48 Hours - A Young Mother Murdered

Episode Date: September 3, 2023

The twisted case of a computer scientist and the death of his Russian bride. "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Maureen Maher reports. This "48 Hours" episode originally aired on 07/18/2009.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Nina had the most beautiful voice that I'd ever heard. Oh, my God. It was her voice that I fell in love with more than anything else. And such a beautiful smile.

Nina was a doctor at OBGYN. and such a beautiful smile. Nina was a doctor at OBGYN. In the computing world, Hans Reiser is thought by some people to be a genius. And so you have a memory bandwidth overhead. He's created pieces of code that absolutely blow people's mind. Hans immediately fell in love with Nina and got married. They had two kids. Nina was the greatest love of my life and what I saw in Nina I hadn't really

seen in anyone else. Hans had a childhood friend named Sean Sturgeon. Nina started a relationship with Sean Sturgeon, an affair. We were both intensely in love with each other. He went to five therapists, and they all were scared of him. Hans and Nina knew about my wild side, knew about all the S&M stuff. An Oakland mother vanishes without a trace. Still no sign of an East Bay mother who's been missing out for six days. It has been a week and a half and still no sign of a woman missing out.

Now right now police say they have no reason to suspect foul play. Who knows why Nina disappeared? Is there any chance that Nina Reiser is alive and living in Russia someplace? There's always a chance. I've done things that most people, they wouldn't even dream of doing. They haven't dreamed of it. He's a superb role player. Truly superb.

I am responsible for the death of at least one other human being. He's really become dangerously insane. It's a mystery. When was the last time computer science got wrapped up in sadomasochism, murder, bloodstains, and the KGB? Never. Betrayal. Tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn

and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island

to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with

and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products.

Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Sean Sturgeon knew Hans and Nina Reiser better than almost anyone.

I love Hans. I love Nina. And he had a particular fondness for Nina. What did you love the most about her? I love that when she got excited, she would jump up and down like a particular fondness for Nina. What did you love the most about her? I loved that when she got excited, she would jump up and down like a pogo stick. She wanted to taste the world. She wanted to grow. I loved that she loved life.

The last time he spoke to her, it was about some money he had left in her mailbox. Called her up and said, honey, there's some money there. I know you need it. And she said, Sean, I don't know when I can pay you back. And I said, I know. That was the last time I saw her. That was the same weekend Nina was making plans with her good friend, Ellen Doran. Sunday morning she called and she said,

why don't we have dinner together, I can bring dinner to your house. The plan was for her to come over at 6.30 that Sunday for dinner. Nina and Ellen are both Russian, and they both had American husbands. Ellen says Nina often spoke of her husband Hans. He was very kind and he was very attentive. I know Nina was very much in love with him. It was a relationship that began half a world away from Oakland. It was back in the late 1990s here in St. Petersburg Petersburg long known as Russia's window to the West when Nina an obstetrician and Hans a computer wizard first met they had very little in

common but the quirky Americans soon made the young beautiful doctor look twice and once smitten the two quickly became serious Hans was one of the visionaries behind the Linux computer operating system and he was in Russia looking for cheap programmers for his new software company. My sense of Hans is that he's got his head up in the clouds. He wants to bury himself in mountains of code. That's what that's his dream. Josh Davis is a writer for Wired Magazine and a 48 Hours consultant. He says Hans was developing an expertise in something called file systems.

It's one of the most basic pieces of software in a computer. But Hans felt very passionate that this was what he was going to make his life's work. His life's work, as it turned out, included having a Russian wife, says best friend Sean Sturgeon. He said to me, I want a beautiful, well-educated, professional woman to give up everything to have my children and raise them. Hans thought he'd found what he was looking for when he spotted this photo of Nina in a Russian bride magazine. of Nina in a Russian bride magazine. Do you think that she picked Hans as the person to help her get to America, or did she truly fall in love with him?

I think that she loved him. Nina had visited the United States as a teenager and had always dreamed of living here. So when Hans invited her to Oakland, Nina readily agreed. And within a month, she announced she was pregnant. She herself was an OBGYN, and she forgot to use birth control and got pregnant. That raised a red flag with Hans' father, Ramon Reiser. You think that was planned?

Oh, definitely. Ramon demanded to know more about this new woman from Russia. I said, well, what are her strong points? He said, well, she's widely read. She's had the discipline to be a doctor. She's fairly quick. But compared to the girls I've known, she's very shallow. And I said, do not marry her.

