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[Music] Aaron this is Florida nothing strange [Music] here the house was beautiful it was 4,000 square ft it had
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a pool a garage apartment it was a great house the only problem was upstairs some of the rooms
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were too small and just the functionality did not work for some families I could understand why they'd
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want to renovate it when did you first meet Shanti and David Dave just called me on the phone
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and asked if I'd come by and take a look at the project he said that they had done some work I wasn't at all prepared
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for what I saw when I got there they had fully disassembled this house to a degree that I'd never seen
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before it it was rather astonishing it was largely wide open like you're inside of a giant shoe
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box this house became more than just a project to David tronis it was his life he obsessed on it this house is the
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center point to the story and ultimately led to shanti's demise this case all started with a call
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to 911 placed at approximately 3:51 p.m. M on April 24th 2018 by Dave tronis hello and Dav says that he came home and
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found Shanti floating in the bathtub she's not feing did that story make sense absolutely not Shanti was extensively
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beaten it makes me emotional I feel bad for her family and for her son It's upsetting that she won't get
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that life with him clearly Dave tronis from the very beginning is a suspect absolutely Dave was asked to go to the
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station thank you and voluntarily remain there for hours just have a seat there it'll be a little bit he did not request
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councel he consented to swabs to clippings to a search of his person Dave went into that interview
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with an agenda he had never been more in love was so happy and he just started getting confronted and confronted and
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confronted I told you she was murdered murdered someone took her life from her and there's nothing you can't even fake
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it that's how much you could give it and if it became a war of Wills in that room
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I don't have any explanation for her the severity of her injuries and didn't David win that war of Wills he was not
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broken well Dave didn't confess are we boring you it seems pretty clear these two detectives they
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went into this room decided that David was a murderer and then went the extra mile to try to put a file together to
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prove such did you guys get into an argument was she about the house is it possible that without this
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house Shanti might still be alive I think that's completely true [Music] [Music]
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Delaney Park is a well-established neighborhood it's been around for over a hundred years Tara Stevens knows Delaney
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park inside and out she's a realtor who buys and sells homes there it's a great place to live to
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raise a family a lot of outside activity great school system it's a it's a great
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neighborhood so Delaney Park is a mile or so from downtown or Orlando Ryan vesio a former prosecutor with the
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Orlando State Attorney's office got to know the area well when he led the investigation into the death of Shanti
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Cooper in April 2018 did Shanti ever indicate to any friends or family that she was afraid of
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anyone no so you guys knew each other approximately 5 years this month vesio and investigators dug in to
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learn all they could about Shanti and her husband David trones the couple had been married for
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more than a year everybody we spoke to about Dave and Dave's background said that he was highly intelligent it's what
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made him successful when he worked in business how would you described Shanti Shanti Cooper was a hardworking
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dedicated mom who cared deeply deeply about her son her son was her world shanti's son Jackson was then 8 years
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old she shared custody with his father Jim Cooper whom Shanti had divorced in 2013 she launched a lucrative Financial
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software business and worked out of her home office how did she meet Dave tronis
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Dave was outside of Minneapolis Minnesota at the time they met over the internet and started exchanging messages
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and profiles and that turned into emails investigators later found this document
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on shanti's computer that shows just how smitten she was Dave I will have to say
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I think this will be a delicious detour amazing magnificent lifechanging detour I've had a pep in my step since we
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started this little email Affair in Minnesota David just ended a long marriage but within months of
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meeting Shanti onine line he moved to Orlando Dave fell in love with Delaney Park and the house at 218 East Copeland
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Drive a house that came complete with its own gargoyles we sold it to him for 67500 which was a really really good
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deal how did he pay for it cash Dave put the house in trust for himself and his mother and soon introduce Shanti to Tara
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they seemed very happy she was a beautiful very nice person I enjoyed meeting her Tara did not feel quite the
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same about Dave Dave's personality changed a little bit after the contract was signed I just saw a
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very different side of him he was like a a guy or a child who wants to get their
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way and they don't stop until they do you were glad when the deal was over absolutely I was very
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glad I didn't get a good feeling from him Cindy and Dan da are shanti's relatives by marriage they didn't like
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Dave at first but it wasn't long before Cindy had a change of heart I love her so I grew to love him we absolutely
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adored him the first time we had lunch he walked in and he said how lucky am I I get to have lunch with two of the most
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beautiful women that I know I mean that's Charming in 2015 Dave and chanti moved
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into their new home and attempted to remodel it with Shanti footing the bill what did Dave do all day it's a great
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question if you ask Dave he says that he worked on the house and worked on the renovations and took care of the
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property and clean the pool contractors came and went demolition went on and on but the
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renovation was an expensive failure by 2018 the main part of the house was unlivable Shanti was reduced to working
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and sleeping above the garage in a small apartment where did Dave sleep I think he slept downstairs with the dogs maybe
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not all the time but I'm pretty sure he was down there desperate to resolve the housing
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situation Dave turned to Keith ory a local house renovator who also appeared on a reality TV show called Zombie house
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flipping neighborhoods are under attack from zombie houses what is zombie house flipping
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zombie house flipping is a house flipping TV show where we take houses that are the worst of the
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[Music] worst is anything broken I think we have a termite problem and what we do is
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bring them back to life I looked at the house I realized that the structure was suspect and uh politely stepped outside
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an engineer discovered the only thing holding up the house was 2 in of Stucco it was rather astonishing they took away
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all the interior Dividing Walls and basically what was left was a twostory shell weren't you tempted to just run
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for the hills yeah but at the same time you rarely come across a challenge that's
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that uh that bold Keith was up for the challenge and began Shing up the interior and then he got the go-ahead to
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use the house in the next season of zombie house flipping this is zombie house flipping it was mid April
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2018 and filming was set to begin in early may but there was a problem getting Dave
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and Shanti together to talk in FA in person was proving to be really difficult Keith went to the house to
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meet with the couple one last time to be sure they were on board and they both said yes we understand and then she took
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off immediately just and left I got a sense that she was ped off at him fesio said Shanti had been trying for years to
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get her name on the trust that owned the house but Dave never followed through and it seemed like things just sort of
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culminated to a boiling point it was only days before shanti's murder she desperately wanted stability
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in her life but was living in a house that was anything but her name was not on the deed and she had already spent a
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lot of money on what was essentially Dave's house Shanti was the bank roll the soul bank roll to almost A4 million
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doll renovation what did she get for her $250,000 well a lot of headaches and [Music]
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heartaches thank you shortly after Shanti was pronounced dead Dave tronis went to Orlando Police
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Headquarters go get her as soon as I can where he remained without a lawyer for 14 hours we got to figure this out
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together okay of course he didn't attempt to conceal anything Richard seski is Dave's attorney he gave the law
