Death at the Front Door: Who Shot Heidi Firkus? | Full Episode

[Music] they're saying here in Minnesota Minnesota nice and that Minnesota nice only goes so far and Heidi Fus she went all away she was genuine and she loved deep she definitely lived a life of love that was the mark that she left and that's hard to let go you know this is a a terrible terrible incident you know we're hoping to find other physical evidence that might help us lead us in a direction toward a suspect the morning of April 25th 2010 at 6:30 a.m. Heidi fcus calls 911 someone's trying to break into my house she tells the state patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to give her address 1794 many haha every while she's on the phone you can hear a loud noise and the phone goes dead well I don't know where she went there approximately a minute later Nicholas Fergus calls 911 says that he and his wife have both been shot brok okay are you in St Paul sir St Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to the ambulance and transported him to Region's hospital he had been shot in the leg Heidi was struck in the back back as she was trying to flee towards the kitchen it was a shotgun blast that killed her right away the shotgun was laying inside front door area there's a little foyer Nick gave a brief story he heard somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the Intruder struggled over the shotgun the responding officers uh went up and down the block try to talk to neighbors I was next door house sitting when the crime happened really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell of you shot her you shot me it never felt right the story never made sense to me he tells investigators that he grabbed a shotgun loaded it with two shells and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the stairs in front of him towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at why you would send the unarmed person down in front of you is beyond me to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and Heidi in order to believe that Nick killed Heidi you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get there [Music] [Music] while this area of St Paul where Heidi and Nick fcus lived I would characterize as generally a quiet neighborhood back in 2010 n years before she took charge of the fcus case detective Nicole cyes of the St Paul police department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood do you remember first hearing about the fcus case I do broken okay it was early on a Sunday morning the 911 call was at 6:30 Nick fergus's Story of a burglar didn't make sense to cypes most people are home at 6:30 on a Sunday morning especially in a family neighborhood like that the last thing that most burglars want to encounter are people did police ever have any luck tracking down the Intruder that Nick described no you know I'm looking I didn't see anybody come out of that house Brandon ' Conor was housesitting next door to the fasses and taking care of kittens I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around some noise caught my attention so stuck my head out the window kind of listen Brandon said says he recalls hearing a muffled argument coming from the fergus's house listening through an open window that's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots around this time Brandon said he also heard that voice crying out kind of this agonizing yell of you shot her you shot me uh please please no something along those lines and then then it was done First Responders rushed to the scene there was nothing they could do for Heidi she was pronounced dead Nick was rushed to the hospital and treated for a Grace gunshot wound to his leg he seemed not to be sure whether or not Heidi had been killed like I said we'll do our best to find out how how Heidi's doing pleas hours later Nick was transported to the St Paul police department then Nick and I started have our conversation in the conference room Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement you know I know this is a very traumatic situation okay and I'm just going to try and ease into it okay so Nick said the couple ordered in food the night before and watched the movie Avatar they went upstairs to their bedroom around 11:00 p.m. the next morning Nick got up around 6:00 a.m. to get a drink of water from the bathroom go back to sleep and just kind of fitfully sleep for 10 or 15 minutes and then I heard the screen door open trying to let it go for a little while but then I started hearing fing with her door knob and is Heidi still sleeping then yeah okay like a rock Nick said he retrieved his shotgun from the closet I keep two shells for it just in case things go weird so when I heard things this morning I did load it and then I wake up Heidi okay according to Nick he told Heidi someone was trying to break in and to call 911 as she spoke with the dispatcher someone tring break into my house they headed downstairs so they could get out of the house what address are you at all right so you going first down the stairs or is she is she behind you or is she in front of you or what um she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to move her along quickly Nick said as they pass by the front door it burst open guy that was there I think he he grabbed the barrel I don't remember exactly what happened with the gun when off so my finger slipped on the trigger Nick told Sergeant gray during the struggle over the weapon the gun fired striking Heidi who he said was in the kitchen okay so the guns guns here chest High yep you and I are like this yeah and then the gun goes off mhm I I mean I know it hit Heidi I just I know it did she was running away so it definitely hit her in the back hit in the back yeah I couldn't believe it I I didn't want to believe it it can't be true that's there's no way CA and Marcus sarzen mentored Heidi at Calvary Church I think she's one of those uh people that you can't not like everyone liked Heidi she genuinely loved people she was the life of the party always finding fun ways to engage people and uh she was very loyal the couple met at the church and in 2005 Heidi 20 and Nick 22 got married Nick ferus had a very warm and engaging personality always smiling he carried himself with confidence and he had High character high integrity in the church that was the reputation he' built for himself but just