Hans ignored his father and married Nina in 1999 when she was five months pregnant with their son, Rory. It was a less than traditional ceremony. Hans is an unusual person, there's no doubt about it. Nina took it all in stride. Life was good and getting better. Hans' company grew and so did his reputation. Even the U.S. Department of Defense came calling. He got a $600,000 grant from them and that financed him for a while. With Hans a computer star and Nina studying for her U.S. medical license, the Reisers seemed to have it all.

They even had a second child, a daughter named Nayo. I think that Nina was devoted to her children. Her children was her God, her best friends. But by 2001, after Nayo was born, Hans began spending more and more time in Russia, building up his business. Nina, meanwhile, was back in Oakland. She was raising the children basically alone. He was gone a lot of the time. Ellen says Nina felt abandoned. Did she talk to you much about it?

Yes. She was very upset, and of course she would cry sometimes. I sent him two books, Dummy's Guide to Better Communication Between Couples and Dummy's Guide to Divorce. And I said, Hans, you're going to need one of these books. You choose. And did he ask you to look after her while he wasn't there?

Yep. And Sean did look after her in his own way. Who made the first pass, you to Nina or Nina to you? That would be me. You made the first pass? You to Nina or Nina to you? That would be me. You made the first pass? You betcha. The thing about it is if it was just about sex, I never would have done anything. Because it wasn't about sex at all.

I have plenty of sex. I can get sex anywhere, almost any time. It wasn't that I was just, you know, I'm going to go hit on my best friend's wife. It was love for you. And it was love for her. How did Hans find out about the relationship? We told him. Not surprisingly, soon afterward, Hans and Nina separated. What he said to me, I believe, was that it was very sad that things turned out the way they did.

In 2004, Nina filed for divorce and custody of the children. Hans was crushed. I've seen him be extremely emotional about his children, very loving and caring and desperate for their well-being. Hans and Nina were in and out of court, arguing bitterly about how the children were being raised. To him, the interaction between a computer and a child is more important than any other activity. He thought he was a perfect father. Hans withheld child support payments and eventually owed Nina more than $12,000. Then came that Sunday in September 2006, when Nina had made dinner plans with

Ellen. It was her weekend to have the children, but Hans insisted for him to have the kids. That's when she took the children to his house on Sunday. Nina did take the children to Hans' house, but what happened next was a mystery. I called her I think every half hour after that and then at 9.30 her phone went straight into the voicemail. Hello, you have reached Nina Rogers voicemail. I thought that maybe something has happened to her, but I believe that she was alive.

Please leave me a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list.

She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the

Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America.

literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, you have reached Nina Ryders voicemail. Please leave my message and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you. Speaking in her native Russian, Ellen Dorn left repeated messages for her best friend Nina all Sunday night and into Monday, Labor Day 2006. But Nina had vanished. And what were you thinking at this time?

I was very, very surprised at first, and then scared. But I didn't think that something bad could have happened to her. At that point, after being a couple for more than a year, Sean and Nina had broken up. Nina had a new boyfriend, Anthony Zagrafos, a prosperous Bay Area businessman. Tuesday morning I called her and then I called Anthony.

We just started panicking. I had received a phone call from Ellen and from Anthony. And Anthony was saying, Sean, we have to put aside all of our conflict and all this stuff and, you know, do you know where Nina is? And Anthony's saying, is it possible that she could be with another man? to put aside all of our conflict and all this stuff, and do you know where Nina is? And Anthony's saying, is it possible that she could be with another man?

I said, Anthony, you're asking me if it's possible that Nina could be unfaithful to you? No, Anthony, I could never see that. Impossible, Nina would never be unfaithful to another man. Clearly you have some issues with that. Generally speaking, if you're in a relationship, yeah, you've got issues. And Sean and Nina had a rather unique relationship.

She was my wolf. I was her wolf. What do you mean by that? Wolves mate once and for life. What I was her wolf. What do you mean by that? Wolves mate once and for life. What I was seeing in her was that fierce desire to be together with someone else forever. So then why did the relationship end? Nina moved on. Nina broke her word. So is that why you maintained a relationship with her afterwards? You continued to support her, both emotionally and financially?

I'm always her wolf. Curiously, those closest to Nina, Ellen, Anthony, and Sean, did not contact Hans, her estranged husband. Anthony drove by his house, but Nina's minivan was not there. Ellen didn't know what to think.