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enforcement access to everything that they needed everything that they wanted and he laid himself out there for
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examination by all we want to say how sorry we are for loss at the start detectives Teresa
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sprag and Barb sharp seem sympathetic take a minute okay I know this is super tough they're very good at
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building Rapport and have a tremendous amount of experience if you have a suspect who's willing to talk you just
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hit play and sit back and let them go on and on and on and that's what Dave does
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Dave sticks with his story he took the dog dogs to a park in the afternoon and after he
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returned he found Shanti still wearing her pajamas floating in the tub so I could hear the water is running you see
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her laying one of her legs is kind of sticking up and out a little bit and it's just
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extremely awful are you can you tell me what your address is he tells the detectives that
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he tried to perform CPR but couldn't get Shanti to breathe she was dead when First Responders arrived Dave has a lot
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to say and a lot to say to try to convince the detectives that he wasn't involved in his wife's death I think
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something went wrong either she slipped or she fell or she blacked out why did he agree to sit down and talk to these
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detectives with without an attorney because he had nothing to hide and he didn't think that it would hurt him but
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the veteran detectives began to pick at his story and question how shanti's Bloody cheek and bruised eye came from a
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slip in the tub any exp what I found somebody who slips and Falls doesn't receive the amount of blunt force trauma
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to focused areas in the head detectives also had spotted blood on shanti's bed and suspected that's where she had
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been killed but Dave says the blood likely was from shanti's period it did get on the bed spread and it did get
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almost through the B there was a lot of other evidence that would be inconsistent with this being blood
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associated with a menstrual cycle detectives also suspected and shanti's autopsy later confirmed that she was
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strangled but celeski says as frustrating as it may have been to authorities Dave can't explain shanti's
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injuries not because he's lying but because he simply doesn't know he took his best guess based upon
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what he come to find he doesn't know what happened is the point the detectives press on for hours
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taking turns and peppering Dave with tougher and tougher questions did you two argue no absolutely not did you
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fight absolutely not did you harm Shanti in any way absolutely not sharp and sprag also question his timeline Dave
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says that he called 911 about 5 minutes after he found Shanti you've got to help
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us understand but detectives insist that doesn't match what they found at the house there's no splashing of water any
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anywhere in the bathroom the inside of the tub is dry completely dry and she's damp she's not even wet so you got to
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help us can you do that I'm tell you everything they're drawing conclusions based upon observations and they're
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moving forth based upon these assumptions they try to zero in on a possible motive did she catch you with
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another woman did she have a boyfriend did was she about the house but given the sorry
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state of the house detectives begin to wonder if that had something to do with shanti's murder I can't imagine how
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stressful it must have been you know not living in the home you want to live in and it's taken two plus years three
00:17:16
years um I'm I'm sick to death about what happened but nothing happened today because of there was no animosity
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between us whatsoever and he says shant wasn't upset that her name wasn't on the trust
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that owned the house so we had kind of talked about it and debated it and we finally just said it doesn't really
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matter let's just move forward Teresa and Barb are tenacious they don't stop they're well-versed in interrogation
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techniques you know we saw the good cop bad cop we saw manipulation Barb sharp even moves her hand to Dave's knee and
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adopts a more subtle tone will be okay we can't help you until you help us before Teresa sprag begins another
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attack she treats you like a landscaper like the pool boy probably because she's
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bringing in the money as the hours tick by what do you want your mom to think about you they try anything they can to
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get him to confess are you religious want to pray this almost became a game of psychological warfare
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in that interview room Dave began the interview by saying how happy he had been with Shanti but almost 8 hours into
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the interrogation the detectives aren't buying it you claim to love that woman I would be under the table in a
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ball if I was in love with that woman and she was dead I I would be inconsolable do you think that he was
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penalized because he didn't act the way detectives wanted him to act oh time time and time again you know you fake
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cried for about seven or 8 hours today not one tear came out of your eyes not one there's a lot of conclusions
00:19:09
being drawn off of what they consider to be an odd affect of Mr Tron and I think
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that that's a dangerous thing to do because we all react to stress differently we all grieve differently
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Dave even agrees to take a polygraph but by then it was the middle of the night an investigator couldn't find
00:19:29
anyone to administer [Music] it they had to let him go at the end of the interview how did they feel about
00:19:39
that you always want to make the arrest right up front you do with Dave Tron is free police would have to keep digging
00:19:47
for Clues but even they were surprised by what they found is it fair to say that
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Dave tronis was living a double life at least two lives lives she didn't slip and fall it's not
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a possibility even though detectives were outright accusing Dave trones of murdering Shanti you strangled her some
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of her relatives like Cindy da believed him are you kidding my bet my last dollar that it wasn't him I thought he
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was innocent you honestly did Cindy why I think it was just the growth of our relationship and how she adored him
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absolutely adored him and it looked very mutual to everyone did she ever express
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any concern or fear of Dave never never after being questioned by by detectives Dave headed straight to his
00:21:01
home in Delaney Park and that's where Cindy found him I stood him up and turned him around and looked at his arms
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and there was not a scratch on him there was nothing Cindy did you ever ask him Point Blank did you have something to do
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with the death of Shanti I did what did he say no I would not kill the love of my life
00:21:28
defense attorney Richard zeleski says the problem with this case is that detectives and prosecutors were
00:21:35
convinced from the start that Dave trones was shanti's killer soleski says the bias of the investigators is clear
00:21:43
from the police report they've already suggested that they have it figured out like bull in a china shop trying to just
00:21:50
make this work at all cost because they've done nothing to develop other suspects but vesio denies that he says
00:21:57
Detectives checked out every possible suspect and got lucky when an important lead fell into their laps a worker from
00:22:06
Club Orlando called and shared that they knew of Dave tronis because he was a patron at the club what is Club Orlando
00:22:15
Club Orlando is a same-sex bath house did Dave have a membership at Club Orlando several memberships every 6
00:22:25
months Dave renewed his membership detectives headed to the club to investigate and found a longtime Club
00:22:33
employee who in this police recorded interview says he witnessed Dave having sex at the club I was just walking
00:22:42
through and I saw David uh he was giving oral sex to this guy from what everybody
00:22:49
who knew Shanti has said she would absolutely have not tolerated it put up with it endorse it it just wouldn't have
00:22:58
happened there's a significant possibility that Shanti knew all about it and why do you
00:23:03
believe that because none of her family members seem to know anything about it and and her family members seem to
00:23:11
indicate that if Shanti did know she'd be upset and and I appreciate that but uh what you tell your mom and dad about
00:23:17
your sex life and what you do uh behind closed doors you know people are people adults or adults and life is
00:23:25
messy but vesio wonders if shant ultimately did discover Dave's duplicity on the night she was murdered had that
00:23:34
Revelation made Shanti threatened to turn off the money spigot once and for all but she would be killed because of a
00:23:42
house well what would somebody do when they were about to lose the most important thing in their
00:23:49
[Music] life because in April of 2018 the most important thing in Dave's life was that
00:23:57
house [Music] Dave told Cindy and others that he believed Shanti may have been murdered
00:24:07
by a burglar and the defense claimed that $5,000 in cash was missing from the house also missing shanti's diamond
00:24:16
engagement ring valued at approximately $155,000 that was highly highly suspicious the detectives wanted to get
00:24:26
to the bottom of it why could have been exactly as Dave said that he leaves and someone breaks into the house beats her
00:24:35
leaves her there and Dave comes home why doesn't that fit well the lack of forced
00:24:42
entry this scene did not have any sort of evidence of a struggle there's thousands of dollars of valuables that
00:24:49
are left in plain sight a private investigator hired by defense lawyers canvas Neighbors asking
00:24:58
them about a particular homeless man who reportedly had been seen around Delaney
00:25:03
park it was said he resembled the actor Woody harelson what about the transient that everyone describes who looks a lot
