20/20 - The Last Strike (Revisited)

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

How a North Dakota love triangle ended with murder and a house in flames. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the last night of his life, Chad Enshill walked out of here, past those cameras, and into the dark, cold winter. You're seeing someone who's leaving the bowling alley on his way to his own death. There's a report of a house fight. a report of a house fire. House fire just on the outskirts of the Bismarck and a person died inside. So this is it, huh? This is where they lived. I can immediately see a naked human body laying on the floor. They have a liquor bottle on the bed and they have a shotgun lying on the What's going on here?

Nikki was hysterical on the phone. Couldn't hardly get words out. She was convinced that he committed suicide. She said suicide. Nine a million years. Where the shotgun was placed from where the body was, that was odd. How vital is the work that these dogs do?

They alerted to me that there was possibly the presence of an ignitable liquid. We have a case of arson going on. Chad didn't die by suicide. He wasn't back to murder. He now determined. and it's time to turn up the heat. A 911 call came in at roughly 5.30 p.m. January 2nd, 2020, from Nikki Ensel, who had called to report that there was a fire at her house.

My husband sent a text message that he didn't come in today, and I've been good three days, and so I'm coming here to check. It's smoky. I can't get in the door. Nikki is very frantic on the 911 call. She can't get into the home. She doesn't know where her husband is, but believes that he's inside the house. Nikki, what's your husband's name? Yeah. Nikki Ansel made that 911 call from her home

on January 2nd, 2020. I met up with Mike Meese, an investment. an investigator here in North Dakota who says it was dangerously cold that night. Well the winters are pretty brutal. This can be sometimes the coldest place on earth. The coldest place on earth? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, you're going to follow us?

Despite the long winters and bitter cold, most people we meet say Bismarck can be a great place to live. This park is a great community. It's the biggest small city. Everybody knows each other. Everybody's friendly. The Capitol building is probably the very first thing that people notice when they come to Bismarck, which is like a skyscraper that goes up 21 stories off the prairie. Each year there's a Christmas tree lighting in the Capitol building.

The governor and the First Lady attend. December, January gets pretty cold. A lot of activities are probably more happening indoors. Bowling alleys are quite busy. We usually go on vacation in about January, February, somewhere. somewhere it can be 30 below with 50 below windshields. There are people that try and can't make it. We say it keeps the riff-rath out, but it really doesn't.

There becomes a lot of issues with seasonal depression in North Dakota because we have very short days, very cold days, and that creates an issue for people to excessively drink. In the wintertime, we usually see an uptick in suicides. Our story starts here on New Year's Eve, two days before Nikki makes that frantic 9-1-1 call. This is Interstate Power on the northeast side of Bismarck, a five-minute drive from Nicky and Chad's house. Interstate power, what is this place? This is where Chad works. It's a power diesel repair place.

They repair power diesel engines. Yeah, trucks, things of that nature, heavy equipment. On December 31st, Nikki calls Chad's place of business and actually calls Chad in sick to work. The following day is New Year's Day, of course, so the place of business is closed. Then on January 2nd, he doesn't show up to work again. The workers are concerned about Chad,

and they've called, there's no answer on his phone. so they drive out to the house. So we're a pretty tight-made group, I guess. Yeah, and that's generally in North Dakota. A lot of your coworkers are like family, and they're going to check on you if you're sick. Agent Meese and I drive out to Chad and Nikki's house on the northeastern outskirts of Bismarck.

So this is it, huh? This is where they lived. His co-workers come out here? Correct, yep. They ended up coming out here. trying to make contact with Chad. What do they find? Well, they found that they couldn't get in here.

They couldn't reach Nicky. They found his truck in the driveway where it was normally parked. There was water frozen in the truck, indicating it had been parked there for a while. So what do the friends do? Well, the friends end up calling the police to come out here and do a welfare check. Central Dakota Communications.

How can I help you? Hi, this is Adam Van Dorn. I'm calling the fee if you can. You guys could do a welfare check on one of our employees. Sure. His wife called him in sick for work on two today, and we haven't heard from him since. And her name? Chad Ensel.

The police do come out here, and they check the best they can with the authority they have. Nobody came to the door when he tried knocking on the door, so really there was nothing more for him to do because there were no signs that anyone was endangered at that house. Nikki gets off of work around 5 p.m. that night. She comes home to discover that her house is filled with smoke. She showed up at the house, went in through the garage door. She's absolutely frantic and emotional. And so was that?

No, no, he did the right thing by calling here. My name is Aaron Silbernagle. I was the sergeant of investigations during the... Ansel case. When did you first come out here? This would have been January 2nd, the night it was reported. I was kind of surprised there was not any damage that I could see on the outside. It was contained.

It wasn't. It wasn't very obvious. It was contained inside. Yes, it was. The fire department went in. They did a sweep of the downstairs, and they did find an active fire downstairs, and that was on top of the metal casing of the furnace. So they put that out.

It was one of the darkest scenes I've ever seen. I've ever seen, there was just thick, thick layers of heavy soot on the wall. It almost felt like it robbed light from your flashlight. Like you just couldn't get it bright enough to really see all the detail. They go through the upper portion of the house. They find that the majority of the damage

is in a back bedroom. When you open the bedroom door, the room was really blackened from the soot and the smoke in there. Agent Hill says if the bedroom door was not closed, the fire could have been much for. could have been much worse. The fire was only able to use up the available oxygen.

It had left in that room. Once it was star for oxygen, the fire burned itself out. Underneath the soot was a plethora of evidence. There's a propane tank heater located close to the bed. Sunflower heater is what they called. Wouldn't be used for the inside of a home, maybe for a garage. It's extremely dangerous because they get very hot. The heaviest fire damage in there itself

was to the mattress. There's liquor bottles in the bedroom, whiskey bottles. I could immediately see a naked human body badly chartered and burned, laying on the floor. The body is badly burned, but there's no doubt the dead male is Nikki's husband, Chad Ensel. He's lying near the bed. On the bed, there's a shotgun.

It looked like there could have been wounds, actually, to his body. There was just a lot of confusion as far as what had happened. By where the body was located and how the shotgun was laying there, it just wasn't adding up. There was a lot of evidence that was left behind. When there's enough crumbs on the ground, you're going to find your way home. The Burley County Sheriff's Department says 42-year-old Chad Ensel was found dead in a his home. The house was reported to be on fire around 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon.