I could not imagine that anybody would hurt her. Nina had been missing for nearly 48 hours. Hans was supposed to drop the kids off at school Tuesday morning. Nina was to pick them up. So before contacting the police, Ellen checks to see if Nina is there when school lets out. She's going to come pick up her children,

no matter what, she would have been there. And you thought if She's going to come pick up her children, no matter what. She would have been there. And you thought, if she's alive, she'll be there. It's a saying in Russian. If you can crawl, you're going to be there. But Nina is not there. That night, Ellen calls police, who take a missing persons report.

With the police standing by, Ellen phones Hans. I told him that I picked up the children and Nina's missing, and I know that you saw her last. Do you know anything about her, where she might have gone afterwards? And his answer was, I want to talk to my lawyer. This is Reiser, this is Officer Gil with the Oakland Police Department. I was trying to get a hold of you. If you get this message, call me back. It's very important. The police move quickly to try and find Nina.

We've searched a number of different parks, backyards. We had a lot of resources committed to finding Nina Reiser, bringing her back home safely. Assistant Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan sends out an army of investigators to the last place Nina was seen, Hans' house in the Oakland Hills. Time was ticking against us. She had every reason to live. For his part, Hans refuses to say much of anything.

He became very defensive, uncooperative. Hans, why aren't you talking to police? And he did not show any remorse or any concern at all for his wife. Then police find Nina's minivan just three miles from Hans's house. The groceries she purchased the day she vanished are still inside. And so is her cell phone. But someone has removed the battery so it cannot be tracked. What do you think happened to her? I think that's for Hans to answer. But Hans is a tough guy to pin down. As police tail him, they realize that Hans

is no longer driving his 1988 Honda CRX, and they can't find it anywhere. Part of our surveillance was to also locate that vehicle. Meanwhile, the couple's two young children are taken away from Hans because he is the number one suspect. Within a week, Nina's mother Irina flies all the way to Oakland from St. Petersburg, Russia. It's hard to me because she was very close to me. St. Petersburg, Russia.

Irina and the children move into Ellen's house. To wake up every morning and to see the children and to see Nina in them was the most difficult. Them asking, where's my mom? When is she coming home? What do you tell them? We kept telling them that she got lost and everyone's searching for her. As investigators follow Hans,

they discover his missing car. But prosecutor Paul Horace says something else is missing. He removed the front passenger seat. He removed the rear cargo area of the car, threw away the carpeting that covered the spare tire. The police detain Hans to get a DNA sample. In his fanny pack, they find nearly $9,000 in cash, his passport, and a cell phone, with the battery removed.

The fact that Nina's cell phone battery had been removed from her cell phone intentionally, and then later he too had his cell phone battery removed from his cell phone, was really a signature circumstance in this case. Soon enough, Nina's blood is found on this wooden post in Hans's house and Hans Reiser, the world-famous computer genius, is charged with the murder of Nina Reiser. Topping our news, the estranged husband of a missing Oakland woman is expected to be arraigned tomorrow on murder charges. But then, just when all the evidence is pointing directly at Hans, the case suddenly takes a dramatic turn.

Sean Sturgeon makes a startling confession. I told them that I killed 8.5 people. That you had killed 8.5 people? Yes. The.5? I told them that when I had showed up, that person may or may not have been dead. But by the time I left, that person was most definitely dead. My love for Nina. Love is not love which alters when an alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove. There is no doubt that Sean Sturgeon, former best friend of Hans

Reiser and Nina's ex-lover is one of a kind. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom. Few people admit to being a serial killer, but that is exactly what Sean did when authorities began to lay out their murder case against Hans Reiser. All this time they're telling me you need to be a witness. Without you as a witness we don't have a case. A witness for what? Witness for the prosecution. I knew Hans and Nina better than anyone else. No one else had that perspective

and they kept on after me and I said, you don't want me as a witness. If you get me as a witness, you would probably lose the case. Sean promised that if called to testify, he would have no choice but to tell the jury his story. Have you ever killed anyone? Yes. Under what circumstances? I'm not going to go into that. The people who I was involved and partially responsible for the death of

should have stopped what was happening to me as a child. And what happened to Sean as a child is clearly something he wants to forget. Were you abused as a child? Yes. Is there anything else on that subject that you would like to say? No. But Sean has always said that those he killed were his abusers. Why should anyone believe that you had nothing to do with the killing of Nina if you were violent enough to kill other people?

