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tonight on deadline. I'll never forget that till the day I die.

This home asian, a Young woman shot, killed at me, an injured.

He was beyond tragic. Did you feel for him? yes. I.

what was nick .

telling you that they pushed and pulled back and. Forth straight down.

There's a lot of pain there. There was a lot of pressure .

on the police department because .

essentially .

hit a brick wall. Yeah, he was extremely frustrating trying to track down this and shooter and figure out who had .

done you're with a man whose wife has just been recently murdered. Red, you had a lot of questions.

Yeah, I think that anybody would. I started to do my own investigating. I feel like I don't know.

Future SHE made those recordings SHE risk a lad SHE wanted to know once and for all what happened .

to hide who killed highty secrets and life? An a minnesota mystery. I am lester hold and this is deadline.

My nbc news colleague blame Alexander joins us tonight with sixty five seconds.

Sunday morning in saint pol, minnesota is so often a picture of peace. But not that sunday morning, about twenty five, two thousand and ten. The call came in just after six thirty A M. A Young woman, cus, was on line.

Seconds later, there was a loud noise. The cold dropped, then hit his husband, nick called nine one one frantic.

What's your name? On the file with me, okay, you said your wife to shot off. Thanks to me, I got have coming. Seven minutes passed before officers went into the house with guns drawn, the intruder was nowhere to be seen.

I got the call sunday morning. My boss call me that there had been a home inviting shooting .

saint paul police sergeant jim gray race to the scene. How fresh was the scene at this point? The officers .

who've initially responded commented that they could smell the gunpowder in the air.

What do you remember when you first arrived here at this house?

Crime is seen. Tables, offers, a lot of offers. Come on and go on the same pole. Fie medicare ity transported nick to reach his hospital.

So by the time you ve got here.

nick wasn't even in the house anymore. No, he'd been shot. So he was in a lot of pain. He was quite historical.

Gray stepped inside the tidy entry way. Just a few feet .

away was the shocking that was used to shoot both highty and neck playing on the ground. And then if you look further into the house, you can see in towards a kitchen. And then that's where high I was lying there.

What did you think when you first saw hito lying there on the ground?

IT was beyond tragic. Obviously, that looked like they were sleeping, and they were walking up by this and shooter trying to gain entry .

into their house. Hidy, just twenty five years old, was dead. Her last words udeze in panic, someone here right in my hand.

SHE was obviously scared you could hear IT in her voice.

Anything about that got out to you.

That's her last moments on this earth. And we're trying to figure out who is responsible for that.

Gray figured and intruder might have seen the house as the perfect target. It's got the closed ports.

une IT, which makes that if somebody was trying to attempt and entering to the house that made a little more difficult to see, or here if you were walking by.

make IT a little easier for somebody to possibly break into this house. Yes, he took a closer look and noticed tool Marks on the door frame sorts of evidence. Where are you trying to lift .

from the house in that I should walk, print and trying to get DNA evidence from the door or the door lock itself, and then also get DNA evidence from that shot? Kn, to trying to locate .

this ensured when you did that, were able to lift fingerprints from the shotgun, from the lock, from the door. jam. I, the manhunt was on our .

main primary focuses, this is trying to find that individual and get him in the custody as quick.

What were officers doing in this guy?

Officers, along with the k. Eighteen, tried to track this and shooter and started knocking on the doors and the neighborhood. See if anybody had seen, or here, anybody running through the neighborhood.

But gray was already facing tough odds. While the house does sit on a main road, an ally way in the back was a perfect route for someone to escape home. Security cameras were not common then, and IT was early on a sunday.

A lot of people were either asleep or also just waking up. The neighbors in have A A lot of information for us.

Can't stuck.

Yes, stuck before we even got started.

Maybe nick could get the investigation unstuck. He was at the hospital alive, getting treatment for a horrific looking wood, telling investigators about his fight with the intruder.

The government went off again.

and that's when I get him.

At the hospital in saint home, minnesota, nick focus was getting urgent care for the shotgun blast that taught through his die. Even so, he fought through the pain to give investigators bits and pieces about the intruder. He said, broken to his home.

he was not Better than me.

When you guys can you describe when you arresting .

with a gun with, he was just, he just came in and I tried to push away. That's on the gun, one that's on high, you fell down IT.

Just five miles from the hospital height is dad was arriving at church. A grim faced pastor who had been called by police was waiting.

The pastor had pulled him micio to to let .

him know hide's dad called her brother pete and his wife me.

I can tell something was not good. He was really upset.

What did he tell you?

He told us that there had been A A home invasion at hide the next house, and that they are both them shot. And that hyde was was dead.

And he told you how he was gone. Yeah, did you even believe him in that moment? No hide's close for in Christ got a call from her dad too.

He had told me that something that happened at the house and that he didn't make IT. This is somebody that you've known since you're earliest memories. I was in shark and I dropped the phone.

I was devastated. IT didn't similar. Meanwhile, surgeon gray was busy rapping up his search for the killer and learning more about the Young couple. They were in love. They seem happy together.

Yes, very happy. everybody. We came in the contact, had nothing but good things to say about both.

Growing up in saint poll in the late one hundred and eighty, highty was the Youngest of three siblings and the only girl when people see hidy. What's the first thing they notice about her? I think her smile and .

SHE brought a lot of joy every everywhere he went.

He was always very caring, outgoing, pokey, spunky and with a maturity well beyond her ears, SHE always .

pushed us to think a little bit deeper. What does family mean to her? I would say hi to put family before anything.

Pete found that out after he moved away from minnesota. Hi, I wasn't happy.

And SHE let him know he wanted to have a little come .

to jesus .

talk about SHE thought .

you weren't spending in a time .

with the family. Yeah and got me off guard. Have my Younger sister canna .

call me out like he was getting you in line? Oh, another center piece of hide his life was her deep Christian faith, the faith that he had radiated to other people. Did you see that drive her in a lot of the things that he did, that faith I did SHE spent out of time in the youth group sunday school volunteering IT was while volunteering that hini met nick, the sign of a successful local business man with a whole improvement company.

His desire to uplift everyone around him was at the heart of .

who he is next long time friend present nick loves people .

um and he's very good with people what types .

of things that he like growing up the outdoors.

blue sky, nature.

an ideal companion on a fishing trip as era, also a nixed circle of close friends.

things I didn't want to deal, I didn't want to touch the Fisher. I was his job.

nick, and hide his relationship.

They were deeply in love. And from very early on, they were IT together in growing as a .

couple hidy mary ericson.

After hidy graduated from high school, SHE began studying at the university of north, western and same pole, taking courses in graphic design along with bible and theology. Crystal took classes there too. We are getting launched together.