He always had a smile on his face. Just really bubbly, kind of an energetic guy. When we walked in the room, you'd just see a smile and had a certain snicker with him. Big dimples. Chad is a lifelong North Dakota. His sister Lori says from early childhood, he's from early childhood. he was into everything. Oh, Chad had a lot of hobbies. He was always active. He was never really one to sit around and just, you know, do nothing.

In the summertime, he did stock car racing. At the local speedway, it was a dirt track. It's oval. Every Friday night racing, and he absolutely loved it. This car was bright green. The Grinch. Yeah, they called him the Grinch. Yeah.

During those long cold winters, cold winters, Chad took his competitive spirit inside, and on Wednesday nights, it was darts. One of the things that I'll always remember about Chad, and we were just talking about... He always had that, you know, Cheshire Cat, green. Big smile? Always, always. Everyone who knew Chad says his true talents would shine on Monday and Thursday league night. Thursday league nights here at Midway Lange. He bowled on this league many years and he was well liked by everybody out here.

Chad was a guy that never liked the confrontation. He just wanted to be friends. He was a really good bowler. I know for sure he bowled at least two, three hundred games, which are perfect bowling games, nothing but strikes. And I never wanted to bowl against him. Chad's ex, Susie, says his busy social calendar took a total on their relationship. After 17 years of marriage, the childish couple got a divorce.

Towards the end of the relationship, we started drifting apart. He was never home, and when he was home, we weren't getting along the best, so we kind of decided just to go our separate ways. I think the divorce kind of hit him hard. He seemed like a guy that kind of needed to be in a relationship. He was looking for love, kind of, you know, just... Didn't know how to be alone. He didn't know how to be alone. Yep.

And he started telling me about this girl that he met. Nikki. He talked very highly of her. He met her online through a dating website. She was down in South Dakota. He'd take trips down there and then he came back and he was happy, really liked her, and things progressed fairly rapidly. In no time at all, Nikki, a single mother of two, left her nursing home job in South Dakota.

And she moved her family to Bismarck to live. to Bismarck to live with Chad. She had an older son and then a younger son. Those kids called him dad and he was really, really enjoyed those kids. He had mentioned that he was going to ask Nikki to marry him. Of course, I was taken aback a little bit because they weren't seeing each other very long. Chad and Nicky's was not a very big wedding. There was only a select few who attended.

It was a surprise because they didn't let us know that the wedding actually had happened. After the 2016 wedding, Nikki continued her baking business. But in 2019, she got a job at community options. That's a company that finds employment for people with troubled histories. Also, she had her own business where she baked out of her home. That was something that she was doing. Chad liked to be out and about town. Chad Ensel spent some of the last hours of his life here at Midway Lanes doing something he loved to do, bowling with his friends.

The Burlington County Sheriff's Office says 42-year-old Chad Encel was found in the home with a gunshot wound. And at this time, the Sheriff's Office cannot save the death or fire are suspicious as they're still investigating. Looking at the body, there was obviously damage to the face and the head area, but the level of heat and charge. of heat and char and fire damage to the body was extensive, so it wasn't quite clear what we were looking at. We were able to identify a shotgun that was laying on the bed. It was a 12-gauge. It was an over-under-break-action shotgun.

These were birdshot shells. They contain a large amount of small BBs, which are generally used to shoot foul game and small birds. You could see what appeared to be pellets embedded in the wall up near the head of the bed. So we could tell that a shot had been fired and it had hit that wall. They have a liquor bottle on the bed and they have a shotgun lying on the bed. Just that in and of itself, investigators are thinking,

okay, maybe this is just a case of suicide. Suicide is certainly one possibility, but investigators did have some questions about the scene. Where the shotgun was placed from where the body was, that was odd. It was kind of far away. I've seen suicides before, and usually that gun's right next to the body, and so this, it's just, it wasn't adding up. Investigators are suspicious about the location of the shotgun. So they take the investigation of the charred bedroom a step further. They ended up spraying the area with Blue Star, and what they discovered was that there was possibly the presence of blood.

There was some blood drops that looked like that came from one side of the blue star. from one side of the bed, kind of around the foot of the bed, and then ultimately over to where Chad was found on the floor. We also found what appeared to be a handprint on the wall with blood. Investigators never did identify who left that handprint, but the blood trail paints a clearer picture. It appears there was a wounded or deceased individual on one side of the bed, and either that individual walked or was dragged to the other side of the bed.

We start trying to kind of piece together, well, how did this happen? Because we have shotgun pellets in the wall, yet we have a body located on the other side of the bed. The scene in the bedroom just isn't adding up. Police have questions, and they hope Nikki has the answers. The scene seems to tell the story, broken furnace, so Chad resorts to an outdoor propane heater next to the bed. There's the shotgun with one spent shell, bottles of booze laying around.

You could make the case that it all adds up to a suicide and accidental fire. But things aren't always what they seem. As investigators looked deeper, they actually found that there were two fires in the house. There was fires up in the master bedroom where Chad was located, but then there was also fire in the furnace which was in the basement. No way for those two fires to spread from the basement to the bedroom or for the bedroom to the basement. I don't think I've ever seen that before without it being at some

some sort of criminal act like an arson. When fire investigators at the Enzel House find some things that look suspicious, they call for backup. In this case, Webster. I handle the fire department's accelerant detection canine for this side of North Dakota. Webster has the ability to smell

for any type of different ignitable liquid, so up to 60 different types of accelerants. That's amazing. Yeah, very, very cool. All right, you want to show us what he can do? Absolutely. You ready to show us, Webster?

Absolutely. This is 50% evaporated gasoline. This is Webster's training aid. So what we do with this is we can put it in different places or different hides in wherever we're working. This little tiny amount? That little tiny. You could take a toothpick and dip it in the end.

It's quite, it's quite amazing. Dog smell in parts per billion. Let's go. Seek. Seek. Seek. Zik. Yeah, he's in it.

Tick. Zick. Yeah, good boy. So what happened at Nicky's in Chad's house? So, Webster and I basically did what we just showed you here, and we went into the bedroom. The dog walked in, and as soon as the dog walked in, he gave me what we call a change of behavior. But he alerted to me that there was possibly the presence of an ignitable liquid. Now, they had put a propane heater there, right?

heater there, right? They had, yeah. There was a propane heater. So there was something beyond just the propane. That's correct. Yep. Webster could tell. Webster found it. Yep. So investigators took that as a sample, sent it to the laboratory, and the laboratory confirmed it as a medium distillate material. Which is what? It could have been lighter fluid or gasoline or, you know, I'm not exactly sure what it was. On the bed? On the bed and on the floor. The second fire in the basement also struck investigators as being suspicious. That fire that was on top of the metal housing of the furnace, there was a lot of debris. Somebody had left paper up there or had some sort of fuel that they were using for the fire.