That's going to have to be up to each individual. It'll be a matter of belief. If they don't want to believe it, fine, don't believe it. The most important part of it is that this was a trial of Hans Reiser for the killing of Nina Reiser, and I didn't have anything to do with it. But William Dubois, Hans' defense lawyer, doesn't buy it. He says that Sean's history with Nina makes him a perfect suspect. He had a motive equal to Hans' at least. Sean is the jilted lover of a missing person, jilted in favor of Anthony Segarofos.

When Dubois hears about Sean's confession, he is confident he has found reasonable doubt for his client. And he says there is even more about Sean he is eager to reveal to the jury. He was a sadomasochist and had a lot of violent tendencies. Hans and Nina knew about my wild side. All the S&M stuff, the leather stuff. Were you involved with S&M with Nina? For about 20 minutes, yes. There was some experimentation.

Nothing beyond the kinds of things that millions of Americans indulge in. But Sean's thirst for the unorthodox goes well beyond what a lot of Americans would consider normal. At Hans and Nina's wedding, Sean appeared in full drag as the so-called maid of honor. How did it come to pass that you were dressed up as a woman? Doesn't a maid of honor generally maid women? Well, I don't know of no men who've stood up, but they don't always wear a dress. They have lack of dedication to perfection. If they wanted a woman, they would get a woman.

I would tell her, what are you doing with a person like Sean? Even Nina's best friend, Alan Dorn, was surprised by the relationship between Sean and Nina. If you could just talk to me about the rumors that Sean was into S&M, Nina was into S&M. Nina knew about it, but doesn't mean she participated in his life. Nina's friends prefer to remember the woman they knew as a great mother. She's the most caring and giving person I've ever met in my life.

And she deserves so much more in her life. But the defense plans to tell the jury about a different Nina Reiser. If you were a juror, wouldn't you want to know that a woman who's characterized as a perfect mother was actually living with a sadomasochist and that she exposed the children to a very bad lifestyle, which was that of Sean Sturgeon. And because police have never recovered a body, Dubois is challenging the very notion that Nina is even dead.

Do you believe Nina Reiser is dead? I don't know where she is. Whether she is alive or dead, I don't know. But Dubois is sure of one thing hans reiser had no opportunity to kill his wife according to the only eyewitnesses at the scene not long after nina disappeared the last known person to see her alive abruptly left the states and came here to st petersburg russia both the prosecution and the defense believe that witness plays a key role in this case but with the trial now set to begin no one is certain when or even if that witness will return

to testify i'm have a stomach ache. Rory Riser was seven years old when his mother disappeared. Okay, we're almost finished, I promise. Days later, he told police and a trained therapist about the last time he saw his mother. Tell me about when your mom dropped you off at your dad's house. She drove to the Oakland Hills with us and then she dropped us off. And then what happened? She asked us to give her a hug. When your mom asked you for a hug, how was she? Happy. She was happy. And then what happened next? She left.

Rory's testimony could help his father, but a jury may never hear from Rory, because Nina's mother, Irina, has taken him far away from Oakland, possibly forever. They seem like different children here. I can see that there's absolutely no stress in their lives, and they're both very, very happy. Forty-eight hours traveled to St. Petersburg when Ellen was visiting. Do they ask about their mother? Do they talk about their mother? Rory is asking more than Naya because he's older and he's very sad that he didn't tell Nina enough how much he loved her. enough how much he loved her.

Does Rory think that Hans had anything to do with Nina's disappearance? Yes. The defense claims this is all part of Nina's grand scheme to move herself and her children to Russia to get away from Hans. All I know is that two months before she disappeared, she got citizenship for her oldest son, who is now in Russia with his sister.

The children can't be brought here by any treaty or any legal means whatsoever. They can't be brought back and forced to testify? No. They have to come with their own free will, and the Russians have informed us so far they have no intention. And with Hans' murder trial about to begin,

