00:00:00
[Music] there's a saying here in Minnesota Minnesota nice and that Minnesota nice only goes so far and
00:00:15
Heidi fcus she went all away she was genuine and she loved deep she definitely lived a life of love that was
00:00:25
the mark that she left and that's hard to let go you know this is a a terrible terrible
00:00:33
incident you know we're hoping to find other physical evidence that might help us lead us in a direction toward a
00:00:39
suspect the morning of April 25th 2010 at 6:30 a.m. heid fcus calls 911 someone's trying to break into my house
00:00:50
she tells the state patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to give her
00:00:56
address 1794 many haha every while she's on the phone you can hear a loud noise and the phone goes dead well I
00:01:06
don't know where she went there 6 approximately a minute later Nicholas Fergus calls 911 says that he and his
00:01:12
wife have both been shot brok okay are you in St Paul sir St Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to the
00:01:23
ambulance and transported him to Region's hospital he had been shot in the leg Heidi was struck in the back
00:01:30
back as she was trying to flee towards the kitchen it was a shotgun blast that killed her right away the shotgun was
00:01:37
laying inside front door area there's a little foyer Nick gave a brief story he heard
00:01:44
somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the Intruder
00:01:50
struggled over the shotgun the responding officers uh went up and down the block try to talk to
00:01:56
neighbors I was next door house sitting when the a crime happened really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell
00:02:06
of you shot her you shot me it never felt right the story never made sense to me he tells investigators
00:02:17
that he grabbed a shotgun loaded it with two shells and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the stairs in front of him
00:02:24
towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at why you would send the unarmed person down in front of you is
00:02:32
beyond me to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and
00:02:40
Heidi in order to believe that Nick killed Heidi you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
00:02:49
killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get
00:02:55
there [Music] [Music] while this area of St Paul where Heidi and Nick ferus lived I would characterize as generally
00:03:52
a quiet neighborhood back in 2010 9 years before she took charge of the fcus case
00:03:59
detective Nicole cyes of the St Paul police department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood do you remember
00:04:07
first hearing about the fcus case I do broken okay it early on a Sunday morning the 911 call was at 6:30 Nick fergus's
00:04:21
Story of a burglar didn't make sense to cypes most people are home at 6:30 on a Sunday morning especially in a family
00:04:28
neighborhood like that the last thing that most burglars want to encounter are people did police ever
00:04:35
have any luck tracking down the Intruder that Nick described no you know I'm looking I didn't see
00:04:41
anybody come out of that house Brandon ' Conor was house sitting next door to the
00:04:46
fasses and taking care of kittens I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around some noise caught my attention so
00:04:55
stuck my head out the window kind of listen Brandon said says he recalls hearing a muffled argument coming from
00:05:03
the fergus's house listening through an open window that's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots
00:05:10
around this time Brandon said he also heard that voice crying out kind of this agonizing yell
00:05:19
of you shot her you shot me uh please please no something along those lines and then then it was done
00:05:30
First Responders rushed to the scene there was nothing they could do for Heidi she was pronounced dead Nick was
00:05:39
rushed to the hospital and treated for a gry gunshot wound to his leg he seemed not to be sure whether or not Heidi had
00:05:47
been killed like I said we'll do our best to find out how how Heidi's doing hours later Nick was transported
00:05:56
to the St Paul police department then Nick and I started to have have our conversation in the conference room
00:06:02
Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement you know I know this is a very traumatic
00:06:06
situation okay and I'm just going to try and ease into it okay so Nick said the couple ordered in food the night before
00:06:14
and watched the movie Avatar they went upstairs to their bedroom around 11:00 p.m. the next morning Nick got up around
00:06:23
6:00 a.m. to get a drink of water from the bathroom go back to sleep but just kind of fitfully sleep for 10 or 15
00:06:30
minutes and then I heard the screen door open kind of let it go for a little while but then I started hearing filling
00:06:37
with our G now and is Heidi still sleeping then yeah okay like a rock Nick said he retrieved his shotgun from the
00:06:44
closet I keep two shells for it just in case things go weird so when I heard things this morning I did load it and
00:06:52
then I wake up Heidi okay according to Nick he told Heidi someone was trying to break in and to call call
00:07:00
911 as she spoke with the dispatcher someone tring a break into my house they headed downstairs so they could get out
00:07:07
of the house what address are you at all right so you going first down the stairs
00:07:11
or is she is she behind you or is she in front of you or what um she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to move her along
00:07:18
quickly Nick said as they passed by the front door it burst open guy that was there I think he he grabbed the barrel I
00:07:27
don't remember exactly what happened but the gun went on off so my finger slipped
00:07:31
out of the trigger Nick told Sergeant gray during the struggle over the weapon the gun
00:07:37
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
00:07:46
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
00:07:52
definitely hit her in the back hit her in the back yeah I couldn't believe it I I didn't want to believe it it can't be
00:08:02
true that's there's no way CA and Marcus sarzen mentored Heidi at Calvary Church
00:08:09
I think she's one of those uh people that you can't not like everyone liked Heidi she genuinely loved people she was
00:08:18
the life of the party always finding fun ways to engage people and um she was very loyal the couple met at the church
00:08:28
and in 2005 Heidi 20 and Nick 22 got married Nick ferus had a very warm and engaging
00:08:36
personality always smiling he carried himself with confidence and he had High character high integrity in the church
00:08:44
that was the reputation he built for himself but just a few hours after Heidi's death Sergeant Jim Gray found
00:08:51
himself questioning Nick fergus's account he couldn't figure out why the couple would leave the safety of their
00:08:58
bedroom come upstairs you know I hate to tell you this but my house you know I'm
00:09:03
justified in killing you if you come break it in my house yeah and I guess Nick explained that the couple had a
00:09:09
plan in place if they were ever in a precarious situation they would avoid a confrontation and escape to their car in
00:09:16
the garage and get away if we can save ourselves let's let's do that instead of getting into a situation where his story
00:09:24
didn't make a lot of sense to me Sergeant gray started probing into their marriage you guys uh have any problems
00:09:31
or anything like that most just the normal stuff like U you know stresses about finances and quality
00:09:41
to vacations and all that stuff yeah but you guys aren't behind in the bills or anything we are behind in the bills um
00:09:50
which is a little stressful in fact we were planning on moving tomorrow Mo it where well we hadn't
00:09:55
figured that out yet we were and and this is a a hard it's a hard place for us that we