00:25:12
like Woody harelson I mean when you got nothing better you throw everything against the
00:25:17
wall and see if something sticks this home is at 218 East Copeland Drive detective Teresa sprag tracked
00:25:27
Woody down and recorded this interview and you see there's a large Blue dumpster in the driveway have you ever
00:25:34
been there no nothing placed Woody inside DAV and shanti's home but vesio says his interview shows police chase
00:25:44
down every lead including checking out her ex-husband Shanti had had a bad divorce this was not an easy end of the
00:25:55
marriage did you look at Jim Cooper yes Mr Cooper was interviewed and Jim Cooper was eliminated as a suspect very
00:26:06
early on he had an alibi on August 29th 2018 4 months after shant's murder Dave tronis was arrested on a charge of
00:26:18
first-degree murder and held without bail and how did the two of you react when you heard that I wasn't believing
00:26:26
it whatsoever I thought were just trying to solve a murder easily I always had the suspicion Dave's
00:26:35
arrest gave prosecutors another piece of the puzzle shanti's missing engagement ring the ring is probably one of the
00:26:43
most powerful and damning pieces of evidence in this case as long as that expensive ring was missing Dave tronis
00:26:51
could argue that a burgler had murdered Shanti but the day he was arrested police found it among his
00:26:58
possessions we searched the room at his mother's house where he was living and lo and behold we found the Rings in his
00:27:05
suitcase in his bedroom still Dave's arrest was not the end of the investigation it led to a cascading
00:27:15
series of New Revelations that surprised even a veteran prosecutor like Ryan vesio this was a case that had so many
00:27:24
twists and turns I would no longer make assumptions of anything you don't learn this stuff in law
00:27:45
[Music] school after the arrest of Dave tronz investigators received a tip that took
00:27:59
them completely by surprise it led them to Minnesota and back in time to win a much younger Dave was married to a woman
00:28:09
named Carol former close friends of Carol told detectives that they beli Dave may have been poisoning her as soon
00:28:18
as Carol got married to Dave she started suffering a bunch of unknown health issues that made prosecutor rhyme vesia
00:28:28
wonder if Shanti could have been poisoned in shanti's case she had appendicitis and had to have an
00:28:35
appendectomy Shanti had had that emergency appendectomy 8 weeks before her death appendicitis and poisoning
00:28:43
have similar symptoms and Dave told detectives that Shanti had digestion problems right up to the day she died
00:28:51
she hasn't found since the abct a diet that she can be great regly and feel good vesio needed more information so he
00:29:04
and detective Teresa sprag went to Minnesota in November of 2018 to meet Carol face to face and
00:29:12
recorded this interview I have issues with chronic pain and immune system issues that are not necessarily
00:29:23
definitive Carol told vesio she also struggled with gut issues and that Dave cooked most of their meals has it ever
00:29:33
come into your frame of thought that your marriage to David tronis or him cooking or making you
00:29:40
drinks was making you sick no have you ever thought that any of your issues related to your health problems was him
00:29:47
poisoning you no Carol said her health issues continued even after her divorce from
00:29:55
Dave yet vesio says he remains suspicious it very well could have been a scenario to where Dave was providing
00:30:03
both of them with items that caused them to be ill we just could never have real concrete proof of
00:30:15
it fesio wondered if there was another reason Carol seemed to be protecting her former husband and whether it had
00:30:23
anything to do with Dave's finances we saw thousand pages of bank records belonging
00:30:30
to Dave tronis one thing that we noticed was that Dave and Carol still had a joint bank account
00:30:37
together that account at times contained hundreds of thousands of dollars but Carol said she simply had forgotten to
00:30:45
take her name off that account people who are divorcing each other don't leave assets on the table and they sure as
00:30:51
heck don't leave them together it's unclear where that money came from vesio believes that car who
00:30:58
was not charged with any crime could be helping Dave manage his money while he's
00:31:04
in jail I think that Carol is involved in David's finances and has some level of
00:31:11
control the surprises in the case kept coming soon after shanti's death detectives have placed a surveillance
00:31:19
camera pointed toward the outside of Dave's house detective sprag was interested to see who was coming and
00:31:26
going out of the house and that camera camera ended up actually turning into a pretty valuable piece of evidence that
00:31:32
camera captured images of private investigators hired by Dave's original Law Firm coming and going detectives
00:31:41
believe that when one of those lawyers Robert Mandel realized that the pis were on camera he placed a called aesio I
00:31:50
never ever expected that he was going to tell me that he in fact had an item of physical e evidence that he had been
00:31:59
holding on to for 11 months never would have expected it in a thousand years and
00:32:04
what was that evidence they were a set of purported bloody sheets and it literally literally took
00:32:14
my breath away that defense attorney Robert Mandel told vesio that the defense team had acquired the bloody
00:32:21
sheets from the garage apartment where Shanti was found dead but had never turned them over to the
00:32:30
prosecution but Ryan as shocking as that is that wasn't the only evidence that later turned out was it no I ended that
00:32:39
call with the defense attorney and said listen if you have anything else now is the time to tell
00:32:50
me and about 10 12 hours later the next morning I got another call from him and that's when he said I have one other
00:33:01
item that I think we have to turn over that item turned out to be a green cord Mandel told vesio that a private
00:33:11
investigator removed it from the house and preserved it in an Evidence bag because Dave was threatening to kill
00:33:18
himself does that make sense to you no makes zero sense to me why go get the item and then treat it
00:33:29
as if it were a piece of evidence remember the autopsy revealed that Shanti had been strangled and vesio
00:33:38
believed there was a real possibility that the green cord could be the murder weapon with the prosecution now in
00:33:55
possession of that green cord tests were conducted to see if indeed it was the murder weapon used to strangle Shanti is
00:34:04
there any evidence to indicate that in fact that cord was used to kill Shanti no that cord did not have any DNA on
00:34:14
[Music] it but the cord wasn't picked up until weeks after shanti's death and authorities believe Dave had plenty of
00:34:22
time to clean it investigators had spent months examining all the evidence leading vesio to craft his own theory
00:34:31
about when Shanti was killed we found one single earring was placed on the nightstand the other
00:34:39
earring was in shanti's ear and what does that say to you that tells me that Shanti was most likely sitting on the
00:34:46
side of her bed preparing for bed taking those earrings out and that's when the attack happened the sheets and bed frame
00:34:57
did have shanti's blood on them and Shanti didn't use her phone after 11:30 p.m. the scene was consistent with this
00:35:06
attack happening somewhere in the midnight to 23 a.m. time period but David called 911 late in the afternoon
00:35:14
saying he had just found Shanti floating in the tub ceski says investigators are
00:35:21
jumping to unfair conclusions a few hours of time off the grid doesn't allowed them to shift the
00:35:30
timeline prosecutors continued to build their case even as Dave sat behind bars listening to anyone who had information
00:35:38
about shanti's death no matter how surprising the source I met David Chis in three
00:35:45
whiskey three whiskey is a housing unit in the Orlando jail where Edward gizi shareed a cell with Dave tronz he slept
00:35:55
next to me and I slept next to him after getting out of jail giz Mandi met with vesio and sprag he says that he and Dave
00:36:03
began talking and bonded over a shared interests in obscure hallucinogenics including sapo a poison
00:36:11
derived from a South American frog he said that you could use sapo to put in people's salsa and kill them
00:36:20
quietly killer salsa might sound ridiculous but not so far-fetched when you consider that authorities suspected
00:36:28
that Dave had poisoned both his wives gizi supplied even more information that if true was truly damning he says Dave
00:36:38
admitted that he and chanti had a fight before she died he just said there there
00:36:43
was an app on his phone that there was messages on that she had found apparently that suggested he was having
00:36:49
sex with men and she was going to show everybody and what did Dave say he did he snapped he said he fre freaked out
00:36:58
and did what he didn't specifically say that what he did but that he had killed his
00:37:03
wife investigators were unable to corroborate giz mandi's story about the app we didn't have any purchase records
00:37:12
of apps and we did not see it on Dave's phone I've read your statement and at no
00:37:21
point do I see anywhere where you had told them that David actually said I killed my wife wife but sitting here now
00:37:29
you said Dave told you I killed my wife yes ma'am in jail he said I killed my wife word for word is what he told me
00:37:38
but why wouldn't you tell the State's Attorney's office that I did I told him that he had snapped that's the word that
00:37:44
I used I don't remember if she had asked me did he admit to murdering her like word for word like
00:37:51
that one of the few things both the prosecution and the defense do agree on is that neither is sure they can believe
00:38:00
gizi he plad guilty to one count of LW or lascivious behavior and is now a registered sex offender and still on
00:38:10
probation this individual certainly has credibility issues zeleski took over Dave's defense
00:38:17
in early 2020 after the original attorneys withdrew from the case raising doubt isn't going to be ult
00:38:28
here but shanti's family has no doubt about what should happen to Dave he has to be found guilty he is
00:38:41
guilty Cindy da who once found Dave so Charming feels very differently about him now he should be sentenced to
00:38:52
death I want him to remember when he looks at me I want him to remember remember every lie Every
00:39:03
Lie when Cindy remembers Shanti her heart still breaks she was happy giving kind
00:39:17
fun loving person who had a mission in this life and she didn't get to fulfill it
00:39:34
[Music] there's a sing here in Minnesota Minnesota nice and that Minnesota knce ni only goes so far and
00:40:30
Heidi ferus she went all way she was genuine and she loved deep she definitely lived a life of love that was
00:40:39
the mark that she left and that's hard to let go you know this is a a terrible terrible incident you know we're hoping
00:40:49
to find other physical evidence that might help us lead us in a direction toward a suspect the morning of April
00:40:56
25th 2010 at 6:30 a.m. Heidi Fergus calls 911 someone's tring to break into my house
00:41:04
she tells the state patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to give her
00:41:11
address 1794 while she's on the phone you can hear a loud noise and the phone goes dead well I
00:41:20
don't know where she went there 6 approximately a minute later Nicholas Fergus calls 911 says that he and his
00:41:27
wife have both been shot brok okay are you in St Paul sir St Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to the
00:41:38
ambulance and transported him to Regent's hospital he had been shot in the leg Heidi was struck in the back as
00:41:45
she was trying to flee towards the kitchen it was a shotgun blast that killed her right away the shotgun was
00:41:51
laying inside the front door area there's a little foyer Nick gave a brief story he heard
00:41:58
somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the Intruder
00:42:05
struggled over the shotgun the responding officers uh went up and down the block try to talk to
00:42:11