And he had told me during lunch that he proposed yes. And he said, yes, yes. He was very excited. They had the nod. In two thousand five, nick was twenty two hide, just twenty.

SHE ended up working with her dad at a financial services firm while nick ran the carpet cleaning division of his dance company. Never too busy for others, says his friend Andrew. He was .

volunteering with human homeworks and he was on the board of a couple different nonprofits and top some classes in the evenings to people coming out of.

In two thousand, seven hand ni bought a home and an up and coming neighborhood of, say, pole. So he was excited to get started on that. I felt like a big first step in this new chapter. Yes, but honey was on edge about crime.

I think that was a concern of her in general. Know i'll have our own little personal fears.

hi. He told friends he wanted a new place somewhere he could feel safer. SHE was a planner and started looking at apartment here in mini aos, preparing for a new chapter.

They are looking to move so that they could start a family. A M. SHE did. But in April two thousand and ten, those plans were in pieces. And nick was in the hospital suffering from that gunshot wound. Despite of his trauma, he was about to sit down with sergeant gray determined to play his part in tracking down hye killer.

He's a victim and also a living witness to this incident. He's a key to this whole case.

Three hours after hyde's death, nick fergus had been treated for that close range shot gun blast, and even though he was hobbling on crushes, he went straight to the state paul police department to speak with investigator jim gray. Did you feel for him?

Yes, I did. Obviously, he has been through a traumatic incident with his wife being shot and then him being shot as well. I tried to put him in is.

Gray began by asking nick what he and hidy did the day before the shooting.

Wake up morning. He went with one of her, her coworkers, and then they went shopping at the hall of america.

Nick said. When hindy got home, they ordered burgers delivering, then watched the movie abbati and ended up going to sleep after midnight.

I need to shut the door.

add about six A M on sunday, nick said he woke up.

so I got up and with and guys a water from the bathroom, go back to sleep, but just kind of footfall ly sleep. And then I hear our, I heard the screen are open. Nick told me he heard somebody fiddling with the front door up, and then he then wake up party and told her that somebody was trying to break him into the house.

What happened after that?

Nick went and grabs his shotgun, and he was storing in the closet of their bedroom, loaded IT with two shells. And then he escorted hindy down the stairs. And she's trying to call nine one one on her cell phone. So hindy was going first down the stairs, and then he was following behind her.

Nick said they were passing through the entry way, heading to the back door to escape when the intruder pushed up in the front door.

So I try to shut the door shut. But this is for something what this kind looking. He was, a black guy with a dark put switch that was drawn out pretty tight. So how you did? You was two, two, fifteen to twenty.

and more than six feet tall. Nick said. The intruder, who was wearing loves, grabbed the shotgun. At one point, you pick up one of his crushes.

I want, have a Better idea how a nick and this intruder struggled .

over the .

shocked ling you that they pushed and pull back and forth with each other and the gun went off. I know I IT hidy. I don't know hider, but I know I SHE was runaway IT and he is 因为 straight down and that's what one of the second time he be in the way。

After is shot, what happens next is guy, he takes off, I fall down, is going. Nobody deserves anything that all like this. And to be violated in your home like this is just absolutely horrible.

As the nearly three hour interview progressed, sergeant gray switched gears and ethnics about his marriage.

Relationship of by chance other women absolutely concerns SHE was not absolutely not. policies. And each other stuff like stresses about .

finances, nick told the investigator he, and hide, like so many who had been beaten down by the two thousand eight recession, had gotten deep into debt, that their home had been for closed on and they'd been preparing to move out.

And with the shape, the whole thing, because embarrass .

so embarrassed, he said that he and hidy hadn't told anyone.

our parents or no of our friends, no one knows about to accept you. That's right.

Still, despite all of the stress, he told grey, he and his wife were rock salad.

are still best friends, great saturday night .

during his interview, nick seemed to be in denial. He spoke about hide in the present tense and seemed to avoid asking about her condition until the interview was winding down. I think there was a chance that his wife was still alive.

I think he was hoping the final, hey, well, this part of my job, that really, this is of them SHE didn't .

make IT.

I figured that he started crying a little bit. And I was at that time that I decided to take a little break, let a obviously process that information .

police often look at the husband first. And even though nick had no criminal record and had been shot himself, gray felt he had to ask the tough question. If I don't .

ask that question, I might not get another chance to ask.

IT you decided to ask you?

Yes, I did. No, absolutely that. Okay, absolutely that. As the .

interview wrapped up, nick family was allowed into the room.

Hugged his mother, started crying in her arms for several minutes.

Lots of tears.

yes, a lot of tears.

As emotional as he was after nick left the police station, he decided to do something extraordinary, something that would change the trajectory of the entire investigation. This is kind of your first big lead at this point. Yes, you now have somebody to look for.

yes.

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Just outside same, paul is calvary church is large, able to see about six hundred people. But five days after highest murder, the church was overflowing. That's how many people came to say goodbye.

I don't even realize IT til l we walked out. Hyde's friend Crystal, the whole sanction was full, and la was fall and down hallways were fall, and IT was all the people that he had impacted. Was that amazing to you to see how many people your friend had touched that was part of hy SHE was the best friend to a lot of people. A church that for years had given so much comfort and joy to hide. His family was now holding so much of their pain.

I remember huggs from friends and family when we got married there, and know when I can hardly got married there. And on that day, like he was, a lot of the same people were giving us, you know, were giving us huggs .

for yeah.

yeah. For the worst scenario.

Next friend, president recalls watching nick put on a brave face to put others at ease. How was that day? I know he spoke.

he was very differ for him. And what he wanted to do was just tell the story of hiti, and I think did that quite well under the circumstances. He does have a tremendous ability to say, okay, this is what I need to do for the next hour, and for the next hour i'm going to be what I need to be here and alone in private. When he gets home, something else.

he may break down. Yes, IT was that emotional. C saw that worried next family.

They thought, at the very least, he should have legal council. They hire attorney. Joe freeburg, take me back. If you would do remember your first conversation.

Nick and IT was an equipped denial of being involved in his wife's death, other than as a good victim, men and witness.

Do you remember his demeter in those early days? How did he appear to .

you appropriate with being a victim? I think he was in shock. His effect was flat at sometimes and other times. He was very morning ful about the death of his wife, who is apparently dearly .

loved to feedback. IT was obvious. Nick was in no state to talk with sergeant gray.

If you remember that he was shot. Violence and trauma screws up people's memory and their perceptions. I told him that he be crazy if he talked home again. He wanted to continue CoOperating with the police.