a few hours after Heidi's death Sergeant Jim Gray found himself questioning Nick fergus's account he couldn't figure out why the couple would leave the safety of their bedroom you come upstairs you know I hate to tell you this but my house you know I'm Justified and killing you if you can come break it in my house yeah and I guess Nick explained that the couple had a plan in place if they were ever in a precarious situation they would avoid a confrontation and escape to their car in the garage and get away if we can save ourselves let's let's do that instead of getting into a situation where his story didn't make a lot of sense to me Sergeant gray started probing into their marriage you guys uh have any problems or anything like that most just the normal stuff like um you know stresses about finances and quality time and vacations and all that stuff yeah but you guys aren't behind in the bills or like we have behind in the bills um which is a little stressful in fact we were planning on moving tomorrow who be where well we hadn't figured that out yet we were and and this is a a hard it's a hard place for us we were foreclosing on WE foreclosed on our house Nick revealed they were behind on their mortgage payments and just 24 hours away from being evicted from their home well that's kind of I mean kind of close notice it is and I think the reason is cuz we're both kind of dealing with the shape of the whole thing gray says his suspicions were raised and minutes later he was struck by the way Nick asked about hiding well I just want to know the final answer on the final answer on he she didn't make it I figured that I mean is that typically how someone asks if their loved one or spouse has been killed not only is that not typical but that's how they'd ask it but they wouldn't wait an hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question I've watched the interview obviously numerous times and I understand people react to trauma differently but this was different than what I'd seen anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck by Nick's demeanor during it and that Dem meter was this was just another day this was something he had to get through skeptical of Nick's story Sergeant gray confronted Nick about what happened that day Nick you know part of me want to ask you this question did you have anything to do with this no absolutely not okay absolutely not all right why is there a party that wants to ask that well Nick I'm I'm a police officer okay I got to ask I got to ask the tough questions all right after the interview Nick left the police station that day investigators returned to the fcus home with a search warrant gray says it did did not look like anyone was planning to move out the next day nothing was packaged up at all the closet was still full of clothes we noticed that there was still food in the refrigerator and there was something else that investigators questioned we didn't see any signs of forced entry into the house based off of the physical evidence at the scene his version of the incident couldn't be plausible what do you think of Nick's story about the Intruder chat now with the 48 team on Facebook and x 48 hours after Nick ferus said an intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi police went back to the crime scene to check out his story he told us that there was a life and death struggle inside the house but Sergeant gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't match Nick's account there was a vase some receipts a beer bottle and none of that was knocked over so that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was such a struggle why wasn't any of this stuff knocked over Sergeant gray says he examined the front door for signs of a Breakin and did notice some markings but it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that uh the door had been forced open the day of the murder in his interview Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door from upstairs and like what are they doing are they just come like this yeah kind of like that yeah just shakeing the KN and shoving the door that day sergeant gray and his colleagues did a reenactment morning April 27th 2010 to determine if they could hear the front door shaking from the bedroom we're in the bedroom looking Sergeant shackle and Sergeant Wright were upstairs in the bedroom I'm at the front door so let me know when you guys are ready I'll I'll try to KN for 15 seconds then we are ready they could not hear me filling with the door sorry Sergeant gray says he also doubted Nick's story about the couple's eviction and a scheduled move the day after Heidi was shot there didn't appear to be anything boxed up or packaged up to go there were a few empty boxes in the dining room area there was not a grand stack of boxes or anything for that matter that would lead us to believe that they were going to pack up all in one day meanwhile Heidi's mentors from calary church Marcus and ktina were learning the details about her death and the eviction it it just an add up it just something wasn't right with that story it seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have notified anyone not have anything prepared for that because she planned things out and she liked things to be orderly on April 30th 2010 5 days after her passing Marcus and ktina attended Heidi's funeral yeah the atmosphere at the funeral was there was a lot of emotion at the funeral Marcus and CA say they were struck by Nick's demeanor I remember going through the receiving line and shaking his hand there was no grief showing it just felt like he lacked emotion Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the couple's friends if Nick could have shot his wife and the answer I got was no there's no way that Nick killed Heidi he loved her there there's just no way he could have done that and I just wasn't so sure about that from what we gathered during our investigation Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship there was no problems or issues that anybody saw your first impression upon meeting Nick ferus is no way in the world could he have committed a violent act the day after the shooting Nick's Family hired attorney Joe Friedberg who advised Nick to stop talking to the police it didn't take long to realize that he was being looked at as a suspect when investigators asked Nick to sit down with their artists