00:10:03
were foreclosing on WE foreclosed on our house Nick revealed they were behind on
00:10:08
their mortgage payments and just 24 hours away from being evicted from their home well that's kind of I mean kind of
00:10:16
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
00:10:22
says his suspicions were raised and minutes later he was struck by the way Nick asked about Heidi well I just want
00:10:30
to know the final answer on the final answer on he she didn't make it I figured that I mean is that
00:10:45
typically how someone asks if their loved one or spouse has been killed not only is that not typical but that's how
00:10:53
they'd ask it but they wouldn't wait an hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question I've
00:10:59
watched the interview obviously numerous times and I understand people react to trauma
00:11:05
differently but this was different than what I'd seen anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck
00:11:13
by Nick's demeanor during it and that to meeter was this was just another day this was something he had to get through
00:11:21
skeptical of Nick's story Sergeant gray confronted Nick about what happened that
00:11:26
day Nick you know part of me watch ask you this question did you have anything to do with
00:11:32
this no absolutely not okay absolutely not all right why is there a party that wants to ask that well Nick I'm I'm a
00:11:41
police officer okay I got to ask I got to ask the tough questions all right after the interview Nick left the
00:11:51
police station that day investigators returned to the fcus home with a search warrant gray says it did not not look
00:11:59
like anyone was planning to move out the next day nothing was packaged up at all
00:12:04
the closet was still full of clothes we noticed that there was still food in the
00:12:08
refrigerator and there was something else that investigators questioned we didn't see any signs of forced entry
00:12:14
into the house based off of the physical evidence at the scene his version of the
00:12:20
incident couldn't be plausible what do you think of Nick's story about the Intruder chat now on
00:12:28
Facebook and 48 hours after Nick ferus said an intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi
00:12:45
police went back to the crime scene to check out his story he told us that there was a life and death struggle
00:12:52
inside the house but Sergeant gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't match Nick's account there was a vag
00:12:59
some receipts a beer bottle and none of that was knocked over so that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was
00:13:06
such a struggle why wasn't any of this stuff knocked over Sergeant gray says he examined the front door for signs of a
00:13:13
Breakin and did notice some markings but it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that uh the door had been
00:13:20
forced open the day of the murder in his interview Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door from
00:13:28
upstairs and like what are they doing are they just going like this yeah kind of like that yeah just shaking the knob
00:13:34
and shoving the door that day sergeant gray and his colleagues did a reenactment morning April 27th 2010 to
00:13:44
determine if they could hear the front door shaking from the bedroom we're in the bedroom looking Sergeant shackle and
00:13:49
Sergeant Wright were upstairs in the bedroom I'm at the front door so let me know when you guys are ready I'll I'll
00:13:54
try to KN for 15 seconds then we are ready they could not hear me filling with the
00:14:06
door sorry Sergeant gray says he also doubted Nick's story about the couple's eviction and a scheduled move the day
00:14:15
after Heidi was shot there didn't appear to be anything boxed up or packaged up to
00:14:21
go there were a few empty boxes in the dining room area there was not a grand stack of boxes or anything for that
00:14:29
matter that would lead us to believe that they were going to pack up all in one day meanwhile Heidi's mentors from
00:14:36
Calvary Church Marcus and ktina were learning the details about her death and the eviction it just an add up it just
00:14:47
something wasn't right with that story it seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have
00:14:54
notified anyone not have anything prepared for that because she PL planned things out and she liked things to be
00:15:02
orderly on April 30th 2010 5 days after her passing Marcus and ktina attended Heidi's
00:15:11
funeral yeah the atmosphere at the funeral was there was a lot of emotion at the funeral Marcus and CA say they
00:15:19
were struck by Nick's demeanor I remember going through the receiving line and shaking his hand there was no
00:15:27
grief showing it just felt like he lacked emotion Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the couple's friends if
00:15:36
Nick could have shot his wife and the answer I got was no there's no way that Nick killed Heidi he loved her there
00:15:43
there's just no way he could have done that and I just wasn't so sure about that from what we gathered during our
00:15:51
investigation Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship there was no problems or issues that anybody saw your
00:15:59
first impression upon meeting Nick ferus is no way in the world could he have committed a violent act the day after
00:16:09
the shooting Nick's Family hired attorney Joe Friedberg who advised Nick to stop talking to the police it didn't
00:16:16
take long to realize that he was being looked at as a suspect when investigators asked Nick to sit down
00:16:26
with their artists to draw a sketch of the intruder fredberg advised him not to they were
00:16:32
going to use it as an opportunity to further interview him instead Nick and his attorney hired their own sketch
00:16:41
artist it was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist and brought that drawing to police the
00:16:50
original and at that point we were basically told that Nick would not be answering any more questions with
00:16:56
regards to our investigation investigators released Nick's sketch to the public but it didn't generate any
00:17:04
leads they kept working the case Nick moved out of their home a few weeks after Heidi's
00:17:13
death two months later he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best friends Rachel Sanchez who
00:17:21
is going through a divorce at the time I thought because we shared something traumatic there was a deep connection
00:17:27
there because I had come out of something traumatic myself in a relationship I think Nick seemed to be
00:17:35
handling things well it felt like he was very grounded he was with his friends a
00:17:42
lot and they were processing together so I think just his his steadiness was an attractive quality Rachel says the two
00:17:51
bonded over their faith they began dating in the spring of 2011 at the time God God played a big part in my life and
00:18:00
I think that's another quality that I saw in him that he he loved God like I did one year into their relationship
00:18:08
Nick proposed I knew it was coming we had looked at rings beforeand so it wasn't really a huge surprise and a few
00:18:16
months later the couple married they started a family we did have kids pretty quickly and soon were the parents of
00:18:25
three children he absolutely loves his kids so so much Andrew and Emily Ericson are friends of Nick they say for a long
00:18:34
time Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder yeah it just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief
00:18:40
during that time but they say when he did talk about it his story was always the same what did he tell you same thing
00:18:49
he's always told everyone from the first day same thing he'd tell you today that
00:18:54
someone was breaking into the house and they were going to try to get out and there was an altercation and
00:19:02
