What A 15 Year Old Mass Killer Looks Like

the following footage revealing a 15 year old mass killer has never been seen before we discovered his dad on the couch face was really pale you're a stone cold killer four people have been murdered tonight they're dead you cannot watch me i will drag you down with this what happened you will go to jail for the rest of your life i'm looking the eyes of stunned cold killer there's never more when nick browning and three of his friends arrived at his home they immediately knew something was very wrong at first glance the house appeared to have been burglarized but when they discovered nick's entire family murdered no one could have ever expected the chilling and twisted truth behind their deaths the four fifteen-year-olds were ryan fingel's taylor tewksbury alexander smith and nicholas nick browning the boys spent time at the mall on the saturday afternoon of february 2nd 2008 before they were dropped off at nick's house in an affluent baltimore suburb of cockeysville maryland immediately the boys noticed that a door to the browning's house had been left unlocked and it looked as though there may have been a robbery when they entered the home the boys found nick's father john browning a well-respected attorney shot to death where he had been asleep on the sofa they soon discovered that nick's mother tamara and his two younger brothers 13 year old gregory and 11 year old benjamin had all been shot as they were sleeping in their bedrooms after the police were called the four traumatized boys were brought into the police station to give their statements about the haunting discovery they were separated into different interrogation rooms while they wait for a detective to come and question them nick's three friends are important witnesses as they were there when the browning family was found dead and were also with nick for most of the evening and the majority of the following day the following never-before-seen footage has been analyzed by a qualified team including a licensed attorney and former criminal prosecutor a licensed clinical psychologist and an individual with a master of science in clinical psychology what's your name the interrogator enters the room and introduces himself to ryan fingels as dave instead of officer or detective this is done to put ryan at ease and make the detective seem less intimidating or authoritative yes all right good thanks for coming around here with i'll just us some basic information from me to ryan right yes which will be right melvin yes andrew what's your last name fingels f-i-n-g-l-s the detective is gathering basic background information from ryan and is getting him comfortable talking ryan is in 10th grade which makes him a minor so the detective will have to be careful to make sure he understands his rights another detective uses a similar approach when he enters the room of fifteen-year-old taylor tewksbury in comparison taylor seems very nervous which is to be expected when being interrogated i'm a homicide some bad stuff has happened tonight i need you to be 100 honest with me all right i want you to tell me what's been going on and explain what who are you with all day off ryan alex and nick we're at ryan's house in the morning because we slept over there last night what time what time did you ask early last night i went over there right after school you got there after school about what time well i went home first and then my mom drove me over there around like 2 50 maybe 2 15 or 250 250 he's giving a lot of details about the evening and comes across as truthful taylor is also facing the detective suggesting that he is engaged in the interview okay would you guys do that last night honestly we were playing crosstalk from and we played uh video games basically watching movies you're watching oh what's it called i remember we're watching we're watching robin big at first and then we're looking through the movies oh accepted we're watching accepted um we started that around like 10 15 or something okay last night yeah i know i fell asleep like halfway through it um where were you guys in the part of the house where you guys like the living room the main room family room i guess where's parents out yes the detective begins the interview with alexander smith by being very up front and lets him know he isn't in trouble what's your last name let's talk to dad your dad's here when you guys leave i think he's going to take care of the boys getting to where they got to go okay you any other nickname other now yeah street name or anything like that yeah you play lacrosse for glenn yes again he gets basic information from him and builds some rapport with alex by asking about things that are non-threatening meanwhile nick browning eventually puts his head down and appears to fall asleep i'm sorry take so long the detective enters and immediately apologizes to nick for the long wait he does this to come across as friendly and to start building rapport he also wants to let nick know they are actively investigating and speaking to other people so he might be less inclined to lie no offense to you everybody comes in here i gotta read their rights too so i gotta read right the detective is trying to put nick at ease by saying that he has to read the miranda rights to everyone by making this seem like a very ordinary thing he's less likely to start off being defensive the detective reads nick as miranda rights and has him read them back to him to make sure he is literate and is listening because nick has no priors and is a minor the detective needs to take extra care in making sure he understands his rights before he begins interrogating him can we talk a little bit can you sign that here for me the detective intentionally speaks very casually and then immediately jumps into the interrogation he does this so nick doesn't have an opportunity to hesitate and request an attorney the detective also makes the conversation seem casual so he isn't aware of the seriousness of speaking to the police without legal representation notice how close the detective sits to nick versus how he was seated with the other voice he's intentionally invading his personal space to make him focus on him it's more difficult to lie to someone who's inches from your face looking directly at you um i'm talking so tell me what's happened last day and a half what was going on and last night i guess you start tomorrow last yesterday afternoon um camera from school 45 then go about going to the basketball game with them here delaney playing basketball [Music] the police officer begins a very basic line of questioning allowing him to describe the events of the past two days on his own getting nick to tell his own version of what happened will help the police attempt to poke holes in his story oh um play some xbox a little bit i don't know i know the others where's ryan live do you know springdale yeah i know where the pool and stuff is right it's in that neighborhood okay while one detective is handling nick's questioning another is simultaneously questioning ryan we pick up where they're discussing the boys activities the previous night when they all stayed over at ryan's house and start to discuss where exactly nick was during that night you guys spent the entire evening together yesterday yesterday you leave the house about last night um we'll just walk around the neighborhood okay how far do you live from where he lives um uh half a mile did you guys go over there no did he yes what time did he go today um like 12 30 last night yes what are you going home for um truthfully we were going to just take his car out i'm sure what was his name nick browning just take his car out for a little drive okay did you guys do that no all of you were there yes nick said that he was there yes he's when he got there the lights are still on okay and so he just was in the car um and uh just and any city fell asleep it seems nick planned to sneak home to get the car before driving back to take the boys for a ride but this never happened although it isn't known for sure it can be assumed that nick would have to sneak home to get the car due to his age at only 15 years old he would be unable to get his driver's license next story that he fell asleep in the car doesn't sound very feasible if he went home to get his car which he wasn't allowed to do adrenaline would have likely kept him up it's also suspicious that the lights in the house allegedly were on that late at night if there had been an intruder they likely wouldn't have turned lights on as well nick probably would have seen or heard something if his family was killed around the same time he was sitting in the driveway his story isn't logical and like three hours later how many hours later he alex called him and see where he was he's like oh i fell asleep in the car and then he came back to my house after ryan explains that nick temporarily left the sleepover for a few hours we returned to taylor's interrogation room the detective is getting taylor's account of the previous night's events so basically after that when i woke up we started watching this tv fell asleep yeah i went back off around like i'm like 12. then went to bed i went to like your actual bed i was like on a couch okay i mean um woke up around midnight yeah what bed did you go to i went into his brother jones's brother's room and then was joe there so now he was not there where is he he was at a friend's house okay so he went in joe's room yeah and then the singles or the parents had friends over and they they were they weren't going to sleep there then they did the friends of the bengals yeah their friends so they um came in joe's room to sleep so i had to get up went down to the basement and slept on the food town what was how was that about remember i don't know what time it was it's probably like one 1 30 maybe when you woke up to go to joe's room where were all the other boys sleeping on the couch next to me and up in his room okay was nick there yes you sure i didn't so important no i don't think he was okay yeah i know he wasn't there he went out okay the detective can tell taylor is hesitant about speaking so he reminds him that he needs to tell the truth now yes this is a murder case yes you're 15 years old yes you cannot watch me because you will go to jail for the rest of your life saying that he'll go to jail for the rest of his life is rather aggressive as taylor is only 15 and it's also not actually true the detective needs him to be truthful but he oversteps a little here police are allowed to lie to suspects but this seemed unnecessary at this point given taylor's age nick was not in there no do you know that he left what do you know that he left i mean yeah i guess because i didn't see him there i didn't know he was leaving okay tell the truth i really don't know the exact times okay that's fine i mean i didn't have like a clock i was looking at oh yeah taylor is displaying some behaviors that indicate he's feeling anxious such as holding his hands in front of his torso and frequently touching his face however given his young age and the fact that his friend's family was just found murdered it would be understandable that he's feeling anxious although some dismiss body language analysis as pseudoscience it's used by the fbi and cia during interrogations when the cia is interrogating an individual they look for clusters of three or more indicators that occur in either quick succession or all at once these indicators can be signs of discomfort or uncertainty in what the individual is stating rather than indicators of deception it's extremely important to note that you cannot detect deception through body language analysis alone we pick up where the detective is explaining to alex the utter magnitude of the horrific crimes you haven't figured out by now something really serious has happened to the browning family you're 15 years old i need you to be 100 honest the other boys have been honest with me you can't take up the line okay yes by telling him that the other boys have been honest with me the detective is trying to ensure that alex is telling the truth if he thinks that the other boys told the detective everything he'll feel pressured to do the same if he denies something but the other boys say it happened he might be afraid he'll get in trouble with the police i'll ask you to take me through the last 20 29 hours what's been going on so