neighbors I was next door house sitting when the crime happened really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell
00:42:20
of you shot her you shot me it never felt right the story never made sense to me he
00:42:30
tells investigators that he grabbed a shotgun loaded it with two shells and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the
00:42:37
stairs in front of him towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at why you would send the unarmed person
00:42:45
down in front of you is beyond me to me there were only two people in that house
00:42:52
when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and Heidi in order to believe believe that
00:42:58
Nick killed Heidi you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence killed the woman that he loved
00:43:05
more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't
00:43:09
get there [Music] [Music] while this area of St Paul where Heidi and Nick fcus lived I would characterize as generally
00:44:07
a quiet neighborhood back in 2010 9 years before she took charge of the fcus case
00:44:14
detective Nicole cyes of the St Paul police department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood do you remember
00:44:21
first hearing about the fcus case I do some is broken me okay it was early on a Sunday morning
00:44:32
the 911 call was at 6:30 Nick fergus's Story of a burglar didn't make sense to cypes most people are home at 6:30 on a
00:44:41
Sunday morning especially in a family neighborhood like that the last thing that most burglars want to encounter are
00:44:47
people did police ever have any luck tracking down the Intruder that Nick described
00:44:53
no you know I'm looking I didn't see anybody come out of that house Brandon ' Conor was house sitting next door to the
00:45:01
fasses and taking care of kittens I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around some noise caught my attention so
00:45:10
stuck my head out the window kind of listen Brandon says he recalls hearing a muffled argument coming from the
00:45:17
fergus's house listening through an open window that's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots around this
00:45:26
time said he also heard that voice crying out kind of this agonizing yell of you shot her you shot me uh please
00:45:38
please no something along those lines and then then it was done First Responders rushed to the
00:45:47
scene there was nothing they could do for Heidi she was pronounced dead Nick was rushed to the hospital and treated
00:45:55
for a gry gunshot wound to his leg he seemed not to be sure whether or not Heidi had been killed like I said we'll
00:46:03
do our best to find out how how do pleas hours later Nick was transported to the St Paul police department then
00:46:13
Nick and I started to have our conversation in the conference room Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement
00:46:19
you know I know this is a very traumatic situation okay and I'm just going to try
00:46:23
and ease into it okay so couple ordered in food the night before and watched the
00:46:29
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
00:46:38
get a drink of water from the bathroom go back to sleep I just kind of fitfully sleep for 10 or 15 minutes and then I
00:46:46
heard the screen door open trying to let it go for a little while but then I started hearing fing with her door knob
00:46:53
and is Heidi still sleeping then yeah okay like a rock Nick said he retrieved his shotgun from the closet I keep two
00:47:01
shells for it just in case things go weird so when I heard things this morning I did load it and then I wake up
00:47:07
Heidi okay according to Nick he told Heidi someone was trying to break in and to call
00:47:14
911 as she spoke with the dispatcher someone tring to break into my house they headed downstairs so they could get
00:47:21
out of the house what address are you at all right so you going first down the stairs or is she is she behind you or is
00:47:27
she in front of you or what um she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to move her
00:47:32
along quickly Nick said as they passed by the front door it burst open guy that was there I think he he grabbed the
00:47:41
barrel I don't remember exactly what happened but the gun went off so my finger slipped onto the trigger Nick
00:47:47
told Sergeant gray during the struggle over the weapon the gun fired striking Heidi who he said was in
00:47:55
the kitchen okay so the Govern guns guns here chest High yep you and I are like this yeah and then the gun goes off mhm
00:48:02
I I mean I know it hit Heidi I just I had no idea she was running away so I definitely hit her in the back it hit
00:48:08
her in the back yeah I couldn't believe it I I didn't want to believe it it can't be true
00:48:17
that's there's no way ktina and Marcus sarzen mentored Heidi at Calvary Church I think she's one of those uh people
00:48:25
that you can't not like everyone liked Heidi she genuinely loved people she was the life of the party always finding fun
00:48:35
ways to engage people and U she was very loyal the couple met at the church and in 2005 Heidi 20 and Nick 22 got married
00:48:48
Nick ferus had a very warm and engaging personality always smiling he carried himself with confidence and he had High
00:48:57
character high integrity in the church that was the reputation he' built for himself but just a few hours after
00:49:03
Heidi's death Sergeant Jim Gray found himself questioning Nick fergus's account he couldn't figure out why the
00:49:10
couple would leave the safety of their bedroom you come upstairs you know I hate to tell you this but my house you
00:49:17
know I'm justified in killing you if you can come break it in my house yeah and I
00:49:21
guess Nick explained that the couple had a plan in place comp if they were ever in a precarious situation they would
00:49:28
avoid a confrontation and escape to their car in the garage and get away if we can save ourselves let's let's do
00:49:36
that instead of getting into a situation where his story didn't make a lot of sense to me Sergeant gray started
00:49:42
probing into their marriage you guys uh have any problems or anything like that just the normal stuff like uh you know
00:49:51
stresses about finances and quality time vacations and all that stuff yeah but you guys aren't behind in the bills or
00:50:01
we are behind in the bills um which is a little stressful in fact we were planning on moving tomorrow um moving
00:50:09
where well we hadn't figured that out yet we were in and this is a a hard it's a hard place for us we were
00:50:18
foreclosing on WE foreclosed on our house Nick revealed they were behind on their mortgage payments and just 24
00:50:26
hours away from being evicted from their home well that's kind of I mean kind of
00:50:31
close notice it is and I think the reason is cuz we're both kind of dealing with the shape of the whole thing gray
00:50:37
says his suspicions were raised and minutes later he was struck by the way Nick asked about Heidi well I just want
00:50:45
to know the final answer the final answer on he she had make it I figured that I mean is that typically
00:51:00
how someone asks if their loved one or spouse has been killed not only is that not typical that that's how they'd ask
00:51:08
it but they wouldn't wait an hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question I've watched the interview
00:51:15
obviously numerous times and I understand people react to trauma differently but this was different than
00:51:23
what I'd seen anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck by Nick's demeanor during it and that
00:51:30
demeanor was this was just another day this was something he had to get through skeptical of Nick's story Sergeant gray
00:51:38
confronted Nick about what happened that day Nick you know part of me wants to ask you this question did you have
00:51:46
anything to do with this no absolutely not okay absolutely not all right why is there a party that
00:51:53
wants to ask that well Nick I'm I'm a police off okay I got to ask I got to ask the tough questions all
00:52:02
right after the interview Nick left the police station that day investigators returned to the fcus home with a search
00:52:11
warrant gray says it did not look like anyone was planning to move out the next day nothing was packaged up at all the
00:52:19
closet was still full of clothes we noticed that there was still food in the refrigerator and there was something
00:52:25
else that inv investigators questioned we didn't see any signs of forced entry into the house based off of the physical
00:52:32
evidence at the scene his version of the incident couldn't be plausible what do you think of Nick's
00:52:40
story about the Intruder chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and x 48 hours after Nick Fus said an
00:52:57
intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi police went back to the crime scene to check out his story he told us that
00:53:04
there was a life and death struggle inside the house but Sergeant gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't
00:53:11
match Nick's account there was a vase uh some receipts a beer bottle and none of
00:53:16
that was knocked over so that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was such a struggle why wasn't any of this
00:53:22
stuff knocked over Sergeant gray says he examined the front door for signs of a Breakin and did notice some markings but
00:53:31
it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that uh the door had been forced open the day of the murder in his
00:53:38
interview Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door from upstairs and like what are they doing
00:53:44
they just going like this yeah kind of like that yeah just shaking the knob and shutting the door that day sergeant gray
00:53:53
and his colleagues did a reenactment April 27th 2010 to determine if they could hear the front door
00:54:00
shaking from the bedroom we're in the bedroom looking Sergeant shackle and Sergeant Wright were upstairs in the
00:54:05
bedroom I'm at the front door so let me know when you guys are ready I'll I'll try to KN for 15 seconds then we are
00:54:17
ready they could not hear me filling with the door sorry Sergeant gray says he also
00:54:24
doubted Nick's story about the coup's eviction and a scheduled move the day after Heidi was shot there didn't appear
00:54:32
to be anything boxed up or packaged up to go there were a few empty boxes in the
00:54:39
dining room area there was not a grand stack of boxes or anything for that matter that would lead us to believe
00:54:45
that they were going to pack up all in one day meanwhile heidy's mentors from Calvary Church Marcus and CA were
00:54:54
learning the details about her death and the eviction it it just didn't add up it
00:55:01
just something wasn't right with that story it seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have
00:55:09
notified anyone not have anything prepared for that because she planned things out and she liked things to be
00:55:17
orderly on April 30th 2010 5 days after her passing Marcus and CA attended Heidi's funeral
00:55:26
yeah the atmosphere at the funeral was there was a lot of emotion at the funeral Marcus and CA say they were
00:55:33
struck by Nick's demeanor I remember going through the receiving line and shaking his hand there was no grief
00:55:42
showing it just felt like he lacked emotion Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the coup's friends if
00:55:51
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
00:55:58
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
00:56:05
investigation Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship there was no problems or issues that anybody saw your
00:56:14
first impression upon meeting Nick ferus is no way in the world could he have committed a violent act the day after
00:56:23
the shooting Nick's Family hired attorney Joe fre ber who advised Nick to stop talking to the police it didn't
00:56:31
take long to realize that he was being looked at as a suspect when investigators asked Nick to sit down
00:56:41
with their artists to draw a sketch of the Intruder fredberg advised him not to they were going to use it as an
00:56:48
opportunity to further interview him instead Nick and his attorney hired their own sketch artist
00:56:56
it was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist and brought that drawing to police
00:57:04
original and at that point we were basically told that Nick would not be answering any more questions with