to draw a sketch of the in fredberg advised him not to they were going to use it as an opportunity to further interview him instead Nick and his attorney hired their own sketch artist it was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist and brought that drawing to police the original and at that point we were basically told that Nick would not be answering any more questions with regards to our investigation investigators released Nick's sketch to the public but it didn't generate any leads they kept working the case Nick moved out of their home a few weeks after Heidi's death 2 months later he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best friends Rachel Sanchez who is going through a divorce at the time I thought because we shared something traumatic there was a deep connection there because I had come out of something traumatic myself in a relationship I think Nick seemed to be handling things well it felt like he was very grounded he was with his friends a lot and they were processing together so I think just his his steadiness was an attractive quality Rachel says the two bonded over their faith they began dating in the spring of 2011 at the time God played a big part in my life and I think that's another quality that I saw in him that he he loved God like I did one year into their relationship Nick proposed I knew it was coming we had looked at rings beforeand so it wasn't really a huge surprise and a few months later the couple married they started a family we did have kids pretty quickly and soon were the parents of three children he absolutely loves his kids so much Andrew and Emily Ericson are friends of Nick they say for a long time Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder yeah it just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief during that time but they say when he did talk about it his story was always the same what did he tell you same thing he's always told everyone from the first day same thing he'd tell you today that someone was breaking into the house and they were going to try to get out and there was an altercation and tragically Heidi was killed investigators still did not believe that story but 5 years after Heidi's death with little movement in the case they finally got a break someone called in a tip there was somebody that looked exactly like the sketch and put a name to Nick's sketch somebody called said I have an experience with this guy I think I know who it is [Music] after 5 years without a break in Heidi fergus's murder case out of the blue a tipster called police with a name after seeing this sketch of the suspect but there was a problem says investigator cypes he was already in prison on the date of Heidi's death Nick's second wife Rachel says her husband rarely talked about the case being solved but I had asked him are you going to put effort into seeing if you can find the person that did this he didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know I know that from his lawyers he was told to just stay silent police found it odd Nick never checked in your four investigators and this case he never contacted one of us to ask the status was this case ever considered a cold case it wasn't ever considered a cold case because prosecutors Rachel Crocker and Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015 there just was not a lot of new information coming in Heidi's family would check in on her birthday is there anything new development and there would be new developments when detective cypes took over Heidi's case in 2019 seems her fresh set of eyes really made a huge difference it was absolutely critical I think cypes definitely restarted something cypes dug deep reviewing the entire case File including an examination of a financial timeline she compiled with the help of the FBI I had the luxury of looking back on all of these things several years later cypes learned Nick worked at his family's carpet installation business they were contractors for Home Depot Heidi was a clerk at a financial services company in St Paul their combined income was about $70,000 a year they seem like they were on top of all the bills before they bought the house but Lawman says the home purchase in 2007 strained the couple's finances and that home was just too much for them by the time Heidi died in April of 2010 the couple was deeply in debt he had not paid the mortgage in 22 months in fact the couple had lost their home to foreclosure and would be forced to move out but cyes discovered Heidi apparently had no idea after reviewing the couple's texts and emails Cy saw no evidence Nick ever told Heidi they were in financial trouble there was no communication between the two of them to indicate that she had any idea the depth of their financial issues I was able to determine through the foreclosure and eviction attorneys that there was no paperwork Heidi had signed that nobody had ever talked to Heidi nobody met Heidi Heidi didn't go to the eviction hearing on March 8th 2010 Cy says Nick and Heidi's family and friends didn't know the couple had to relocate and if she was serious about moving she would have gotten the day off so she was playing to go to work yes why do you think he kept her in the dark so long shame I believe he was concerned about the shame of what he had done how it would look that he couldn't complain with her you know it had gotten too big at that point and when cypes talked to the couple's friends she learned why Nick wanted to hide their financial situation he was described by his friends as being wise and being the person that they would go to for advice Nick ferus really presented as somebody who had some of those bigger tougher life questions figured out what kind of person do you want to be what kind of relationship do you want to have with God what does that tell you as you're investigating the case and you see someone in that type of Personality it just became easier to see that this was someone who did not want his friends his family to know the extent to which he had failed Cy says she discovered more of Nick's Lies when she learned about a conversation Heidi had with a friend just the day before she died Heidi had talked to us about how Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft it was somewhere around $180 to $200,000 worth of identity theft wasn't true they weren't the victims this was all un true but as cypes