you guys from what i know um paul spent the night over it right face right yes what'd you guys do from there alex begins to give his account of the previous night which seems to be consistent with taylor's account what's that baby and in the morning you're skipping overlap okay but i want you to take it slow and not skip out stuff okay all right so last night you guys went there yeah what'd you guys do while you were there we ordered food from georgia's and watched smoking aces and accepted and ran around outside a little bit and i basically just went to sleep okay what were you guys watching tv and stuff what room of the house in the living room were uh ryan's parents room yes was there other people there too yes friends parents friendship else was in the living room with you nick who else did brian go up to his room yeah around his room and ted went up to ryan's brother's room and then moved downstairs okay why didn't taylor have to go upstairs because ryan's parents friends were successful back in taylor's interrogation room it seems he's wrestling with himself it's as if he has something he wants to get off his chest the detective is expressing just how crucial it is that he disclosed the full story of what happened through the previous night and into the morning where everything took a terrible turn for the worst are you sure you've been 100 is there something you should be telling me because i'm not telling you how important this is right now uh there's something you think actually he did he told me that he was going to go out but he didn't tell me where he really was going he said i appreciate this on this is when he said he said he was going to go well i mean as he talks taylor picks up the water bottle picking up the water bottle suddenly has to have some meaning because this happened precisely when he was telling the detective about nick having gone out ryan does the same thing when he seemed uncomfortable based on behavioral observations taylor and ryan appear to know something or have strong suspicions that nick was up to no good when he left the house he was going out to do well he told you something more uh he said he said he was gonna go and taylor is looking down and avoiding eye contact showing that he's clearly nervous revealing what nick told him he was going to do [Applause] [Music] notice that the detective leans in very close to him when he starts stuttering and hesitating the detective is mirroring the boy's body language which is a non-verbal rapport building technique used to make them feel more comfortable and friendly with the detective typically mirroring behavior is something you can observe between people who are close and comfortable with each other although we can't know for sure and he can be displaying this behavior subconsciously as the majority of people do the detective seems to be using this technique quite intentionally throughout the interrogations in an attempt to make the group feel more at ease friendly and willing to share any information they may have point out any mirroring behavior you catch throughout the interrogations with time stamps in the comments he said he might come take the car but take his parents car taylor continues speaking but becomes more obviously uncomfortable he stutters slightly and starts to cover his face with his hands while speaking he fidgets and frequently touches his face which is a self-soothing behavior he's likely feeling very anxious possibly still feeling torn about whether to be loyal to his friend or be honest with the detective again this is another pretty strong indication that taylor may not be telling the whole truth the question is why would he risk himself just to try and protect nick given that the crime here is something so serious he just told me he's going he's gonna might might take the car he went with the car no he did not he said he's going to and next thing i i knew it i mean woke up and he said fell asleep forever so he said he fell asleep in his car and he can't then he walked back i guess i i don't know which one he did okay and that's okay unless you think a little bit i'm gonna come back and talk to you okay once alone taylor looks rather uneasy and is likely rattled by this situation we now hear firsthand what nick claims to have occurred the previous night and then at around 1 30 stupid me i went back to my house to try to get the car nick says stupid me to make it clear that he knew it was a bad idea and to appear to the officer like he's a good kid and they announced the keys were um where my parents were the lights were on in the house notice how nick taps the table while talking in an attempt to emphasize his points however these taps appear mis-timed rather than aligned with his statements and they announced the keys were um where my parents were the lights are on in the house typically these sort of illustrators will line up with a person's statements when they're being truthful but nicks are all off and at times he isn't even hitting the table this is also known as incongruent body language or when someone's words and body language don't match according to the body language panel these are known as misplaced or mistimed illustrators and can be a queue of deception and sorry i want to take the car out so because light's wrong you know sort of work and so i went in the car and started you know they'll go to go go to bed and a half hour and like to be off so i sit in there and i fall asleep then i get a call from alex around i think five in the morning and then awake he wakes me up and then you know i slept the car and the lights are still in the house okay and it doesn't make sense now but yeah so you do that i walked back in just like yeah it's five more places so did you ever get inside the keys at all or no i was on that car but never inside the house okay okay his casual demeanor is somewhat unusual given he's just found his entire family murdered however it's possible that he's currently experiencing feelings of denial and hasn't fully let the truth sink in which could somewhat explain why he appears to be acting normally nick speaks in a much more mature manner compared to his three friends who definitely sound more like kids did you walk back to ryan's house alex now gives his account of the sleeping situation at ryan's house which is a bit different than what the other boys had to say watch his story begin to evolve as he fills in some of the missing pieces of the puzzle so you're next left in the room yes you're 100 sure you need to be perfectly honest with me that nick was in there with you yes yes alex denies that nick left the house that night the detective already knows this is untrue alex may feel like he has to protect his friend by saying that nick was sleeping in the living room the whole night at that age once peer relationships may be the most important thing friends opinions and thoughts are often held in higher esteem than that of one's own family okay i'm having two people tell me he left the house this is a murder investigation four people have been murdered tonight you don't want to start lying to me right now i will drag you down with this if you start lying with me you need to tell me 100 truth i already know he's left the house i know why he left the house yes he left he immediately changes his story and appears to now tell the truth the boys may have decided together to lie about nick leaving the house prior to being brought into the station to protect their friend saying that he left the house would obviously make him look guilty tell him what happened well nick was leaving the house too because he was gonna take his car out so when did he tell you that he was gonna go over there he said he was going to leave at 12 45. what are you guys going to do around do you have anybody to go visit girls or anything like that no they're just gonna drive around okay what happened after that well i fell asleep around one okay and then you just didn't you stand that little yes and then i woke up around five and i called nick to see where he was because he didn't he was gonna come back and wake me up when he had the car but he never called so i called him he said he was walking back to ryan's and he was lost and i told him how to get him and he said he is was gonna go in the house and get the keys then he fall asleep in the car i understand he said for about three hours i guess it's hard to tell if any of these boys suspected something or maybe even knew more alex's behavior here is similar to taylor's except that he seems to lie more overtly about the living room situation back in ryan's interrogation room the detective receives the same story provided by taylor and alex that what happened we went upstairs we just we ate breakfast or lunch lunch and let's see oh nick went upstairs take a shower and then oh my god game um see alex drove us back to nick's house because we were going to go there for the night and he went inside i don't know like when we were waiting he was worried because nick because he said he was like he was calling him like all morning he started calling back 11 and um he was like where he kept on calling like all the fans leaving messages and no one picked up he's like getting worried and uh taylor reaches down as he's speaking and grabs his water bottle which is a sign of his nervousness he also repeats a few times about how nick was getting worried he seems to want to emphasize nick's concern about his parents because he said he said that his mom was going to take him off at like nine to clean the house not in the morning and she never did i guess and he was gone and i don't know i guess he's just sitting there out somewhere and then we gotta in the course of this i've been calling my parents all day and then so from the cell phone so originally from ryan's house phone and my phone a bunch of times okay okay there is a very specific reason why the officer asks about nick placing calls to his parents and brothers to compare his statements regarding his calls with phone records if the police get these records and they're inconsistent with his story they can do two things one convince a jury that he's not telling the truth and to convince nick to confess because his story doesn't make sense any idea what happened the detective wants ryan to explain exactly what occurred earlier that afternoon leading up to the horrendous discovery of nick slain family me taylor nick and alex were at the mall we came home um mr pat drove us to nick's house because we're going to be there tonight because they were all at my house last night and when we got there um nick was already worried because his experience always like call him and stuff and check in and they haven't since he hasn't talked to him since like six yesterday okay and he's getting all worried so like when we got back there he was just all sketched out about stuff he's holding his hands in front of his body as he describes what happened which could be a self-soothing position this is likely the first time he's been in a police interview room so it's understandable that he may be feeling anxious they begin to discuss the four boys arrival at nick's house earlier that afternoon after their trip to the local mall so you guys get to back home what happened then then the garage door i walk inside the garage door how do you do that is there okay outdoors or something okay as i walked inside um and then the doors and left which is weird because one of my parents locked the door which door the door and then we're into the garage kitchen that was loud it would be a lot but it wasn't so i walked in okay and i saw my father on the couch and that's sort of what did you say about that i know stop but what'd you say i saw he was on the couch um it's notable that nick doesn't seem the least bit upset or emotional while discussing finding his entire family murdered or when he saw blood on his father's face this would have been an extremely traumatic event for him so it's surprising that he doesn't appear to show any signs of trauma he hasn't cried expressed shock or even been at a loss for words he does lower his voice and mumble a little but this change in volume and speech may be out of fear and not wanting to discuss the crime it's possible that he's keeping his emotions inside or putting on a brave face we don't know his typical behavior so keeping his emotions inside may be normal for him okay what'd you do after that um