Dubois believes Nina is having the last laugh back in Russia. We could make a strong case that she is there now, and that she is, as we're speaking here, sitting on the Black Sea somewhere, having a Stolichnaya, no doubt, and finding it humorous that Hans is looking at spending the rest of his life in prison. A year after Nina Reiser's disappearance,

the trial of her husband Hans Reiser begins. Hans's lawyer, William Dubois, remains confident but admits that having an ornery genius as a client is, as he says, challenging. We are apprehensive to a certain degree because we don't know how he'll come across because of his intellect. On the prosecution side, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hora has his own problems. I have to make sure that I can prove to the jury and convince them that not only is Nina not in the United States with her children, but she's also not in Russia with her family and friends. She's also not in Russia with her family and friends. Hora begins his case by unveiling this portrait of Nina with baby Rory. It's more important for the jurors to understand that she really was a committed, devoted mother

and she wouldn't have left her kids. Then piece by piece, the prosecutor methodically introduces the most incriminating evidence against Hans. The smear of Nina's blood, found on a post inside Hans' house. Hans' 1988 Honda missing its front passenger seat. And this wiretapped phone call between Hans and his mother recorded three weeks after Nina vanished. On the tape, Hans gives his mother an earful about Nina.

She really was nuts, Mom. She really was. She really was what? She really was nuts. And whenever Beverly expresses concern about her daughter-in-law... No matter all these things that she did, she didn't deserve whatever it is that's happened to her. Don't you think?

Hans just does not want to hear it. I think my children shouldn't be in danger by her. It was incredibly powerful to show his state of mind at a time when you would expect a man to have some compassion or some sympathy for the mother of his children, at least for his children. But he just had none. In fact, it was just the opposite. It was hatred. Hora then calls his first witness, and it's a surprise.

Little Rory Reiser, now eight years old and just off a plane from Russia. He is accompanied by his grandmother, Irina, who has decided Rory must tell what he knows. I thought it was important for the jurors at trial to see and hear Rory in person and hear him say that he hasn't seen his mother. Hans has not seen his son in more than a year and has overcome that Rory is so close he can almost touch him. There was a point when he wandered over in my direction and it seemed like he wanted to reach out and give me a hug.

And then the deputies stepped in between us and prevented that from happening. And I always think of that as the hug that almost was. It is a dramatic showdown of a son against father, and Hans is worried about the effect on Rory. There wasn't a lot of concern for his welfare and how he was handled. I don't think he was even given psychological counseling after testifying. Jurors hang on Rory's every word as he shows them this picture he drew just prior to the trial.

Rory says it shows Hans carrying a big bag down the basement stairs. To coach a child to say things on the stand that aren't true and to pressure him into that is, I think, very abusive. Hans sees Rory's testimony as confirmation that his son has been brainwashed by Russian psychologists. Rory testified that he didn't remember that until after he got to Russia.

So that kind of tells you something there. On cross-examination, Rory sticks to the story he has always told. The last day he ever saw his mother, she said goodbye and drove away from Hans' house. On that count, Hora says Rory is wrong. He wasn't a reliable historian about what occurred the afternoon of September 3rd. For four months, Hora lines up witness after witness.

She cared deeply for those children. I mean, she was a very loving mother. Retired police officer Benjamin Franklin Denson testifies that he observed Nina and Hans when they were sharing custody. Their relationship had become so tense they had to exchange their children at police headquarters. Denson says he didn't like the way Hans looked at Nina and told her so. Laurie said, hey, you need to get yourself a gun.

You need protection from this guy. I saw real menace in his eyes, real hostility toward her. And I thought he was a real, I mean, a genuine threat to her well-being, her safety. And then it was the defense's turn. After more than 50 witnesses and five months of testimony, this trial really came down to just one witness, Hans Reiser, who with a grin on his face seemed more than eager to tell his side of the story. If there's an analogy to a table stakes poker game, the defendant went all in when he took the stand. William Dubois, Hans' lawyer, realized having hans take the stand was a huge risk

but a risk hans insisted he should take one of the problems of putting hans on the witness stand is hans but the first impression he made on the jury was a good one we were kind of surprised he was making eye contact he was smiling i think he wanted us to like him. Hans was composed on the stand. He told jurors that on the day Nina vanished, he saw her walk out the front door of his house, get in her minivan, and drive away. It was the first time that he ever told anyone in law enforcement what had happened to Nina that day. The first I had ever heard of it, too.

When it was Hora's turn, he asked Hans why had he removed the front passenger seat from his car. He said he removed the passenger seat in order to make a Honda CRX a more comfortable place to sleep. His explanations were ridiculous, and they were lies. His explanations were ridiculous, and they were lies. The Honda CRX is an awfully small car that wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in no matter what you did with it. All told, Hans testified for 11 days, until there seemed to be nothing more for anyone to say. Now the case heads to the jury. If the jurors like him and believe him,

he's going home. Nina and I came to know each other. I never stopped loving her. I never will. I got these recently in part as a remembrance of her. Dia's Vault. God willing, I will circumstantial case. Nina's body has never been found, and that leaves jurors wondering about the possibilities.