tried to figure out if there was a connection between Nick's live and Heidi's death she learned Nick and Rachel had divorced I remember very well when Nikki sypes came to my door and that Nick had also kept secrets from her did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved she did there were Financial issues between the two of them Nick was lying about a lot of things this is a story that's happened before and it didn't end well that that terrified [Music] me could there actually have been an intruder after spending 19 months digging deep into the fcus case File reviewing crime scene photos 911 calls do you remember what he was wearing and Nick's video interview she was running away so he definitely hit her in the back investigator Nicole cypes had come to one conclusion what really matters is what happened in that firey and there was no third person you never found anyone else's DNA no no DNA evidence no physical evidence no sign of a struggle to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and Heidi as part of the new investigation cypes reached out to Nick's second wife Rachel what did she know in 2020 she came to my door and I was like why are you here and she was like to talk about Heidi Fergus at first Rachel then divorced from Nick says she was reluctant to talk you're asking for a lot when you get involved in something like this and I didn't want to but I also knew that it was the right thing to do and it was for truth Rachel told cyes Nick had lied about their finances during their marriage I found a letter saying that we hadn't paid our property taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them and when I saw that I was like oh no like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me during that time Rachel says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's death and I said we got to sit down and talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions have caused me to just distrust you completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that I could prove that he said it and the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over makes me think that I could murder my wife that you could lie about something that I could murder my wife yes when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think those things or why aren't you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right Rachel later shared the recordings with investigator cypes the behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel was almost duplicative of how he hid things from Heidi we cannot let this man be out on the street any longer for prosecutor Elizabeth lman the time had come to ACT I told Sergeant cyes we're charging them let's do it 11 years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19th 2021 a St Paul Police SWAT team arrested Nick fcus at his house and charged him with second deegree murder a grand jury ultimately indicted fcus on first and second degree murder charges our minds were absolutely blown heidy's friends Marcus and CA were relieved it's hard to to say I don't know what emotion you even put put to it it's hard to say excited I felt grateful we don't understand Nick's friends Emily and Andrew you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get there after remaining free on bail for almost 2 years on January 27th 2023 Nick ferus went on trial prosecutors would not be allowed to call Nick's second wife Rachel to testify or use her taped conversation with Nick the judge ruled her testimony and the recording had no bearing on the case I went into it with an open mind Natalie Michael served on the jury did he appear like a man who would kill his wife no he did not a lot through the trial he was putting his head down when they showed the photos of the two of them together you know he seemed like he really was in love with her I think Nick was someone who lived two lives prosecutors presented an unusual motive they told the jurors Nick Fergus staged a burglary because he was desperate and ashamed his secrets were about to be revealed to Heidi and everyone else all of his kind of cards of lies are about to crumbo he would have been exposed as a complete failure a liar um um to his friends and community and instead he's a victim he walks away from this supported by his friends supported by his family Nick had no reason Nick's lawyers Joe fredberg and Robert Richmond say that simply makes no sense as a motive there was nothing about murdering the woman who everyone agreed he loved that would help his situation and they say the state's contention that Heidi didn't know about the couple's finances simply was not true Nick said she was in on all of the major decisions he would say to us that they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile at first I was wondering how she couldn't know about the finances or some of the Foreclosure or some of the things happening but Natalie Michael says the prosecution's case did not hinge on motive the prosecution said it really is was there an intruder in the house or was there not an intruder it was our position that there had been an intruder exactly the way Nick described to the police on the 911 call somebody broken at the scene the information that Nick gave at the scene is that this Intruder came into the house at the hospital he just came in and to Sergeant gray guy that was there I think think he he grabbed the barrel Nick's lawyers say police didn't find The Intruders fingerprints or DNA at the scene because as Nick told investigators in his interview at the hospital what else can you describe from him the Intruder was wearing gloves gloves he's wearing gloves you don't always leave DNA and especially when your hands are covered so what am I looking out here but prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides fingerprints this is a physical model to scale that was created by the FBI they use this model to show the jurors there was no evidence of a struggle I felt that it was very important for us to be able to recreate how small that entryway is let's say the Intruder gets in they have this struggle and they have this life and death struggle right in this area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly and then Heidi gets shot Square in the back in a very clear shot this animation created by the FBI shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was most likely