then we talked to mr smith and he came in the house he called my two 911 i saw them we don't know nick's diagnosis but this lack of emotion despite talking about his entire family being dead is typical of individuals with antisocial personality disorder please note that the people involved in this case have not been formally diagnosed with any mental illness and the psychological analysis is not based upon a formal assessment we discovered his dad on the couch like bloody his face was really pale and then we got mr pat who's about to drive away he came in and then he pushed us away from like the dad so nick went upstairs found his mom in the master bedroom and the his two brothers in their bedroom like all bloody and i was i i was up there too with him and alex was down the hall and i just took nick and just brought him outside alex gives his take on the disturbing discovery of nick's deceased father i just stayed right by the stairs when you walk in i didn't want to i didn't want to see anything and nick just said he saw blood um and and then when i was pulling off i stopped him did you see his dad or anything yeah i saw him on the couch sorry outside and got mr smith okay and uh he came in he's like yelling he's like challenging and um so i gave him a stir pet the home phone and called nick went 911 and looked in his brother's in front mom's room and they were had like blood on them you said nick ran upstairs nick went upstairs nick winston yeah did you want to see where everyone else was so let me all we went outside when mr powell was on the phone when you went outside where'd you go you stood behind mister did you guys go to the back of the house at all yes we went we over in our back [Music] we're gonna see if there's anything any signs down there so he opened the door and he saw the xbox and his boots nick he saw the xbox and the wii like on top of each other on the pool table the xbox being left behind makes a robbery much less likely as that's something a burglar would likely take especially if it was sitting out so visibly burglars also rarely kill their victims and will more often than not leave if they discover the house is occupied alex clears up details about nick's outing in the very early morning hours that day his account is about to further incriminate his friend nick as far as you know did nick ever did he tell you get driven around at all last night no he said he didn't at all okay but then today at the mall he said he couldn't get the keys and he pulls the car keys out of his jacket and he said they they just he said they were just in there he didn't even know in the fall yeah in his jacket pocket naked alleged that he never got the keys or entered the house which is now contradicted by alex um is everybody else in your family yeah okay how about grandfather or grandmother uh your grandfather lives in a deep diversity if you live there or you're just there for the weekend full time my grandmother lives in ellicott um how old is he your granddad 73. because i wanted to come if i asked him to come here would you do that who would you well they'd come down and just take about three hours but all right nick is laughing with the detective and seems almost light-hearted most people would certainly lack the ability to laugh so easily however people can process trauma differently and it's impossible to know how nick is truly feeling inside as many individuals are very good at hiding their emotions all right let me work on that real quick somebody talks a little bit okay anything else before leaving the room the officer asks nick if he needs anything this may not seem particularly important but the officer is trying to build rapport with him by getting him to believe that the officer is on his side he will be more open when talking to him it would be nice um check our restaurant here it's all we eat junk food here is that okay his request for food is surprising as most people would lack an appetite after seeing what he witnessed hours before given the situation this could indicate that he's emotionally disconnected nick is likely feeling more comfortable now the detective has been friendly in joking with him there's been no suggestion or hint that he may be a suspect he may even feel that he can let his guard down as it's becoming more clear that nick is likely the prime suspect taylor sheds some light on nick's home life from the outside it appears nick has everything going for him however we learn things might not be as great as they seem and nick has been getting into trouble did he say anything to you for anything has he had any issues with his parents lately no no no i mean i think he got in trouble like a couple months twice because of drinking this is the first suggestion that there may have been some issues between nick and his parents still it's pretty common for teenagers to clash with their parents however this could be seen as a red flag as teen drinking could be a sign of behavioral problems and issues in the household at 15 years old nick is still in his early adolescent years so drinking at this age could definitely be more of an indication of behavioral or mental health issues in other words it could be considered more concerning when a younger teen starts drinking as it could also be an indication of conduct disorder which is often a precursor to antisocial personality disorder conduct disorder is a behavioral and emotional disorder that can occur in children and teens and usually includes a pattern of lying rule breaking aggression and destructive behavior did you see a gun with nick at all last night did you have a gun no are you sure not that i saw my name did you say or talk about a gun last night no are you 100 positive yes okay um have you touched a gun in the last 24 hours i touched an airsoft gun yeah a real gun yeah all right um has nick ever said anything about his parents um abusing and mistreating him or anything like that nope taylor appears confident in his response when asked if nick ever mentioned being abused by his parents the detective comes back and acts very friendly asking questions unrelated to the crime to rebuild rapport with nick he wants him to get comfortable talking with them because once a suspect begins talking it's much easier for them to continue it will also help him to let his guard down you can see nick smiling his demeanor is extremely troubling and unusual for someone in his position nick is frequently touching his face which can be a self-soothing behavior even though he appears to be chatting normally with the detective it's apparent that he's not truly comfortable with the interview process talk about your dad what are you doing lawyer follower or writing towson the detective asks him about his father in a very casual manner to see how he responds and to gauge his feelings towards him he's trying to see if nick's response aligns with what his friends will say what they do um he's a business leader mom um she had a property management sort of side business more standing mom okay that's cool cool you get along with them okay yeah great dad all right just trying to know it seems like he wants to avoid discussing any issues he had with his father to remove a motive for him being the killer um got any enemies ranking enemies or problems or responsible the officer isn't asking these questions because he actually thinks enemies or problems at work caused the murders rather the officer is once again trying to get nick to let his guard down by making him believe that he isn't a suspect um talk about anything that's uh going on at work but i mean not in bad sense of photography [Music] carolina which was a family matter he's just not really traveling business much okay oh so he wasn't having to go to other businesses around the world pretty much all local okay my mom was there all the time how about your brothers um went to the [ __ ] they both went to cox in middle school oh how old were they eighth in sixth grade okay is there anything else he's not going to put you in anything is he is he going to say that you've got an involvement in anything no i think he's not going to say he told you yeah tell me the detective knows alex already lied to him once so he needs to apply a little more pressure like he did with taylor it's noteworthy that the detective basically takes an identical approach with all the boys are you 100 sure i don't want this to come back and bite you i'm 100 sure do you know anything else you should be telling me right now no i won't let you think about it for long make sure all right cause this could come back on you hard yes the detective leaves alex alone to let him digest the entire situation and to consider the seeds the detective planted about how serious this situation is alex appears to have taken what the detective said very seriously because he immediately offers up some important information when the detective returns after about 10 minutes alone but i do remember one thing to tell you nick told his little brother to keep the door unlocked for him to come in last night he may be worried about whether he could get into trouble especially if he gets caught in another lie it appears that he's now being honest and cooperative i remember nick told his little brothers how he's going to get in to keep the bishop door unlocked that's how he was going to get in there because he calls the road yeah keep going yes and that's how you think in the house yeah the basement door yeah the slide with the like a little pool table the detective returns to confront taylor with one of his lies to further impart on him the fact that he needs to be totally truthful do you remember at one point nick calling his uh little brother he caught your brother what did he tell him why do you ask him does he make up how about before that they get home his brother said leave the back door open yes all right that's the stuff man i can't you can't keep doing that to me you gotta be on presenter with me all right yes okay i don't think you'll do that after okay at any point i want you to think about it this is the murder four people have been murdered yes two little boys my mom and dad yes there's nothing more serious than this right now okay think about it i'll be back talking a little bit don't let you lie to me you don't want that to happen to you i thought i saw taylor's claim that he misunderstood the questions may have been true but either way he appears to be even more nervous now again the detective leaves him alone when you got home with mr smith right you went upstairs and you guys went outside apparently right went outside where did you go went out to the back and then that door was unlocked was unlocked it was not the basement signing door is that characteristically locked also or are they always 75 that's that's not because that's sort of more the kids you know basement so that's probably okay it's more or less just not locked is awesome man if you had to make a guess how someone got in the house how would you face me when did you see your parents last or talk to your parents when did you see your parents last i should ask you drop it's shocking how casually nick is talking about his parents and brothers given that he just found them dead okay did you talk to my phone at all that night the plan was they were gonna pick up it i think nine o'clock next morning okay what was that you guys have something to do or just uh clean the house actually now okay do you talk to your brothers at all no no we're not okay um what time did you start calling the house the starters call i think we called just because their kids were coming over tonight and we're saying little get together and call it about ten o'clock in the morning this morning this morning at my family's house and i called their cell where i caught all the numbers craig sell my arms sell down sell work even our deep creek house [Music] it doesn't really make sense that he was apparently so worried about his family that he called multiple phone numbers to try to get a hold of them even the home phone of one of their other houses but he didn't just go down the road to see if they were at home his friend's house was close to his own home so he could have easily walked there to check on his family much earlier in the day did they try to call you at all last night nothing no nothing that you missed or a message or text on yours any text from them or whatever so what time do you think you