There was a piece of marlboro red cigarette carton lying on the floor near the furnace. It appeared to us that that scrap-a-box was used as accelerant for for the fire itself to try and ignite the gas line. However, Chad and Nicky were not known to be smokers. So you have a piece of a cigarette pack inside the home, and the next question is, who does it belong to? That debris was collected, and that also was processed at the state lab

and came back as an ignitable liquid in that as well. Accelerants aren't usually found in an accidental fire. We have two separate fires in this house. Which at this point, we're not believing are any accidental fires whatsoever. We have a case of arson going on. How crucial was that finding by Webster? I mean, it's big because it's one of those things where it's that hard piece of evidence that says you have this distillate that's in a bedroom and it shouldn't be here.

Wow, Webster, here is something else. Now that arson is suspected, The crime scene is reevaluated. One of the things that they noticed when they picked up the shotgun, there was pristine bed sheets underneath where the gun was laying. And then there was also the outline on the floor of Mr. Ansel from where he had been laying. What that tells us is that there had been something sitting there during the fire that basically protected that area from that heat and fire damaged.

Chad hadn't moved from the time the fire started. So it was determined he was deceased. prior to the fire starting. When I'd moved the propane heater and I looked underneath that I'd noticed there was multiple rings. You could see multiple circles on the floor in the carpet as if it had been moved.

If somebody were to be deceased, somebody else would have had to remove that propane heater. This needed to be investigated further. So the coroner was called in, of course, because Chad was deceased and requested an autopsy based on all of these suspicious things. I just remember saying we've got a lot more information from Nikki,

I think we really need to talk with her. As luck would have it, they didn't need to go far to find her. That Monday morning, Nikki Ensel showed up at the Sheriff's Department asking to speak with me. The autopsy was actually occurring that morning. She had requested to go back out to the house, and he indicated he would go with her.

Aaron was very intuitive and identified that this may be a conversation that we have in here that we may want to record. It's January 6th, 2020. Time is approximately 0.8, 5, 7 hours, going to the scene with Nikki and some presence. And we came back out here and that's where she walked me through the crime scene. Is it okay if I go in with you?

Yeah. Okay. One of the first things talking with Nikki when we talked about the furnace, And Nikki was able to produce me a video in short order of how that furnace wasn't working. And Nikki stated that her and Chad had gotten into a fight. She decided that she was going to go to a hotel room because of the fight and because the furnace wasn't working. Nikki said that throughout the course of her relationship with Chad, that Chad drink fairly heavily. She stated that he would drink a case of crown royal and a case of proper 12 of them.

month, and then beer on top of it all. That's two cases of whiskey in a month with 12 bottles in a case. That's almost a bottle of whiskey a day. And with beer on top of that, with this equation of drinking, he should be inebriated. He shouldn't be standing. He shouldn't be making it to work, and he certainly can't be bowling well. She had brought up pictures of how Chad would get drunk and would abuse her. What was so remarkable about that part of the investigation

is they didn't find one person that said anything bad about Chad. In no way, shape or form was Chad a drunk? Or abusive? No, God, no. That was just something preposterous that I would have never believed in a million years. Complete lie.

She's lying through her teeth. Chad would never hit a woman. Then, in the middle of the middle of her, of the walkthrough, Sobernegle receives a phone call, and it changes everything. Now streaming. Go behind the scenes with Taylor Swift.

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The college football playoff isn't over. Not yet. That epic run? That wild dream? Not over till the clock hits zero. Till the stadium shakes. Till the wild things are let loose. Till the trophy is lifted and the confetti falls.

This is the national championship. When it's over, you'll feel it. This is the wild world of college football. The CFP National Championship, Monday, January 19th at 7.30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and the ESPN app. Our top story, continuing coverage of a deadly house fire in Bismarck. I had heard on the news that there was a fire in town, and then the next morning one of my friends called me and said, hey, did you hear about that fire last night? The house was reported to be on fire around 5 o'clock Thursday afternoon. And she said, well, they released there was a victim in there.

The Burley County Sheriff's Department says Chad Ensel was found dead in his home. My first thought was, how did he not get out of the house? Fire officials say crews were on scene for over six hours. I had texted and called Nikki. She was hysterical on the phone. couldn't hardly get words out. She was convinced that he committed suicide. Didn't believe it, Chad was never depressed.

He was never suicidal. He was fine. He was all gung-hop on making plans for the future. She said suicide. Yeah. Chad was never that type. Chad wasn't committed suicide. Nope.

He was too happy, too lucky. Not a million years. Four days after Nikki calls 911 to report the fire, she returns to the house she shared with her husband, Chad. She actually came and asked me if I would take her to the scene to help her find some things or get some personal items. And that's where she walked me through the crime scene. Well, you're out here, you get a phone call.

Yes, I was actually called by one of our other investigators. Hello? And that was when I was told that medical examiner was going to rule this a homicide. The doctor started on the autopsy and it wasn't very long after he was looking at that body where he said this is no suicide. He said that Chad Encel had been shot twice with the shotgun. Chad's body is so badly burned that investigators on the scene couldn't even identify the number of wounds he had suffered. suffered. It would have been very difficult to determine that he had been shot twice. There was one wound that had gone through the arm into the side of the neck. There was another

one to the head directly. It's pretty difficult to commit a suicide with multiple gunshots, especially with a 12-gauge shotgun. They know at this point that Chad didn't die by suicide. He was in fact murdered. They have a feeling that Nikki knows more than she's letting on. Thanks to evidence gathered from the house earlier, Silvernagle already knows Nikki is not telling him the whole story. Nikki and Chad have a security system at the property, and officers are able to pull data. It was actually right up in the corner of that house,

right where that wire's hanging right there, actually. That's actually the wire from the camera. Julie Lawyer compiled key moments captured on that security system at the Encel residence. We start on the morning of December 30th. This is Nikki going to work at 737 AM. She told law enforcement that she had gone to the house to talk to Chad, make sure the furnace was working, and then told him she couldn't stay there. Do we know that Chad was there?

We do know Chad was there. His truck was parked right outside. His truck was always parked there when he was at home. and that was his primary vehicle. So at 7.53 a.m., this is when Chad's leaving for work. Nikki says the furnace is still not working, and her house is freezing cold, so after a full day's work, she returns to the Stay Bridge Suites where she's been staying.