He wanted to keep talking.

Sure he did, and he wasn't easy to convince him not to continue with the police.

freeburg says. Nick grudging took his advice, but insisted on helping in other ways. When police asked for fingerprints and DNA, nick gave them when they wanted him to sit down with a sketched artist, he agreed to that too. But freeze berg, handsome conditions, I thought .

that was a good idea, as long as IT wasn't the police sketch artist, because the cops would be there, and they would use that as another opportunity to get into details and contradiction.

use that to question .

they use that to a man that's a job.

Instead, freeburg, in his team, reached out to Nancy mona, a veteran courtroom sketched artist. He said, well, nick, as a client of hours, and we'd like to have a sketched, drawn of the suspect. Nancy says he agreed to take the job, in part because he felt bad for nick.

To me, he was a man who had just lost his wife and was trying to help the police to get this, this suspect, this intruder, to get him captured. You were thinking that you were helping them solve this crime, possibly. Yes, I was thinking that I was ping justice.

The session took place at nance's house. As he worked at her easel, nick stood over her shoulder again. He described the intruder as black, around six feet tall, over two hundred pounds and wearing a hoody.

Next told me that the eyes needed to be a certain way and that I didn't have them there yet. Next said they needed to be more wide open than I had them. He also wanted her to break a few key features, like the man's nose and skin. He asked for more age and that the skin was not smooth. IT was pok mark and kind of rocket, very distinctive features.

Yes, do you think that that helped make this portrait, make this sketch more recognizable? That was the goal that this could be used to find a murderer, right? The description he gave me with result in a sketches that the police department could use to find this person who did this terrible thing about two weeks after his wife's murder. Nick, still on crushes from his gunshot wound, came back to the police station and gave the sketch to sergeant gray. How significant was that sketch in your investigation?

IT was pretty imperative, the individual that we were looking for who was allegedly responsible for this crime.

And with that, nx lawyer said, that's IT. That's all nick could offer to the investigation.

I almost had twist disarmed to stop him from CoOperating with the police.

He wanted to help.

Yes, I told the police on making these decisions. He's talked to three times already. That's enough.

He says his client needed to be left alone to heal, needed to surround himself with family and friends, old and new, including a woman who surprised just about everyone.

One of their best friends just died. And here I come. I know enough to know that that was probably super hurtful and hard for them to watch.

Nick focus had just handed police a detailed sketch of the man he said attacked him and killed his wife hide roughly two weeks earlier. Surgeon jm gray hoped that would lead to a break in the case.

IT was released both in the print for the newspaper and then also released through the local new stations here in sample.

nick gave police this detailed sketch of a black man in a hoody. Did that give them a sense of hope? Her parents.

yes. They were looking at the sketched thinking, okay, this is a person who might have killed their daughter.

Now, gray just had to wait for to generate leads. Meanwhile, nick tried to put the whole investigation on the back burner and focus on rebuilding his life. How did he seem to be processing everything quietly? After Heidi's murder, nick closest friends say the way he handled the tragedy was classic nick in a crisis. He put his head down and powered through.

He was grieving and he was gripping inside.

Is that characteristic of your friend? That is, another of nick in Heidi's friends came up with a plan to help .

him SHE knew that her best friend's husband was morning, his wife hy and Rachel her Younger sister was um in the process of divorce and separation and just her own personal life.

Rachel sanchez eric says they encouraged c to spend time with Rachel. He was also newley single and struggling. After leaving the difficult marriage.

he needed to find her voice. And in her, finding her voice was through this relationship, through this friendship.

What did Rachel represent for nick? What did Rachel .

bring to nick?

I mean.

new life. IT made all of the feelings that him losing his wife, losing highty. IT gave him validity of I still am a human being.

you connected with neck less than three months after his wife was killed. This is Rachel. Did he seem like somebody who was still very much in morning?

He didn't talk about IT much. He was told that he was allowed to talk about what happened. So there wasn't really like question and answer ever.

Did you ever get this sense that maybe that was his trauma response or how he was dealing with this loss?

So for sure, I think that I I didn't see anything of IT. So my perspective was all these people are really with this death. And you know, some people deal with that differently than others.

As weeks past, Rachel found herself quite falling in love. Was there there ever a voice or a thought in the back of your head that said, maybe it's too soon for him to be getting involved with somebody after his wife step?

I think that more than anything with other people saying that to me, I was just like, I don't understand why you're not happy that he's happy.

You are kind of defensive of what you guys had found with each other. And yet he says he couldn't help but feel a twins of guilt when he thought about hide his friends and family.

They were so grieving that, and here I come and I know enough to know that that was probably super hurtful and hard for them to watch.

I didn't know what to make of IT. I probably just wasn't ready to go there. You know.

for you guys, was IT painful to see nick seemingly moving on with his life so soon after hide his death.

IT didn't feel fair, you know.

down at the police station. Next new relationship certainly raised some eyebrows.

IT was quite surprised for us. I figured, well, he was a person who just lost his wife at an off. He's trying to find a replacement. Or if this is a rebound, what that kind of thing.

But Grace says IT really didn't have any bearing on the investigation, which by that point was stagnating. There were no fingerprints or DNA recovered from the crime scene other than those belonging to nick and hide. And next sketch detail doesn't was did not generate a single useful lead.

I spent the next from the day of the murder until I left homicide, probably three months, looking for that person.

all based on that sketch.

correct? We receive a few tips, but nothing, nothing panned out. Unfortunately.

three months into the investigation, gray moved to another division and handed over height case. By two thousand and twelve, two years had passed without an arrest. Really no developments at all. Nick E N, Rachel relationship had developed. They are quietly got married.

IT was in his parents backyard. Some family, some friends. IT felt like beauty from ashes.

like a phoenix rising.

Yeah, just like two horrible stories that now can have hope.

Rachel says SHE annick found their own version of domestic bliss.

We found a church that we loved, and we would go sundays. And we had friends, we had community within that church.

Did you feel like that kind of gave you guys a grounding just to a group around you?

Yeah, I mean, the people at my church were were the ones that i've always grounded me and stuck by. And all of that a year .

after their wedding, the couple welcomed the first of their three children. Nix friends brian and da make a good father.

Yes, so good. He looks .

them in the eye, spends time with them. He loves to fish. And so he told his kids to fish.

And he found so much delay and watching them catch a fish. But those closest to nick were concerned for him, especially as more time passed without an arrest in height. This case, his friend eric says local media coverage often cast doubt on next account of the murder ago.

