonstrated how he could
00:36:22
shoot himself and call him a one where is the guy that shot you at 6 5 Seconds there was more than enough time for all
00:36:29
of that to happen to prove their Theory F has shot himself in the thigh they point to Mark's left by shotgun pellets
00:36:36
at the bottom of the front door when he shot himself we believe that Nick was about um here just how you
00:36:47
would brace yourself probably against the door if you're doing it to yourself of his Reasonable Suspicion but fergus's
00:36:54
attorneys challenged the 65 second time frame attorney Robert Richmond says phone records also show ferus misdialed
00:37:03
two numbers before getting through to 911 making it impossible to shoot himself what they reenacted was 65
00:37:13
seconds which was ignoring the two mises which happened at 38 seconds the fact that we cannot find the Intruder is not
00:37:24
evidence that there was no intruder and if anything because of the next door neighbor because of the tool marks
00:37:32
because of the 38 seconds we feel that the evidence supports that there was an intruder this isn't blind belief Nick's
00:37:43
friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove ferus was the shooter we were open to hearing
00:37:50
inconsistency of what Nick said but that didn't happen on February February 10th
00:37:57
2023 the jurors got the case and in 5 hours returned with a verdict my last text to Nick was it has to be innocent
00:38:08
there's no way that they got to guilty this quickly we rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong Nick
00:38:16
ferus was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and intentional I believe Justice was served
00:38:25
Marcus and CA were in the courtroom when the verdict was read Justice may have been slow but fortunately the jury got
00:38:33
it right it feels like this is the beginning of healing it's the beginning of a of a new chapter Heidi's mom
00:38:41
actually said that for so many years they had to live with Nick fergus's narrative and they knew it was wrong but
00:38:49
they just didn't have another narrative and to finally be able to have him finally held accountable it it meant a
00:38:56
lot to us for sergeant cypes there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's
00:39:03
financial problems we weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on does
00:39:09
that frustrate you greatly I think it would help complete the picture for some people on April 13th 2023 Nick ferus was
00:39:18
back in court for a sentencing hearing and to hear Victim Impact statements growing up Heidi was the quintessential
00:39:26
little sister to me Heidi's brother Peter Ericson because of the lies we were told as early as the day after her
00:39:33
murder it's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief ferus refused
00:39:39
to admit guilt I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime my body stands condemned
00:39:45
to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains free judge Leonard Castro imposed the
00:39:58
maximum sentence it is the sentence of Law and Judgment of this court that you be committed to the commission of
00:40:04
Corrections for the remainder of your life without the possibility of release good luck to you sir God
00:40:15
speak my kids are always what I think of first fergus's second wife Rachel they lost in this too because one day they
00:40:24
had a dad that they thought was somebody and the next day he's not that person anymore she often thinks about Heidi too
00:40:32
I like to think I have a connection with Heidi she didn't get to have the voice that I have now and so I can only hope
00:40:40
that my voice is something she would be proud of Heidi was a genuine loving sincere young woman who wanted to
00:40:52
live life to the fullest she wouldn't want people to become bitter or angry because of what she had to experience I
00:41:02
think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of [Music] circumstances a millionaire entrepreneur
00:41:25
goes missing without a trace and is not the person to go take off somewhere no one knows where she is until disturbing
00:41:31
Clues begin to surface I remember like a panic set in when success becomes a curse 48 hours Saturday on CBS and
00:41:39
streaming on Paramount [Music] Plus