So this is Chad coming back from work at about 5.06 p.m. on December 30th. He had a bowling league that night, so he stopped at the house for a little bit. And then here is Chad leaving for his bowling at 5.46 p.m. on December 30th. And he went bowling in Mandan at Midway Lanes. So far, none of what we've seen on the security camera is out of the ordinary or surprising. But Silber Nagle says what happens at 7 p.m. that night was totally unexpected. A white Chevy Silverado pulling up to the driveway, which was not a VALV. we knew at the time, and a male and Nikki Ansel getting out of the vehicle going into the garage.

Nicky knew that Chad would be gone this particular evening out bowling with friends. The vehicle remains running during the time. They are in and out of the residence numerous times. Retrieving items coming back and forth from the vehicle and loading the vehicle full of personal items. Silber Nagel's number one question, who is that man with Nikki going in and out of the vehicle? out of the house. I had obviously seen the video, and I knew about that there was another male in fact at that home, which was something Nikki

had never brought up to me before. I basically had to pull everything from Nikki. So you just came out? My friend, who was your friend? Oh, oh. You just a friend of your family then? Yeah, yeah. How long have you known him?

Too long. Okay. Thanks to that phone call about the autopsy, Silbernagle knows, Chad didn't kill himself but was in fact killed. So as he walks with Nikki through the crime scene, he needs to tread lightly. All of a sudden, I know I'm talking to probably one

of our likely suspects. So now I'm being extra careful. I'm getting more information as I can. He went to go, he goes to the guys with this and stuff. He went back home, he's back home and I don't know. Oh, he's the contact this. Oh, okay. So he goes all over and now he's back.

Who did she say Earl Howard was? She said initially was a friend of the family and that he and Chad were friends and that they were all friends together. A friend of the family? Yes, yeah. Didn't turn out that way? No, not throughout our investigation.

More surveillance video and more secrets revealed. They seem to be hugging or kissing at Walmart, which is contrary to what Nikki said. The New Year starts January 2nd, 2020, and there's a report of a house fire. House fire just on the outskirts of Bismarck, and a person died inside. We thought it's terrible. The New Year, oh. And then we hear, well, it may have been a suicide, so that makes it even more terrible and tragic, you know.

Leading our coverage tonight, the ongoing investigation following a house fire in the capital city. And within a day or so, we hear, well, police are really investigating it, and that it may not be a suicide, but they won't say much more. Behind me is the home where 42-year-old Chad Enzel was found dead after a house fire. So our reporters are following this thing. What's going on here? What's going on here? There are security cameras everywhere. Even in the bowling alley on the last night of his life, Chad walks out of here past those cameras and into the dark cold winter, having no idea what awaits him in the safety and comfort of his own home.

It's an eerie feeling. You know, you're seeing someone who's leaving the bowling alley happy as he can be on his way to his own death that he doesn't know. Thanks to video recovered from the home security system, police know while Chad is out bowling, Nikki is moving items out of the house. And she has help from a man she identified as family friend, Earl Howard. One of the things that we had to do from the beginning of this was to establish what the relationship was between Nikki Ensel and Earl Howard. So her story is that she owned a catering business and that Earl Howard had been a customer of hers. Earl Howard was from Ontario, came down here to work.

work. Earl was born here, he's got family in Texas, and then he met a woman in Canada, ended up getting married to her. So he's married and has a child. She was nine at the time. Investigators ask Nikki whether she had a romantic relationship with Earl, and she denies this. However, there's evidence that suggests otherwise. Most of what we know about their relationship comes from the records that we obtained,

from the devices that we were able to extract data from. We've got Nikki's phones. Following the tale of the tape, investigators obtained surveillance video from several locations, including Nikki's workplace community options. Their footage is from the same day Chad is last seen at the bowling alley. This is actually December 30th at 1148. That's Earl Howard's truck coming to community options,

where Nikki was working. He picked her up for lunch that day. And then here's her leaving community options with her big pink purse that identified her in most of the surveillance video that we had. Throughout the investigation, we were able to track their financials and see where they were spending money, what time they were there. And one of them was a trip to Walmart. So here we are at the Walmart. How does this store factor in? Walmart's got an awesome security system and they captured a lot of video, which includes Nikki and Earl. And what were they doing? Well, they were kissing on camera. Look at the footage.

Earl is helping Nikki with the hoodie on her jacket. They're leaning in. They're kissing for the entire world to see. Not exactly trying to stay under the radar and not exactly family friends. The weekend before Chad is murdered, Nikki tells her husband she's going to be putting in some long hours here.

at work doing training. He won't be seeing much of her for a few days. But in truth, Nikki's not here. She's not even in North Dakota. Investigators say she's flown off to Minneapolis, staying at a hotel with Earl Howard. We found that Nikki had flown to Minnesota, Minneapolis on December 27th.

Earl had driven from Canada. They spent the night in Minneapolis. She was telling Chad that she was really busy with trainings and was going to be out late and working really hard with new things that are coming along in her job. She's over spending time with Earl. Chad was saying, you know, very nice, sweet things, like, hope you have a great time at training. You're always successful at what you do, babe. You know, he sends her this encouraging message that seems to be the complete antithesis of someone who is abusive or violent.

Investigators say after Nikki got back from that trip to Minneapolis, she stayed here in room 305 of the Bismarck Staybridge Suites. Nikki tells investigators that she couldn't stay in the house with Chad anymore because the furnace was broken. She wanted to go stay in the hotel. But in actuality, Nikki and Earl arrived at the hotel together. So this is Staybridge Hotel. Yes.

Which is how far away? You know, the house isn't very far away. I mean, it's probably within 5 to 10 miles. Very convenient. Very. Investigators execute search warrants. They access room registration records. They get key swiped showing when a room door was opened.

And of course, they get their hands on more surveillance video. They were staying here in 305. Yes. Did she book this room? She did not. Who did? Who did? Mr. Earl Howard did.

The wild thing is that so much of it was caught on camera. Exactly. Not very smart. No. Not at all. We have an autopsy that there's a homicide. We have this male figure who we've identified as Earl, and we need to talk with Nicky again.

We need to get the rest of the details. Silbernagle reaches out to Nicky, asking her to come down to the station so he can finalize his reports. So it was kind of decided since I had had a rapport with Nikki that I should probably do the interview. Well, Nikki, like I said, this is what I'm going to finish my report off with. I started bringing up Earl and when she had been to the house

and what time she had talked to Chad, her story started changing. Thank you. Were you guys romantically involved or anything? No. We now determine it's time to tell you. it's time to turn up the heat. You've been lying to me the whole time, Nikki.

