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foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a guy who was distancing himself socially before it
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was cool he is the captain don't stand so close to me it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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right here did you know captain that it is known worldwide the TCG has the very best looking listeners In The Biz yeah
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yeah I would recommend not to listen to all of them and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
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round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] s the people purchase firearms is for protection protecting themselves
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their loved ones and their homes from the dangers beyond their walls keeping the bad outside
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no one ever wants to have to deal with the home invasion by a dangerous intruder
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in today's case we have just that a young couple expecting to be safe and secure in their own home
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when they hear someone breaking in to their house the husband grabs his gun and confronts
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the intruder but something goes wrong and instead of the Intruder being shot the husband and the wife are both shot
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with their own gun one of them will not survive the incident the other is left to answer a lot of
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questions this is true crime garage and this is the case of Heidi Fergus [Music]
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We Begin several of our shows with the 911 calls that signaled the beginning of law enforcement's attention to a crime
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of course the call for help usually indicates that something is very very wrong in this case there were two 9-1-1
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calls from different people two different callers asking for help at the same crime scene the audio for these
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calls has not been released but the transcripts have the first call was made to the Ramsey County emergency
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communications center on April 25th 2010. the call came from 1794 West Minnehaha
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Avenue in the city of Saint Paul Minnesota this was a residential neighborhood in
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which the small Bungalow style homes were packed together in fairly close proximity the caller we would later
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learn was a 25 year old woman named Heidi furcus yeah Heidi furkus is married to Nick furcus and they live in
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a house that they are purchasing they they own the house correct so this first 9-1-1 call it's pretty short and really
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the only information that's communicated to dispatch by Heidi is that a somebody's breaking into their home
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and B she's trying to communicate with them her location their address and it never really fully gets out in this
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first call what ends up happening is there's a loud noise Heidi or somebody else know and then the call ends
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abruptly so this leaves dispatch with wondering okay well what's going on there and
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where exactly is this place located they tried to call her back several times but
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this is not successful then a second 9-1-1 call came in from the same address the caller this time was a male
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we were not able to find anything that would tell us how much time elapsed between these two different calls well
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the reason why is because police have released the time of Nick's call but not of Heidi's call right this is a crucial
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piece of information that would be very helpful for us to know but it's not been
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released all that has been reported is that the second 9-1-1 call came in as squad cars were still responding to the
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scene and what information we do have here Captain is that the second 9-1-1 call came in at about 6 30 a.m and what
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we can make out from this call is that it's coming from a man's home who was violently invaded by an intruder and the
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man's wife was shot in the melee she appears to him the man on the phone to be dead he sounds hysterical and who
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wouldn't be an unknown essay valent was in his residence his wife was shot and he was shot it all likely went down very
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fast and as we said Captain this is supposed to be a quiet Sunday morning he's calling 9-1-1 and he stays on the
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phone until the officers arrive on the scene well eyewitnesses in the neighborhood also state that at the time
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that it would have been daylight or almost daylight at that hour and what we're going to see is as the police
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investigation begins there was a frustrating lack of detail to go on what actually went down in that house in the
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early morning hours of that Sunday before we get into the nitty-gritty of this case I've got to say Heidi and Nick
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Fergus this seems like just a totally normal everyday American couple Heidi Erickson grew up in Falcon Heights
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she played basketball and tennis in high school she was in the choir and loved to
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draw and paint she was known for making beautiful cards that she gave to her friends she was close with her two older
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brothers her parents describe her as a very trusting but maybe a little naive Heidi and Nick met in 2003 at the
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Calvary Baptist church youth group right after Heidi graduated from high school they got married when Heidi was 20 years
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old Nick was 22. so they were married for five years before this shooting happened Heidi recently started an
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administrative job at a financial services firm where her father worked and in fact the two had met for coffee