left ryan's house to go back to the house to get the car you had to guess what i know the clock yeah i won't take you down there um i'm exactly sure i got lost getting there i guess around three nick claims he left ryan's house at 1 30 which is about an hour later than what the other boys told the detective he also states that he didn't get to his house until 3 a.m he may be intentionally giving an erroneous timeline so it doesn't line up with him being at the house when his family was killed um i know since there's the being told there's a gun locker in the house in the base basement what kind of guns you're done two pistol 40 caliber nine millimeter a little you know condom i mean you know you know smith went to both of us one was a gift from our uncle who is the pistol they use on the boeing 747 things okay so one of those and then 30x6 rifle couple shotguns you guys caught at all or just he hunts i find a couple of times more clay pigeons we shoot those are two creek okay so pistol was nine millimeter 40 caliber something's 38 special so it's a revolver from it's different visible revolver it's a probably a two inch barrel and there's this world war ii old old pistol with this question and his answer the police officer is establishing that at the very least he had enough knowledge of the gun locker that he could potentially use the guns inside it this adds to the likelihood of him being the shooter i'm not sure what that takes i was told there's two lockers is that true yes there's the rifle case and then there's the ammo slash uh pistol case thing okay so it's two different cabinets i'll take it off okay okay and i asked before do we know where the keys are to the camera but you don't have an extra set that you can get it to us to um if i'm about to get maybe his dressers next to his um bed right now i don't know but you don't have anything enough that i know okay in his room alone taylor is showing signs of both stress and impatience by pacing and tapping his fingers on the table anything else we need to talk about yeah i think i remember like the times more okay you're talking about like a music like he told me that his dad just times time to say [Music] i think he does pretty well he takes some like ap classes mostly gt i think okay nick was likely smart and a good student if he had ap classes drinking is a behavior that doesn't typically align with the profile of a good student but often times high achieving students can put excess pressure on themselves to perform and thus seek out ways to cope with the emotional stress that results from that excess pressure sometimes these types of students have parents who set excessively high expectations for their academic has he talked about anything about his parents no he's insane he talked about having issues with a dad or anything no he said his dad's like really like hard on him though alex also hints at a troubled relationship between nick and his dad however this may be true in a number of families with teenagers what kind of guys nick he's a nice guy he's stuffed with guns or anything does he like guns yeah he has a lot of airsoft guns how about real guns you know if you ever go shooting with his dad or anything yeah i don't think he's honest did he talk about a gun last night at all no a real gun yeah you know he ever seen him carrying a real gun no you said you had a good relationship with a dad was he hard on you at all or anything like that i mean you know we've had our issues but yeah your friends rather than jealous said you got caught drinking yeah by saying that his friends ratted him out the detective may be trying to do two things here first show nick that it's okay to admit mistakes he's made in the past in the hopes that he may admit to other mistakes he's made in the past and second implicitly indicate to him that his friends have information about his past mistakes that they are willing to share with the police what happened there um there's actually twice one time i got caught in a friend's house and then there was a ski trip this is actually about a month ago yeah ski trip up to a vermont and i stupidly brought some stuff and they found it and you know your parents were always keeps up with it no they found it in my bag before then he reveals that he had been in trouble recently but acts as though the relationship with his parents is pretty good still this indicates that nick seems to have a pattern of disobeying the rules it's possible that he may have had addictive tendencies if he's bringing alcohol to take with him on a trip but of course to an extent teen drinking can be considered somewhat typical of the age since adolescents do experiment with alcohol often well before their of legal drinking age brian or someone told me that you called home and talked to greg at one point last night called him around i don't call them or walk around spring light or spring down do you talk to your brothers at all no or not okay nine ten okay would you tell them hold on don't leave the bathtub or not watch your tongue at this point the officer has yet to become accusatory towards nick and continues attempting to convince him that he isn't a suspect leaving the back door open could possibly prove premeditation the detective should have gotten more clarity as to why he made this request of his brother still can't think anybody want to do this to your parents how about away from work any issues neighbors or um [Music] there's a bobby something in the front of it not this is just a really shot in the dark there's been some he's had some cops from the house before he's sort of the neighborhood goof yeah i guess you're calling me that's why are the police coming down i really don't know myself i mean i've heard drugs with you know good rumor mill starts who knows paul powers avenue power though it's sort of the most crappy looking house nick may be trying to point the detectives in another direction by mentioning the neighbor who has apparently been in trouble with the police before he may be feeling somewhat concerned since the detective was questioning him more closely so he wanted to put suspicion on someone else instead additionally naming someone else could indicate that nick truly doesn't believe he's a suspect at this point the detective returns and asks a broad open-ended question to see what alex may have remembered while sitting alone for an hour anything else you think you need to tell me i don't know he always says his like brothers are annoying and stuff and he says his mom drinks a lot especially it can be a red flag when there's a parent in the home that might be abusing alcohol there's an impact on the whole family system when there's a parent who abuses alcohol including the other parent nick's father who may feel he has to compensate for the mother's absence if this is true and it's not been confirmed to be this could create stress on the family as a whole he just said he's really hard on him and i guess he calls him hitler i don't because i helped her yes because he's really hard on him okay and you're sure he didn't let on what was going on last night no he said nothing like just gonna do that okay all right anything um you gotta tell me if we go here because this is it i don't know we're gonna start talking to nick now not like i told you before i don't want him to come back and say i told them this or i told them that or because that that puts things in different up to now you've been perfectly honest with me i just don't want something coming back on you guys when you've been trying to think it's about that's all i have to do okay all right then we're gonna get you out of here then oh yeah get your rod you taylor and your dad and uh ryan too all right get you going alex ryan and taylor are all allowed to leave the police station and go home while nick remains alone to continue answering questions get ready because this is where the case really goes off the rails all right we'll get jersey for some food here for you where are my friends my life do they go home my parents [Applause] from nick's perspective he likely doesn't think that the police would provide a meal to a murder suspect and this puts him further at ease however this is actually a common tactic when interrogating someone people are more likely to open up when they're at ease and people are more at ease when they're fed [Applause] the detective leaves them alone to eat the food he requested after everything that's happened to his parents and brothers nick is able to eat a burger and fries after he's done eating nick moves to a different chair and lays down with his feet up this shows he feels at ease and relaxed which is abnormal it also shows a disrespect for authority most 15 year olds would be afraid to put their feet up and lounge back like that in a police station he's acting like this is his living room this could be an indication that he completely does not care about the serious events unfolding all around him this could also be an indication of a sense of entitlement again this shows a complete lack of concern for what has happened to his family hours ago nick has been left alone in the room for over 25 minutes and the officer re-enters the room and introduces his partner another police officer i've been cop a long time homicide stuff's just not adding up for me right now with you okay yeah this is the first time that the officer has become accusatory towards nick and his intricately woven story is just about to fall to pieces tell me why your dad was to piss at you yesterday all your friends are saying that your father was uncharacteristically just just literally here yesterday the detective may be lying to him about his friends saying his dad was mad at him yesterday as that was not mentioned in any of the three interrogations the detective likely wants nick to believe that his friends turned on him so that he will feel he has no choice but to admit the truth i mean i see what he wants in the bathroom but what now house he went to the door and made sure their parents were home okay but everybody's saying that he was just he was ticked off what was he mad about he wasn't there reason he would say that what is there a reason that they would say something like that um he's not he's never nice that i don't think that's not they said it was uncharacteristic for him that usually when he does see them he's always pleasant that's why this particular moment stood out to them i mean there's they didn't see another there was one person's fingers right there was something so i'm not sure what they're basically their experience i'm just not like what i'm saying this didn't say mr ferrari okay so you're saying he wasn't upset yeah and even if he was they wouldn't have seen him you know it all would have come through me what they so but nick things aren't are end up here i i don't understand some things that happened here tonight um i think you had something to do with what happened tonight if he were innocent you might expect him to immediately and strongly deny killing his family but he's silent his mind is likely racing as he may have thought he got away with it since the detective was so personable and the interview was very non-threatening in the beginning i think that you killed your family and the thing is the more you lie the deeper it gets the implication is that if he were to come clean he could receive lesser punishment and that if he lies his punishment will be worse nick has already waived his right to remain silent and hasn't since invoked that right there's gotta be a reason why you did this the officers say we need to know why but legally speaking they actually don't although a motive may help a grieving family receive closure proving a motive isn't actually legally required to prove murder you just have to prove that the suspect killed a person and had the intent to kill that person while it's true that judges can't use the criminal's honesty in determining inappropriate punishment punishment for first-degree murder can only be so lenient so the officer's statement isn't entirely accurate even then it's actually not illegal for a police officer to lie about the effects of confessing so long as the suspect has waived his rights your family we need to know what happened here look at this there are happier times the other detective holds up what is assumed to be a family picture likely trying to appeal to nick's emotions nobody broke into the