You have. You admit it. Did you lie to me at this? No, I... That's not true, Nikki. Investigators say Nikki is lying, but will Earl tell them the truth? We're about to hear his side of the story

for the very first time. Was there any plan of yours to do chat any kind of harm? This can be the coldest place on earth. If you're going to commit a crime in this weather, you have to be prepared to deal with the elements. There's possible murder. Possible arson? Possible love triangle?

Chad Enzel was found dead after a housefire on James. her house fire on January 2nd. I need to know why a chat. I'm murdered. I just read it. Nicky, we've got this event. You are lying to us. You can sniff out crazy and that you.

She doesn't seem like she's all there all the time. This plot just thickens as time goes on. Investigators are really curious about this man Nicky is spending so much time with. Who did she say Earl Howard was? Was a friend of the family? Was it you? Or was it?

This is the famous kiss cam. It is. Kissing is one thing. Killing is quite another. Now, Nikki Sue Ensel, speaking publicly for the very first time about the murder of her husband, Chan. The snow comes down. It'll cover the roads, cover everything. This is Bismarck in winter.

White and cold. Very cold. It's actually 14 degrees below zero. It's beautiful, but dangerous. The snow is deep. It blankets everything. There's nothing that doesn't get covered by snow. But some things just can't be covered up.

In a small room in the sheriff's offices in the Burley County Courthouse, investigators question Nikki Ensel about the death of her husband, Chad. Nicky, Chad was killed. What? Chad was murdered. Sergeant Silbernaigle did develop really good rapport with Nikki Ensel. In fact, she was very open with him. I don't know, Nikki, but that's what I want to find out.

So why would that happen to chat? And the interview Nikki repeats a lot that she doesn't know what happened. We went through the basic main story again, and I heard a lot of the same repeats, the excessive amount of drinking, the abuse. How much was he drinking? A piece of proud, in case of private 12, a month. Oh, my gosh. All this alcohol usage that Chad was abusive and a heavy drinker,

all the investigation never showed any of that. At times, Nikki is very quiet in this interview. She's speaking almost in a whisper. You can hardly decipher what she's saying. I didn't know why a child was murdered. I know I can't. I just run it back. I just run back.

Investigators are really curious about this man, Nikki is spending so much time with. They keep showing up on security cameras together. at a jewelry store, Walmart, a hotel, and a Chad and Nikki's house. And Nikki tells them his name is Earl Howard. So where are we going here? This is the home of the Chad Anselmurger. This is where she told me about Earl Howard,

how she had come to the scene with him to retrieve some of her items because he knew of the abuse. Nikki, did you have anything to do with chance to have? No. That's a terrible thing to do. I want to do it. Okay. Do you, do you know if Earl would have anything to do?

No, you wouldn't... The chance to. No. Six hours and 45 minutes was the length of that interview. And it involved Sergeant Silber Nagel and then one of the BCI investigator Joe Arons as well. Thank you.

This is Joe Arons. Hi. He's with a group of criminal investigations. Hello. And I have to notice them. At that point, I think the interview had been going on for about an hour and an hour and a half, and it really wasn't getting anywhere. I know you've been talking to him and told him some things.

Some of that I can tell you right now is not true. He comes and plays a bad cough and just right in her face saying, Nikki, we've got this evidence. You are lying to us. So what is the girl doing in North Dakota? He's got a couple project manager jobs that he's coming to sell it and all that, so. Okay, all right.

And Chad knows Earl? Mm-hmm. Okay, are they friends? They've met, they've hung out. Her story is that Earl happened to be in town for some sort of job he was doing and that the furnace at their house wasn't working. She then decided she was going to go and stay in a hotel at the stay bridge here in Bismarck with Earl until the furnace was fixed.

What did Chad think of you going and staying in a hotel room with Earl? Chad didn't think anything of that? Really? I understand being friends with him, but friends to the point where your husband is staying at home and you're staying in a hotel room with this other man. other man, that doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, I think he's, you know, super nice person. He thinks that, you know, I'm super beautiful and, you know,

it's, I do. I, you know, I like hanging out with them. I, you know, I miss him when he's not around. I love him. I love him when he comes to town. So is it a romantic relationship, I guess that's what I'm asking. No. Okay.

No, I, it's like, I, I do. I love him. The police believe that Chad Ensel was killed on December 31st, probably in the early morning hours. Investigators want to know what were Nikki and Earl up to in that critical time period when they believe that Chad was shot. So December 31st at 102 a.m. we see Nikki and Earl leaving the hotel. About to commit the murder. Correct. That's what we believe.

And then shortly after that, they know that someone entered the house. They don't know who because the camera was set to privacy mode, but they know that the house was accessed by someone. Someone had shut off the camera at the Enzel home, but the security system door sensors were still working, including the one on the door leading from the garage into the house. That door was opened at 11.m. and it didn't close again until 258. so they were in the house for almost two hours she said that she had just

went out there to get some medications wanted to get my rents mm-hmm but you said that you keep your minutes in your purse okay so I said okay but you were there for an hour and 40 minutes so what were you doing for an hour and 40 minutes because you weren't looking for a medication for an hour and 40 minutes and she said then she did the dishes that's when she came up with some man was in the basement and had come up she says that on the night chad was murdered there was someone else in the house could the cops have their entire love triangle theory backwards Bring some of the ones in the house.

So many what? Something else in the house. I don't know what? I don't know what happened. I don't honestly know what happened. I don't know. The interrogation has been going on for hours, and it's all about her and Earl Howard in the home.

She was just lying, lie after lie. I had no doubts in my mind. She had played an active role in Chad's death. I just remember Nikki, she was thinking through her story. Like, where could she go next with it? All of a sudden, the first line of lies she was giving wasn't working, so now she's going to come up with another scenario. She says that she was at the house to retrieve some items,

and while she was at the house, there was a mystery man in the house with Chad. There's a third person that suddenly appears in the house. There was somebody else in the house. So many what? Something else in the house. And the detectives are, what? A third person. I thought her honey.

He called Chad home? She was basically trying to imply that this was a romantic relationship that Chad had with this unknown male. male. Why did you never tell me this before? I understand dignity, but there's nothing dignity about what happened to chat. What do you look like? I would say mid-40s. Spite hair, spiky hair. No glasses. Very nice teeth. Supernese. At one point she even asks the investigators to stand up because she's trying to describe him and gauge his height. And so she wants to see how tall the investigators are comparatively speaking to this man.