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at work on the Friday before Heidi died we know that Nick Fergus well he grew up
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in the area as well and his family was very active in the church where Nick and Heidi met in 2010 Nick was the director
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of operations at Crew 2 Chem-Dry which was a local Carpet Cleaning company by the accounts of every single one of Nick
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and Heidi's friends and acquaintances the two had an ideal marriage they enjoyed many activities like travel and
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biking together these were wonderful people involved at their Church even working as youth group leaders they had
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lots of friends and loved to throw dinner parties at their home or even after a decade of this crime happening I
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have not heard one friend family member come forward and say you know what Heidi
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and Nick they they weren't getting along they had some problems well and that's what's so weird about this case because
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of the suspicions it would later come out you would expect to hear some problems
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or expect to hear some bad stuff but there just doesn't seem to be any coming from people that knew these people
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closest their home was a three-bedroom two-bath house with just a touch over 1500 square feet they purchased the home
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in 2007. when police arrived at the Fergus home Heidi furcus was dead lying in the
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entryway to the kitchen Nick was wounded no one else was present according to the
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first news reports this is published the same day that this all went down this is
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from the Pioneer Press Twin Cities 27 year old Nick Fergus told police that he and his wife heard an intruder near
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the front door of their home this was very early on Sunday morning again we don't know the time of the first 9-1-1
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call made by Heidi but the second 9-1-1 call from Nick was at 6 30. according to
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Nick both he and Heidi went downstairs to investigate Nick armed with his shotgun there was a struggle and Heidi
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and Nick were both shot quote during the struggle Nick fergus's gun went off and
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Heidi was shot the struggle continued and Nicholas was shot in the leg with his gun this from a Saint Paul police
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spokesman the Intruder fled nothing was taken from the home this is according to police
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police were able to recover the shotgun from the Fergus home and while Heidi Fergus was dead when First Responders
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arrived on the scene Nick Fergus who was shot in the leg was treated and released
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from Region's Hospital real quick back to the the gunshots because the the police spokesman says he
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was speaking from Nick's account of the events this this is weird because on the
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9-1-1 call Nick said that he didn't know who shot him now it sounds like the only gun that was
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fired was in fact Nix Nick told police that he did not know the intruder and although they scouted the area
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police had no luck locating the person who broke into the home Nick described the Intruder as a male of unknown race
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six feet to six feet two inches tall 200 to 220 pounds he said the man was wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt
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there was no sign of forced entry into the home police would say only that the home was
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quote secured when they arrived there was a witness this is Clifford Mitchell who lives down the street said
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that he heard a car pull out real fast screeching tires in the alley behind the fergus's home he estimated it was about
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6 15 or 6 20 a.m Clifford said he did not see the car he only heard the vehicle the problem with this eyewitness
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is it's a heavily dense area the other thing too Captain is there's no public report
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out there on the lapse of time between the the two gunshots right we don't have anybody saying that they heard the
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gunshots now we know they obviously they did take place we just don't have anybody else to tell us when they took
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place if we go off of the 9-1-1 calls that would lead us to believe Heidi's call Ended as the first shot went off or
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just before the first shot went off and we know based off of what Nick tells 9-1-1 that he's already been shot by the
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time he's called back to 9-1-1 so sometime between the start of Heidi's call and the start of Nick's call
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we have two gunshots first Heidi shot and then Nick shot this according to our only living witness so our only living
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victim yeah so let's simplify this this couple is up in their bed room the husband Nick hears something
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says the front door now does the front door mean the front door to Nick because you know how some people
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have a front door and then they have a door that they use all the time and then that's what they call the front
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door I cannot tell you what what door means what to this man I I don't know him but seeing the layout of his home it
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would be hard to confuse the front entryway with with any other door to that good that clears it up so
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he wakes up his wife hey wake up I think somebody's trying to get in the house and then he claims that they both go
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downstairs she obviously has her phone I don't know if he has his phone at the time