00:57:11
regards to our investigation investigators released Nick sketch to the public but it didn't
00:57:17
generate any leads they kept working the case Nick moved out of their home a few
00:57:24
weeks after Heidi's death two months later he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best
00:57:33
friends Rachel Sanchez who is going through a divorce at the time I thought because we shared something traumatic
00:57:40
there was a deep connection there because I had come out of something traumatic myself in a
00:57:46
relationship I think Nick seemed to be handling things well it felt like he was very grounded he was with his friend
00:57:56
friends a lot and they were processing together so I think just his his steadiness was an attractive quality
00:58:04
Rachel says the two bonded over their faith they began dating in the spring of 2011 at the time God played a big part
00:58:14
in my life and I think that's another quality that I saw in him that he he loved God like I
00:58:20
did one year into their relationship Nick proposed I knew it was coming we had looked at ring
00:58:26
beforeand so it wasn't really a huge surprise and a few months later the couple married they started a family we
00:58:34
did have kids pretty quickly and soon were the parents of three children he absolutely loves his kids so much Andrew
00:58:44
and Emily Ericson are friends of Nick they say for a long time Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder yeah it
00:58:52
just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief during that time but
00:58:56
they say when he did talk about it his story was always the same what did he tell you same thing he's always told
00:59:04
everyone from the first day same thing he'd tell you today that someone was breaking into the
00:59:10
house and they were going to try to get out and there was an altercation and tragically Heidi was
00:59:19
killed investigators still did not believe that story but 5 years after Heidi's death
00:59:26
with little movement in the case they finally got a break someone called in a tip there was somebody that looked
00:59:33
exactly like the sketch and put a name to Nick's sketch somebody called said I have an experience with this guy I think
00:59:41
I know who it [Music] is after 5 years without a break in Heidi fergus's murder case out of the
01:00:01
blue a tipster called police with a name after seeing this sketch of the suspect but there was a problem says
01:00:10
investigator cypes he was already in prison on the date of Heidi's death Nick's second wife Rachel says her
01:00:21
husband rarely talked about the case being solved I had asked him are going to put effort into seeing if you can
01:00:28
find the person that did this he didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know I know that from his lawyers he was told
01:00:35
to just stay silent police found it odd Nick never checked in through four investigators in this case he never
01:00:44
contacted one of us to ask the status was this case ever considered a cold case it wasn't ever considered a cold
01:00:51
case because prosecutors Rachel Crocker and Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015 there just was not
01:00:58
a lot of new information coming in Heidi's family would check in on her birthday is there anything new
01:01:06
development and there would be new developments when detective cypes took over Heidi's case in 2019 seems her
01:01:14
fresh set of eyes really made a huge difference it was absolutely critical I think cypes definitely restarted
01:01:21
something cypes dug deep reviewing the entire case file including an examination of a financial timeline she
01:01:30
compiled with the help of the FBI I had the luxury of looking back on all of these things several years
01:01:37
later cypes learned Nick worked at his family's carpet installation business they were contractors for Home
01:01:44
Depot Heidi was a clerk at a financial services company in St Paul their combined income was about $70,000 a
01:01:54
year they seem like they were on top of all the bills before they bought the house but Lawman says the home purchase
01:02:02
in 2007 strained the couple's finances and that home was just too much for them by the time Heidi died in April
01:02:11
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
01:02:21
to foreclosure and would be forced to move out but Cy discovered Heidi apparently had no
01:02:29
idea after reviewing the couple's texts and emails cyp saw no evidence Nick ever
01:02:36
told Heidi they were in financial trouble there was no communication between the two of them to indicate that
01:02:42
she had any idea the depth of their financial issues I was able to determine through
01:02:50
the foreclosure and eviction attorneys that there was no paperwork Heidi had signed that nobody had ever talked to
01:02:56
Heidi nobody met Heidi Heidi didn't go to the eviction hearing on March 8th 2010 Cy says Nick and Heidi's family and
01:03:04
friends didn't know the couple had to relocate and if she was serious about moving she would have gotten the day off
01:03:12
so she was planning to go to work yes why do you think he kept her in the dark so long shame I believe he was
01:03:20
concerned about the shame of what he had done how it would look that he couldn't
01:03:24
come clean with her you know it had gotten too big at that point and when cypes talked to the
01:03:31
couple's friends she learned why Nick wanted to hide their financial situation he was described by his
01:03:38
friends as being wise and being the person that they would go to for advice Nick ferus really presented as
01:03:45
somebody who had some of those bigger tougher life questions figured out what kind of person do you want to be what
01:03:52
kind of relationship do you want to have with God what does that tell you as you're
01:03:57
investigating the case and you see someone in that type of Personality it just became easier to see that this was
01:04:06
someone who did not want his friends his family to know the extent to which he had
01:04:12
failed Cy says she discovered more of Nick's Lies when she learned about a conversation Heidi had with a friend
01:04:20
just the day before she died Heidi had talked to us about how Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft
01:04:27
it was somewhere around $180 to $200,000 worth of identity theft wasn't true they weren't the
01:04:35
victims this was all untrue but as cypes tried to figure out if there was a connection between Nick's
01:04:42
lies and Heidi's death she learned Nick and Rachel had divorced I remember very well when Nikki CES came to my door and
01:04:52
that Nick had also kept secrets from her did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved she did there
01:05:02
were Financial issues between the two of them Nick was lying about a lot of things this is a story that's happened
01:05:10
before and it didn't end well that terrified me [Music] could there actually have been an
01:05:36
intruder after spending 19 months digging deep into the fcus case File reviewing crime scene
01:05:44
photos 911 calls do you remember what he was wearing and Nick's video interview she was running away so definitely hit
01:05:51
her in the back investigator Nicole cypes had come to one conclusion what really matters is what happened in that
01:05:59
fire and there was no third person you never found anyone else's DNA no no DNA evidence no physical evidence no sign of
01:06:08
a struggle to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and
01:06:18
Heidi as part of the new investigation cypes reached out to Nick's second wife Rachel what did she know
01:06:26
in 2020 she came to my door and I was like why are you here and she was like to talk about hiy ferus at first Rachel
01:06:36
then divorced from Nick says she was reluctant to talk you're asking for a lot when you get involved in something
01:06:42
like this and I didn't want to but I also knew that it was the right thing to do and it was for truth Rachel told syes
01:06:49
Nick had lied about their finances during their marriage I found a letter saying that we hadn't paid our property
01:06:58
taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them and when I saw that I was like oh no
01:07:06
like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me during that time Rachel says Nick's
01:07:15
dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's death and I said we got to sit down and
01:07:23
talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions have caused me to just distrust you
01:07:32
completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that I could prove that he said it and the
01:07:37
fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over makes me
01:07:47
think that I should murder my wife that you could lie about something that I could murder my wife yes
01:07:59
when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think those
01:08:11
things why aren't you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right Rachel later shared the recordings
01:08:18
with investigator SES the behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel
01:08:23
was almost duplicative of how he hid things from Heidi we cannot let this man be out on
01:08:31
the street any longer for prosecutor Elizabeth lman the time had come to ACT I told Sergeant cyes we're charging him
01:08:40
let's do it 11 years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19th 2021 a St Paul Police SWAT team arrested
01:08:50
Nick Fergus at his house and charged him with second deegree murder a grand jury ultimately indicted ferus
01:08:58
on first and second degree murder charges our minds were absolutely blown Heidi's friends Marcus and Katina were
01:09:08
relieved it's hard to to say I don't know what emotion you even put to it it's hard to say excited I felt grateful
01:09:15
we don't understand Nick's friends Emily and Andrew you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
01:09:23
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
01:09:29
there after remaining free on bail for almost 2 years on January 27th 2023 Nick ferus went on
01:09:39
trial prosecutors would not be allowed to call Nick's second wife Rachel to testify or use her taped conversation
01:09:47
with Nick the judge ruled her testimony and the recording had no bearing on the case
01:09:56
I went into it with an open mind Natalie Michael served on the jury did he appear
01:10:02
like a man who would kill his wife no he did not a lot through the trial he was putting his head down when they showed
01:10:10
the photos of the two of them together you know he seemed like he really was in love with her I think Nick was someone
01:10:17
who lived two lives prosecutors presented an unusual motive they told the jurors Nick ferus staged a burglary
01:10:25
because he was desperate and ashamed his secrets were about to be revealed to Heidi and everyone else all of his kind
01:10:33
of cards of lies are about to crumble he would have been exposed as a complete failure a liar um to his friends and
01:10:43
community and instead he's a victim he walks away from this supported by his friends supported by his family Nick had
01:10:54
no reason Nick's lawyers Joe Friedberg and Robert Richmond say that simply makes no sense as a motive there was
01:11:01
nothing about murdering the woman who everyone agreed he loved that would help his situation and they say the state's
01:11:11
contention that Heidi didn't know about the couple's finances simply was not true Nick said she was in on all of the
01:11:19
major decisions he would say to us that they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile at first I was wondering how
01:11:31
she couldn't know about the finances or some of the Foreclosure or some of the things happening but Natalie Michael
01:11:36
says the prosecution's case did not hinge on motive the prosecution said it really is was there an intruder in the
01:11:44
house or was there not an intruder it was our position that there had been an intruder exactly the way Nick described
01:11:52
to the police on the 911 call brok at the scene the information that Nick gave at the scene is that this
01:12:03
Intruder came into the house at the hospital he just came in and to Sergeant gray guy that was there I think he he
01:12:12
grabbed the barrel Nick's lawyers say police didn't find the Intruder fingerprints or DNA at the scene because
01:12:19