And so they gave her a piece of paper and had her draw a picture of this person. It was kind of a ridiculous picture, but she so badly wanted me to believe that there was another person. even though it was obviously not true. A casual observer watching this thing would be going, come on, are you kidding me? It was a figment of her imagination. Okay, I'm ready to go. Nikki keeps talking, finally revealing some of what investigators believe

really happened in that house. Tell me. What is you want to say? as you want to say. Her version is that they went into the home at 1 o'clock in the morning, and Chad and Earl get into an argument. They have you.

And then what? They argued and then what? And basically she left, went outside. I went out to the car. And I waited. Okay. And Earl stayed inside and then came out a couple minutes later and said that Chad was no longer alive

and that Earl and Chad had gotten into a fight over a gun. And that Chad had been shot. And what did Earl say? What did Earl say? Not a way. Earl said he's not alive. And then what? And he might not be alive, I don't know for sure.

He was a boy. Earl Howard did the killing, she said. Yeah, right. He didn't want to die back and forth. And he said he didn't want to have. He said he didn't want him. How much of that is the truth? We can't corroborate who actually pulled the trigger

or where anybody was physically standing within the house when the shots were fired. fired but we do know that that's when Chad was shot and killed and we do know one of them is the one that did it and then later on Earl came and tried to burn the house down who came back to set the fire From I don't know to Earl did it. In the eyes of investigators, Nikki Ansel's story of innocence just melts away.

After all of that, investigators are taken aback by a request from Nikki. Chad's funeral was the next day, and she asked us if she was going to be able to go to the funeral. And we told her, no, she wouldn't be. She wouldn't be attending that funeral. We said, no, you're going to jail. They had asked her to write out a detailed statement about what happened.

And at the end of the interview, she was angry that she was being arrested. So she grabs her written statement and attempts to tear it up. So I, in order to preserve evidence, intervene with Nikki and rip the statement out of him. That was her. and we were starting to see the real Nikki.

Two days later, authorities say Nikki Ansel asks investigators to come see her in jail. Was it you? Or was it Earl? Who came up with this whole scenario? No day. I know what I'm doing.

She states that Earl did. So she turned on her conspirator. Whether it was true or not, I don't know. And we filed charges on both her and Earl Howard and issued arrest warrants for him. The shotgun killer, the fires, the cover-up. Nikki blames it all on Earl. But what does Earl say about who pulled the trigger?

And more importantly, where is Earl? The boyfriend is on the run somewhere and an arrest warrants out for him. Burley County has one suspect now in custody. They have identified another person of interest. They're currently working on tracking them down for questioning, and they are asking for your help. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. My favorite thing about the holidays? Decking out my whole house. And it's not a competition, but like if it was, I would totally win the season with Wayfair. Giant outdoor inflatable Santa. Got it on Wayfair. Trees, lights, and ornaments in every style and

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Get tickets now. Authorities are searching for a man, they say, killed Chad Ensel at Bismarck with a shotgun. Behind me is the home where 42-year-old Chad Enzel was found dead after a housefire on January 2nd. are looking for 41-year-old Earl Howard. Howard is from Bellwood, Ontario in Canada. There's possible love triangle, there's possible murder, possible arson to cover up the murder. Nikki Ensel jailed on conspiracy charges,

her friend Earl, a wanted man. We charged Earl Howard with those counts along with a count of murder and a count of arson and issued arrest warrants for him. And then the boyfriend, friend is on the run somewhere and an arrest warrants out for him, people are going, what's going on here? We started the process to get everything in place so that Canada could arrest him when we could extradite him back to the United States. In tonight's top story, a man wanted for murder is caught. Earl Roy Howard is a Canadian citizen accused of helping a Bismarck woman kill her husband.

Earl drives to the border of the U.S. and Canada, port here on Michigan, and actually turns himself in to U.S. Border Patrol. old Howard was arrested by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in connection with the fire and Ensel's death. I then flew into Detroit and made my way to Port Huron along with Special Agent Mike Meese from the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. In a Michigan police station, Sergeant Aaron Silbernagle and Special Agent Mike Meese come face to face with someone they've only seen on surveillance cameras, Earl Howard. If you want to have a seat, I'm Mike Meese with the Attorney General's office at the state of North Dakota, okay?

But this is strictly your opportunity to help yourself. Tell us what happened. I need a lawyer. He had the opportunity right then and there to give us his side of the story, and he denied so and requested an attorney. Earl Roy Howard was handed five charges in a Burley County courtroom this morning, including murder and arson. Earl Howard gets his attorneys.

And as you can see in this video obtained by 2020, he eventually gives authorities his version. version of events leading to the murder of Chad Ensel. It started off of cookies. She was a baker. She ordered, I ordered some cookies from her, because why not? Is it fair to say that eventually your guys' relationship became romantic? Yes.

Earl says that Nikki tells him Chad is abusing her. So he says he's trying to help or move to Texas to get away. What were your intentions regarding her after she left Chad? I was going to break it off. So you weren't going to leave your wife and moved her in Texas? No matter. Why was that had anything happened to change your relationship with her? You could sniff out crazy eventually.

She doesn't seem like she's all there all the time. So who shot Chad Ensel? Earl says he was there, but it wasn't him. He says he and Nikki returned to the house. Chad was still up. He was in the living room. living room watching TV. It was cordial at that time. It didn't turn bad for a bit. It turned ugly about the time I said she's leaving you. He had told Chad that Nikki was leaving

Chad and he said Chad became confrontational and kicked him out of the house. We had words. He asked me to leave his home or face police. I left. I sat in. I sat in. her car. Earl Howard, who's supposedly rescuing Nikki Ansel, leaves her alone with her alleged abuser while he sits in the car and waits. She came back out after that. We left. All the way back to the hotel, she said, she shot Chad. I said, okay, I'll deal with it. Up until that point, Was there any plan of yours to do Chad any kind of harm? No. Destroy any evidence or anything like that?

Not at that time. Earl's story was, Nicky had no idea he was going to tamper with the scene or set the fire, and he had no idea Nikki was going to kill Chad. She didn't ask for him. She just said, I shall. And I told her I'd take care. Later that day, Earl says he returns to the house to burn the evidence, including Chad Ensel's body.

body. I went out, grab the propane, a heater, put it next to the bed spread, and lit it, just make the lighter flitter out, and went out, put it on fire, I walked out. Now, Earl denies he set the second fire in the basement. It is odd because we can place him in the basement. Remember that piece of a Marlboro cigarette pack found near the furnace? It was photographed later because I brought it up after seeing video from the scene of Earl Howard smoking. Chad doesn't smoke cigarettes, Nikki doesn't smoke cigarettes, nobody smokes cigarettes.