house last night it had to be you nobody else did this you know where we found the keys for the gun lockers yeah you tell me you know where they are who search the house yeah you do they're under your mattress in your room the police may not even have this evidence at all it's a common tactic for police officers to tell a suspect that they have some sort of smoking gun evidence even when they don't to get the suspect to believe the confessing is their only way out of this situation on the right side of the bed nobody put them there nobody broke into this house you went into that house you called and had your brother leave the door open the officers recall that nick called greg and had him leave the door open because the first officer allowed him to tell his own version of events earlier he now has something to convince him that lying is of no use there's no other explanation yes you did and the more you lie the deeper it's going to get for you you're 15 years old you really do still have a life ahead of you but the more you lie the deeper it gets for you i mean do you want people to look at you as a cold-blooded killer or somebody that just made a mistake the second officer utilizes a classic technique of the reed method of interrogation asking nick if he is a cold-blooded killer with this technique an officer suggests two alternative reasons why the suspect committed the crime with one of the responses being somewhat more socially acceptable even if he admits to the more socially acceptable option he would nonetheless be confessing nobody else did it tell me how the keys got on your mattress nobody broke into your house it killed your family the only gun missing is a 9 millimeter why was it your father didn't kill him he did you killed your family his denials are in a soft whisper for the first time he looks like the child that he really is throughout the interrogation nick is presented as a young man with a level of maturity that is way beyond his ears but here he looks like a scared child why did you call your father and i'll tell her that's our pace he is straight i mean that's our whole that's just a [ __ ] my mom's calling his force how else could this happen other than you it was insane no it wasn't isn't going to make it go away right now you're a man you've got to fest up to this i couldn't you did do it as we speak for developing more and more evidence that you did this there's no other explanation for once there's no other explanation for what we're finding other than that you did it whatever is it i did it you'll see you'll see yes you did you lied to us he lied to us about you contacting your brother he lied to us about the keys he only told me after i pointed it out too that you did it and the keys the keys to gun locker or in your bed or under your bed there's no other explanation nobody broke into this house it was you you left your friends what happened why explain to us why this would happen they provided everything i want but they were stripped the detectives mention a possible motive that nick's parents were strict which he brought up himself throughout the interrogation the detective is using this information to see if he will downplay the issues he has with his father to avoid appearing like he has a motive nick is more mature for his age so it's likely that being controlled by his parents was a significant source of stress for him plus if he does have anti-social personality disorder then there's even more reason for him to have an intense resentment towards his parents for being strict and controlling him people with apd are extremely self-centered and self-serving they typically like to manipulate and control other people they certainly don't respond kindly to anyone who tries to control them so much so that people with apd don't even respect people in authority positions like police officers or judges they see themselves as superior to everyone because of their grandiosity and inflated self-image so they were strength that's not a reason they killed somebody we talk to people every day who love their wives love their children love their babies love their friends and they sit right where you're sitting they love them too but things happen we're human beings things upset people and they this is one of the ways that they act out the second officer is once again attempting to use the read technique by saying things happen we're human beings the officer is trying to empathize with him and may be trying to normalize the killings by making murder sound so normal and that other people do the same thing it makes it easier for nick to confess it was probably something that just it happened just like that it happens that fast help us explain it and somebody help us be able to explain to the family what happened here convince me you didn't do it but if if i did it why would i leave the key you know if i just if i was if i planned you know i can kill my family i want to leave the keys underneath my mattress because that's where he put him i never thought we'd find him if you didn't know we were gonna go so we're turning your house upside down we're finding things cell phones all kinds of stuff it's not the end of the world but if you're gonna sit here and lie it's it's it's gonna be problems listen again people sit in that chair every day and say the same things that you're saying and believe me when they're done they feel much better we wouldn't be sitting here talking to you like we are if we didn't think you did it i know your friends didn't do it i know nobody broke into that house last night the back doors open still it's breaking in nobody did that your parents were supposed to come get you at nine o'clock this morning you don't bother going home to check on them all day you knew you were supposed to go home and clean the house instead you go to the mall you knew you didn't have to and that's why go home i don't know i mean i was in like no more there was a mall no and they couldn't be mad at me why didn't you just welcome 10 months in the house doesn't make sense i don't know what because your parents are stripped right how do you know what you're eating what you were supposed to do and yet my parents i still make mistakes that's not a mistake no no not the the i mean they're strict but they're not they're not that free for example so uh three weekends ago the alcohol that i told you about i wasn't grounded for that obviously i wasn't at a friend's house two weekends later i mean they can be strict but they're not you know then why did it happen you did yeah we know you did how do you know been doing this a long time pal what and the police are still at your house everything points to you everything what what points to you the only thing you discover is the keys i don't know how they got there and put them there listen somebody breaks into a house okay i'm not gonna go in the bedroom and throw keys under the mattress no i'm not saying that my they got the pistol was out you put that you put the key together where was the guard was the gun that was in the workshop work room it was while i was cleaning on where's what's going on where's the gun now that's another issue there's a gun out there someone else could get hurt by this gun and it's going to fall on you there's got to be a reason why you did this there's no reason it doesn't make sense it doesn't look at that family at one point there were good times they're dead he mentions a few times that he loves his family it's possible if nick does have anti-social personality disorder that he made this decision based purely on his desire to satisfy his own immediate needs maybe he wanted freedom and wanted to be an independent adult so badly that he decided he would eliminate what was in his way if nick has anti-social personality disorder then he would not react to this interference from his parents like a normal teen would a typical teen would argue rebel sneak out maybe defy their parents but eventually they would succumb to their parents demands however if he has apd this means he's impulsive and vindictive rather than arguing rebelling or defying his parents he would find a way to retaliate your brothers didn't know a burglar didn't do it let me say that this is what i do for a living i've been doing it for 22 years how many burglaries i've been to how many homicides i've been to i sit here every day talking to people just like you i didn't do it i didn't do it i didn't do it and this just goes on and on and on and you did do it if you didn't do it you wouldn't be sitting here i'm telling you right now nobody broke into that house i don't need to be so sure i'm positive i'm 100 positive that nobody broke into that house i've been to plenty of burglaries i know what a burglar looks like when you walk into a home the house has been burglarized your house wasn't burglarized so snow burglar nobody broke in nobody went in there and killed your family you did it you had a reason to do it yeah he did my reason your father was pissed at you last night maybe you didn't like your lifestyle i don't know how could i not like my lifestyle i'd go to my summer summer house for two weekends i get whatever i want i get it i mean people do it every day why do people walk into schools and shoot all their friends because they're picked on they don't you know they don't enjoy it i enjoy my life a lot okay again i know people that love their children they kill their children people love their babies but they kill their babies people kill it other human beings this isn't an armed robbery this wasn't a burglary by your whole family being dead you made out the most i'm sure your father was well insured your mom was well insured now everything's yours so you coldly killed your parents then there's not there's gotta be another reason why you did this other than insurance money that's the way you're gonna be looked at the seven fifteen year old killed killed killed his family for money there's i didn't kill my family then he did we're gonna do this all night man it wasn't anybody else but you okay i'm telling you that everything about it the way you act you're acting as if you're a guilty man we've interviewed hundreds of people in this room hundreds of people they all fit your mold what is that the more you lie deeper kids the fact about the keys i mean do you really want me to believe that someone broke into your house found the keys to the gun lock and what you said you didn't know where they were open the gun locker let me finish sorry let me finish nick carefully tries to refute the detective's claim that he had the keys to the gun safe under his mattress he's not challenging the detectives in any way and he even says i'm sorry when he barely interrupted one of the detectives again his mature demeanor is gone we took your dad's gun off his workbench and methodically went through the house and killed everybody in the house then walked into your bedroom and stuck the keys under your mattress there's multiple sets of keys what are they doing on your mattress do you want i mean do you want me to believe that somebody did that all right do you really do you believe that didn't put them under a mattress that makes no sense they're there there's multiple sets of keys the keys are under your mattress there's one set of keys the keys are under your mattress do you want me to believe that someone walked into that house kills your entire family and then just puts happens to put the keys under your back i didn't need the keys okay i'm telling you you want me to believe that but that wouldn't mean he says we even touch the keys do you want me to believe that but that's not but that's not even the keys aren't for this to happen or whatever it wasn't even this for me but the keys are under your mattress if your parents didn't want you to have the keys would they hide them under your mattress i don't think so the only believe that someone broke in kills your entire family shoots two small children and then decides they're going to put the keys under your mattress it doesn't make sense doesn't it do you want me to believe that someone would break into a house and not take anything it doesn't make sense doesn't there's a reason that you break into a house that's to take valuables and it's fairly obvious from where your father's found your mother and your two brothers nobody confronted the burglar and said get out of my house and they got shot for that reason your