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the morning of April 25th 2010 it's 6:30 a.m. Heidi ferus calls 911 someone's trying to break into my
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house she tells the state patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to
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give her address 1794 haha while she's on the phone you can hear a loud noise and the phone goes dead well I
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don't know where she went there 6 approximately a minute later Nicholas fcus calls 911 says that he and his wife
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have both been shot somebody broken okay are you in St Paul sir St Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to
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the ambulance and transported him to Region's hospital he had been shot in the leg Heidi was struck in the back as
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she was trying to flee towards the kitchen it was a shotgun blast that killed her right away the shotgun was
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laying inside front door area there's a little little foyer Nick gave a brief story he heard
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somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the Intruder
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struggled over the shotgun the responding officers uh went up and down the block try to talk to
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neighbors I was next door house sitting when the crime happened really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell
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of you shot her you shot me did police ever have any luck tracking down the Intruder that Nick described
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no you know I'm looking I didn't see anybody come out of that house Brandon oconor was house sitting next door to
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the fasses and taking care of kittens I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around some noise caught my
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attention so stuck my head out the window kind of listen Brandon says he recalls hearing a muffled argument
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coming from the fergus's house listening through an open window that's when I ended up hearing what sounded like
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gunshots when police first interviewed him Brandon said he also heard a male voice kind of this agonizing yell
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of you shot her you shot me uh please please know something along those lines and then then it was done First
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Responders rushed to the scene there was nothing they could do for Heidi she was
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pronounced dead Nick was rushed to the hospital and treated for a graay gunshot wound to his leg he seemed not to be
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sure whether or not Heidi had been killed like I said we'll do our best to find out how how heid do hours later
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Nick was transported to the St Paul police department then Nick and I started to
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have our conversation in the conference room Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement you know I know this is a very
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traumatic situation okay and I'm just going to try and ease into it okay so Nick said the couple ordered in food the
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night before and watch the movie Avatar they went upstairs to their bedroom around 11:00 p.m. the next morning Nick
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got up around 6:00 a.m. to get a drink of water from the bathroom go back to sleep I just kind of fitfully sleep for
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10 or 15 minutes and then I heard the screen door open kind of let it go for a little while but then I started hearing
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fing with our door knob and is Heidi still sleeping it yeah okay like a rock Nick said he retrieved his shotgun from
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the closet I keep two shells for it just in case things go weird so when I heard
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things this morning I did load it and then I wake up Heidi okay according to Nick he told Heidi someone was trying to
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break in and to call 911 someone's trying to break into my house they headed downstairs so they
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could get out of the house what address are you at all right so you going first down the stairs or is she is she behind
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you or is she in front of you or what um she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to
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move on quickly Nick said as they passed by the front door it burst open guy that
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was there I think he he grabbed the barrel I don't remember exactly what happened but the gun went off so my
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finger slipped onto the trigger Nick told Sergeant gray during the struggle over the weapon the gun
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fired striking Heidi who he said was in the kitchen okay so the guns guns here chest High yep you and I are like this
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yeah and then the gun goes off mhm I I mean I know it hit Heidi I just I know it did she was running away so it
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definitely hit her in the back it hit her in the back yeah Sergeant gray started probing into their marriage you
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guys uh have any problems or anything like that just the normal stuff like uh you know stresses about finances and
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quality time and vacations and all that stuff yeah but you guys aren't behind in the bills
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or anything like we are behind in in the bills um which is a little stressful in fact we
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were planning on moving tomorrow um moving where well we hadn't figured that out yet we were and and this is a a
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hard it's a hard place for us we were foreclosing on her we foreclosed on our house Nick revealed they were behind on
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their mortgage payments and just 24 hours away from being evicted from their home well it's kind of I mean kind of
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close notice I it is and I think the reason is cuz we're both kind of dealing with the shape of the whole thing gray
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says his suspicions were raised and minutes later he was struck by the way Nick asked about
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Heidi well I just want to know the final answer on the final answer on Heidi she didn't make
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it I figured that I mean is that typically how someone asks if their loved one or spouse has been killed not
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only is that not typical that that's how they'd ask it but they wouldn't wait an
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hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question I've watched the interview obviously numerous
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times and I understand people react to trauma differently but this was different than
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what I'd seen anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck by Nick's demeanor during
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it