Would specifically us and other friends like, hey, their stories coming out just so you know. And also he would say, don't click the story on the internet, because the more clicks that come up, the higher the story goes on. What is the I SHE defending him.

trying to shield him from accusations? Yeah.

because, yeah, because the because the stories would put, you know, nick in a bad light and SHE whole hardest believe that, no, he was incapable of doing this and didn't want that for nick and for her and her family hi.

His family, on the other hand, didn't need sporadic news stories for painful reminders for them. The past was always present.

They were grieving a great deal, and there was a lot of pressure on the police department to try to figure out who did this.

In two thousand twelve, two years after hydes murder, sergeant jay Peterson became the third police officer to lead the investigation. Even though that sketch hadn't yield in any result, he thought I was still the best way to keep high his case alive.

I wanted to continue running with that. And that's one of the things that I did over the course of the next couple years was get that sketch out into the public. And is this a person in our community that we could be looking for?

Do I really put a lot of effort in trying to get that sketch in front of as many eyes as you could at this point?

We did. We we met with the news media regularly, and we did frequent new's releases with our our local newspaper.

He says every year, a few tips would riggle in, none pound out. In two thousand fifteen, on the fifth anniversary of hit his death, Peterson, his expectations law, once again released the sketch to the media, and once again, his phone ring.

I remember IT pretty .

clearly this time. The collar told Peterson SHE knew the man in the sketch. IT appeared next, detailed description of hye killer was about to pay off.

IT was fantastic. We thought maybe this was IT, maybe this was kind of that one puzzle piece that we were missing.

IT was two thousand fifteen, five years after hydes murder, and for her family, five years of a torture existence. Nobody has been arrested. Nobody he's been charged.

Nobody he's been found. Volt, for for killing your sister. What are these days like for you? The not knowing .

yeah IT felt help less and frustrating kind .

all together think there was just a low grain anxiety about IT to just the unfinished of IT. But I also feel like, you know, our faith really helped us along.

So ent j. Peterson and his team, we're still working the case. All they had was that intruder sketch, the one based on next description. One day, Peterson got a phone call from a woman and .

SHE had said, are you the detective that's working on this case? Said, yes. He says, what? I know who is in that sketch. I know who that is.

What did you say when you heard that?

I was a little bit shocked at the time, but of course, I grab my no pad and said, well, who are you?

You madly scribing. absolutely. This is the first time in five years that you've gotten any sort of tip. This is really the biggest tip you've .

gotta at this point.

Yes, I was.

And what did you tell you? I met with her and he said, I know who's in the sketch. His name is Michael pie. I know him from the downtown, say, paul area. SHE had very great detailed information, and he was very certain of IT.

How ground breaking was this for you and for this investigation?

IT was fantastic. We thought maybe this was IT. Maybe this was kind of that one puzzle piece that we were missing.

Finally, some good news for hide his family.

And I remember calling the say, hey, we got a good tip, like I couldn't wait to share with them that the newspaper article had worked.

and maybe we had something. Now, Peterson had a new mission to find Michael pie. Did you go after this with everything that you had?

We started to immediately figure out who is Michael pie and where is he, and where can I find him, and where can I talk to him?

What do you learn about him?

We have a database that shows us where people are at, what kind of crimes they've been convicted of, what they look like. And IT was perfect. He looked identical to the sketch, and he'd been convicted of violent burglary crimes.

He had a pretty long rap sheet.

He did. And we went to talk to him so that we could find out all about him and what he was doing on the morning that hindy was killed.

Where did you find?

We found them in the department of corrections. He was locked up in jail, and I went to interview as soon as I could.

Pie was serving time for three counts of burglary and one count of kidnapping when the officers came to visit. And how did that play out?

I think he was shocked to have a visitor. We came unannounced and i'm sure that he had no idea why we were there and here were wearing suits, and we identify ourselves as homicide investigators from state, paul. So I think he he was reeling from the get go of wire, these people here talking to me, he had absolutely so he was a little bit taken a back, I think, by IT. And and we introduced to our cells and told him that we were investigating a case that happened in two thousand and ten and started to learn a little bit about him.

Peterson has pii, gave him a run down of his criminal history, his burglaries and how he did them in .

two thousand and nine, two thousand and ten around that time period, he was breaking into homes when the people were there, and he would pound on the doors and he would charge him and attack him. And he was early, similar, almost dentical to what had happened .

to almost identical, except no one was killed in those robberies. Even so, the more Peterson talk to pie, the more he believed he had found his man. So he decided to try a little test.

During the interview, I pulled out the sketch. I had brought A A copy with me, a full size copy with me, and and I showed up to him.

What did he say when he looked at that picture?

He said, that's me.

Did that stop you in your tracks?

IT was fantastic. IT was just a lift of hope that you're on the right track here. And this is what you live for. As a homicide detective. You look for these moments and these clues and these opportunities that now you can charge forward.

So you're sitting in the cell with this guy who is a dead ringer for the sketch. Are you thinking we did IT.

We ve got him.

Did they have him? You broken in homes. You committed crimes. We ever killed anybody.

When surge, petr and first met Michael pie, he thought he had finally found the man who killed highty focus. We went to meet him as .

born rays in each choice.

Pi told us he grew up in a big family there with a fairly happy childhood, but his life of crime, he says, started early from age eleven. He was in and out of juvenile detention. By the time you were seventeen, eighteen years old. What did crimes look like for you?

Yeah, IT was on the robbery. Yeah, I only snatched support one time a snack person get caught.

Pie serves time for that robbery and others, he says. When he gone out of prison and moved to saint paul, he stayed on the right side of the law for about fifteen years. But by two thousand and nine he was in his early fifties. Times were rough.

I love my apartment. I lost my car, and I was in a time on the street. And I just going back to what I knew. How do you know there was some in race so described to .

me what that look like?

I would go out to the door, and if we had a screen door, I will cut the screen and unlike the last, and close the screening door back and then ran the door bell. So they will open up the front door, thinking that screen door as lot. And I was just right in there and time up. And rob.

would you ever bring guns in when you do this?

No, never.

Pii was in the middle of serving a ten and a half year prison sentence when the officers came to visit. No, this is familiar to you.

Yeah.

that's me. Is that you when you saw that sketch back in twenty fifteen, and police laid that down in front of you, what did .

you think when I put in on the table to do the cases?

But there is no deny that that was your face.

No double. No, no, no, no, no. And that's crazy.

And your nose is spot on.

Yeah, yeah.

Did you think that they were talking about another home invasion or something that you had done in the past?

I don't know, but I know what some that I had did because they said, they said that was a murder involve. And I said, wow, I kill nobody.

That's exactly what he said. He said, that's me. But I didn't kill anybody. I never killed anybody.