I don't think Nina was an angel. There were some things that were brought out in the trial, having an affair with Hans' best friend. Clearly, there is some sympathy for Hans. You feel sorry for anybody going through a divorce, especially a contentious divorce. But one fact is never in doubt. When it came to Nina being dead,

there was nothing that told us that she wasn't. And then once we established that, we looked at guilt versus innocence, and we started from the beginning. For three days, jurors deliberated, before reaching a verdict. We the jury find the defendant, Hans Reiser, guilty of a murder. Murder in the first degree. I've been the best father that I know how. When Hans responded to the verdict by saying, I just tried to be the best father I could be, to me it just cemented his guilt.

That is a response of a man who is trying to explain why he murdered his wife, not the response of a man who has just been wrongly convicted of murder. District Attorney Paul Hora applauds the verdict, but it hits defense lawyer Bill DuBois hard. I was numb by the trial and the tribulations that we went through to get to that spot. DuBois feels the jury was prevented from hearing the truth about Sean Sturgeon. We tried to point out that, as a matter of fact, he was a sadomasochist and had violent tendencies, and yet the prosecution never accounted for his whereabouts or let the jury know anything about him. Before the trial, Judge Larry Goodman had ruled that the jury could not hear Sean's brazen statement about killing eight and a half people. So neither side called him to the stand.

In fact, there is no proof that he has ever killed anyone. Sean says his violent past is behind him and that he has, in his own words, come to Christ. So why not just come clean right here right now have you killed eight and a half people no I picked a number I wanted them to leave me alone Shawn remains a free man never charged or arrested. And then, last summer, a dramatic development. Hans Reiser shocked everyone. He offered to lead police to Nina's body, but there was a catch.

Hans wanted a reduced verdict and less time in prison. I had a first-degree murder conviction. I had the maximum conviction, and I wouldn't make a deal with anybody unless I thought it was to our benefit. I had to be sure that Nina was going to be there. Hans assured Hora he could deliver Nina's body. In this never-before-seen video, Hans leads investigators into dense woods just one-half mile from his house. He was under armed guard, but a plan was hatched to ensure he could not escape.

Hans agreed to be handcuffed to his lawyer, Mr. Dubois. He walked down a small footpath to the top of a hill over the crest and then down. All of a sudden, Hans and his attorney began just bushwhacking through trees and bushes. I thought to myself, we're never going to find anything here. And we got to a point where he crouched down for a minute and looked into these bushes, and I couldn't see anything and neither could anyone else. And then he got up and he continued down the hill and stopped for a moment he said she's right up there we just passed her and lo and behold when he got down and took a real hard look it looked like an area that had been dug up and then recovered

Nina's remains were buried in a four foot by four foot hole that Han says he dug in the two nights after he killed her. He said, if you dig down two feet, Nina's inside of a garbage bag, inside of a duffel bag. You know, the first thing that flashed through my head was Rory's drawing. What are the chances of Rory drawing a drawing like that in Russia, months and months before her body's ever recovered, talking about Nina being in a bag, and then, lo and behold, Nina's found in a bag. As part of the deal, Hans is required to provide a detailed confession of how he murdered Nina. I placed my hands on both sides of her neck,

and in the most unsophisticated chokehold that any judo instructor would completely despise you forever using, I choked her. I'm very sorry that Nina died. I'm very sorry that Nina died. Han says he killed Nina because he felt she was purposely harming their children in order to bring attention to herself. The condition is called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. She didn't have Munchausen's by proxy disorder.

She was a wonderful, loving mother who did the best she could under the circumstances she was in. One month later, Hans is back in court. Judge Larry Goodman agrees to lower the verdict to murder in the second degree. Have you read this form, sir? Yes. Can you understand the contents of this form? And sentences Hans to 15 years to life. and sentences Hans to 15 years to life.

D.A. Palhora did face criticism for making a deal with Hans to recover Nina's body, but he says he put Nina's family's concerns above all else. They stand at the front of the line. Their voice is the loudest. And if they want her body and they want that closure to have her remains and to have that comfort in the future, they deserve it. What will you tell the kids as they get older? What will you tell them about her? That they should be proud that they had a mom like that. And I'm proud that I had her as my friend. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.