as Nick told investigators in his interview at the hospital what else can you describe from him the Intruder was
01:12:26
wearing gloves gloves he's wearing gloves you don't always leave DNA and especially when your hands are covered
01:12:35
so what am I looking at here but prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides
01:12:41
fingerprints this is a physical model to scale that was created by the FBI they use this model to show the jurors there
01:12:49
was no evidence of a struggle I felt that it was very important for us to be able to recreate how small that entryway
01:12:57
is let's say the Intruder gets in they have this struggle and they have this life and death struggle right in this
01:13:04
area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly and then Heidi gets shot Square
01:13:12
in the back in a very clear shot this animation created by the FBI shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was most
01:13:20
likely shot from shoulder level the height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to
01:13:29
fire Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an intruder in fact there were tool marks
01:13:39
in the door which would be consistent with someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door attorney
01:13:49
Joe Friedberg says fergus's nextdoor neighbor Brandon OK Conor testified he heard a voice
01:13:55
you shot her you shot me uh please please no something along those lines that means there must have been another
01:14:05
person in that house Nick was talking to a third person when he said that but prosecutors say Brandon may have
01:14:13
misheard Nick while he was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher is broken me he is screaming about being
01:14:24
shot and he did that over almost s minutes stay on the phone with me okay Nick ferus did not take the stand
01:14:37
after an 11-day trial the case went to the jury if there's anything in this case there's Reasonable Doubt
01:14:45
[Music] yeah see more evidence from the case at 48 hours.com [Music] it was a hard fought litigated trial as
01:15:09
the state and Nick fergus's defense team presented their closing arguments on February 10th 2023 we had great we
01:15:18
thought circumstantial evidence that what Nick said happened did not happen attorneys on both sides were hopeful the
01:15:26
jury would make the right decision it's not enough if you have a hunch there was
01:15:31
no direct evidence that Nick murdered his wife in her closing argument prosecutor
01:15:41
Crocker said ferus shot Heidi while she was on the phone with the 911 operator someone's trying
01:15:51
West so that call does end with a very very loud noise and the call goes dead and we believe that that's the gunshot
01:16:00
according to phone records 65 seconds passed from that moment until ferus made his 911
01:16:09
call somebody is broken Crocker reenacted for jurors what she believed Nick ferus did before he
01:16:18
made that call I walked over in the courtroom to roughly as far as Heidi would have been on the ground crouched
01:16:24
down turned her over um to check for a pulse to be sure that she was in fact deceased walked back over picked up the
01:16:34
firearm and demonstrated how he could shoot himself and call him1 where is the guy that shot you at 65 seconds there
01:16:42
was more than enough time for all of that to happen to prove their Theory FK has shot himself in the thigh they point
01:16:49
to marks left by shotgun pellets at the bottom of the front door when he shot himself we believe that
01:16:59
Nick was about um here just how you would brace yourself probably against the door if you're doing it to yourself
01:17:07
of his Reasonable Suspicion but fergus's attorneys challenged the 65c time frame
01:17:13
attorney Robert Richmond says phone records also show fcus misdialed two numbers before getting through to 911
01:17:21
making it impossible to shoot himself what the they reenacted was 65 seconds which was ignoring the two mises which
01:17:32
happened at 38 seconds the fact that we cannot find the Intruder is not evidence
01:17:40
that there was no Intruder and if anything because of the next door neighbor because of the tool marks
01:17:47
because of the 38 seconds we feel that the evidence supports that there was an intruder
01:17:55
this isn't blind belief Nick's friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove ferus was
01:18:03
the shooter we were open to hearing inconsistency of what Nick said but that didn't happen on February 10th 2023 the
01:18:13
jurors got the case and in 5 hours returned with a verdict my last text to Nick was it has to be innocent there's
01:18:23
no way that they got to guilty this quick we rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong Nick
01:18:31
ferus was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and intentional I believe Justice was served
01:18:40
Marcus and ktina were in the courtroom when the verdict was read Justice may have been slow but fortunately the jury
01:18:47
got it right it feels like this is the beginning of healing it's the beginning of a of a new chapter Heidi's mom
01:18:56
actually said that for so many years they had to live with Nick fergus's narrative and they knew it was wrong but
01:19:04
they just didn't have another narrative and to finally be able to have him finally held accountable it it meant a
01:19:11
lot to us for sergeant cypes there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's
01:19:18
financial problems we weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on is that
01:19:24
frust treat you greatly I think it would help complete the picture for some people on April 13th 2023 Nick ferus was
01:19:33
back in court for a sentencing hearing and to hear Victim Impact statements growing up Heidi was the quintessential
01:19:41
little sister to me Heidi's brother Peter Ericson because of the lies we were told as early as the day after her
01:19:48
murder it's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief ferus refused
01:19:53
to admit guilt I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime my body stands condemned
01:20:00
to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains free judge Leonardo Castro imposed the
01:20:13
maximum sentence it is the sentence of Law and Judgment of this court that you be committed to the commission of
01:20:19
Corrections for the remainder of your life without the possibility of release good luck to you sir God
01:20:29
speak my kids are always what I think of first fergus's second wife Rachel they lost in this too because one day they
01:20:39
had a dad that they thought was somebody and the next day he's not that person anymore she often thinks about Heidi too
01:20:47
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
01:20:55
that my voice is something she would be proud of Heidi was a genuine loving sincere young woman who wanted to
01:21:07
live life to the fullest she wouldn't want people to become bitter or angry because of what she had to experience I
01:21:16
think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of circumstances
01:21:23
[Music] a millionaire entrepreneur goes missing Without a Trace and is not the person to
01:21:43
go take off somewhere no one knows where she is until disturbing Clues begin to surface I remember like a panic set in
01:21:49
when success becomes a curse 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on on Paramount
01:21:57
[Music] plus he was brilliant phenomenally handsome he was everything that to me
01:22:23
symbolized a future with a capital f it just clicked and from that first day there was never any doubt that we
01:22:33
were meant to [Music] meet I saw the outline of the gun he was going to die that night no
01:22:50
matter what this is a story about two people John and Anne Bender Who from the outside
01:22:59
world seemed perfect John Bender was a Wall Street genius and very quickly made upwards of a half a billion dollars by
01:23:08
the time he was in his early 30s their whole worlds were each other and when they found each other they really didn't
01:23:14
need anything else we built the house with the idea of it being our home to our taste they said let's Retreat to Costa
01:23:34
Rica to the deepest part of the rainforest and set up a nature preserve not many people are willing or
01:23:49
want to live in a house that has no walls our Architects said we were nuts you were happy I loved it and John was
01:23:57
happy yes as happy as John could be what you think is Paradise isn't necessarily paradise John and an had
01:24:08
problems that money just couldn't fix they were living a very inward life they had cut off the world he had decided
01:24:16
that the world would be better off without it there were no lights on no all I knew
01:24:24
is he had a gun and I tried to get it away from him and I couldn't and it went off it comes down to basically two
01:24:32
people in a room with a gun I tried to stop him it sure looked like this guy was shot in the back of his head while
01:24:41
he was sleeping I was framed I was set up to be accused of the death of my [Music]
01:24:53
husband I refuse to give up I'm I'm just not going [Music] [Music] [Music] to 48 Hours Paradise Lost
01:25:29
[Music] I had accepted the fact that I would have to live the rest of my life with
01:25:36
somewhat of a question mark over my head Anne Bender has lived under a cloud of Suspicion since 2010 when her husband
01:25:45
John was shot to death in the Costa Rican rainforest in 2015 she went to prison for murder but now says total
01:25:56
Vindication is so close she can taste it I've been waiting a long time for [Music]
01:26:05
this it was in 2001 that the Benders moved to this remote corner of Central America to live an extravagant idilic
01:26:18
dream in a way this trip is like going home it is going home home home was this that's the house oh my Lord called
01:26:31
boracayan rising from the middle of the Costa Rican rainforest it was once an and John
01:26:37
Bender's vision of paradise the phrase over the toop doesn't begin to do this house Justice
01:26:46
it's like some bizarre combination of Disneyland an art museum and something you'd really only see in a James Bond
01:26:55
[Applause] [Music] movie does this strike you as astonishing every time you're here or
01:27:07
are you just totally used to it I'm used to it by now it's home you can see four
01:27:13
floors there he oh my goodness I just saw a bird nearly 50,000 Square ft this is your kitchen tons of gleaming Granite
01:27:22
kitchen how's the dining room and the living room is on the other side and no windows or walls at all I think
01:27:30
that's one of the things I miss the most is the sounds of the birds where is the bathroom right
01:27:37
here we built the house to our taste which is crazy John and Anne always had been a bit eccentric from the moment a
01:27:46
friend introduced them in Virginia in 1998 it was love at first sight for both of us the daughter of an international
01:27:55
Banker she'd grown up all over the world and he was smitten he proposed after just two weeks they married the next
01:28:04
year we both found in each other a future they shared many interests and one unfortunate problem both struggled
01:28:15
with depression specifically in an's case with bipolar mood disorder I had just been diagnosed with
01:28:25
bipolarity he could go from being extremely happy to extremely sad very quick his friend Pete delisi says John
01:28:32
hated doctors and dealt with his problems mostly in private he was absolutely a genius John Bender had been
01:28:40
a math and science whiz in high school then studied physics at the University of
01:28:46
Pennsylvania his looks got him work as a male model and his smarts helped him beat the odds of the local casinos he
01:28:54
had an unusual talent for making money a talent that blossomed at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in just
01:29:02
about 5 minutes he developed a way of trading options that had never been done before and within just a few years he
01:29:09
was one of the top Traders by the time he was 25 I think he had amassed about 80 million by the time he was in his
01:29:14
early 30s uh he set up a hedge fund that was worth 5 to 600 million Ned Zan is a reporter and CBS
01:29:23
News consultant he says that by 1998 Bender was looking for both a safe haven for his money and
01:29:30
a purpose for his life and that for all his Brilliance and his bank balance he never really fit in with the Wall Street
01:29:38