family members were executed and you did it i guess you did no doubt in my mind there won't be a doubt the jurors might either the question is why that's the only question they're going to have it's up to you to explain there's a reason for everything i mean something triggered this we've heard a lot of stuff and that's understandable and and people understand that when you make an explanation and as i told you earlier people do this every day again they love their babies they love their children they love their wives husbands but sometimes people snap realize it happens something happened it wasn't the burglary help us understand nothing made me sad [Music] the detectives return about 10 minutes later [Music] why tell us this big story about going the keys when the keys are in a pocket jacket [Music] again an untruth why did you do this you keep saying that it who did it what kind of person would do this i don't know do you understand is there anything i don't see how one set of keys to why are they under your bed my parents look if they want me to you know to get me this is a burglar that's come on you're gonna have to do better than that so if so what's what's the threat if you take this trial i'm going to go to jail based on a set of keys it's interesting that he says so i'm going to go to jail based on a set of keys this is a smart statement given that nick is only 15. it seems that he knows that the detectives need to have more evidence than just the set of keys in order to convict him no that's not just a set of keys there's a lot more than that what i'm not going to nobody else did this how can you be so certain because i've been a cop for 22 years and my intuition's pretty good i've been to plenty of homicide scenes i've been to plenty of burglaries this wasn't a burglary you've been being given a chance to explain things it happened for a reason you just did it yeah you did you did you doubt my mind you did this who else would do it i don't know drug murderers don't shoot children don't break into a house shoot another drug dealer but they won't shoot the kid if nick committed this crime he may have felt that if his parents and brothers were dead there would be nothing standing in his way and he could do whatever he wanted he may have chosen to kill his brother so he wouldn't have to share any money belonging to their parents another possible motivation for killing his brothers may have been to eliminate any potential witnesses to the murders of their parents nick likely believed his plan was very well thought out and smart he appears to believe that he could fool the police into believing that a stranger broke into the home killed everyone but took nothing of value he displaced several narcissistic tendencies seeming to believe he's very smart and superior even questioning how the police could be so sure it was him only family will do that i want another person and family to do that do we know that from experience yeah what reason i have to kill my brothers that's what we're trying to find out if i met somebody with my father why why do the rest of the family it doesn't make any sense it doesn't it's the reason why did you do it explain it to us the detective grows more confrontational and raises his voice when challenging nick people are going to be searching for a reason why this happened look at your family yes i love them and you put a gun to their head and you killed them there is no other explanation nobody broke into that house how how do you know nobody broke into that house 100 certain that nobody broke into that house because we know but yeah i'm just we're sitting here you don't have cameras in my house i know that nobody broke into that house last night nobody there's an explanation to what happened there's got to be other than this you're a stone cold killer that killed his family it's also noteworthy to mention here that people with antisocial personality disorder and other personality disorders often dissociate meaning that they disconnect from thoughts memories and feelings this is often how these individuals are able to carry out horrific acts of violence they have a way of emotionally detaching when committing the act as well as afterwards i get a sense that in the beginning of the interrogation nick is almost trying to convince himself that he didn't do it or he would like to believe he didn't there's something about the way he denies that seems like he just wants to make it all go away you're just mine you're digging yourself deeper into a hole you're 15 years old you will spend the rest of your life in jail feeling it and if and if i tell you a reason that'll that'll not change my jail sentence no it gives us it gives us something to tell your neighbors your family but i didn't do it because everybody's looking for a reason what's burglary you've done nothing but a lot of your friends i couldn't find the car keys i couldn't get in the house all the lights were on you got the car keys in your jacket you have no idea what the keys to the gun locker are yet to found into your mattress you leave your friend's house yeah i'm gonna go get the car you don't come back until six o'clock in the morning it was 30 degrees outside last night you didn't sleep in your car you didn't know what to do that's the problem that's why you were gone for so long you spent those hours contacting some silly story the jurors can see right through not a story you know maybe you didn't do that but she didn't know what to do i mean you're claiming that you wake up and all the lights are on but you know that stuff is wrong why didn't you go in you knew the back door was open lights were on the lights of my passport you said earlier that all the lights were on you fell asleep you woke up all of the lights were still on i said my parents put on my legs are on you said all the lights they did they and i was the keys were um or my parents were the lights on in the house as the lights are on in the house this is the problem you can't keep track of what you're saying you can't keep track of what you're saying keep track of it i you asked me where my parent's bedroom was you haven't shed one tear for your family you were totally unemotional about this you walk into my house your whole family is murdered and you just i didn't do it why would i do it so crying crying would make you believe i think you're trying to convince yourself you're doing a terrible job of convincing me i have to commit to you yeah you do believe it or not you do you you've heard of your mind i couldn't you did this there's no doubt in my mind no doubt in my mind afraid of this okay well you know what you're under arrest okay four pounds first degree murder the detectives have tried several different tactics to get nick to confess first they suggested that his friends had turned on him and told police's dad had been mad at him then they appealed to his emotions by showing him a family photo repeatedly they pointed out all the lies he's already told they also tried to see if he cared about his image prompting him to give a reason for the killing so he wouldn't be labeled as a cold-hearted killer however none of this worked being arrested and handcuffed will likely scare nick and make him realize the seriousness of his situation leaving him alone right after is strategic as isolation may increase his stress and put the pressure on him to finally confess while left alone handcuffed to the wall and table nick once again falls asleep he's alone for around 40 minutes the sound of the door wakes him up from sleeping his ability to sleep in this situation is disturbing the first detective returns to the room alone likely posing as the good cop as he removes the handcuffs nick may be more likely to be honest with him because he may feel that he's on his side i'm just trying to help you out i'm trying to figure out what happened to you i mean there's never this is a whole tragedy you know that and we know that all the lights off were in the house all the lights were all there no lights on the house when you went there the detective immediately confronts him with his lie about the lights being on in the house he sits very close to him invading his personal space to make him uncomfortable and his tone is now a lot more aggressive than before this is an interrogation technique from the reed method which is called positive confrontation the detective confronts the suspect with evidence or contradictions from what they said earlier with a definitive tone and aggressively explaining that they know based on evidence that the suspect lied and see you see all these little lies little all these untruths all right but maybe i i talked wrong but i mean i knew that like was on forget what i said what you know okay i'm just like i mean that i know that was wrong what do you want to say say i wanted to walk i i want to know what if if there's a reason i still or so i started jail nick's response that even if there's a reason i still go to jail is very revealing as an innocent person would not make such a statement if there was any doubt in him being guilty this statement certainly confirms that he did it i mean but there you understand they're mitigating factors in the world there's a cold-blooded killer and there's a reason why people do things and there are differences there's differences in the way things are perceived the way people hear things yeah inevitably it could determine the way you live out your life yeah you can live it out as a cold-blooded killer to just kill four members of family first-degree murder or maybe there was a reason however whatever it might be there may be a reason [Music] he's still going to jail here the detective uses the read technique of mitigating circumstances or alternatives he begins explaining that people do things for reasons and sometimes those reasons impact the outcome for the suspect this is said to try to make it easier for the suspect to confess and feel less judged it will also make the suspect believe that maybe what they did is justified or at least somewhat understandable even if the suspects lie about why they did what they did the police still have a confession to the crime on record but why you know if there's an explanation people want to hear this people don't want to shut off a 15 year old kid they want to know why father was beating them or abused not maybe not physically abusing them degrading them we know he was he was overly hard on you we already know that the detective now uses the alternative step of the reed technique more in depth he's presenting two possibilities one being that he's a cold-blooded killer and the other that there is a reason he did it he's hoping that nick will latch on to the less morally reprehensible alternative as it's less threatening for him to confess to the detective will build up the contrast of the two until he agrees to the less evil alternative which is an admission of guilt either way but you did it and that's just it the jury's gonna stay here i didn't do it though i didn't do it though you know i'm not a heart i'm just trying to find out what happened here [Music] and [Music] that you give me the option oh well you know you can feel better about yourself still in jail or from i mean i didn't do it so far you told me i really think you have the key the key means nothing oh it means a lot to an experienced um officer maybe but a jury so you're planning you're playing on your mind right now how am i gonna beat this jury i've got the jury beaten you're not in baltimore county you don't you've given me the option of going to jail funding to myself 100 or how long are you going to go to jail for what nick questions why an explanation would make a difference in jail time it's unlikely that a truly innocent person would ask this he's likely trying to feel out if whether it'd be better for him to continue to deny or whether to confess but to try and give a convincing reason for why he did it the rest of your life or is there a mitigating factor what happened here there's not then why did you do it i didn't do it but regardless there's no mitigating factor it's clear that nick is only concerned about himself and feels no moral responsibility in admitting what he did the detective will need to play into that and make him see a benefit for himself in confessing this self-serving mentality is very common among criminals see that's that's the horrible thing about this then