tragically Heidi was killed investigators still did not believe that story but 5 years after
00:19:11
Heidi's death with little movement in the case they finally got a break someone called in a tip there was
00:19:18
somebody that looked exactly like the sketch and put a name to Nick's sketch somebody called said I have an
00:19:25
experience with this guy I think I know who it is [Music] after 5 years without a break in Heidi
00:19:44
fergus's murder case out of the blue a tipster called police with a name after seeing this sketch of the
00:19:52
suspect but there was a problem says investigator cypes he was already in prison
00:19:59
on the date of Heidi's death Nick's second wife Rachel says her husband rarely talked about the case
00:20:09
being solved but I had asked him are you going to put effort into seeing if you can find the person that did this he
00:20:15
didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know I know that from his lawyers he was told to just stay silent police found it
00:20:23
odd Nick never checked in you're four investigators and this case he never contacted one of us to ask the status
00:20:32
was this case ever considered a cold case it wasn't ever considered a Cold Case prosecutors Rachel Crocker and
00:20:38
Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015 there just was not a lot of new information coming in
00:20:47
Heidi's family would check in on her birthday is there anything new development and there would be new
00:20:55
developments when detective cypes took over Heidi's case in in 2019 seems her fresh set of eyes really made a huge
00:21:02
difference it was absolutely critical I think cyp's definitely restarted something cypes dug deep reviewing the
00:21:10
entire case File including an examination of a financial timeline she compiled with the help of the FBI I had
00:21:19
the luxury of looking back on all of these things several years later cypes learned Nick worked at his
00:21:25
family's carpet installation business they were contractors for Home Depot Heidi was a clerk at a financial
00:21:32
services company in St Paul their combined income was about $70,000 a year they seemed like they were on top
00:21:42
of all the bills before they bought the house but Lawman says the home purchase in 2007 strained the couple's
00:21:52
finances and that home was just too much for them by the time Heidi died in April
00:21:57
of 2010 the couple was deeply in debt he had not paid the mortgage in 22 months in fact the couple had lost their home
00:22:07
to foreclosure and would be forced to move out but cyes discovered Heidi apparently had no
00:22:15
idea after reviewing the couple's texts and emails Cy saw no evidence Nick ever told Heidi they were in financial
00:22:23
trouble there was no communication between the two of them to indicate that she had any any idea of the depth of
00:22:30
their financial issues I was able to determine through the foreclosure and eviction attorneys
00:22:38
that there was no paperwork Heidi had signed that nobody had ever talked to Heidi nobody met Heidi Heidi didn't go
00:22:44
to the eviction hearing on March 8th 2010 Cy says Nick and Heidi's family and friends didn't know the couple had to
00:22:52
relocate and if she was serious about moving she would have gotten the day off so she was planning to go to work
00:23:00
yes why do you think he kept her in the dark so long shame I believe he was concerned about the shame of what he had
00:23:07
done how it would look that he couldn't compl clean with her you know it had gotten too big at that
00:23:14
point and when cyes talked to the couple's friends she learned why Nick wanted to hide their financial
00:23:22
situation he was described by his friends as being wise and being the person that they would go to for advice
00:23:29
Nick ferus really presented as somebody who had some of those bigger tougher life questions figured out what kind of
00:23:36
person do you want to be what kind of relationship do you want to have with God what does that tell you as you're
00:23:43
investigating the case and you see someone in that type of Personality it just became easier to see that this was
00:23:52
someone who did not want his friends his family to know the extent to which he had failed
00:23:58
Cy says she discovered more of Nick's Lies when she learned about a conversation Heidi had with a friend
00:24:06
just the day before she died Heidi had talked to us about how Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft
00:24:13
it was somewhere around $180 to $200,000 worth of identity theft wasn't true they weren't the
00:24:20
victims this was all untrue but as cypes tried to figure out if there was a connection between Nick's
00:24:27
lies and Heidi's death she learned Nick and Rachel had divorced I remember very well when Nikki sypes came to my
00:24:36
door and that Nick had also kept secrets from her did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved she
00:24:46
did there were Financial issues between the two of them Nick was lying about a lot of things this is a story that's
00:24:55
happened before and it didn't end well that Terri ified [Music] me could there actually have been an
00:25:21
intruder after spending 19 months digging deep into the fcus case File reviewing crime seen
00:25:29
photos 911 calls do you remember what he was wearing and Nick's video interview she was running away so he definitely
00:25:36
hit her in the back investigator Nicole cypes had come to one conclusion what really matters is what happened in that
00:25:44
fire and there was no third person you never found anyone else's DNA no no DNA evidence no physical evidence no sign of
00:25:53
a struggle to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and
00:26:03
Heidi as part of the new investigation cypes reached out to Nick's second wife Rachel what did she know in 2020 she
00:26:14
came to my door and I was like why are you here and she was like to talk about Heidi Fergus at first Rachel then
00:26:22
divorce from Nick says she was reluctant to talk you're asking for a lot when you
00:26:27
get involved in something like this and I didn't want to but I also knew that it was the right thing to do and it
00:26:32
was for truth Rachel told cyes Nick had lied about their finances during their marriage I found a letter saying that we
00:26:42
hadn't paid our property taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them and when I saw that I
00:26:49
was like oh no like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me during that time Rachel
00:27:00
says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's death and I said we got to
00:27:09
sit down and talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions have caused me to just
00:27:16
distrust you completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that I could prove that he
00:27:22
said it and the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over makes me
00:27:33
think that I could murder my wife that you could lie about something that I could murder my wife
00:27:44
yes when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think
00:27:55
those things why aren you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right Rachel later shared the recordings
00:28:04
with investigator cypes the behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel was almost duplicative of how he
00:28:11
hid things from Heidi we cannot let this man be out on the street any longer for prosecutor
00:28:20
Elizabeth lman the time had come to ACT I told Sergeant cyes we're charging them
00:28:26
let's do it 11 years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19th 2021 a St Paul Police SWAT team arrested
00:28:36
Nick ferus at his house and charged him with second-degree murder a grand jury ultimately indicted
00:28:43
ferus on first and second degree murder charges our minds were absolutely blown Heidi's friends Marcus and CA were
00:28:54