shot from shoulder level the height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to fire Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an intruder in fact there were tool marks in the door which would be consistent with someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door attorney Joe Friedberg says fergus's nextdoor neighbor Brandon OK Conor testified he heard a voice you shot her you shot me uh please please no something along those lines that means there must have been another person in that house Nick was talking to a third person when he said that but proc utor say Brandon may have misheard Nick while he was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher broken he is screaming about being shot and he did that over almost s minutes stay on the phone with me okay Nick Fergus did not take the stand after an 11-day trial the case went to the jury if there's anything in this case there's Reasonable Doubt [Music] yeah see more evidence from the case at 48 [Music] hours.com it was a hard fought litigated trial as the state and Nick fergus's defense team presented their closing arguments on February 10th 2023 we had great we thought circumstantial evidence that what Nick said happened did not happen attorneys on both sides were hopeful the jury would make the right decision it's not enough if you have a hunch there was no direct evidence that Nick murdered his wife in her closing argument prosec computer Crocker said ferus shot Heidi while she was on the phone with the 911 operator someone's tryant West so that call does end with a very very loud noise and the call goes dead and we believe that that's the gunshot according to phone records 65 seconds passed from that moment until ferus made his 911 call pleas somebody this broken Crocker reenacted for jurors which she believed Nick Fergus did before he made that call I walked over in the courtroom to roughly as far as Heidi would have been on the ground crouched down turned her over um to check for a pulse to be sure that she was in fact deceased walked back over picked up the firearm and demonstrated how he could shoot himself and call him a one where is the guy that shot you at 6 5 Seconds there was more than enough time for all of that to happen to prove their Theory F has shot himself in the thigh they point to Mark's left by shotgun pellets at the bottom of the front door when he shot himself we believe that Nick was about um here just how you would brace yourself probably against the door if you're doing it to yourself of his Reasonable Suspicion but fergus's attorneys challenged the 65 second time frame attorney Robert Richmond says phone records also show ferus misdialed two numbers before getting through to 911 making it impossible to shoot himself what they reenacted was 65 seconds which was ignoring the two mises which happened at 38 seconds the fact that we cannot find the Intruder is not evidence that there was no intruder and if anything because of the next door neighbor because of the tool marks because of the 38 seconds we feel that the evidence supports that there was an intruder this isn't blind belief Nick's friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove ferus was the shooter we were open to hearing inconsistency of what Nick said but that didn't happen on February February 10th 2023 the jurors got the case and in 5 hours returned with a verdict my last text to Nick was it has to be innocent there's no way that they got to guilty this quickly we rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong Nick ferus was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and intentional I believe Justice was served Marcus and CA were in the courtroom when the verdict was read Justice may have been slow but fortunately the jury got it right it feels like this is the beginning of healing it's the beginning of a of a new chapter Heidi's mom actually said that for so many years they had to live with Nick fergus's narrative and they knew it was wrong but they just didn't have another narrative and to finally be able to have him finally held accountable it it meant a lot to us for sergeant cypes there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's financial problems we weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on does that frustrate you greatly I think it would help complete the picture for some people on April 13th 2023 Nick ferus was back in court for a sentencing hearing and to hear Victim Impact statements growing up Heidi was the quintessential little sister to me Heidi's brother Peter Ericson because of the lies we were told as early as the day after her murder it's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief ferus refused to admit guilt I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime my body stands condemned to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains free judge Leonard Castro imposed the maximum sentence it is the sentence of Law and Judgment of this court that you be committed to the commission of Corrections for the remainder of your life without the possibility of release good luck to you sir God speak my kids are always what I think of first fergus's second wife Rachel they lost in this too because one day they had a dad that they thought was somebody and the next day he's not that person anymore she often thinks about Heidi too I like to think I have a connection with Heidi she didn't get to have the voice that I have now and so I can only hope that my voice is something she would be proud of Heidi was a genuine loving sincere young woman who wanted to live life to the fullest she wouldn't want people to become bitter or angry because of what she had to experience I think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of [Music] circumstances a millionaire entrepreneur goes missing without a trace and is not the person to go take off somewhere no one knows where she is until disturbing Clues begin to surface I remember like a panic set in when success becomes a curse 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount [Music] Plus

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 1,456,012

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news, Heidi Firkus, nick firkus, saint paul minnesota, staged robbery, murder, true crime, trial

Id: 2FDl7JUMMVA

Length: 41min 50sec (2510 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2023