all they're left with is you shooting four people i can't go ever i can't i can't go over a piece of admins you'll see that in discovery months maybe a year down the line after you've been sitting in bcdc for that whole time the detention center if i give a reason i'd still be sitting that same extension center i don't know is there a mental issue is there something going on here so then i commit myself to mental hospitals right i don't know i don't know that's just it i don't know i don't know the reason i can't guess i can't fathom why this happened but i'm sure there's a reason because i can't imagine in my world that someone killed a mother father and their two little brothers but maybe there is a reason it's not up to me to tell the jury the reason i present the evidence as i have it and it's in the jury's hand and you're playing that you can see it in your head you're trying to play down the jury ah get this bottom i get this but i don't know i wish you could help me i wish not saying i didn't do it saying that yes there was one set of keys underneath the bed that i didn't even need the keys to see you you're harping on one thing that's just one thing that we're telling you nick is arguing with the detective while still being careful and respectful he's speaking hypothetically here because he's still sticking to his story that he didn't do it his more mature demeanor has come back now he's talking more his tone of voice is a bit louder maybe because he feels more comfortable with this detective than the other one it's interesting how nick has maintained his composure all along he's not emotional or angry but simply trying to present arguments implying that the keys being under his mattress is not an indication that he killed his family given that he's only 15 years old this type of thinking shows his intelligence and maturity try to convince me that trump thinks we didn't do it then what what like he said there's no reason i don't understand there's every reason to try to convince me no i'm sorry not too much there's there's no reason for me to kill my family doesn't mean there's that they don't yes they're fair to me so so what they don't they don't ground me when they find me with alcohol they came up to a trip down two weeks two weekends later one guest last weekend i took my friend up to deep creek and we skied the entire weekend this weekend most of their friends house you know yes they're harsh but they're not that harsh really when they let me let me do what i want there's no you know no reason this wasn't a burglary this wasn't someone breaking the house how do you know i know we know these things i've been this job for 19 years over 19 years now there's no reason for it why aren't i jeopardize you know you put money into it i have a very large or had have whatever inheritance coming to me regardless there's insurance money well they're not i'm not an hours insurance might have that you know that that is coming to me he has real estate on the side i am upset pretty you know i can filter my life without that there's no money reason they're great to me i love my family we do you know he doesn't sound convincing at all when he states he loved his family it appears the father could have been the motivating factor for the killing and the other three family members may have just been killed because they were home and potential witnesses to the crime but nobody broke into the house nobody came in they did someone did obviously why do you think that they're dead his response is very telling his entire family was killed yet he's trying to convince the detective that it was a burglary a true victim would simply try to assist and be cooperative to help find the killer what else do you think though i came into the house i saw my mom her [Music] jewelry whatever thing was tampered with i mean i i've been in the house in the house for about 10 minutes i couldn't tell what was missing what was still there my xbox and my wheel moved around and i just don't even know then why didn't people take that the person that broke in the house killed her family why didn't they take anything they killed him and they freaked out well there's they were dead why wouldn't you take all this apparently they had time to set it all up this is where we're getting at that's not a burglar that's a staged event we all do that it's all staged to make it look that way when the detective reveals he knows the house was staged as if a burglary occurred nick is silent and appears stunned he looks unsure of what to say next you did it was all staged that's why we know every one of us has seen a real burden how do you know it's on the stage how do you even know stuff is missing i only know someone's missing or not you said that the wii in the xbox long table why weren't they removed they're big they're not they're not easy to carry okay how about the jewelry there's tons of children your mom's saying mm-hmm i don't do you know i don't know what she has personally that you know she has definitely valuables i don't know if that's missing how about the cash on your mom's dresser so they don't look full of cash obvious i think you know you probably get pretty freaked out once you've killed so much it's not how it works it just doesn't work that number one burglars don't kill their victims got a feeling that the gun the nine million bears could be the one missing from the house the only guy missing from the house is gonna be that going was it on the workshop advantage there's no gun on the workshop bench i'm talking or something that is missing why would your dad leave a gun on the workshop bench because he was funny he's not going to leave a gun in the workshop dutch is he do you know my father i think i know probably better than you how can you say how you don't know him he would leave a gun out weren't the kids in the house kids with that know that we use guns you know to respect them they're not going to touch them where's this gun that we found no it's for you guys to find i don't believe you i'm looking the eyes of stone cold killer there's no remorse the detective now confronts him with his lack of remorse and his behavior which shows his guilt the detective is trying to keep nick's confidence low and to add more evidence to show him that they know he's guilty [Music] that's why i think there may not have been a reason maybe you are an assistant home killer i didn't cry they show no emotion it's almost an emotion that that condemns me this one goes a long way emotions people people play with their emotions they put them down you know it's some things are uncontrollable it's inconceivable that anyone would be able to hold back emotions or act in this situation unless they were a psychopath and unable to feel normal human emotions people who have set stories in their head act like this people that have maybe almost convinced themselves they didn't do this the detective comes across as extremely confident when he says the guilty people act exactly like nick is acting he's trying to make him doubt himself so that he will give in and confess i know you don't believe it but we see this every single day i know the guilty by the way they have not even talked about the evidence i'm just about what you're acting tonight that's very well that you're able to see this what you don't there there's no there's no lesser purpose in your offering you're saying come up with a reason and maybe you're insane you get to go to mental hospital i'm saying that there are explanations out there that can mitigate your life what's going to happen to you i don't know what your explanation is there are reasons why people do things their heat of the moment their passion and so what if one was passed well it's still the same outcome nick shows his extreme narcissism when he focuses on the fact that he hasn't been offered a lesser sentence if he agrees to come up with a reason which is why he hasn't done so it doesn't even occur to him that confessing is the right thing to do out of remorse or guilt it may not be i can't promise you anything right so withdraw from me but if i if i admit to it i said i did it and i said oh but you know but why but i'm looking for i don't i don't want you to say i did i want to know why there's no why and do it but they don't they don't hate me they don't do anything and that makes it worse for us because there's no explanation you're getting charged with this tonight there's no do there's no doubts about this but i'm hoping that there's a reason a reason that we can explain to the court to the state's attorney here's why he said he did it the detective goes back to the theme of justification and tells him once again they have enough to convict him already so he will see a benefit in giving a reason of why he did it you know there are lesser charges right you know there's manslaughter you're a smart kid you know their second degree murder do you know all this but i don't know why things happen the only thing i have right now [Music] is four dead people my literary course right now is first-degree murder if there's a mitigating factor i would love to know this maybe that can affect the outcome in the rest of your life repeatedly nick has stated there is no mitigating factor this statement will ultimately make his defense more difficult if he goes to trial his defense team will want to put forth a reason for him killing his family and his statements will make that reason that much harder for a jury to believe i'm not here to [ __ ] you you may think that that's fine but you're trying to pull me i just i it doesn't seem what you're the to pull just saying and say some reason doesn't seem to be very compelling because i'm still going to jail regardless but if i take it to court i want to try one then that's a heck of a gamble isn't it but the rest of your life is ahead of us but as opposed to what it's not true a lesser amount of time less amount of time but if it's still 30 years that's my life but what if it's not what if it's a mitigating factor strong enough there's no factor now see there is so you're trying to play in your head i know you i know what you're doing here i know maybe i know you but i know the type of person because i've seen the person here in the same exact seat before there's no making you want someone to come here and promise you well because i was mentally abused that's why i did this i'm going to give you five years that's what you want right that's what you want but i can't give it to you right now i can't say that but i can certainly take what you tell me and give it to the right people this is it after this there's no more me there's no more mouthpiece for you right now this ends when i leave nick is likely feeling very uncomfortable at this point as the interrogation increases in intensity as evidenced by him frequently rubbing his hand through his hair which is a self-soothing behavior you're a good kid i'm um [Music] he's smiling and states he's trying to get there meaning he's getting ready to confess it's disturbing that he's smiling while he's considering confessing and this shows a complete lack of remorse empathy or conscience nick may have psychopathy or some other serious personality disorder to display such inappropriate i emotions tell you care that's just it i can tell you care i can tell you feel what you did the detective now tells nick he's a good kid and can tell he cares this is not what he's actually been conveying at all but the detective wants to make him feel comfortable confessing to him you see this is the first time the first genuine emotion i've seen all night is coming down what happened nick what happened a confession may be coming soon as nick has started nodding his head in agreement with the detective seeing this the detective immediately scoots his chair and closer to put more pressure on him it's part of the read technique to move closer to the suspect when they're about to confess maintain eye contact and act like they are an ally or confidant how do you tell you didn't play in this is it because you're a father yeah he was the um the strong yeah um but why the detective softens his voice and encourages him to explain what happened in a sympathetic tone he's sitting only inches away to keep him talking was it physical no more sort of like a blast um probably so i mean it wasn't plus it was it was they were physical um um i'm i'm in uh boy scouts right now uh excuse me oh