relieved it's hard to to say I don't know what emotion you even put to it it's hard to say excited I felt grateful
00:29:01
we don't understand Nick's friends Emily and Andrew you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
00:29:08
killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get
00:29:15
there after remaining free on bail for almost 2 years on January 27th 2023 Nick ferus went on
00:29:25
trial prosecutors would not be allow owed to call Nick's second wife Rachel to testify or use her taped conversation
00:29:33
with Nick the judge ruled her testimony and the recording had no bearing on the case I went into it with an open mind
00:29:44
Natalie Michael served on the jury did he appear like a man who would kill his wife no he did
00:29:51
not a lot through the trial he was putting his head down when they showed the photos of the two of them together
00:29:58
you know he seemed like he really was in love with her I think Nick was someone who lived two lives prosecutors
00:30:04
presented an unusual motive they told the jurors Nick Fergus staged a burglary because he was desperate and ashamed his
00:30:14
secrets were about to be revealed to Heidi and everyone else all of his kind of cards of lies are about to crumble he
00:30:22
would have been exposed as a complete failure a liar um to his friends and community and instead he's a victim he
00:30:32
walks away from this supported by his friends supported by his family Nick had no reason Nick's lawyers Joe fredberg
00:30:42
and Robert Richmond say that simply makes no sense as a motive there was nothing about murdering the woman who
00:30:50
everyone agreed he loved that would help his situation and they say the state's contention that Heidi didn't know about
00:30:58
the couple's finances simply was not true Nicki said she was in on all of the major decisions he would say to us that
00:31:09
they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile at first I was wondering how she couldn't know about the finances or
00:31:18
some of the Foreclosure or some of the things happening but Natalie Michael says the prosecution's case did not
00:31:25
hinge on motive the prosecu said it really is was there an intruder in the house or was there not an intruder it
00:31:33
was our position that there had been an intruder exactly the way Nick described to the police on the 911 call many
00:31:42
broken me at the scene the information that Nick gave at the scene is that this Intruder came into the house at the
00:31:51
hospital he just came in and to Sergeant gray guy that was there I think he he grabbed the barrel Nick's lawyers say
00:32:00
police didn't find The Intruders fingerprints or DNA at the scene because as Nick told investigators in his
00:32:06
interview at the hospital what else can you describe from him the Intruder was wearing gloves gloves he's wearing
00:32:14
gloves you don't always leave DNA and especially when your hands are covered so what am I looking at here but
00:32:22
prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides fingerprints this is a physical model to
00:32:30
scale that was created by the FBI they used this model to show the jurors there was no evidence of a struggle I felt
00:32:38
that it was very important for us to be able to recreate how small that entryway
00:32:43
is let's say the Intruder gets in they have this struggle and they have this life and death struggle right in this
00:32:49
area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly and then Heidi gets shot Square
00:32:57
there in the back in a very clear shot this animation created by the FBI shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was
00:33:06
most likely shot from shoulder level the height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to
00:33:15
fire Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an intruder in fact there were tool marks
00:33:24
in the door which would be consistent with someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door attorney
00:33:34
Joe Friedberg says fergus's nextdoor neighbor Brandon oconor testified he heard a voice you shot her you shot me
00:33:44
uh please please no something along those lines that means there must have been another person in that house Nick
00:33:53
was talking to a third person when he said that but prosecutors said Brandon may have misheard Nick while he was on
00:34:01
the phone with the 911 dispatcher some broken he is screaming about being shot and he did that over almost 7 minutes so
00:34:15
stay on the phone with me okay Nick ferus did not take the stand after an 11-day trial the case
00:34:25
went to the jury if there's anything in this case there's Reasonable Doubt yeah see more evidence from the case at
00:34:36
48 [Music] hours.com it was a hard fought litigated trial as the state and Nick fergus's
00:34:57
defense team presented their closing arguments on February 10th 2023 we had great we thought circumstantial evidence
00:35:05
that what Nick said happened did not happen attorneys on both sides were hopeful the jury would make the right
00:35:13
decision it's not enough if you have a hunch there was no direct evidence that Nick murdered his
00:35:24
wife in her closing argument prosecutor Crocker said ferus shot Heidi while she was on the phone with the 911
00:35:33
operator someone's trying West so that call does end with a very very loud noise and the call goes dead
00:35:43
and we believe that that's the gunshot according to phone records 65 seconds passed from that moment until ferus made
00:35:53
his 911 call Qui somebody just broken up Crocker reenacted for jurors what she believed Nick ferus did before he made
00:36:04
that call I walked over in the courtroom to roughly as far as Heidi would have been on the ground crouched down turned
00:36:11
her over um to check for a pulse to be sure that she was in fact deceased walked back over picked up the
00:36:20
firearm and demonstrated how he could shoot himself and call him1 where is the guy that shot you at 6 5 Seconds there
00:36:28
was more than enough time for all of that to happen to prove their Theory Fus shot himself in the thigh they point to
00:36:35
Mark's left by shotgun pellets at the bottom of the front door when he shot himself we believe
00:36:45
that Nick was about um here which is how you would brace yourself probably against the door if you're doing it to
00:36:52
yourself of his Reasonable Suspicion but fergus's attorneys challenged the 65 second time frame attorney Robert
00:36:59
Richmond says phone records also show ferus misdialed two numbers before getting through to 911 making it
00:37:08
impossible to shoot himself what they reenacted was 65 seconds which was ignoring the two Mis diales which
00:37:18
happened at 38 seconds the fact that we cannot find the Intruder is not evidence
00:37:26
that there was no intruder and if anything because of the next door neighbor because of the tool marks
00:37:33
because of the 38 seconds we feel that the evidence supports that there was an intruder this isn't blind belief Nick's
00:37:43
friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove ferus was the shooter we were open to hearing
00:37:51
inconsistency of what Nick said but that didn't happen on February 10th 2023 the
00:37:59
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
00:38:09
no way that they got to guilty this quickly we rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong Nick
00:38:17
Fergus was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and intentional I believe Justice was served
00:38:26
Marcus and CA were in the courtroom when the verdict was read Justice may have been slow but fortunately the jury got
00:38:33
it right it feels like this is the beginning of healing it's the beginning of a of a new chapter Heidi's mom
00:38:42
actually said that for so many years they had to live with Nick fergus's narrative and they knew it was wrong but
00:38:50
they just didn't have another narrative and to finally be able to have him finally held accountable it it meant a
00:38:57