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they s he sees the Intruder he struggles with this intruder he looks to me about maybe Nick and he
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looks maybe to Me Maybe 5 10 or so so he's wrestling with a guy that's larger than he is heavier than he is
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during that wrestling the gun goes off which shoots his wife in the back the gun then goes off and
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shoots him in the leg her wounds being fatal his not fatal at all I wouldn't say that they're not they weren't severe
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yeah so regarding his wound this was a tricky thing to to figure because the reports just say hey he was treated that
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day and released from the hospital so when you hear that you're like oh you know it's uh merely a flesh wound right
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right but there have been conflicting reports there are some people out there that said hey this dude showed me the
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gunshot later and it was gruesome and then there's other people that do say the same thing that that you would
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expect oh it was just it just grazed him right so there's conflicting reports I've not seen any pictures or anything
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or any detailed Hospital reports to to get a better idea on what this looks like but if we are to believe next story
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it sounds like the two of them go down the steps almost the stairs at almost the same time she's armed with her cell
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phone he's armed with a shotgun and when they get to the foot of the stairs they're encountered by the Intruder and
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now we got two men rustling over a big gun right fights on now what's interesting though is why is she going
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down there to me it's like hey there's an intruder I got my gun get call 9-1-1 right right call 9-1-1 I got my gun
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let's do this he claims that she he was trying to get her to go to the garage yeah or or at least outside in the
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backyard which makes no sense to me unless again what kind of noises are you hearing if
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you if you're just hearing a jiggle of a door handle maybe that sounds like uh one person
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if it sounded like more people maybe that would be a reason to run to the garage or to run outside
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it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me and then you have this struggle that takes place
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I would assume that this Intruder wouldn't know what kind of gun he was wrestling away how many shots that it
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would be able to fire but all of a sudden it's like one shot kills somebody the other shot wounds the other person
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and then the person decided to then take off from my teachings when I was working
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in security and everything that I learned there the majority of the time believe it or not they do say the safest
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place for a person to to get to in a situation like this would be to get out of the house you want to especially
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knowing that it's it's the light of day is coming about right you want to be out in public or or at
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least in the view of other people of witnesses and you're less likely to have something bad happen to you in that
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situation now you have variables that are going to change that given this situation where you are arming yourself
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you're looking like you're ready to defend yourself I probably would not instruct anybody to go outside I mean we
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have the Intruder who's believed to be on the ground level let's keep everybody who's not armed upstairs and I will go
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down and try to stand our ground here yeah lock the bathroom or if there's a master suite lock the the bedroom lock
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the bathroom door hide in here make the call that's why rich people have Panic rooms because they they can barricade
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themselves in call for help and not have to encounter the Intruder now here what
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I what I love about this and and often people will buy a shotgun for the purpose of protecting their home
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everybody knows the universal shotgun sound you can usually make that sound and if a
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perp hears that and they're inside your home they are not effing with you anymore they are out picking them up
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putting them down and they're they're gone right [ __ ] that gun that's a universal sound for get out of my house
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and ninety percent of the time that's what goes down my guess here is if this goes down the way Nick said it did
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there's a chance that this Intruder did not see the gun until they were already fighting over the gun if that makes any
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sense right because he says they're coming down the stairs and that's when boom bump into the Intruder now we have
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a fight going on one of the problems though with this story is we have no sign of force entry
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right well and then listen to this so I was looking for okay I will any public report for when these gunshots went off
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right because then you go well if they're not going to tell me what time both 9-1-1 calls took place I'm curious
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how how much earlier than the the second call did these gunshots go off but there
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is no public report for that there is this report a next door neighbor his name's Brandon O'Connor he says that he
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heard a man yelling who sounded like he was in pain so presumably this is Nick's
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9-1-1 call we we can tell by the transcript that Nick is yelling I mean he he's calling for help he's saying