The only person who smokes is Earl. What types of cigarettes do you like to smoke? What we believe happened is that he was looking for something to start on fire and used his cigarette case. cigarette case. Today, opening statements are expected in the trial of a Bismarck woman accused in the death of her husband three years ago. The image of Nikki changes dramatically with the evidence revealed piece by piece, with the interviews, and then with those videos. It's like you're a fly on the wall to this crime that's happening over several days. It's just amazing that this plot just thickens as time goes on.

Nikki has a tattoo, one life, one love. In a way, that could become her prophecy. The man she says she who loved is dead. She's about to face trial. If convicted, she's looking at a life sentence. Chad Ansel was found dead of a gunshot wound in January of 2020 after a fire at the home. 43-year-old Earl Howard of Ontario and Nikki Sue Ensel were charged. in the death of the woman's husband.

Nikki Sue is accused of conspiracy to commit murder. Earl Howard is also charged with conspiracy in the case. And what prosecutors say was a love triangle with plans to cash in on a life insurance policy. What in the world was Earl Howard thinking? Did Nicky approach him with the idea? Hey, listen, I want to kill my husband, collect the insurance, we'll burn down the house.

Can you help me? Our plan was to try them together because a lot of the evidence intertwined. But there won't be a trial for Earl Howard. He won't have to face any jury because he takes a plea deal without admitting that he pulled the trigger. Earl Howard pled guilty, not to murder, but conspiracy to commit murder. Also, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, conspiracy to commit arson and arson. New this morning, a Canadian man, 43-year-old Earl Howard, has been sentenced to serve at least 21 years in prison as part of an agreement to plead guilty.

That leaves Nikki to face the music. And in September 22, Nikki Ensel goes on trial here at the Burley County Courthouse for conspiracy to commit murder. The case set for trial today is the state of North Dakota versus Nikki Sue Melissa Ensel. And so you're ready for your opening statement. You may proceed.

Opening statements come from the state. Chad Enzel was shot twice with him. shotgun and left dead in the hall. Then, Nikki's state-appointed defense attorney, Thomas Glass, a well-respected trial lawyer, surprises some court watchers. Defense opening statement, I'll defer to a later date, you're up. So if you'd like to do an opening statement now? Reserve you.

All right, thank you. He's going to defer no opening statement? In all of my years of criminal trial coverage, I have not seen an attorney elect not to make an opening statement. Well, okay, maybe he's got a strategy there. He's not going to show his head. Nikki's attorney declined to comment for our story. Miss lawyer, you may call your first witness when you're ready?

With that, the prosecution is off and running, calling more than 40 witnesses. And I proceeded to see a body laying on the floor. The potential indicators of maybe an ignitable liquid having been put on the bed and potentially on the floor. or shotgun wounds to the head. The prosecutor, Julie Lawyer, shows the jury more than 300 exhibits, including some of Nikki's interrogation. I would say, Nikki Ensel never testified at her trial, but she did, and that was the police interrogation.

Are we not done mine? We see her dissent into this excuse, this happened, or maybe this, or maybe that. It's basically a confession. What's the biggest mistake you can make in a murder plot? Insurance, right? Someone buys a policy, and the next thing you know, their loved one is a goner, dead giveaway.

Now, Nikki and Earl wouldn't make that mistake, would they? On December 26, Nicky took out a rental insurance policy that was effective December 27th, just days before Chad was killed. Nikki Encel also sent Earl Howard proof that she had purchased rent. she had purchased renter's insurance. There's absolutely no reason for Earl Howard to know about renter's insurance at a place he's not living,

except for showing him that the insurance is in place, the house can be burned down now. He's raised your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to whom you got? I do. Thank you. One of Chad Encel's bowling buddies,

Kent Heinley testifies. I can still see the smile on his face. Sorry. I missed him. He was just such a great person. Turns out, Kent Highley was also an insurance agent. Did you ever sell Chad insurance? I did. Do you know if Mickey was involved in that,

or if you had meetings jointly with the two of them? We did. Chad did have a couple of life insurance policies that he had taken out in 2018 after he was married to Mickey. One was $500,000 payout, the other was $100,000 payout. Who was supposed to be the primary beneficiary? His wife, Nikki. Now, trial watchers are on the edge of their collective seats,

anticipating a star witness, Earl Howard. Everybody who's following this is thinking, aha, Earl's going to be that witness at the trial against Nicky. Then we get to the point where the state is called its final witness. For the record, the state would rest with that witness, John. No Earl Howard? He was on the witness list. Why didn't they call him?

Typically, when you make a plea deal, you expect that person to testify, in this case, against the co-conspirator. That didn't happen. Why not? Because that murder count was still hanging out there, and nobody had been charged with that, if he got on the stand and testified and was asked about that, he could have pled the fifth. Mr. Glass, how will Ms. Insel proceed? Now the defense. Now we're going to see what the grand plan is. Your Honor, this defense will not be calling any witness is the defense for us. What? No opening statement, no defense, nothing?

What kind of strategy is that? Now, it's the right of every person, you know, you don't have to put on a defense in court. It's up to the state to saddle with the burden of proof to prove that you did this. Defense Attorney Thomas Glass's closing argument focuses almost entirely on the conspicuous absence of Earl Howard. They didn't think it was important to bring him in court

As an electrical conspirator. Why? Why? Where is Earl Howard? Where's the other person in this crime? Why raises doubt? Reasonable doubt. People were expecting the verdict to take a day or so.

I've been informed that the jury has reached a verdict. The verdict is next. next. And in a 2020 exclusive interview, Nikki Ensel makes her first surprising public comments about the death of her husband. Nicky, did you shoot your husband, Chad? Hey guys, it's Kamel Anjiani. My new stand-up special Night Thoughts is now streaming on Hulu. I promise you're going to laugh. I am an immigrant. Are there any other immigrants here? Okay, what you can't do is point at someone else. My thoughts is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.

Terms apply. That wasn't my call. If it was my call, terms would not apply, but it's not my call. Terms apply. I've been informed that the jury has reached a verdict. We had just gotten home and our victim advocate coordinator called and said, there's a verdicts. And is this a unanimous verdict by the jury?