lot to us for sergeant cypes there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's
00:39:04
financial problems we weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on does
00:39:10
that frustrate you greatly I think it would help complete the picture for some people on April 13th 2023 Nick ferus was
00:39:19
back in court for a sentencing hearing and to hear Victim Impact statements growing up Heidi was the quintessential
00:39:27
little sister to me Heidi's brother Peter Ericson because of the lies we were told as early as the day after her
00:39:34
murder it's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief ferus refused
00:39:39
to admit guilt I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime my body stands condemned
00:39:46
to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains free judge Leonardo Castro imposed the
00:39:59
maximum sentence it is the sentence of Law and Judgment of this court that you be committed to the commission of
00:40:05
Corrections for the remainder of your life without the possibility of release good luck to you sir God's
00:40:15
speak my kids are always what I think of first fergus's second wife Rachel they lost in this too because one day they
00:40:25
had a dad that they thought was somebody and the next day he's not that person anymore she often thinks about Heidi too
00:40:33
I like to think I have a connection with Heidi she didn't get to have the voice that I have now and so I can only hope
00:40:41
that my voice is something she would be proud of Heidi was a genuine loving sincere young woman who wanted to
00:40:53
live life to the fullest she wouldn't want people to become bitter or angry because of what she had to experience I
00:41:02
think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of [Music] circumstances CBS next Saturday 48 Hours
00:41:26
brings you back to back episodes all summer long next week social media Clues Johnny altinger would answer a dating ad
00:41:34
and disappear she would track his location 48 Hours Crime Time double feature next Saturday on CBS streaming
00:41:41
on Paramount Plus [Music] I'm anarie green and we are back for another episode of 48 Hours host morm
00:42:05
today uh we're here with CBS News correspondent Jamie yugas and producers asena basak and Jordan Kinsey who worked
00:42:13
on this week's episode It's called Death at the front door who shot Heidi ferus welcome guys thanks for joining us thank
00:42:21
you hello thank you hi everyone so Jamie first off you actually from Minnesota this case took place in St Paul what was
00:42:30
it like covering a case in your hometown well you know it's one of those things it is always a little strange to be back
00:42:37
home covering something especially something like this a murder that you watch for years not be solved at the
00:42:44
time that this murder took place I was living in Fort Meers Florida which we jokingly call Minnesota South it's where
00:42:50
uh all the snowbirds in Minnesota Head um and I frequently talk to one of my best friends from college lived in St
00:42:57
Paul my brother lives in St Paul um it was one of those that when we heard about it it's a neighborhood that's very
00:43:05
residential very quiet very um nice I mean you know there's parks nearby Big Trees old porches um so it was one of
00:43:15
those things it was very strange to hear you sometimes maybe you'd hear about a Breakin something like that but nothing
00:43:21
like a murder um and then several years later I went back and I worked in the Minneapolis St Paul Market
00:43:27
um and every year we would do the update of you know there now a sketch is being
00:43:32
posted of a potential suspect or the yearly update and nothing ever came of it so now to see you know um living in
00:43:41
Los Angeles to see this all come to fruition I mean I've had like four lifetimes since this case uh took place
00:43:47
uh it's it's something else I mean just to see it actually conclude I think is shocking and I think the way it
00:43:55
concluded is even more surprising to people who are from that area right so and Jordan you're not from Minnesota but
00:44:02
you went back there you know you've gone back there quite a lot now I don't know
00:44:05
if you feel like you're from Minnesota because you've been back so often but what was it like for you yeah yeah at
00:44:10
this point I feel like I'm a Minnesotan Viking for sure but um yes uh but uh yes
00:44:16
I was flying back and forth uh to and from Minnesota several times this year and uh what viewers may not realize is
00:44:23
how much the culture of Minnesota plays and influ inuences this case yeah you know Jamie was talking about that a
00:44:30
little bit earlier when we were talking about this case about Minnesota nice and
00:44:34
I said I kind of understand because I'm Canadian and Canadians have this reputation of being quite nice yeah it's
00:44:40
one of those things um you know you'll always open the door for people you'll you know chitchat about the weather in
00:44:45
the elevator um but you don't ask deep questions so while it's nice it's not direct and you're not asking tough
00:44:52
questions of people and all of that kind of plays into this this case which we we
00:44:58
will get into so before we get to our postmortem let's listen to an overview of this week's episode someone's trying
00:45:04
to break into my home Heidi fergus's 911 call went dead after a loud noise about a minute later her husband
00:45:14
Nick ferus called 911 somebody broken me ferus was treated for a gry gunshot wound to his leg there was nothing the
00:45:28
First Responders could do for Heidi Sergeant Jim Gray of St Paul police department it was a shotgun blast that
00:45:36
killed her right away Fergus told police he heard someone fiddling with the front
00:45:40
door knob from upstairs he then armed himself with a shotgun Nick says as the couple tried to escape out the back the
00:45:48
front door burst open and Nick and the Intruder struggled over the shotgun after ferus was treated at the
00:45:55
hospital he gave a statement to Sergeant gray at the police station I think he he
00:46:01
grabbed the barrel let's say the Intruder gets in prosecutor Elizabeth Lawman they have this life and death
00:46:08
struggle right in this area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly there was
00:46:14
a vase uh some receipts a beer bottle and none of that was knocked over his story didn't make a lot of
00:46:21
sense to me his version of the incident couldn't be plausible so to start I want to discuss the very
00:46:29
first moment of this case it's the morning of April 25th it's 2010 Nick alleged that he heard a noise at their
00:46:37
front door and he believes that someone's really trying to break into their home so Heidi first called 911 and
00:46:42
then a minute later Nick called back saying that both he and his wife have been shot here's a neverbe heard segment
00:46:49
that was not included in the hour someone's trying to break into my home prosecutors also said that no sound of a
00:46:57
struggle could be heard on Heidi's 911 call when Nick called 911 after Heidi had been shot
00:47:05
broken me you could hear a lot of background noise when the police [Applause] arrived the police are there
00:47:17
okay you can hear the police Comm in you can hear them talking to him from the front door in Heidi's call Lawman says
00:47:24
there is no indication of Nick struggling with an intruder in the background 1794 many haha up to the moment the gun
00:47:34
goes off somebody's trying to break in her house okay so they both sound panicked when there's an incident
00:47:43
happening more than one person often calls 911 so what seemed inconsistent to investigators about this story well
00:47:49
there were a number of flags that popped up uh pretty quickly uh first of all Nick ferus said that he had heard this
00:47:57
Intruder jiggling with the door lock um from upstairs while he was getting a glass of water Heidi was sleeping he