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everything you would think anticipate somebody to be saying during this situation we need to go over that
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transcript a little bit clearer the neighbor makes no reference to the loud gunshots only that he heard a man
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yelling yeah then you wonder they need to do ballistic tests to see how what range when she was hit with the Heidi
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being hit with the gunshots so the day after the shooting police released some more information that was interesting
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Heidi had died after being shot once in the back with her husband's shotgun a second shot from the same gun this is in
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this report grazed Nick's leg the gun was fired only twice so both both it was fired only two times
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one hitting the wife one hitting Nick in the leg according to Nick Heidi had been shot as
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she was running out of the room where he was fighting with the intruder but police were unable to detect any signs
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of a struggle inside the home which was processed as a crime scene and they processed this crime scene for two days
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following the murder it's also not clear to us how long this struggle was it could have been grabbed the gun you know
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Push Pull shot shot the guy takes off running you know a struggle for 10 seconds 20 seconds
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and I do want to be clear Heidi's death certificate does read cause of death shotgun wound to the back manner of
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death homicide police collected DNA and fingerprint information from Nick to help them sort
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out any physical evidence collected at the scene this of course is standard procedure to help them isolate any
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stranger or Intruder DNA or Prince the police spokesman told the media that Nick was not considered a suspect a
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couple of days after Heidi died the Prescott win of some information that police said was unrelated to the case
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but those following the case found it very interesting they found it very relatable the fercas home was under
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foreclosure in fact the Sheriff's Office was scheduled to take possession of the
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house on the morning of Monday April 26th this would be the day after Heidi was killed
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the ferguses were being evicted it turned out that the house had been sold in June of 2009 in a foreclosure sale it
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appeared that Heidi and Nick were living there despite this sale and the eviction
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notices that they were receiving for months they were living there for months without paying anything
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the ferguses were going to be homeless now what does this have to do with the Intruder who broke in well it was noted
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by police that the house was not all packed up as one would expect right it looked totally normal there's Furniture
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there's personal possessions there's framed photos on display pictures on the walls dressers are full with clothes
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right because it also if everything was packed up and you go well there was a struggle but there's no sign of a
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struggle of course there's not you know or not obvious signs of a struggle like holes in a wall or anything because
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everything's packed up but that's not the case with their house it appears captain that there weren't even boxes or
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crates to be packed up and Heidi had not told anyone about an eviction or moving
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or anything some people procrastinate though well after Nick was released from the hospital this on the 26th he and his
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parents sat down with Heidi's parents and they told them about the eviction at that time
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Nick assured them that Heidi knew about this but John and Linda Erickson her parents
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they weren't buying it Heidi's parents told the media that their daughter had not known that she was about to be
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evicted right so this becomes a possible motive Linda says that Heidi talked about looking into a short sale of the
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home uh this would be apparently because she wanted to live in a different house
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have some kids raise the kids in a different home in other words they were considering selling the house even
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though they knew they would not make any money off of the sale they've not been in the house very long the thought here
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Linda Heidi's mom says was that they were going to downsize to an apartment this so they could save up money for a
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different house apparently Nick was present for that conversation and her parents would later say that
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Nick remained totally silent during that entire conversation on Tuesday April 27th the sheriff's
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department was on site as soon as the crime scene tape was down this to ensure the smooth takeover by the mortgage
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company [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you all right cheers mates cheers
00:26:45
Nick Fergus told police that he struggled with a man who broke into his home well eventually he managed to come
00:26:52
up with some details about this man in mid-may police released a sketch of a suspect based off of what Nick told them
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this was not your typical sketch compiled by a police sketch artist this was created by a private artist
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hired by Nick's attorney it is not known why Nick and his attorney chose to use a private artist
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rather than a trained police sketch artist to create the rendering and the sheriff's department said that
00:27:22
investigators preferred police prepared sketches now even more strange remember Nick could not provide police with a