But Peterson wasn't convinced he couldn't ignore the sketch or pies. Criminal history.

we started to dig more into Michael and find out more about him. And and we discovered a major problem. He was locked up in jail the day that hitty was killed.

He couldn't have done. He couldn't done IT. And I I remember we actually wanted to double check with the jail records because I just couldn't believe that he was really locked up at that time.

He really had the perfect a alibi.

There was nothing we can do about IT. He, he could not have done this.

So in an ironic way, the fact that he was in prison in the April of twenty ten possibly saved his life.

Absolutely, absolutely. I did, and kept him from being blamed or or wrongly accused or wrongly charged for this crime.

Do you think about what would have happened if you were not in prison? When that happened.

i'd have been locked up and body be, you know, I did that. So you .

think it's been prisons?

Yeah, won't get out. I probably be an arrest of my life.

Instead, when Michael pie walked out of prison in two thousand and seventeen, he never looked back. He says he looked to god, joining a Christian ministry in saint paul and turning his life around. Do you feel like a whole new person?

Oh, I am a new person.

Peterson felt terrible that the wrong guy almost took the fall, and the whole Michael pie episode was a tough setback for his investigation.

IT was really disappointing. IT was really sad.

But IT did lead to a sort of break through as he started wondering more and more about the person who LED them to Michael pie in the first place.

Why does somebody release a sketch that looks identical to somebody committing crimes in the community? Why would you do that? Or where would you get that sketch from? So that kind of open up new door.

your mind shifted to ic, correct?

Sergeant jack Peterson was at his witz end. He had just seen his best lead in height. His murder case fall apart.

I know that the guy in the sketch was locked up at the time of this. He wasn't involved in this crime in anyway.

and thoughts n.

you released the sketch of a innocent black man who was locked up at the time of this killing.

Nick still wasn't talking, but Peterson learned something interesting. IT turned out in the months before height, his death pi crimes had been in the news. The investigator suspected that nick saw those stories, pie mug shots and hatch a plan to frame pie. Did you feel that nick had let you down this five year path to nowhere?

I think that's what we all thought is we were chasing a ghost that didn't exist. And so now our efforts need to change and and go a different direction.

But as Peterson shifted his focus to nick, he found himself hitting the same road blocks.

We had all the physical evidence that we were always going to have. We had no contact with nick. We had no contact with his family, and we were still left holding nothing.

Peterson worked on the case for four more years until he was promoted out of the homicide unit to commander. A new lead investigator was brought in.

What I hoped to do was bringing to a conclusion .

that was sergeant nicky cyp, you are the fourth detective to take this case, react. Three others have been working this for almost a decade. Did you think that you could solve this case?

To be honest, I always thought the case was solved.

So you thought you already knew who did IT?

I believe I did. Who I believe that focus killed his wife.

SHE wasn't alone. Both gray and Peterson thought the same thing. They just hadn't been able to prove IT. You really felt a personal connection to this case.

I did. I really had a problem with the idea that there was no justice in this case, and that someone could do this and just be walking around in living their life. IT became very important just for the sake of giving a family a sense of closure.

When sergeant sipes went to speak with hind, his family theyd told her they'd had questions about nick from the beginning.

I think what we've been tough, our hot lives of thinking the best of people. We didn't want you to be nick.

but you already had your suspicions, had our suspicions and hide. His family had some advice for the investigator, follow the money or the lack of IT. Remember when I spoke to police, he told them about the financial problems he and .

hiti were having us before goes house.

Not only that, they were due to be evicted at twelve noon the day after heighty murder. Nick told police he and hide were embarrassed and kept the news from their loved ones.

Our friends no one knows about to that.

Right family told you that when they learned about the four closure after hitty's death, IT was a huge red flag. Super shock when you heard that. Did that change your thoughts of nick? Yes, that wouldn't .

be something that he would be able to keep to herself.

SHE would have told you, her parents, yes. family? Yeah.

somebody correct. I was a line in the sand moment, for sure.

a line in the sand. What's more, they say, if he knew about the eviction coming the next day hiding, the planner would have packed everything up to move out. But nothing was packed. All their clothes were still in the closet. Cypher says he went through highest text and emails to nick in the days before the murder.

When you examine that and you see that between a husband and a wife were losing their home, that there is no communication about moving, moving is not something you do on to win, right? right? So we were looking for even these tiny st little of clues to say, wow, did he knows something was up and we just couldn't find out.

What we could see is that SHE had knowledge there was something wrong financially with their bank accounts. We could see that, but we could also see her asking him to take care of IT over and over. And what did that .

tell you about their relationship, about the way that they interacted?

IT told me everything I needed to know in the fact that in the, he was telling hidy what he wanted her to know, and he believed him. He was her husband. They were Young.

they in love. Again, reason to out him. No reason that out. And once, if you got all of that information, what did that tell you? How did that impact .

your investigation? IT confirmed to me that I did did not know about the mortgage .

in the first victim. This just pokes holes in nc story, correct? Hypes was just getting started.

And then in twenty, twenty, barely a year after he took on the case, the investigator heard some big news. Nick and his second wife, actually l, had recently divorced. What do you decide to do?

Oh, I want tech rattle immediately. I wanted to that more than breathe.

Yes, doctor, here, what I had to say, well.

now that I know that they're divorce, you know, she's going to be my best, my best person to get some inside internet and who he has been for the last ten years.

Still hypes didn't know if Rachel would even give her the time of day but the investigator went by her home, left a business card and to hype the surprise Rachel cold and agree to a meeting so he came .

in in the evening um and with a couple was talking sounded like .

he had a story to tell .

yeah right and he tells me the story, you know I blown away now.

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Sergeant nicky sides had finally scored a key interview that could possibly jump start her investigation into height murder. Nick focus x wife Rachel was talking, rh l is a she's .

a trip taller. I mean, he will tell you that herself SHE is a truth dollar.

I was pretty straightforward about saying, listen, i'm not a bitter x wife to sit here and tell you how I feel about IT. I have a lot of feelings about that. I have my own experiences.

Rachel told the investigator about falling in love with nick, marrying him and raising three kids all in the aftermath of height is murder. For years, Rachel had been nixed, biggest defender, as the cloud of suspicion linger over him. But as time went on, Rachel says he started to notice something about nick.

I started to see lying consistently happen.

he says at first they were small alizad like when nick would say he ate dinner at home, but he found fast food containers in his car .

IT just seemed so bizarre to me. The times I can front him more, probably around fifteen to twenty times of those of small, the small things. And there are times where I knew he was lying and I was just like that. I can prove that there's something I can do.