it's okay man so there's this um i'm almost evil and i'm almost done he was getting live dragon life scout and then there's this leadership weekend camp out whatever thing and you know what this uh was brownsie somewhere open i forgot anyways i didn't want to go you know i'm almost done you need a leadership camp so my attitude wasn't great on the trip the other day so he got pissed and started coming down he hits my hand here we're getting a glimpse of nick's father's authoritative and seemingly abusive parenting this in no way justifies nick's actions but it does show that there may have been dysfunction in the home if this is true the physical and emotional abuse likely made nick feel very powerless and could have made him so angry that he wanted to kill his father however it's unclear at this point why he would have also killed his mother and brothers we don't have any information about whether the allegations of abuse were ever found to be true or not typically the presence of antisocial personality disorder is what explains how a teen can engage in such a horrific act against their family members an important point about apd is that according to the diagnostic criteria the individual must be 18 years old to be given this diagnosis if the remaining criteria are met this means that at 15 nick could not be given this diagnosis did he beat 92 mentally or no it was mentally and i was like it got me a five times and that was sort of that was the great lifestyle you know after a life scale for god's sakes so that was one of the beginning you know from the beginning of it and it's just how long was at that was on this wall last fall and then i kept it up there the detective interjects with comments that show support and appear to take nick's side as he tells him the things his father allegedly said and did to him this is to encourage him to keep talking and makes him feel like the detective understands him despite knowing that nothing his father said or did justifies his actions it just it kept going and the little thing just seemed it always reverted back to that one thing and then you know the alcohol thing happened then they called me taken out of the car oh you got a call before before he threatened to keep it away from you the whole time your grades are good everyone else's great grades were good and last year last freshman year i got a d one quarter but then i got an a the next quarter so i'm going to make it all so not great on the d [Music] i think yeah and uh then for my birthday which is a couple days a couple days away we just take friends up to deep creek and uh this last weekend he was uptight as usual and uh did he drink or anything or no he's definitely alcohol he's over stressed i think he works when he gets up at five in the morning 100 6 30 so then he sort of has phil being nice and always climbs let me get some takes out you know dinner almost every nothing almost but no sad thing a little bit but the ball shouldn't be regenerated towards me and then on friday night he was he was just mad i don't even know why he was mad and then i was giving directions hiding around fingers house and he just he walks with clothes on something that didn't hit me just gets really angry and he really didn't get lost he none two feet past the turn and just had to make a tight turn calm down and then you have to put the car to reverse you got really angry and then i went back to get the car and i saw him sitting on the couch the tv was on apparently the gun was out on the workshop punch nick covers his face almost the entire time he retails what he did as though he's trying to hide from what he's revealing what happened i thought i sat there for half hour he was sleeping yeah standing over him and then i i went between putting the tone up to his head and pulling back down doing a pillow too the gun was not sure if i meant to pull the trigger or if it just won't just the way he explains the story it doesn't sound as if he had planned to kill his father that night but when he saw the gun sitting out and his father asleep he saw an opportunity and took it this may be the truth or he may have gone over with the intention of killing them even if he decided while at the house he could still be charged with first-degree murder premeditation doesn't have to mean pre-planning even a few minutes of thought prior to an action or a break in the attack after which the perpetrator continues attacking can be enough for the premeditation element of first-degree murder his claim that he doesn't know if he meant to pull the trigger could be nick's way of trying to distance himself from fully taking responsibility for what he did it's also possible that he was partially telling the truth he may have been wavering in his decision on whether or not to shoot him the longer he held the gun in his hand the morris confidence may have built up until he finally pulled the trigger then once that happened freaked out but and i thought you know come down but i don't even know if they woke up or whatever but sorry sound couch and they're up and i just in many ways it's a greater indication of a total lack of empathy and poor moral conscience when a person has an opportunity to reconsider their actions but they go through with the murder anyway even if nick was out of it as he said or overcome with emotions in the moment he still had moments in those 30 minutes where he must have realized the significance of his actions she's still sleeping yeah waited for a little bit i think she went back his confession about shooting his mother while she was sleeping removes any kind of justification for the killing as she wasn't even a witness to the father being killed both parents murders were totally unprovoked as they were sleeping when they were shot shooting someone allows the killer to not only be physically further from the victim but also more emotionally detached from the why the killing man i was i didn't i thought [Music] no one was there to um say anything that my story would go because of the only one just got scared next revelation that he killed his brother solely for self-serving purposes shows how truly cold-blooded he is and how he is solely concerned about himself he may have been angry with his father or frustrated with the rules or boundaries his parents set so he thought if he eliminated them his problems would go away he may have believed that his life would be better on his own but he likely didn't think about the long-term consequences of his actions he could have been afraid that if his brothers were alive they might point fingers at him or recall fights nick had with his dad which would give away his guilt so he felt he had to kill everyone that's the only true motion you're showing right now it's gotta feel at least a little better i need to know where the gun is though we can't have it out there it's on short road i don't explain all the map or whatever it's you you may have to take us there sure it's fine is it it's phrase maybe it's in bushes you can point out to where it is the detective asks nick to take him to where he ditched the murder weapon which is the final step of the read technique it's vitally important to back up the truthfulness of the confession with independent corroborating evidence such as disclosing key facts of the crime which would only be known to the perpetrator turning over critical evidence like the murder weapon is extremely helpful in sealing a conviction this is what i mean there's a reason there's always a reason you don't want the world to think that dinner forever did your brothers ever wake up were they awake do you remember where you shot your dad i wasn't in there on his body and then then how about your mom your brother's too then why'd you do that your friends that know about it yeah is there anything else you can add you think yes anything you need no i don't want about i mean about you i mean obviously you're sorry about this right now i can see it's the only time that i've seen the motion i wasn't trying to treat you bad yeah i hope you respect i have a job to do all right you need something to drink i'm just going through your handcuffs off you'll be okay just hit the door right there right outside if you need me [Music] it's hard to tell but it looks like nick breeds a sigh of relief once the detective walked out the detective returns to clarify nick's story with him while other officers are checking the location where he said he left the murder weapon just so i got it right he's been harping on you pretty hard started uh did it start prior to the scout stuff or so i mean i mean has he always been tougher on you than the other boys or i think so maybe that's biased but it's always he's always definitely been straight since remember first grade you know going to friend's house is always a pain right but uh i guess because i got close to getting out of the house or something i wanna go to college he tried to even more hard right or something nick appears to be expressing genuine emotion although it's unclear if his tears are for himself or for his family at this point it appears that he's being truthful and cooperative with the detective he's confessed to the shootings and he also provided the location of the gun and uh yes you said you just kind of stood there a little bit before it all happened at least a half hour i was just there sitting there sleeping just looking around and raising the gun back down [Music] and this i raised one more time i don't know if i pulled it i mean i must have pull the trigger but i don't know if it was subconscious i never meant to do it or it wasn't anything wrong with loud ringing i sat down on the couch and waited for a long time crashing down are you waiting for your mom and the brothers to come down no i never did and then i remember walking up the stairs into my mom's room she's sleeping sound did you lean on the bed or what what i just i walked up shot twice shut twice and then you walked your brother's room and then shot craig [Music] think i should have a place i'm not sure if we'll sponsor twice what'd you do after that what happened with the jewelry in the next box i open up the jewelry case throw something around and move the xbox little too did you notice how many neighbors were turning lights on or was anybody outside [Music] stuff will come out later you'll see things so what happens now well we need to contact your grandfather so we're just waiting as soon as they know um what do you want us to tell your grandfather or your aunt what i would say okay let's just we have to take care of some of that stuff all right downtown but i'm gonna be out government's bathroom water candy cookies skim soda or something like nice coat pepsi whatever kill the cream cheese thank you the detective brings a naked jumpsuit to change into and collects his clothing the detective has continued to treat nick kindly and with respect despite the fact that he admitted to killing his entire family now that nick has changed into a jumpsuit it's likely that it's really sinking in what's about to happen after the interview ended with nick's confession he was charged with four counts of first-degree murder what may come as a surprise to you is that soon after his trial began nick's family members including his grandparents aunts and uncles all began writing letters to the court asking for him to be given leniency his maternal grandfather even backed up nick's allegations that he was mentally and physically abused for most of his life regardless of whether or not these claims of abuse were true as they've never been substantiated nick took a plea agreement in january 2009 he pleaded guilty to all four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to four life terms in prison to this day it's still under debate if nick committed the murders in the spur of the moment as he claimed or if he'd been planning them for a long time as authorities believe either way two of nick's life terms will be served consecutively which means that he will become eligible for parole in 2031 after serving 23 years however nick's chances of receiving parole may be slim because in maryland parole for a life sentence must be approved by the governor and that hasn't happened since 1994.

Channel: EXPLORE WITH US

Views: 33,636,498

Keywords: documentary, true crime documentary

Id: MtNASztI83c

Length: 117min 11sec (7031 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2022