00:27:31
detailed description of his attacker including the man's race but in this sketch that he paid for we
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see a drawing of a black man with very detailed facial features and with the sketch came a new detail
00:27:48
that the attacker was estimated to be between 40 and 60 years old it seems a month after the attack Nick
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now magically realizes I did get a good look at this cat in my memory of this event is better now than it was the
00:28:05
first 48 hours after my wife was shot in the back I do want to point out captain
00:28:10
that the police did receive a few calls after the release of the sketch now about a month after Heidi's death
00:28:19
reports came out that police executed a search warrant to collect the couple's Financial records
00:28:26
luckily for us the local papers published excerpts of this warrant and police found correspondence that
00:28:33
indicated that the couple was under water financially it in fact it read severe financial problems including
00:28:41
foreclosure unpaid bills large credit card balances and a lifestyle of wanton spending outside of their means the
00:28:50
media had a field day with the wanton spending terminology this was the phrase of several headlines the affidavit also
00:28:58
confirmed that Heidi furcus did not know about the couple's Financial plight or that they were being evicted from their
00:29:06
home apparently the two recently took a trip to Hawaii which Heidi told her mother Nick paid for with some bonuses
00:29:15
he received from work Captain you went to Hawaii a few years back tell us is that a cheap trip I'm sorry I'm the
00:29:24
worst person to ask it was actually not that expensive okay so not as expensive as I thought it
00:29:30
would be but it was it was still a few thousand dollars but I always heard when I was younger oh if you want to take a
00:29:37
trip to Hawaii you're going to spend 10 grand or so and that was not even close to that regardless a few thousand
00:29:43
dollars from people that are not paying their mortgage correct and the house was full of brand new
00:29:50
purchases recreational items that they obviously could not afford it appears that Nick handled the finances and they
00:29:58
chronically overspent well and we hear counseling from our family that there was kind of a neat naivete that she went
00:30:07
through life with Heidi and so maybe once they got married it was like oh well my husband takes care of the
00:30:13
finances and I trust him so we're fine per the affidavit it looks like Nick is trying to cover up the mounting debts
00:30:22
even from his wife and we have words like investigators interviewed several members of Heidi's
00:30:29
family and her Close Associates they found no evidence that Heidi was in any way aware of the dire Financial Straits
00:30:38
the couple was in they found no evidence that Heidi was in any way aware of the eviction or the
00:30:46
foreclosure on their home and why is this important because I think one side her family and friends are saying look
00:30:53
she had no clue about this and this is establishing a motive for Nick why would he want to kill his wife they didn't
00:31:01
seem to argue about anything well did he get his head so up underwater and that she was going to have to
00:31:08
uh deal with these consequences that might have led I've seen this happen with plenty of families family
00:31:16
businesses and things like that where they're going under and the other spouse has no clue of what's happening and once
00:31:25
this all comes out it's lies upon lies upon lies and it's almost very similar to when somebody is having a long time
00:31:33
affair with somebody it's the mountain of lies that this person told you that gives you reason to go I can't trust
00:31:41
this person anymore I I have to leave them yeah and this is what is very difficult for us on the outside looking
00:31:49
in because we don't know the the confidential if you will conversations that were had between
00:31:56
husband and wife I don't know that we will ever be able to say with 100 certainty that Heidi
00:32:03
didn't know any of this I think what we can base our thoughts and our speculation off of is what the
00:32:11
police and investigators are saying to the public what Heidi's family is saying to the public and the police are saying
00:32:18
look we couldn't find one shred of evidence that Heidi was aware that any of this
00:32:22
stuff was going on right what we also have here this is is a bit strange this is a little more evidence
00:32:29
that Nick was covering this mess around the time of the foreclosure the couple's insurance agent his name is
00:32:37
Kurt Brown received a notice that the couple's home insurance was canceled because of the
00:32:43
Foreclosure now brown was an old college friend of Heidi's parents Brown called Nick
00:32:51
and he says hey I got this notice about your home insurance being canceled Nick tells him quote a teller or somebody was
00:33:00
stealing his paychecks and he was working to resolve that issue with the bank and brown would later say this look he
00:33:10
believed the young man but he also said in all of his years of working in the business he had never had
00:33:17
anything like that ever happen well and also being somebody that worked at a bank if there was some suspicion that uh
00:33:26
teller was taking this money from this individual and they caught the teller the teller one would be fired
00:33:33
immediately and they would refund the money immediately until they could figure it out they don't just go well we
00:33:40
gotta hold this money back and and before we figure things out the bank will front the money to you and and make
00:33:48
sure that they do a proper investigation the day before she died Heidi and a friend went to the Mall of America and
00:33:55
did some shopping together the friend said later that that Heidi talked about wanting to have a burger for dinner and
00:34:02
getting a pedicure the next day her friend dropped her back off at her home around 6 PM this was on that Saturday
00:34:10
Okay so she is killed Heidi is killed 12 hours later if she was planning on spending time at
00:34:17
a nail salon on Sunday then it doesn't sound like she was planning on packing up and moving out remind you
00:34:24
they were scheduled to be evicted from that home on Monday she's killed in the early morning hours of Sunday and again
00:34:32
no boxes no crates to me it doesn't look like well I'll tell you what we know that the
00:34:39
couple made let me count them oh zero Arrangements who live elsewhere right they've made no arrangements with Mom or
00:34:48
Dad or in-laws or anyone to go anywhere after that Sunday I think the question for a lot of people is is this motive
00:34:57
enough is this motive for murder and I would argue yes because we've seen this in other cases before I I think you
00:35:07
could argue like the Christian Longo case with the guy getting his head so underwater that this becomes a rational
00:35:17
way out for this this person now I don't think there's a lot of evidence to show
00:35:23
that Nick received a bunch of money or that there was some insurance claim because I I just don't see that and and
00:35:31
after all these years nothing has come out stating well once she died he collected