How did that make you .

feel insecure? You know like questioning who you're married to and that sounds dramatic. But to me I think being trustworthy is a huge piece in any marriage that's the father with kids that you know that you've trusted with your stuff, you wanna be able to trust that person. And I was beginning to question that .

that trust for nick was faltering. Rachel says many of next little lies had to do with money. When they first got married, nick told her he'd had financial problems in the past, but assured her he'd gotten out of debt. You thought, hey, he's come through and he's kind of beat that part of his of his past .

Better now yeah, I, I, I thought that.

but now he was starting to wonder.

And so I started to do my own investigating. Like what else could there be if there are so many of these lies, what else could there be? And I would get collection calls and I would confront him about those. And he would like financial collection um that we were in collections and he I remember hearing one of his excuses and IT was somebody else's fault. IT was always somebody else's fault. So IT was, you know I tried to call them but they but they went call back and if anybody he's spent in collections, you know that you don't have a hard time getting a hold of them because they will get a hold of you every single day until you pay because that tower works. And so that seemed off to me.

Rachel says he kept investigating, trying to find out what else nick might have been hiding, and found a series of unpaid bills that nick had talked away. Then came the big discovery.

I found a letter in his top chair that said um that we didn't pay our property taxes and that our house was gonna for closed on in twenty twenty if we didn't pay them.

What did you think when you saw that that your house was facing for closure?

I was terrified because I honestly, I I naive how any of that works because i've I literally had never had a credit card in my life. I only use the money i've, I that i've earned and I didn't do the house process. I don't know a lot of that stuff, but I knew for closures and good, and I knew that .

not paying your bills isn't good. As sergeant sites listen to Rachel SHE began piece IT all together. When you look at this pattern of, you know, financial issues, lies. Does this shed new light on your investigation and to hide his debt?

Well, absolutely. IT was just such a road map to us that we were on the right track, right? Like he's done.

I mean, to me, I probably had almost as big of an epiphany I SHE did right when he finds them like, oh my gosh, he did this a second time. Like, now we have a pattern. This wasn't just something happened. Hi, I just reforms everything to me that I believe to be cheer up to up until that that that he did this on his own tidy that he didn't know because now he's started on his own to Rachel and Rachel didn't know.

Rachel told the investigator SHE could see the similarities too. Knowing what had happened to highty, Rachel was in a panic.

I was stressed. I couldn't believe that was IT came to because I knew about you know, his finances were highly and I I don't believe he knew. And to me, this just showed all of that.

She's not here anymore and i'm sitting here dealing with the same things or similar things that he did. And now what i've got three kids. I mean, IT was trustful IT was not a fun discovery.

Did you start to feel scared for your safety?

Um I did. There are so many thoughts in my head, the things that that real in your mind when you discover something like that. IT was a world wind.

a world wind, SHE says, that took her to a dark place.

I'm questioning whether he killed somebody or not, and I personally can't live knowing that. I'm questioning that.

Rachel told sipes that after he found those documents, SHE took the kids and left their home to stay with her sister. But there was something Rachel had not told sides. SHE had documented next lies, so friends and family would believe her.

I didn't want to be the victim of something anymore.

Rachel had confronted nick and secretly recorded him.

Why don't you tell me that? I ve never heard that .

one once in my life. And for the investigators, those recordings would be a gold mine.

Rachel focus story and its similarity to hides was riveting to sergeant sipes, but the investigator needed more to arrest nick, so types turned to the FBI to help figure out exactly what happened inside the house that sunday morning. If I was .

beyond helpful with the resources that we would have not add access to otherwise.

First, F, B, I agents focused on high ties. Nine, one, one call, enhance the audio. And the new audio told a different story. There is high, this panic voice, then the sound of a gunshot at the screen, but in the background, nothing cyp says that told her everything.

Where's the struggle between him and this intrude? Der, there's no highty run. There's no, no get out of my house. There's nothing to precipice that shot, gun blast. And that, to me, is more decade of nick focus, stepping out, bind his wife, raising the shocker and shooting her.

The investigator suspicion grew when he uses a scale model created by the FBI to take a closer look at the story. Neck told police.

So this figure represents highty, the light blue, the dark blue represents snack, and then the grey represents the alleged intruder. And then this is approximately where .

he in the intruder struggled right in from the table.

Crut in the photos. Be able to see that there were a lot of items on this table to include a set of candlesticks, a steam with a water bottle, even a receipt. And not of that was disturbed.

I actually was brought to the home just to see at myself. Ramsey county prosecutor Elizabeth mon. And when you step in, you do not appreciate how tiny that spaces and how would have been impossible to have a life and death struggle with a shock on in that table, that in that entry way not be knocked over.

For investigators, the fbs analysis of the crime was the missing piece in a decade long puzzle. IT proved to them once in a, there was no intruder. Finally, the prosecutor was ready to charge nick with intentionally killing heighty.

I said, we cannot wait any longer. We ve got to get IT together. We have to charge immediately. This man cannot be on the street anymore.

On main nine teeth, twenty twenty one, just before done, a swatty moved in and arrested nick focus for murder. But so many years after hini was killed, the case wasn't a slam dunk. What were some of the weaknesses? One is the question everyone asks.

right? What took so long? right? So just the sheer passage of time was an obstacle. exactly. People who are just moved on weren't available to come testify for a variety of reasons. yes.

Then six months later, the case got a massive boost when Rachel focus called surgeon sides to tell her something SHE hadn't told her before. When he called you that day, what did he tell you? He said.

I have these recordings that I think you should hear like oko quickly. Can you get them to me?

I want to believe you. I really do. IT turned .

out in two thousand and eighteen, after a Rachel left nick, i'd decided to confront him about their finances, next lies and highest murder .

and record at all.

Why was IT so important for you to have recordings of these conversations?

I didn't know how he would respond. And if there was gonna be a confession.

then I would have IT. Did you feel that you could be putting yourself at risk by confronting him?

I think before the conversations I did, but going into them, there was something in me that was so determined to be strong for myself for once that I wasn't scared in the moment.

Did you go with whether or not to turn over those recordings?

The recordings were just pieces of my story that I was handing over. And IT wasn't highly story. I was my story.

And IT looks similar. You made choices to lead me to this. Like to make me question. I feel like you had to have known that the choices you are making about with your money would have caught up with you.

Okay, keep going. SHE started with the unpaid bills at home. Nick fest up. He deceived her.

I never paid her at two thousand sixty property because we were in that weak country really hurt. And I didn't have the guts to talk to anybody about IT and I ignore IT IT.

So Rachel wondered, had nick also lied back in two thousand and ten about his and finances and losing their home?