crowd he just walks away from it just walked [Music] away but not without a plan he and an
01:29:48
both animal lovers decided to use their Fortune to start a refuge for wildlife in the dense rainforest of Costa Rica
01:29:57
they found the ideal location 5,000 pristine acers they named it boracayan after a native plant I mean
01:30:07
this is as out there as you can get setting up a sanctuary for wildlife gave the Benders a sanctuary too an escape to
01:30:16
an extravagant private Universe of exotic flowers animals and waterfalls here nothing was ordinary not
01:30:25
even the lights in the house many were custom made of stained glass how many lamps are we talking about here
01:30:32
approximately 400 you just said 400 yeah she says John thought the lamps would brighten her outlook on the
01:30:41
world Depression was an immense bond between them it's a very isolating disease then people tend to pull away
01:30:49
from society although construction of the house brought in running water reliable
01:31:01
electricity and dozens of jobs to the area the project and the vendors got a chilly reception there was definitely a
01:31:10
degree of who are these rich ringos and who the hell do they think they are coming down and doing all of
01:31:17
this then came April 2001 it happened on this Mountain Road an says armed men in an unmarked car
01:31:28
forc them onto the shoulder the men claimed to be police but wore no uniforms I thought it was a
01:31:35
kidnapping one pulled Jon from his car and when he protested this guy had fired the gun between Jon's legs and held up
01:31:43
the gun to Jon's head I was terrified that's when our entire lives changed she says an attempted Breakin at
01:31:55
the house months later only made things worse the couple bought guns hired guards and turned the Refuge into a
01:32:03
virtual Fortress they lived in fear it makes me very sad to think back on how painful
01:32:13
life could be for him in 2005 perhaps trying to write the ship Bender set up a $70 million trust to manage The Refuge
01:32:23
and provide for an's living expenses he named this man attorney Juan Alvarez to run it Alvarez was then a trusted
01:32:32
advisor later Anne would point to him as a key figure in the events surrounding Jon's
01:32:40
death but neither the trust nor the guards nor the guns stopped the couple's continuing slide into depression an says
01:32:49
John saw a psychiatrist but refused anti-depressants she however was taking an enormous
01:32:56
amount of medication and by the fall of 2009 says she had all but stopped eating I was 40
01:33:05
lbs lighter than I am now by the next year they had become prisoners in their own Paradise the
01:33:14
natural beauty that brought them here lost in irrational despair an says John became convinced
01:33:22
that every problem her illness even the death of a pet bird was his fault he became suicidally
01:33:35
depressed the stage was set he wanted to die [Music] I'm sure this seems as real to you today
01:34:03
as it did that night so what happened John brought a gun to bed it was January 7th 2010 I opened my eyes
01:34:15
and I saw the outline of the trigger of the gun and he he had it pointed at his head at
01:34:25
his at himself horrified Anne Bender says she recognized their 9 mm Ruger pistol from what I could tell he was
01:34:34
holding it with both hands and what' you do I got up on my knees and reared towards him and I tried to grab the gun
01:34:44
were you able to get it no I was able to get my hands around his and the gun slipped
01:34:54
and it went off just minutes later their security guard Oswaldo agular was first on the
01:35:03
scene she said to me I tried to stop him and I couldn't do it he told us was there a long Struggle No was it just
01:35:13
instant almost instantaneous I remember it as being instantaneous it couldn't have been any more than two
01:35:22
seconds when it went off who was holding it I don't think anyone was holding it how does a gun go off when no one's
01:35:29
holding it I think that it fell he dropped it I never touched the gun an told roughly the same story to
01:35:40
the First Responders who arrived here at boracayan some two hours later but reporter Ned Zeman says that their
01:35:47
examination of the scene actually raised more questions than it answered why does
01:35:52
somebody who suicid shoot himself back here they said first of all that John was
01:35:59
left-handed and how does a left-handed person lying in bed shoot himself here prosecutor Edgar Ramirez has a simple
01:36:07
answer he doesn't if somebody wanted to commit suicide he says the way they do it is
01:36:15
here here or here but if a left-handed person did fatally shoot himself behind the right
01:36:24
ear the gun presumably would end up on the same side as The Bullet Hole just to be clear the gun is on the opposite side
01:36:31
from the wound yes the the the wound is on this side of Jon's head he's laying on his back the gun is over there on
01:36:37
this side of his bed near his arm so you know that doesn't look good there were no lights on all I knew is he had a gun
01:36:44
and I tried to get it away from him and I couldn't and it went off but investigators puzzled over the
01:36:53
bullets path entering just below the right ear and ending up behind the left eye odd too was the location of a spent
01:37:02
cartridge found some 13 ft behind the bed all they thought inconsistent with an's story of a struggle did you move
01:37:13
anything touch anything change anything in that room the only thing I remember doing is using the
01:37:20
radio unlocking the elevator and touching John but as far as the gun shell casings
01:37:33
pillow remember I don't remember anything a pillow near Jon's head had a tear with gunpowder in it which means
01:37:40
the pillow was positioned over his head and the gun was fired the prosecutor told
01:37:46
us within hours investigators began to think John Bender may have been shot in his sleep and died where he lay there
01:37:55
were pools of blood on both sides of his body the earplugs he always wore still in
01:38:04
place starting from the fourth floor down we started looking says inspector Lis aular who led a sweep of the house
01:38:12
and quickly discovered something that stopped him cold we found a great amount of jewels
01:38:20
precious stones gems thousands of them diamonds rubies Opals some on display others in suitcases worth roughly 20
01:38:32
million when you talk about the jewelry collection you know I have jewelry I don't think that's what you're talking
01:38:38
about no no no in no way shape or form investigators didn't see it as a jewelry collection either to them it looked a
01:38:46
lot more like a smuggling operation do you think that the fact that when the police got here they find all these
01:38:53
amazing Jewels do you think that it it prejudiced them um you know so what strange doesn't mean that you're a
01:39:00
criminal an says the gems were merely a hobby and an investment and says she did
01:39:06
her best to cooperate that night I was falling to pieces within hours of J's death after calling her family and
01:39:18
Juan Alvarez the trustee of borak Kayan I went into some sort of shock mode she was rushed to the hospital
01:39:28
emaciated and covered with sores my understanding is they were giving me a 40% chance of survival for the first two
01:39:35
weeks what was her condition then terrible in what way dehydrated extremely thin her
01:39:44
psychiatrist Carlos Lano who an authorized to speak with us met her in intensive care just hours later was she
01:39:53
with reality in and doubt do you think she was even physically capable of doing what the prosecution alleged
01:40:03
no an could not even hold a fork when she was here Anne Bender would remain hospitalized for seven months
01:40:14
under Dr lano's care and under a growing cloud of Suspicion they were beginning to say
01:40:22
this doesn't look look like an accident this doesn't look like suicide this looks like a lot like a murder and they
01:40:27
began looking at her as a suspect did you for one second until it actually happened think that you were going to be
01:40:33
charged [Music] no she was Skin and Bones I mean she looked horrid the Bender's friend Paul Meyer
01:40:57
visited Anne in the hospital just days after her arrival she weighed 84 lbs she literally looked like someone who had
01:41:05
just walked out of a concentration camp sick or not she already was investigator's number one murder suspect
01:41:13
police confiscated her clothes and her computer but it's unclear if they examined Jon's messages or ever saw
01:41:21
these chilling excerpts dated just weeks before he died I wish I were effing dead
01:41:28
it reads I feel so effing horrible I want to kill everyone and then myself a window an says on a tormented soul John
01:41:39
was the most tortured person I've ever met he had been wanting to kill himself for weeks she thinks the lawyers Bender
01:41:46
trustee Juan Alvarez hired for her should have used Jon's messages in her defense they wouldn't comment on
01:41:53
strategy they never manifested that I was innocent so their position was oh yeah she did do this by not doing
01:42:01
anything they were making it inevitable that I would be charged 19 months after Bender died an was officially charged
01:42:11
with murder convinced the jams have been smuggled into the country authorities later also charged her with possessing
01:42:19
Contraband all she is sure just what one Alvarez wanted why to hide the fact she claims that he
01:42:29
had siphoned money from the $70 million Bender trust I'm the only person that can stop him or bring scrutiny into what
01:42:39
he's done in July 2012 with murder charges hanging over her head Anne Bender took
01:42:47
Juan Alvarez to court for fraud the suit claimed Alvarez used the Bender truck as
01:42:53
his personal piggy bank buying horses for his horse farm and paying his credit card bills authorities raided his office
01:43:03
and confiscated 135 boxes of documents the court then removed Alvarez as trustee this investigation will go
01:43:14
nowhere because the accusations are bogus he told us but whatever Juan Alvarez did or did not do
01:43:23
[Music] he did not shoot John Bender and prosecutors see an's lawsuit as an attempt to distract them from their firm
01:43:32
belief that she did they just didn't see how that gunshot could have been in that
01:43:38
part of his head by Suicide was this suicide or an accident or murder the forensic evidence is so
01:43:49
vital in this case is incredible we brought in outside experts to Bor Kion and ask them to take a look at it this
01:43:57
was the bedroom this is where John Bender died in the rarified world of forensic science you can see there's a
01:44:03
lot of blood on the crime scene Selma and Richard eelen bom are internationally recognized but sometimes
01:44:10
controversial experts known for stirring debate in high-profile cases once thought open and shot like this and this
01:44:18
one from the start they say some Costa Rican authorities had a pre conceived idea that this was murder the pathology
01:44:27
report is very straight from the beginning this is a homicide and let's prove it's a homicide he does look like
01:44:34
he's sleeping a lot of people who die with their eyes closed look like they sleeping and they might have been wide
01:44:40
awake when it happened the prosecutor said if you're going to shoot yourself everyone knows it's here or it's here or
01:44:47
it's here well that's completely unscientific if that's an example of the logic that they used in this case then
01:44:54
I'm really very worried they cite other Monumental mistakes not immediately testing for gunpowder residue not
01:45:02
fingerprinting the gun not testing the sheets for blood spatter what is the most vital thing that they missed I
01:45:10
think the trajectory then you can place the shooter on the scene in relation to the victim it's like this they told us
01:45:19
the trajectory the path the bullet followed was CR iCal to understanding where the gun was when it was fired and
01:45:27
if an or John fired it looking at this investigation how would you grade it um very
01:45:35
[Music] poor in January 2013 a three-judge panel acquitted Anne Bender of Murder She was
01:45:48
safe but not for long [Music] after her acquittal Anne Bender hoped for a new start hey uh-uh but never
01:46:11
thought of leaving Costa Rica moving instead to a small apartment when the trust stopped paying her bills friends
01:46:19