00:35:39
half a million dollars or something right but I think it's motive enough that this person wanted to get out of
00:35:46
this situation and if this individual is lying to his wife we're talking about not one line not two lies not three lies
00:35:55
possibly thousands of lies to lead them up to this point what else is he lying about what other
00:36:04
secrets were in his life that he didn't want his wife to find out about this reminds me a lot of
00:36:12
the John list case where we have an individual who is living a lie and he's not just living
00:36:19
the life from society he's living that lie in front of his kids his wife and his mother yeah good point and what did
00:36:27
John list do he even pretended to go off to work every day to a job he no longer
00:36:31
had go sit on a damn park bench and read the newspaper because he had to pretend to
00:36:37
be gone for a certain amount of time each day so that his family continued to believe that he had a job that he was
00:36:43
paying for the house that they lived in that everything was fine that's what I do every week then you have to wonder
00:36:49
too like I mean this is psychologically this case is is Beyond bizarre because then you have to
00:36:58
wonder is there some kind of weird level where Heidi never ever knew that Nick was a
00:37:04
bad guy Heidi never ever knew in the course of their relationship in the entirety of her life that Nick wasn't
00:37:12
who he said he was to the point that he led her to believe that there was an intruder she shot in
00:37:20
the back she dies she may if she didn't know anything wrong was going on if she didn't know
00:37:27
that they were about to be evicted she never knew that and she never knew that it was Nick's fault and a really good
00:37:32
point that was brought up I was watching brain scratch one of our favorites uh our buddy John and he brought up the
00:37:41
point that it wouldn't be that hard if your wife is deep into sleep and we know this is let's say this is happening
00:37:51
closer to 6 00 A.M it wouldn't be that hard if you were let's say you were up all night or you
00:37:58
woke up early or whatever it was it wouldn't be that hard to shake her and immediately with no sounds with no
00:38:07
nothing you could convince somebody hey hey I heard some noises I think somebody's
00:38:12
breaking into her house and right away their brain would go into that mode okay what do we gotta do you know I mean so I
00:38:21
I don't think it would be that hard to convince somebody that something bad was happening even though there wasn't
00:38:29
possibly any evidence of that well and here there's the other problem we need some evidence of the Intruder right
00:38:36
because with the Intruder Theory investigation if the authorities are to believe that
00:38:43
Nick really did struggle up close and personal with the intruder you would think he would be able to
00:38:49
describe the man that he fought with or at least what the man was wearing and we
00:38:55
don't get any type of really good description until almost a month later right and here's a statement to the media that
00:39:03
says investigators have tried to locate Witnesses but have not interviewed anyone they canvas the area they didn't
00:39:10
interview anyone who said they saw an intruder go into the home or flee from the home and as you pointed out Captain
00:39:17
the neighborhood is densely populated and it was light at the time of the incident so police felt well yeah they
00:39:26
stated publicly we really believe somebody would have seen something well not just somebody would see something
00:39:32
but Nick would have seen something because it would have been lighter out you go look if you if your house if you
00:39:39
have all the lights off in your house and you go down at 3am and you run into an intruder you might not see anything
00:39:46
but you're talking six o'clock and everybody's telling you that it's pretty much daylight already out there you run
00:39:54
into this intruder you're going to know and you struggle with them you're going to know his race you're going to know
00:40:00
roughly the size roughly his weight what he was wearing I I just don't buy that once you're on
00:40:08
this 9-1-1 call it's I don't know it's almost like he planned this out so perfectly
00:40:15
but a couple things he just wasn't prepared for well what did the man look like I don't
00:40:24
know what was he wearing I don't know maybe a sweater it just seems like once he got to that
00:40:31
point of the story I mean what a great thing hey you go to the garage you call 9-1-1 once you realize
00:40:40
that she's on the phone boom that's when you shoot her because now we have audio
00:40:45
evidence that something happened and then now you got to shoot yourself and but then on on the 9-1-1 call
00:40:54
they he's saying somebody shot my wife somebody shot me you're the one that was holding the gun
00:41:01
you're the one that shot her you're the one that shot yourself even if you're in
00:41:06
a struggle with somebody don't you think that would have came up in the 911 conversation my wife shot who shot her I
00:41:14
was struggling with the Intruder and the gun went off that information is left out in the 9-1-1 call so it it seems to
00:41:23
me like he plans certain things out pretty well but other things he couldn't figure out and didn't even
00:41:29
wasn't even able to come up with a plan until a month later yeah so this affidavit did have some other
00:41:36
interesting information in it it states that Nick told police he was upstairs with his wife when they quote heard
00:41:44
noises downstairs and they thought someone was breaking into the residence he says he grabbed a shotgun and they
00:41:51
both walked down the stairs at this time she calls 9-1-1 when they were walking toward the back door to escape to the
00:42:00
backyard they encountered a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt Nicholas stated he struggled with the person in
00:42:07
the shotgun discharged striking his wife Nicholas stated he continued to struggle
00:42:13
over the shotgun and it discharged again striking him in the leg he said that the
00:42:19
person ran away he said he went to his wife and he used her phone to call 9-1-1 again
00:42:26
there was no explanation of how or why the first 9-1-1 call was made by Heidi and and why it was disconnected and I
00:42:36
think that's the key thing why was that first call disconnected and I also want to make sure that we
00:42:43
talk about some reasons why the Intruder Theory here does not track to me anyway
00:42:49
well again okay so let's just stay on that one point real quick it sounds or what the dispatchers have
00:42:57
stated what police have stated that there's this loud noise and a no by somebody a scream of no most people when
00:43:07
they hear this I guess claim that it makes the most sense that the gun went off in Nick's story
00:43:15
he doesn't reiterate that that all she's on the phone and that's when she was shot well the other thing
00:43:21
too if she's shot at a total surprise to her and she's the one on the call and Nick says I mean his words where he went
00:43:29
to his wife so I'm assuming they're at some distance you pointed out something good I'd love to know the uh if we could
00:43:36
piece together the trajectory of that shot right and piece that together because here's the problem we don't know