00:48:05
hears this happen according to investigators he goes back into his room is what he claimed to them um and gets
00:48:12
his gun wakes up Heidi and has her go down the stairs first now most investigators started immediately
00:48:21
questioning the story of that because why in their minds would someone send their wife in front of them when they're
00:48:30
the ones who have the gun and why would you leave the comfort of your bedroom if
00:48:33
you know that you have a firearm the other thing that you heard a little bit on that call is that Heidi says some
00:48:40
things um where she's talking about just herself it doesn't sound like she is actually with Nick ferus why would she
00:48:47
be talking about herself in the first person and not uh about the two of them as a couple trying to get out she sounds
00:48:54
very hurried they had a staircase they were trying to get down um so I think that's where you hear kind of a little
00:48:59
bit of the you know The Angst and and trying to get down the stairs um but again investigators wondered were they
00:49:06
together but you know when you listen to Heidi when you listen to her voice on the 911 uh recording I mean she sounds
00:49:13
concerned she sounds more than concerned she sounds scared she sounds panicked How was Nick able to create that sense
00:49:18
of urgency for her when she's actually not seeing any of this stuff she's not seeing someone breaking in she's not
00:49:25
hearing anything because presumably that's not happening yeah so you know all we have is Nick's narrative and so
00:49:33
you know imagine putting yourself in hidey shoes you know your husband is telling you someone's trying to break in
00:49:39
so she's trusting her her husband's uh story about what's going on and so you know and he even you know told uh
00:49:46
investigators that they had a game plan if something were to happen like this that you know that they would rush down
00:49:53
the stairs into uh the back entrance of the home leading to the garage uh so you
00:49:58
know we think that you know Heidi was just trusting her husband on what was going on and we should point out they
00:50:04
came up with the plan because there had been a number of break-ins in the area so they had supposedly according to Nick
00:50:10
they had talked about the break-ins Heidi had felt nervous and so they came up with this plan as a couple I mean now
00:50:16
that I'm sort of putting myself in what could have been her position I think about somebody waking me up out of
00:50:21
asleep you know if my husband does that and he's saying we're the car keys I wake up in Panic even though it's
00:50:27
something sort of benign so you could see that um so Nick's 911 call was almost 7 minutes long and Jamie you sort
00:50:35
of brought this up this was brought up in the hour but all that you're hearing in the back of that call that's those
00:50:41
are the officers coming in the door right that's not an intruder um so as we discussed Heidi was on her phone running
00:50:50
down the stairs supposedly um you know in this very very small space this small foyer that has things too like a table
00:50:57
and other pieces of furniture and shoes that have been you know there's other household items that she's having to try
00:51:02
to get around supposedly at that moment that is when Nick is struggling with this Intruder and you hear nothing the
00:51:10
defense plays that off saying well she had her phone up to her head the reason you could hear when the officers arrived
00:51:18
and burst through the door and got to Nick ferus is because Nick had his phone on speaker phone so they tried to put
00:51:26
some d out into the minds of jurors that way to say well the sound would be different but it is such a small space I
00:51:33
I don't know how to hammer that home enough there's not a lot of space there uh for for one person much less
00:51:40
supposedly three people in this space where two of them are struggling and you actually when you see the images of the
00:51:47
scene you don't see a lot of disruption really and perhaps like a really interesting part of the hour was seeing
00:51:52
the investigator's reenactment of Nick's version of the story can you described the reenactment yeah um so the the
00:52:00
police went back to the house two days later um after Heidi's um shooting it's April 2010 so they were there at 6:30
00:52:06
there was light out they were saying this just makes no sense if you if you're an intruder a burglar do you
00:52:12
really want to go inside a house at 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday where people
00:52:17
will be home uh the prosecutors and the investigators told us um the last thing an intruder or a burglar want to do is
00:52:24
to encounter people also there's one one other thing um they also tested whether
00:52:29
you could hear this filling of the door from the upstairs they didn't the investigators told us they couldn't hear
00:52:35
the door knob being filled with from upstairs and they checked in the bathroom as well that's where Nick said
00:52:39
he was uh to get a drink of water so it just doesn't make sense that he would hear hear these noises from upstairs um
00:52:47
the store didn't check out the other thing I do want to point out too if you are someone who's coming down those
00:52:53
stairs there's a big kind of Half Moon shaped glass panel above the door so at the heights of Heidi and Nick if they
00:53:02
are running down the stairs and you've supposedly heard someone at the door you assume that their head if if he's as
00:53:09
tall as Nick claims he is which is more than six feet tall you would think that either Heidi or Nick would take a look
00:53:16
through that glass window to see if they saw anyone um Nick never pointed out that he saw anyone we unfortunately
00:53:24
don't know you know if Heidi saw anyone cuz she was killed uh pretty quickly but
00:53:30
you know there is that piece of glass there that would give you a window into what was happening outside as someone's
00:53:35
fiddling with the door right and you would presumably go back upstairs or call 911 or do something maybe not run
00:53:43
towards them but that's sort of all part of this kind of story um so hours after
00:53:50
this alleged burglary takes place Nick is questioned by police and again for our listeners I want to describe what
00:53:56
but we see Nick just left the hospital for treatment of his injuries because he was shot as well in the struggle he says
00:54:03
so he's limping he has crutches an hour and 40 minutes into his discussion with investigators he finally asks about his
00:54:11
wife let's just play some of that well I just want to know a final answer on the final answer
00:54:21
on he she had make it I figure that I mean so in you know some of the cases that I've worked on this
00:54:33
sort of thing kind of often stands out that the phrasing or the questioning about whether or not a loved one has
00:54:41
been killed is just not the way you would expect it or comes the timing is odd and as I was watching the hour
00:54:48
that's what I kept on thinking why is this not the first question out of your mouth how is Heidi is Heidi okay is she
00:54:57
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second anarie because I will say that as
00:55:01
a motan people are very stoic right and so I did really question the detective it could it have been just one of those
00:55:09
things that this is his demeanor and this is his demeanor all the time but I think the sticking point for everyone
00:55:15
was the timing um if that was just his regular demeanor all the time okay you could
00:55:20
kind of brush off that point of it but it took him so long to ask about it I also want to mention you know to Jam's
00:55:28
point that you know when we have interviewed investigators on various stories for 48 hours they will say that
00:55:36
you know the way people grieve in moments of shock or trauma varies there's many ways people might uh