and family helped she began dating a new boy boyfriend another American Greg fiser she has never not done what his
01:46:27
court system has asked her to do never not done what his government has asked her to do so she says she was shocked in
01:46:33
May 2014 when the Costa Rican government put her on trial for murder a second time it may seem odd to Americans but in
01:46:46
Costa Rica there is no Double Jeopardy rule so if a prosecutor doesn't like a verdict he can appeal and if he wins try
01:46:54
the defendant all over again with the same charges the same evidence and the same
01:47:03
Witnesses this time there are new judges but prosecutors repeat their case arguing that the evidence from the body
01:47:12
the bullet casing the entry wound blood stains and pillow case prove this was murder defense attorney fa okon Trio is
01:47:24
just as insistent it was suicide in all homicide there's a reason in this case there's no
01:47:32
reason and in a risky move he decides there is nobody better able to make that point than Anne Bender herself I want to
01:47:42
make a statement and make a statement she certainly does I was so happy here when we moved here she stays on the
01:47:50
stand the entire day he was talking about suicide every day for at least 4 weeks it was an issue of getting through
01:48:03
every day you you seem to be saying that there was no way to prevent him from attempting
01:48:10
suicide I tried my hardest not saying just no way for you there was no Avenue open No period this was this was
01:48:19
destined to be he wanted to die is in his testimony security guard and first responder Oswaldo agular describes
01:48:31
the scene but he also raises questions about one of the prosecutor's key assumptions the main point of evidence
01:48:38
for the prosecution was John was left-handed the bullet wound is behind the right side of his head you're lying
01:48:45
in bed how does a suicidal man possibly end up shooting himself like this agular
01:48:51
has an answer pointing out that though a lefty John Bender carried his gun on the
01:48:58
right side but testifying for the prosecution forensic pathologist Gretchen Flores
01:49:07
doesn't care if John Bender was right or left-handed she insists suicide is inconceivable another person she says
01:49:16
would have to fire the weapon her conclusion from the blood evidence and the position of the body
01:49:23
John Bender never saw the shot coming it's 6 cm from the midline at boracayan our independent forensics experts
01:49:32
Richard and Selma ikan bom tested that idea that Jon's body never moved it would explain the blood we find over
01:49:39
here but it doesn't explain the blood over there in their view it had to have moved for the blood to have pulled as it
01:49:46
did on both sides of his body so his head was completely different this was the position of his head when was shot
01:49:53
the blood pattern analysis uh support the hypothesis that there was some sort of fight they showed us how a struggle
01:50:00
could have happened how an's efforts to get the gun could make it fire vle goes like this and he start
01:50:08
bleeding oing how John's body then might have moved and he slowly falls back in this position which accounts for the
01:50:15
blood on this side this side I lunged forward towards him with my hands I fell towards the center of the
01:50:26
bed and the gun went off the hypothesis that he was shot in the position he was found is not
01:50:35
supported by this evidence also unlikely the iand bom say is the prosecutor's theory that Anne shot her husband from
01:50:44
behind the bed this trajectory is not very likely it doesn't make any sense no I mean just look at me if if I would
01:50:50
shoot him through the head I would go like this and they showed us why they think the odd location of the spent
01:50:55
cartridge such damning proof according to the prosecution really proves nothing at all
01:51:04
the casing can end up in that position if the gun is Twisted far enough around correct there is no chance she murdered
01:51:12
her husband an's family and friends want to make sure the judges think so too if
01:51:17
I thought an had anything to do with this in any way shape or form I wouldn't be here
01:51:23
but for Ned Zan the case is no longer clear so you can see a scenario where it's an accident yes where it's suicide
01:51:31
and where it might be murder you can see all these yes I absolutely can and I think anybody who sat in that courtroom
01:51:39
would probably say the same thing except for maybe an and her attorney um because
01:51:44
it's any of those make sense in his closing prosecutor Ramirez insists there is only one plausible
01:51:54
scenario an Bender shot her husband defense attorney okono Trio pleads for reason saying an is not an
01:52:06
assassin facing a possible 25 years in prison an herself has the last word I did not kill
01:52:17
John but even after four years and two trials she is unprepared for this verdict translation guilty of
01:52:35
[Music] murder her friends and family sit stunned she is sentenced immediately to
01:52:50
22 years in prison and she is Led away I really don't remember much after that except the police officers
01:53:00
surrounding me her boyfriend Greg fer is devastated I don't think she's going to
01:53:05
live I don't think she's going to survive the reality that I could be here for 22 years have I accepted that I
01:53:14
don't think there's any way that I can la [Music] immediately after being senten to 22
01:53:32
years for murder Anne Bender appealed her conviction there's no evidence that proves Beyond a reasonable doubt that I
01:53:41
killed John the evidence doesn't exist we met with her 6 weeks later in prison I'm still surviving and I refuse to give
01:53:50
up I'm I'm just not going to and and giving up in this place would be tempting there are about 50 women per
01:53:58
room three toilets no hot water no privacy none zero n and no guarantee she won't spend the rest of her life Behind
01:54:12
Bars how did you fight back from something like that when in those surroundings you survive you do what you
01:54:19
got to do then in the winter of 20 15 after 9 months in prison a development almost as stunning as an's conviction
01:54:28
she wins her appeal the court annuls the verdict she will have to face yet another trial but she is released for
01:54:37
now she learns all this from a friendly guard I said you're kidding I can leave and she said yeah you're free I fell to
01:54:45
the ground complet I just lost it but in this story bad news always seems to follow the good and an soon learns she
01:54:55
is not off the hook prosecutors have decided to try her for a third time her third trial begins about 6
01:55:07
months later and not only is an physically more fragile than ever she has suffered a major personal setback
01:55:15
her boyfriend Greg fiser died of an asthma attack while she was in prison but at this trial there is no shortage
01:55:25
of people to lean on an's parents her best friend Seline she's the best human being that I've ever met a lot of people
01:55:35
that are close to me are very invested in my my getting out of this John Bender's old friend Pete delisi has
01:55:42
called in legal reinforcements too two lawyers from the UK and two from the US paid by Anne they'll advise her local
01:55:52
attorney and closely monitor the trial making sure the judges know they're watching Ann's biggest challenge may be
01:56:02
just holding herself together in court in contrast to her dayong testimony in previous trials she is on
01:56:13
the stand for only 2 hours and this time she tries to appeal to the judges by testifying in
01:56:29
Spanish once again telling her story is an emotional [Music] [Music] ordeal prosecutor Edgar Ramirez's
01:56:46
approach to this trial is much the same but he appears to be minus several key Witnesses including his star medical
01:56:58
examiner Gretchen Flores she has mysteriously gone missing and supporters call it an
01:57:09
obvious delaying tactic it's part of their strategy they drag this out as long as they can so that everyone
01:57:18
leaves but this time team Bender has some star Witnesses of its own so he's lying like this and and put a gun like
01:57:27
that's what they said we've come here to uh participate in the truth finding Selma and Richard Eland Bol high
01:57:35
powerered and controversial they investigated the clothing and there was no blood an's lawyers hired the Dutch
01:57:41
forensic experts after the icland bombs completed their independent analysis for
01:57:46
48 hours but for the icland boms to testify the Costa Rican judges must agree to make an exception and
01:57:56
allow new Witnesses we don't know if we can testify or or not the prosecution strenuously
01:58:12
objects the judges decide that Selma can testify here you see the bullet Richard
01:58:19
cannot you would say okay it was this gun but the defense still can use him he will be allowed to cross-examine the
01:58:26
state's medical examiner Gretchen Flores finally has resurfaced after two weeks Richard eand bom's chance to question
01:58:34
this witness is an opportunity but also a big challenge Flores is as certain as ever that Anne Bender killed
01:58:45
[Music] John we're not lawyers so it's it's a new role here you have photo Costa Rican
01:58:53
law prohibits American style cross-examination in which lawyers use questions suggesting the answers they
01:59:01
want so an's legal team quickly has to train this Dutch scientist to think like a Costa Rican attorney we have
01:59:11
absolutely a lot of work to do to help an he'll have to pointedly ask medical examiner Flores about her experiments
01:59:19
without seeming to have an opinion either way it seems to me what we can do is explore what experiments the crme
01:59:26
have so the prosecution have not done when did you do this you didn't do this you didn't do this but that's that is
01:59:35
providing information and we're not allow it's providing information yes indirectly how do you get information
01:59:42
after working all weekend the team is ready now we have to play lawyer games do you know know um if this gun was
01:59:54
tested for the distance of a Missle flame no I don't know am I allowed to show a
02:00:04
picture yes go ahead Richard iand bom has to tread carefully and the constraints limit what
02:00:12
he can accomplish but next it's Selma's turn she is a witness I remember her walking
02:00:20
in and the reaction of the judges you know just seeing her cuz she has such an amazing presence in the courtroom and as
02:00:27
a witness she can go much further I see no support for the scenario of a homicide her testimony was amazing in my
02:00:37
opinion as an expert all the evidence that is available points clearly in the direction of a suicide
02:00:48
they the prosecutor makes a last ditch effort to strike Selma's testimony from the
02:00:55
record but for now the judges decide it can stay you can't unring the Bell they heard what she
02:01:03
said it's been three long weeks at last they are ready to vote on a verdict after three trials and nearly 10
02:01:18
years the judges are looking at me and I hear the words not guilty ab and that translates
02:01:29
absolved absolve [Music] yeah the world believes me finally this time an takes no
02:01:49
chances as soon as Costa Rican authorities return her passport she flies home to the US with no intention
02:01:57
of ever going back to Costa Rica regardless of what zealous prosecutors do we caught up with her in Washington I
02:02:06
don't see you flying down to Costa Rica for a fourth trial I don't see it either
02:02:13
not a chance no not so fast in a jaw-dropping decision months later a Costa Rican Court announces yes it
02:02:22
intends to try and Bender a fourth time her stunned lawyers immediately appeal but win or lose it's doubtful
02:02:32
prosecutors actually could try her again trials in obena are not allowed in Costa
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Rica while there is an extradition treaty in place legal experts say that after three trials they would be shocked
02:02:47
to see the US extradite Anne Bender for a fourth in fact an seems finally to have put
02:02:56
this one-time Paradise behind her her past there as haunted as the abandoned overgrown jungle compound she
02:03:07
left behind I'll never get back everything that was taken from me obviously I'll
02:03:14
never get back my husband now it's time to go after what can be recovered and find life again
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[Music] he [Music]