00:43:44
how the phone got disconnected again that's that appears to me to be an action that somebody had to make
00:43:51
she didn't just get shot in the back fall to the ground and then the phone hangs itself up right she hung up the
00:43:57
phone he hung up the phone the Intruder ran over and grabbed the phone and hung it said all right hold on let me get
00:44:02
this for you right hang up so here's some other things that don't add up to me Captain and and you chime in where
00:44:08
you when and where you want to but I have a I got a list for you okay so one no sign of forced entry police tried to
00:44:17
determine how the Intruder could have got into the home they couldn't find any evidence of how the Intruder made their
00:44:25
way into the home right let me let me uh chime in real quick no fingerprints of course the person
00:44:31
could have been wearing gloves they didn't find any they did some touch DNA uh forensics evidence nothing there's no
00:44:41
scratch marks there's no broken locks there's no broken glass right and the the other difficult thing for the
00:44:48
Intruder as well is the front entryway to the home where Nick said they heard the intruder
00:44:54
has a vestibule you know it's one of those there's a there's an outside door then a small entryway then there's a
00:45:00
second door into the home this means the Intruder would have had to get through two doors and yet left no Trace
00:45:09
the time of day this is confusing too why would the Intruder wait for it to be light out
00:45:15
before entering a home to Rob it's easier to see it's well this is a Sunday morning and you know some
00:45:24
people get up early they like to drink coffee maybe they're getting the paper off their front porch or their driveway
00:45:30
and nobody sees a man sprinting from the home after two shotgun blast then we have a pair we pair that with
00:45:39
the report from a neighbor about screeching car tires from the alley but this alley was behind the hole the
00:45:47
Intruder according to to Nick came through the front door not the back door closest to the alley he would have to
00:45:54
run around the house out the gate and then to his car the only reason why this somewhat makes sense to me is that he
00:46:01
could have entered from the front or possibly knew that these houses would be easier to enter to the front you could
00:46:08
go through the house grab a couple things run through the back and now you're at your uh Escape vehicle nothing
00:46:16
was stolen from the house we also have the police report stating no signs of a struggle now mind you they processed the
00:46:24
home for 48 hours so they spent a good deal of time looking at the crime scene the location of Heidi's body is
00:46:32
questionable too Heidi was found dead in the kitchen entryway this is not near the front door area where Nick alleged
00:46:39
the struggle went down to get to the kitchen from the foyer you would have to pass through other rooms now yes it is
00:46:46
possible that Heidi was shot in the foyer and then managed to run or crawl to the spot where she died trying to get
00:46:54
away from her shooter but on the 9-1-1 call she made she told the dispatcher quote someone is trying to break into my
00:47:02
house and quote not someone broke in and my husband is fighting with him in front
00:47:07
of me right then we have Heidi never told the dispatcher that she actually saw anyone or that anyone was actually
00:47:16
in the home which look that's that's the big red flag here you just said it she's
00:47:23
on the phone at the same time that her husband is claiming he is having altercation in with the intruder
00:47:32
and that is never stated by her it again somebody's trying to break into our home is way different than a guy's
00:47:42
in our home my my husband's struggling with this Intruder well and then you have the real scary possibility that if
00:47:49
this whole event was on purpose the Nick planned on killing Heidi in this scenario he woke his wife up and
00:48:01
convinced Heidi that someone really was breaking in resulting in her calling 9-1-1
00:48:09
which she evidently believed there was an intruder because she's the one that called 9-1-1 this is almost providing an
00:48:16
alibi in a way for him to verify his story because it's so smart to have her call 9-1-1 then to you
00:48:27
call just after the fact right because had he been the only one that called 9-1-1 and it was all after the fact
00:48:32
don't you think they'd be looking at this a whole different way and probably immediately from the get-go but again
00:48:40
here's an individual that is not good at planning and we know this because we have a he
00:48:47
has a history of this buys a house didn't plan on paying for the house you know well maybe he's running and
00:48:55
that was his plan all along possibly but but again well hold on just a second because the thing that we have here too
00:49:01
and this is very interesting in May of 2011 this is almost a year after this whole thing went down according to Saint
00:49:11
Paul police department senior Commander Bill Martinez who headed up the homicide
00:49:16
unit at that time he said quote Nick has not been eliminated as a possible suspect now we know that Nick lawyered
00:49:25
up pretty quickly per the Pioneer Press Twin Cities article that says Joe Friedberg fergus's attorney said police
00:49:34
have treated him as a suspect from day one and that that's why he got involved he says that I believe them to be wrong
00:49:42
and I believe from the beginning that Nick was a victim and not a perpetrator but Friedberg had an answer for
00:49:50
everything as for the dire financial situation the couple was facing and the impending eviction he commented the
00:49:59
police either negligently or intentionally misrepresented his financial condition
00:50:06
they said he was Far More in debt than he actually was he said my office we did our own
00:50:13
Financial investigation and we found no possibility for any Financial motive in this type of thing furthermore he said
00:50:21
it was totally false that Heidi did not know about the eviction saying we have documentary evidence of the fact that
00:50:31
she knew exactly what was going on in fact they were out together shortly before meaning the shooting looking for
00:50:40
a new residence yeah but they don't do they have but they weren't right yeah I want to see
00:50:47
the realtor that showed him around she was talking about eating a burger for dinner and having a pedicure the
00:50:54
next day I also think it's hilarious how how he says the situation wasn't as bad as the
00:51:02
police made it out to be still pretty bad but not as bad they were going to be kicked out of their home with no place
00:51:07
to go that's pretty bad and look both of their parents are are good people with homes of their own
00:51:15
if they needed if they needed somewhere to stay or possibly alone right just a bed to sleep in for a couple of months
00:51:26
Arrangements could have been made and they weren't and that to me when Mom and Dad don't know that you're
00:51:33
getting kicked out of your house and you've made no plan to have a place to stay
00:51:37
yeah I I just can't believe I can't believe that it's anything other than what it actually looks like well in
00:51:43
Nick's defense though because a lot of people say look Heidi was a really good person and so