00:55:43
process emotions or feelings and and I think you know what Jimmy just mentioned with that being a part of maybe the
00:55:50
culture of Minnesota with people being stoic you know that might have played a role but then again you know people
00:55:55
process deal with moments of trauma and shock in different ways I do want to add
00:56:01
um Nick does get very emotional at the end of the interview when his family and Heidi's family uh come into the
00:56:08
interrogation room he sobs loudly he hugs them he's very emotional um but then the prosecutors thought that's odd
00:56:18
as well you know they were saying to us maybe then he can turn it on and off just like that so I mean I guess you can
00:56:25
think you can go both ways right well the circumstances are so odd um but clearly the Spidey senses for
00:56:33
investigators were tangling yes something was off so Nick also told investigators that he and Heidi were
00:56:39
having financial troubles and in fact they were behind on their mortgage payments and they were about to get
00:56:45
evicted and he said something really weird about we're moving out tomorrow you know could that have been Nick's
00:56:51
motive for murder but when police searched the house nothing was packed up there was even food in the fridge
00:56:58
something was not adding up we are going to get into some possible theories of what really happened that day after the
00:57:04
break so stay tuned welcome back in the hour it is clear that Nick is worried about Heidi
00:57:17
and others finding out about his financial troubles so first off how did Heidi not know that they were so far
00:57:25
behind on their mortgage payments and that they were about to be evicted this is a woman who seems on the ball she
00:57:32
knows how much they both make they should have been able to afford their bills how did she not know it was
00:57:39
brought up in the trial by the defense that there would be notices on the door uh at Heidi in Nick's house that they
00:57:46
had lost their house and how could Heidi miss these um notices that were left there investigator cypes believes that
00:57:54
Nick was actually intercepting the mail he didn't have an office job he could uh
00:57:59
go wherever he wanted during the day while Heidi had an office job so her theory was that uh Nick removed those
00:58:07
notices from the front door there're a young religious couple in Minnesota who you know got married very young and she
00:58:16
was very trusting of her husband and her husband was supposed to take care of the
00:58:21
finances she went to work and he he was supposed to pay the bills she would occasionally get a call about a bill not
00:58:27
being paid or something not happening and she'd call him and say hey can you take care of this and the one thing that
00:58:32
stuck out to me that did not make it into the show is that Heidi ferus went shopping at Mall of America with a
00:58:39
friend and bought things so if she did have an idea you would not go with someone to Mall of America and purchase
00:58:47
things and act like everything was fine her friend said she didn't make any mention of financial troubles to her it
00:58:53
was just you know just a normal day and and also whether or not Heidi knew about
00:58:58
the mortgage payments the eviction is a point of contention in this entire story
00:59:04
did Heidi know or not and so Nick's defense team is claiming that she was fully aware and that she wasn't in the
00:59:12
dark you know but her family were not aware apparently um you know according to uh investigators and the prosecutors
00:59:21
Heidi talked to her parents regularly and they did not know that the couple were going to be evicted the next day so
00:59:30
that's still sort of the million-dollar question did Heidi know about the financial situation or not but still I
00:59:37
mean and I know money is often a motive for murder but it's an extreme motive I still don't really understand I know
00:59:47
it's embarrassing to say you're in financial trouble I know your wife's going to get mad at you but often in
00:59:52
cases like that you know you might see an argument that spirals out of control over money but that wasn't the case here
00:59:59
what would Nick be accomplishing by killing his wife for us especially working in True Crime you know we're
01:00:05
always trying to figure out motives and what is the reason for it and so life insurance policies are a big one for
01:00:11
certain cases in Heidi fergus's case you know there was a life insurance policy uh but it was only uh about 30,000 her
01:00:20
it was her salaries worth a year worth of her salary according to investigators Nick who received uh the that insurance
01:00:26
policy as the spouse he didn't spend that money he returned he returned the check and it was given to Heidi
01:00:31
appearance so it kind of leaves that question well in was the life insurance policy a motive who knows you know it's
01:00:39
it's one of those things that I remember living in Florida in 2007 as the housing
01:00:44
crisis was you know really running rampant through that state and I remember calling home to a number of my
01:00:51
friends in Minnesota who didn't even know what the word foreclosure meant it was it's just something ingrained in the
01:00:57
culture you pay your bills you you know you go to work they're hardworking hardy
01:01:03
people you know and it wasn't it's not as surprising to me as it was to a number of my colleagues and I think
01:01:10
probably not as surprising to investigators um in that sense because of the culture of the state and Nick had
01:01:18
had talked about you know he had had to ask his parents for help at other times you ask your family in Minnesota one too
01:01:24
many times for money you start getting talked about about in the family right so if all of a sudden he comes forward
01:01:29
and they're getting evicted from their house the shame of that could potentially I mean it wouldn't drive me
01:01:36
to murder but there'd be a tremendous amount of shame in that culture that you could not pay your bills the prosecutors
01:01:43
also told us nick uh presented himself as this person who figured the big questions in life like how do you want
01:01:49
your relationship with God to be what kind of a spouse do you want to be so his friends looked up to him so he had
01:01:56
this Persona at church with his friends uh he was very well-liked well respected
01:02:01
so perhaps that also played into this how ashamed he would be from uh causing the financial ruin ASA you spoke to his
01:02:10
second wife Rachel which is like this there's always a Twist in these stories and this is this crazy twist that he
01:02:14
goes on and falls in love and has a whole family by the time of the interview though they had already gotten
01:02:20
a divorce but when they were still married she started to become suspicious of Nick and decided to secretly record
01:02:27
their conversation which I thought was a very extreme thing to do when you're just starting to get suspicious about
01:02:33
your spouse let's hear a clip from Rachel I found a letter saying that we hadn't paid our property taxes and that
01:02:42
we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them and when I saw that I
01:02:47
was like oh no like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me
01:02:56
during that time Rachel says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's
01:03:04
death and I said we got to sit down and talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions
01:03:13
have caused me to just distrust you completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that
01:03:19
I could prove that he said it and the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front
01:03:27
of me over and over and over makes me think that I should murder my wife that you could lie about something that I
01:03:36
could Murder My Life yes when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think
01:03:53