I feel like you haven't given me the details that are like important.

That's such a buzz buzz zy buzz time today. I don't have vivid memories from that.

that I see that what doesn't make sense because you did that when you talk about IT IT was like like detail of what happened and so that you keep saying that but doesn't true. Her parents didn't know and her friends that like nobody knew that just so desire to me.

I decided together that figure itself together because for two reasons why we we thought we could and the other reasons because we were. That's when .

Rachel got to the heart of IT.

I do not want to think these things I don't, but that your actions have caused me to just distrust .

you completely .

makes me think .

that you could lie about something 不。

There was a lot of silence because what I wanted was okay. If i'm going to see this to you, try and prove me wrong. Even if you have, you know, bitterness or resentment with somebody, you don't want to believe that kills somebody. So I wanted him to convince me otherwise, but I just wasn't happening. I feel like you're so shocked for me thinking this, but yet you made choices to lead me .

to this intel. Actually, I understand what you are. Same, I don't, I don't know. There are a hundred things gone through my mind right now.

You want to say more.

When you listen to the totality of those recordings, what is that? That really kind of was pivotal in this.

IT was next failure to deny killing. He is invasive. What he does, you know, i'm not sure about hini you think I killed her? He doesn't say I didn't kill her. He basically just repeats back to the thing he says to him.

Armed with Rachel recordings, the prosecutor was confident he could convict nick focus of murder, but next defense team was ready with a blow that threatened the prosecution case.

For twelve years, nick fergus insisted he'd had nothing to do with murdering his wife hidy. As his case headed to trial, he faced life behind bars if convicted. Show of hans going into the trial, who believed that nick was going to be exhilarated.

Why did yes, yeah next friend, in order to believe that, nick is this, you have to believe that a good man with no history of violence killed the woman who he loved more than anything for no reason at all. And that's what nx lawyer joe friedberg wanted a jury to see. He recruit defense attorney Robert richmond, and together they landed their first punch in a pretrial hearing.

They argued Rachel, whole story about nick and her recordings did improve, that he murdered he and were too prejudicial. The judge agreed and ruled Rachel could not testify. How big was that for you?

I was very important because I really had nothing to do with this case.

Did you feel like you were being silenced?

Yes, hundred percent. Because that's what I knew they wanted. They don't want my testimony in that trial. I didn't feel .

good on top of that. The judge rolled Michael pie story, and that sketch were also inadmissible. In january twenty twenty three, nick focus went on trial.

Prosecutors Rachel croker and Elizabeth th lemon laid out their case. They argued. Nick killed hidy, shot himself and blamed the whole thing on a fictional intruder. We were trying to disprove nicois, a story about this alleged intruder.

He pushed into my chest and we can went off.

One of the things that was a crucial piece of evidence was your initial conversation with him.

There was one of the foundations to build the rest of the case and showing that obviously, things could not have taken place the way told me back in two thousand ten.

Remember, nick told police he was awakened by the sound of an intruder pushing at the front door. Prosecutor said that wasn't possible and played a test conducted back in 1k when sergeant gray tried that door， officers in the upstairs bedroom couldn't hear a sound. You had doubts about that from the beginning.

Yes, yes.

We d had IT next story about a struggle in the entry way, likewise didn't make sense, said the prosecution. And they wheel out that scale model created by the FBI. Essentially you wanted to transport the jury into that house yeah, actually made a motion of physically transport them, but that wasn't going.

They couldn't take a field trip to the house, but this was the next best thing yeah, for them to feel this space. IT wasn't just the undisturbed items on the table, or that there was no sound of a struggle. In hydes nine, one, one call, someone turned back into my house. N, F, B, I, an, elsa showed the shot that killed heighty was fired from shoulder height.

and IT was at the same height and the same angle as if you were actually standing and shooting a target. I didn't indicate .

somebody who was struggling. I didn't indicate a gun that was going up, down and being pushed over. No, that for the prosecutions brought her theory that nick planned to kill hidy.

We think it's possible that maybe next focus to wake, hide up, tell her about this alleged intruder, but that he was then downstairs waiting for her.

that he didn't actually walk down with her at the same time, that he was surprised when he walk down the stairs and he found her on the phone.

He then became a where he was talking to someone and maybe didn't know who they argued.

He shot her while he was still on the line, then picked up her phone and scrolled through IT to see who she'd been talking to.

The evidence does show that he looked at the previously dial numbers on her phone.

the prosecutor said. Nick then shot himself and made his own frantic call to nine one one. His asteria said prosecutors was all in act just hours later in his police interview, he was come almost non.

And when the jury was reacting to those moments, IT really confirmed for us that they were getting IT and that they were starting to doubt. Nick focus.

cr rydal also testified about next deceit, saying he duped highty into believing they had a bright future. SHE was making plans, thinking that they still on the home. SHE didn't imagine anything about a for closure. Their home had already been for close upon any idea so much of this case comes down to what did hidy know and what did he not know, right? And you had to come through every piece of paper, every file, anything that could have possibly given her any indication of what was going on. Yes, they said the fact that hidy didn't sign any for closure documents, didn't show up for an eviction hearing and didn't tell her family friends was proof SHE had no idea, along with the emails and text between hyde and nick, that made no mention of moving out of their home.

Not about finding a surge in IT, not about where we're gna sleep tomorrow, not about hey, honey, can you pick up some packaging tape on the way from work?

The prosecutor said nix lies were about to be exposed, and that became his motive for murder. Rather than face humiliation. He killed his wife, shot himself and blamed an intruder all to appear as if he were a victim.

You're asking a jury to believe that this man to mal accounts an upstanding member of the church, a devoted husband, would rather shoot and kill his wife in cold blood, then face shame. That's a pretty tall hill decline. I mean, that was a concern. This is about insurance money. This is about another lover at the end that comes to embarrassment.

IT certainly involves embarrassment. But I think that IT really comes down to just that exposure of who network is really was he presents .

himself as this incredibly, you know, component com moral support of loving husband. But in fact, he is a nurse's, a liar, you know, someone who is full of shame and good. After ten days of testimony, the prosecution rested.

Now IT was time for the defense. What story are you trying to tell to the jury? What picture were you trying to paint here?

The story was the same story that nick told the police. Everyone who knew them knew that niche. I loved each other, and nick had no reason to kill his wife.

I was confident because he is the state's burden to prove guilt beyond the reasonable doubt.

And we don't think that they negated that. There was an intruder who shot his wife.

the defensive tourney said. Those tool Marks on the door frame indicated an intruder and asked for that undisturbed table. How do you explain that?

Is IT possible that the struggle could have happened three or fourth feet away from the front table?