00:51:50
she wouldn't have done this she wouldn't have just lived rent free she wouldn't have just spent money that she didn't
00:51:58
have there's a lot of very good people that don't pay their bills that don't pay
00:52:05
their bills there's a lot of good people that run in to um it reminds me I have to call the
00:52:12
electric company yes no but there's a lot of people that are just ignorant when it comes to finances
00:52:20
I I learned a lot about finances as being a teller I would see people that were really good about saving little
00:52:27
percentages back every month I also saw guys that made six figures easily live in the negative
00:52:35
yeah so I've seen people that make six figures and they can't get a car loan because
00:52:43
they have collections out on them for tiny little bills that they were just unaware of
00:52:51
they're either unaware of them or they slip through the cracks right and so the idea that they're like she's a really
00:52:57
good person that's evidence of her not knowing about their bad financial situation
00:53:03
I don't think that's evidence of that so in Nick's defense is it possible that she knew I don't think it's as easy as
00:53:10
black and white she either she either knew everything or she didn't know everything I think there's a gray area
00:53:16
right the and there's evidence of that because when she says look we don't have enough equity if we sold
00:53:24
our house we'd lose money we want to do a short sale that means that she was aware of some things
00:53:31
happening financially and so I think there was like I said this kind of gray area but I still think it's enough of a
00:53:39
motive because it's lie after lie after lie after lie I'm gonna use her words to
00:53:45
kind of confirm what I think was going on and her words too this is according to her mother and the mother says that
00:53:54
Nick was present for this conversation and remained quiet he didn't say anything during the course of this
00:54:01
conversation I'm talking about the conversation where Heidi and her mother discuss the couple
00:54:06
downsizing their life moving out of their house selling their house moving into an apartment so they can save up
00:54:13
for a home there's a few problems with that they don't just love giving out new home loans to people
00:54:20
that were evicted from their first home loan right and then second of all if you
00:54:26
are going to save up for a home and you again you have these nice parents with homes of Their Own
00:54:31
if you really know how broke you are you go and live with Mom and Dad or you go live somewhere where you can live as
00:54:39
cheap as possible to save up to try to right the ship no she's saying we're thinking about getting an apartment
00:54:46
that costs money too so even though this Friedberg has an answer for everything I
00:54:51
think look that sounds good way to spin it positive for your client there Mr free Burger but I'm going to call
00:54:57
[ __ ] as my man Pete Townsend would say it's an Eminence Front it's a put on detective Martinez said in May of 2011
00:55:05
quote we have a number of questions we would like to ask him meaning Nick he hasn't been interviewed for almost a
00:55:12
year since it happened he hasn't been fully Cooperative in some of our requests we have strict orders from his
00:55:19
attorney that he is not to talk to us and this is the problem I have because again it doesn't have to be one or the
00:55:27
other you can lawyer up and guess what if this happened and there's all these question marks and they and somebody
00:55:36
said well sir we think you you set this up and you killed your wife goddamn right I'm getting a lawyer
00:55:43
but if I actually care about figuring out who did this there you go then I'm going to say hey
00:55:50
we need to be open to answer all the questions and what his lawyer stated was well they just want to talk to him
00:55:58
and to try to find inconsistencies in this story to trip him up no [ __ ] Sherlock that's what they do
00:56:07
well hold on but you have the power to to go to the police if he give if he gave uh just the
00:56:17
smallest bits of shits about his wife he would then go to police and say any question that you have submit that to my
00:56:27
lawyer I'll answer it the best of my ability and that would give them time to know he
00:56:33
he doesn't remember this or he doesn't know this so he can't answer that but you would be assisting with the police
00:56:41
but that's not what you've done right you have moved on with your life you have married somebody else you started a
00:56:48
family you're probably lying to her every chance you can get and when your head sinks about underwater again
00:56:57
you're probably going to try to find a way out too well see I I have three really big questions in this case and
00:57:05
really I have one very simple answer that covers all three of these bases one why under the advice of counsel did
00:57:15
broke ass Nick refuse to talk to investigators after his initial interview why is Nick not out pounding
00:57:22
the pavement looking for the man responsible for his wife's death why is Nick not pounding on the table
00:57:28
demanding that police find the man responsible for the death of his wife that's because old nasty Nick knows
00:57:34
right where to find that man he sees him every day when he looks in the mirror Nick continues to this day
00:57:42
to refuse to respond to Media requests for interviews or comments Friedberg is no longer his attorney Nick because he
00:57:51
couldn't pay him right Nick got married again this was in August of 2012 but a web sleuther posted a link to court
00:57:59
filings in Minnesota that the new wife recently filed for divorce surprise surprise and and she
00:58:08
should go to police if if you married Nick Fergus right first of all sorry that became your last name
00:58:18
because I'd hate to meet somebody and be like oh they seem like a great person what's your last name Fergus oh I'm
00:58:23
going to change my name to that no way [ __ ] ass name change it but if he was lying to you about things
00:58:31
and lying to you about financial records or lying to you about anything you should go to police because that would
00:58:39
confirm their suspicions of his ability to lie and and she should do that well frankly I think it's shameful that
00:58:48
Nick Fergus is not in prison I believe there is ample evidence to obtain at least a manslaughter conviction here in
00:58:56
this case and police are asking anyone with information on this case to call them at
00:59:03
651-266-5650 [Music] [Applause] thank you foreign so much for joining us here in the
00:59:23
garage and if you'd like to help out the garage go to iTunes and leave us a five-star review leave us some Stars we
00:59:31
need Stars we need as many stars as possible any kind words that you can leave us for a nice review really does
00:59:40
help the show well what I prefer is when they leave five stars but then they say
00:59:45
like some shitty stuff something nasty to leave five stars and then be like but Nick kind of sucks he really sucks he
00:59:53
five star sucks he five stars sucks and the captain Oh I would give him negative
00:59:59
stars but but we're gonna give you five stars anyways all right until next time everybody out there be good be kind and
01:00:08
don't listen foreign [Music]