those things why aren't you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right it's very interesting that
01:04:00
Nick never gives a solid answer to Rachel about the murder so he never says what are you talking about I never did
01:04:08
something like this I didn't kill Heidi he never uh denies how did Rachel become
01:04:14
so suspicious of Nick when did that start I think it was a process for her I think um it started with small lies it
01:04:22
was nothing big but it added up eventually she found a miss invoice wasn't paid for the property taxes and
01:04:28
they could lose their house in in 2020 that was a huge red flag for her so she then decided to get her kids they have
01:04:37
three children together to get their kids out of the house and she came back the next day and confronted him about
01:04:44
what we just heard Jamie were there other red flags that Rachel started to notice a couple things that stuck out to
01:04:52
me as as things for Rachel seem to unravel is that she she mentioned at some point in her interview that her
01:05:00
father-in-law Nick's father had one time said to her we don't get divorced in this family it's another one of those uh
01:05:08
situations I think goes back to them being a religious family but it was something that stuck with her Jordan you
01:05:14
met with Rachel I met with Rachel for dinner and let me tell you it was really eye openening as you know she was
01:05:23
getting into a relationship with Nick she was aware of the financial troubles that Nick had with Heidi um and so as
01:05:33
they were getting you know ready for marriage her father-in-law uh warned her basically that you know Nick is not good
01:05:40
with finances I wouldn't let him handle the the finances and she said at that moment she trusted her husband he had
01:05:48
gone through sort of a financial recovery program so she assumed that he had a good control over the finances and so
01:05:59
she said she allowed him to do that and then in the interview we did with her she said hi Insight Is 2020 and she
01:06:07
regretted that decision you know if you look at this case and when the murder occurred was 2010 a lot of people aren't
01:06:13
texting you're still calling people you're still leaving a voicemail however if you fast forward several years later
01:06:20
and Rachel and Nick are in a relationship a lot more conversations are happening by including recording
01:06:27
different conversations even using voice memos or sending little voice texts to one another so in some ways I think as
01:06:34
this case developed the technology also changed and some of what we now have in terms of conversations between the
01:06:41
married couples would also evolve and change fascinating so 11 years after Heidi's death Nick is charged with her
01:06:48
murder and then two years later in January of 2023 he's brought to trial what was it like being in the courtroom
01:06:56
I covered the trial and and this was a a very extensive trial it was uh nearly two weeks and the thing that stood out
01:07:05
to me the most was the fact that it was packed on both sides it was standing room only and I I think it really spoke
01:07:13
to how how much both of these people Nick and Heidi were cherished and the feeling in the entire courtroom because
01:07:22
it was both families were still sort of torn in deeply fractured I had an opportunity to talk to some of the
01:07:28
friends and I think the thing that struck me um in speaking to people is that Nick's friends truly believe him
01:07:37
and believe and back him and will not be swayed do not think the prosecution did
01:07:42
uh their job um and really have faith in him that he is a good man he would never
01:07:48
do this they actually are more Angry it seems at Rachel the second wife um and feel that she's to blame for for
01:07:56
bringing all this up what's interesting if you kind of peel back the onion a little bit you have this young couple
01:08:02
Heidi and Nick who get married and you know they had their friend group Nick's very well regarded within that friend
01:08:08
group he's somebody that everyone's looking up to because he's one of the first to get married and they own a home
01:08:14
and then when this happened part of the prosecution's belief was that he instead
01:08:21
of looking like the guy who couldn't pay his bills and take care of his family they had compassion for him oh my
01:08:28
goodness he's the man who's now lost his wife that he would be able to turn the friend group into having empathy for him
01:08:35
rather than him being a bad guy and that that could have played a part of the motive uh to investigators as they're
01:08:42
looking at this case instead of just the finances the psychological part of it so
01:08:48
ultimately the jury believes the prosecution though Nick was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and
01:08:55
and intentional and given the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole I want to listen
01:09:02
to some of Nick's statement at sentencing I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence
01:09:09
of this crime my body stands condemned to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains
01:09:19
free I mean that's kind of powerful I was there at the sentencing and you can feel
01:09:26
just the dread from kind of both sides right um because uh family and friends of Heidi they wanted Justice and and it
01:09:35
was hard to to accept that someone who used to be a a family member is now found you know guilty of killing Heidi
01:09:45
and then of course Nick's family and friends you know who never believed that Nick was the Killer and in fact even
01:09:52
Nick's father who who spoke at the sentencing had asked for anyone to come forward if they know who is the actual
01:10:01
killer so that still spoke to the fact that many people on Nick's side thought he was innocent and still is innocent
01:10:09
wow Jamie Jordan asena what will be your big takeaways from this case for me there's a number of things I'll remember
01:10:16
just because as we said in the beginning being from there just seeing the conclusion of it um I I think just
01:10:22
sticks out to me I think having someone like detective cypes have a a fresh pair
01:10:27
of eyes on the case it was all the same evidence for 10 years it was a a detective who was determined to get the
01:10:35
case solved one way or another the prosecution who really enabled that detective to take a fresh look and be
01:10:42
able to really comb through the financial records and take the time and really look at the interviews and all
01:10:48
the different pieces um it's it's unusual right I mean it's it's not it's not something you hear about a lot so
01:10:56
the fact that it there was a conclusion and how that conclusion came about will be the thing that sticks out to me most
01:11:03
the work that the investigation poured into this this case it took over a decade went through the
01:11:09
hands of you know four different investigators uh even getting um assisted by the FBI just I thought that
01:11:16
was just really just interesting that they never gave up and that they kept working hard at trying to find out what
01:11:23
happened to Heidi ferus I walk away from this case thinking if you feel there's something wrong there's probably
01:11:30
something wrong I think if you have a gut feeling you should probably listen to that God feeling so that's what I
01:11:35
take away uh from this case Jamie asenna Jordan thank you so much for joining me
01:11:41
for this thank you thank you thank you so be sure to join us next Tuesday for another postmortem and watch 48
01:11:52
hours Saturday 109 Central on CBS in streaming on param Mount plus and if you're liking the show please rate and
01:11:59
review 48 Hours on Apple podcast and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast you can also listen at free on
01:12:08
the Amazon music and wonder app or with a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple podcast