Yes, it is. I told my mom, we jumped back in the car. But unfortunately, they weren't able to wait for my mom and I to get back to the courthouse. As to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, we find the defendant, Nicky Sue, Alyssa Insull, guilty. Goes to the jury, and what happens two hours later? As to the charge of conspiracy to commit arson, we find the defendant guilty. Nikki Ensel is guilty on all three charges.

Conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit arson, conspiracy to tamper with evidence. Oh, I think everybody was able to breathe a sigh of relief. It was a good day. It was a bittersweet day, of course, but it was good. We still had many questions for Nikki Ansel, so while I was in Bismarck, I drove over to the county jail for a visit. All right, we tried to go in see if we'll talk to Nikki Seasel. see what she has to say. It seems she'll give us an interview.

After we talk off-camera, Nikki agrees to an interview. Now, Nikki Sue Ensell, speaking publicly for the very first time about the murder of her husband, Chan. Hello, Nikki. Where are we right now, Nikki? How did you end up here? Long duty, some days I want to know myself. The charges I have are conspiracy charges, which means there has to be a plan.

And I'm still waiting for the prosecution to show me where the plan is. Nikki, did you shoot your husband, Chad? No. No. Did you plan for Earl to shoot, Chad? No. Did you set either of the fires inside that house? No.

And if you didn't, then who did? I don't know. I'm not a fire person. Fire has never been my thing. Did you know those fires were going to be set? No. Not only did I lose my husband. I and my boys lost our stuff.

But they lost Chad, too. I mean... Yeah, and as I said, I lost... Not only did I lose my husband, I lost all of our memories. Investigators believe that Nikki persuaded Earl to kill for her that she had told this story about Chad being a physically abusive husband

How do you feel about Chad's death? It saddens me. I'm not going to say it doesn't. Yes, it does. It bothered me. Were you having an affair with Earl? No. Like I said, if that would

It would have been my tape, which is not my type? Not my type? Investigators say photos and messages on Nikki and Earle's phones tell quite a different story. We found some very racy text messages between the two of them. Very intimate, very sexual and personal messages. This is the famous Kiss Cam. It is. There you are at Walmart.

at Walmart on camera kissing him. I didn't see no kiss given at all. You know, we saw it and you're smooching away there. I don't ever see no smooch given at all. So who should people believe you or their lying eyes? Have I kissed many friends on the cheek? Have I kissed on the cheek? Have I kissed on the cheek?

Yes. Kissing is one thing. Killing is quite another. Authorities say Nikki and Earl's conspiracy to murder Chad and burned down the house included a bizarre plan to help fuel the fire. A day or two before the homicide,

Earl had purchased an oxygen acetyl oxygen acetylene torch kit. Law enforcement, when they were at the house on January 2nd, they did notice that there was this torch kit in the garage. It found that the tanks were both opened so as to fill that space with oxygen and acetylene, which would have been extremely combustible. We realized that this might have been another tool

being planned to use to actually blow that house up. The big question is, who killed Chad, your husband? your husband. Right. Who all knew where we lived, John? Was it Earl? Can you say it was Earl who killed him? Pull that trigger?

I can't do that for 100%. I wasn't there. When did you hear the gunshots? That's not what police say, Nikki, told them. They say she finally admitted she was there at the house and heard the gunshots. Mr. Adamson, I don't know. Oh, ma'am. She?

But now, she tells me, she was miles away, back at the hotel. I never left that whole area. There's no doubt about it. Not lying about it. Had my good old handy dandy apple watch on. Innocently taking a walk in the middle of the night, in the dead of winter in Bismarck, North Dakota. I guess it's hard to know each story to believe. believe my story changes nine times sounds like that my story changes so many different times

that none of them are really consistent Nikki that's the problem you were convicted found guilty now you're going to be sentenced what do you expect to happen at that sentencing I don't know I don't know what's going to happen I absolutely meant to be there for the sentencing. I want her to see that Chad has family and support here, that she needs to go away. I can't imagine two more bumbling criminals trying to commit a crime, and they do it very poorly.

They're terrible criminals. Everything they tried to do in this scheme of theirs failed miserably. Nikki Ensel, a week away from her 42nd birthday, nearly alone in courtroom 100 of the Burleigh County Courthouse, waiting for her attorney, the prosecutor, and the judge who will sentence her for conspiring to murder her husband, and other crimes. Thank you. Please be seated.

Think about it. Nikki Ensel was hoping to have her freedom. Freedom from Chad. Freedom with her new boyfriend or lover. Freedom to go to Texas. Freedom to have the money to do all these things. And right now, what does she have? She is facing life behind bars, alone.

Good afternoon. The court will open the record in the state of North Dakota versus Nikki Sue Melissa Insul. First, Chad's mother and sister have their say. The hurt and the pain that the loss of my son Chad is unbearable. It is a wound that will never heal. Your actions have caused a good man his life and have forever fractured my family. And no parent should ever have to bury their child. Justice has been done.

And I know I speak for a lot of people that wants you to rot an eternity where you will no longer be able to hurt anybody again. I don't like to call any one of us a victim because I refuse to give her that kind of power over us, but she altered our lives, all of us, for the rest of our lives, you know. our lives, you know. She gave everybody a life sentence. There's nothing that can make any of this right, no matter how much jail time she gets. When it's her turn to speak, Nikki talks about the impact of jail and a long prison sentence on her and her two sons. Nobody knows the loss I live

every single day, not just with chat, but with the loss of my voice. I don't have my voice, I don't have anybody else. He could sentence Nicky to prison forever. Instead, Judge Douglas Barr, soon to be elevated to the state Supreme Court, seasons justice with mercy. There's the possibility that a essential may be able to be released down the road and be a productive member of society. He sentences Nicky to life in prison with the

possibility of parole the possibility yes but by the time Nikki is eligible she'll be a woman in her 70s is there a moral to the story you know I don't know greed in one word I'd say greed she wanted Agreed me. And she thought she was truly smarter than every else in there. She thought she could get away with it. She thought nobody would know him. Chad lost his life because these two people wanted to run off together

and make money off the deal so that they could start a new life. They were just thinking it would be an easy thing to kill somebody, collect the money and leave. And nobody would be the wiser. And that's sad. How will you remember him? As being a good, good friend. I mean, he really was. Just that guy everybody liked.

He'll be missed for a long time. And Nikki Ansel tells us that she plans to appeal her verdict. Her co-conspirator Earl Howard is expected to be released from prison in the year 2040. He turned down a request for an investigation. down our request for an interview. That is our program for tonight. Thank you for watching. I'm David Muir, and from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.

Good night.