Yes, by the way, for body armored, armed policeman came charging through that door, and the table wasn't disturbed.

The defense called a neighbor to the stand. He told police back in two thousand and ten that he'd heard a gunshot that morning. Then a voice.

what he heard after one of the shots was a male voice, say, either you shot her or you shot me. If he's telling the truth, he has no reason to lie. There was another person there that .

is consistent with the evidence, consistent with what the next storm neighbor heard, consistent with the tool Marks on the door, which reflects someone trying to break in.

What's more, they argue c couldn't possibly have murdered hidy and made IT look like a home invasion because he didn't have enough time. After hini was shot, they said nick didn't stage a crime scene. Instead, wounded and traumatized, he tried to call for help and accidently dial numbers in hydes recent calls list until he eventually reached nine one one.

he was shot, and IT was a very painful wound. He is also in complete shocked. Because of the apparent death of his wife, he had gone and turned her over on the floor, you can tell by his emotional reaction on the telephone. Always sound genuine to me.

Finally, as to the state's theory of motive, friedberg said that didn't make sense either. Hidy would have known about the eviction.

Can you imagine how many telephone calls those banks must have made during this time period? SHE won't had to consciously avoid the notifications that came out, and there would be no reason for her to do that if he was aware.

why wouldn't there have been signature? Why wouldn't SHE have been present at hearings?

There was no hearing at which SHE was required to be present, and so SHE wasn't there was no document that he was required to sign. And so he signed .

the defense closed with this. Nick loved hidy. He needed her.

Nick situation did not become Better because hini was dead. IT did not cause an influx of cash to neck IT did not prevent the foreclosure. He still had to move out of his house, but now he didn't have his life partner to do IT with .

after seeing the defense poke holes in the prosecution case, giant cysts was a nervous wondering if he had done enough for hydes family.

I had a couple of moments where I feel like, have I now set these people up to believe that we're going to get justice? And what if IT fails? And that was very overwhelming at times.

As the defense rested, prosecutors would have one last chance to sway the jury. They decided on a bold move that could either help win the case or completely backfire.

In february twenty twenty three, as nick focuses murder trial reached its climax. Prosecutors have the final say in closing arguments. They attacked the defense argument that nick didn't have enough time to commit the crime by trying to prove .

he did think the most important thing for a jury is to answer the most obvious questions that they're gonna have in this case. Is there enough time for what the states has happened to have happened?

They focused on the alleged window of the murder, the sixty five seconds between the end of highly nine one one call and the beginning of nicks.

You hear sixty five seconds. And that sounds like a very, very short amount time, especially to do something so awful.

So Rachel croker decided to reenact the crime right there in the court room. The move was highly risky because he hadn't rehearsed IT, and if he got IT wrong, IT could up. In her case, there were no cameras in the, so the prosecutor showed us what he did when SHE steffy in front of the jury.

I demonstrated as if I were next focus, having a gun raised level towards where an imaginary heighty would be down the hallway. And when that gunshot went off, Elizabeth started the time clock.

So that clock starts. And what did you do?

So the clock starts. I put the gun down, walk down to where hidy would have been on the ground. Band down, turn her body over, filled for a puls, then take her phone, which he had used to call name in one score through IT, which is what the evidence indicated, put IT in my pocket, and then come back to the door, grab the shotgun that haven't left, braced against the door, hold the shock on and fire that shut into the left.

thee. And all of that was in less than sixty five.

3。 IT was in much less. There was plenty of time for that to occur.

And then he calls one one.

and then he calls nine one one.

And with that, the jury started deliberations. Pete and jill leen wondered if the prosecution had done enough.

We've got ten far enough along in all this to know that there's there's so much that just outside of our control that we had to be open to the possibility that IT IT mean I go our way.

Are you nervous that he might go free? Yeah.

I was definitely a thought of us.

About four and a half hours later, the jours filed back into the courtroom with their verdict. Peter joleen held, their breath .

is intense, you hear pendant P. I was so quiet. And there.

nearly thirteen years after hidy was killed in her home, the judge read the jury's decision. Nick focus was found guilty of first and second degree murder. Are there any words for that moment when you finally heard the words guilty?

grateful? yeah. Definitely .

grateful yeah. But there are a .

lot of hugs, a lot of tears. That day there were we to the vata with the area. You know, they started to cry. We did to I, I Normally don't do that, but in that particular moment, I just kind .

of came out there is A A real shared sense of of relief and just a weight being lifted felt very real at that point. Ultimately.

IT will probably be the most important thing that I do in my career, bringing justice to highly. Yes, and I hope tidy knew what happened.

Nick friends were deeply shaken by the verdict and are standing by him.

I think some of our tears are from a place on where when we believe in IT is innocent.

Two months later, at his sentencing hearing, nick focus continued to deny he killed hidy. I do maintain .

and will maintain to my dying breathe, my innocence of this crime reflect.

Pete spoke for highly loved ones about the years of painful memories.

The truth is, we've relived them every single day since April twenty five, two thousand ten, every birthday, every holiday, each and every family gathering, we recount our memories of highty over and over and over again. And while there are plenty of good ones, the evil end to her story has always cast a shadow over what would otherwise be bright.

I think my mom said something to the fact that we were all given a sentence of life without highty. And I think to me, that says perfectly, I wanted them to know we're all missing out. An amazing person, an exceptional person.

I ask you, is to focus to please rise on April thirtieth, twenty twenty three, nick focus was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Were you angry at nick burk? S for creating that sketch of you, for essentially pointing the .

finger at you? Actually, what? But in the talk, can I have to forgive? Nit, because god forgive me, so if I want got a forgiving is I got to forgive everybody who did some wrong to me. So i'm good. I want them to do a time because he did to crime .

you upset today? No, you had to let you go.

I didn't let you go.

nick focus is appealing his conviction. He declined our interview request. As for high his family, they say they feel a burden lifted, a sense of freedom, a chance to celebrate that joyful adventure and creative spirit, the spirit of hidy.

I feel like this gives us a new opportunity to move forward and just give our focus to .

hide being at light in your family. Yeah, SHE always looked for the best and everything he did in the best that everyone else did. And yeah, I miss that about her. That was something that no one else had. Yeah, and I can be replaced.

That's all for this edition of date line. We'll see you again thursday at ten, nine central. And of course, i'll see you next week night for nbc nightly news. I'm less to halt for all of us at nbc news. Good night.

Hi, i'm N. G. Hicks, cofounder of ani. When you use ani for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well from prepare to emergency plumbing and more done well. So the next time you have a home project, leave IT to the Price. Get started at the dot com.