48 Hours - Death at the Front Door: Who Shot Heidi Firkus?

Episode Date: December 3, 2023

A frantic 911 call captures the sound of a gunshot as a couple reports a break-in. How did the intruder disappear? "48 Hours" contributor Jamie Yuccas reports.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. They're just staying here in Minnesota, Minnesota nice. And that Minnesota nice only goes so far. And Heidi Furcus, she went all the way.

She was genuine, and she loved deep. She definitely lived a life of love. That was the mark that she left. And that's hard to let go. This is a terrible, terrible incident. We're hoping to find other physical evidence that might help us, lead us in a direction toward a suspect. The morning of April 25, 2010, at 6.30 a.m.,

Heidi Fergus calls 911. Someone's trying to break into my home. She tells the State Patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house, and she's trying to give her address. 1794 Minnehaha Avenue. While she's on the phone, you can hear a loud noise. And the phone goes dead. Well, I don't know where she

went there. Approximately a minute later, Nicholas Fergus calls 911, says that he and his wife have both been shot. Okay, are you in St. Paul, sir? St. Paul Fire Paramedics took Nick out to the ambulance and transported him to Regents Hospital. He had been shot in the leg. Heidi was struck in the back as she was trying to flee towards the kitchen. It was a shotgun blast that killed her right away. The shotgun was laying inside the front door area. There was a little foyer. Nick gave a brief story.

He heard somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the intruder struggled over the shotgun. The responding officers went up and down the block trying to talk to neighbors. I was next door house sitting when the crime happened. Really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell of, you shot her, you shot me. It never felt right. The story never made sense to me.

He tells investigators that he grabbed a shotgun, loaded it with two shells, and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the stairs in front of him towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at. Why you would send the unarmed person down in front of you is beyond me. To me, there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed. And they were? Nick and Heidi.

In order to believe that Nick killed Heidi, you have to believe that a good man with no history of violence killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason. That's what you have to believe. We can't get there. Thank you. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts.

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 Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. Well, this area of St. Paul where Heidi and Nick Ferkus lived,

I would characterize as generally a quiet neighborhood. Back in 2010, nine years before she took charge of the Furcus case, Detective Nicole Sipes of the St. Paul Police Department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood. Do you remember first hearing about the Furcus case? I do. Do you remember first hearing about the Furcus case? I do. It was early on a Sunday morning.

The 911 call was at 630. Nick Furcus' story of a burglar didn't make sense to Sipes. Most people are home at 630 on a Sunday morning, especially in a family neighborhood like that. The last thing that most burglars want to encounter are people. Did police ever have any luck tracking down the intruder that Nick described? No. You know, I'm looking, I didn't see anybody come out of that house. Brandon O'Connor was house-sitting next door to the Furkuses and taking care of kittens. I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around. Some noise got my attention, so I stuck my head out the window to kind of listen.

Brandon says he recalls hearing a muffled argument coming from the Furkases' house, listening through an open window. That's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots. Around this time, Brandon said he also heard that voice crying out. Kind of this agonizing yell of, you shot her, you shot me. Please, please, no, something along those lines. And then it was done. First responders rushed to the scene.

There was nothing they could do for Heidi. She was pronounced dead. Nick was rushed to the hospital and treated for a grazed gunshot wound to his leg. He seemed not to be sure whether or not Heidi had been killed. Like I said, we'll do our best to find out how Heidi's doing. Hours later, Nick was transported to the St. Paul Police Department.

Then Nick and I started to have our conversation in the conference room. Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement. You know, I know this is a very traumatic situation, okay? And I'm just going to try and ease into it, okay? Nick said the couple ordered in food the night before and watched the movie Avatar. They went upstairs to their bedroom around 11 p.m.

The next morning, Nick got up around 6 a.m. to get a drink his shotgun from the closet. According to Nick, he told Heidi someone was trying to break in and to call 911. As she spoke with the dispatcher, they headed downstairs so they could get out of the house. What address are you at? All right, so you're going first on the stairs, or is she behind you, or is she in front of you, or what? She's in front because I'm kind of trying to move her along quickly. Nick said as they passed by the front door, it burst open. Guy that was there, I think he grabbed the barrel. I don't remember exactly what happened, but the gun went off, so my finger slipped out of the trigger.

Nick told Sergeant Gray during the struggle over the weapon, the gun fired, striking Heidi, who he said was in the kitchen. Okay, so the gun's here, chest high. Yep, you and I are like this. Yep. And then the gun goes off? Mm-hmm. I mean, I know it hit Heidi. I just, I know it did.

She was running away, so it definitely hit her in the back. It hit her in the back. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. It can't be true. That's, there's no way. Katina and Marcus Sarazin mentored Heidi at Calvary Church.

I think she's one of those people that you can't not like. Everyone liked Heidi. She genuinely loved people. She was the life of the party, always finding fun ways to engage people. And she was very loyal. The couple met at the church. And in 2005, Heidi, 20, and Nick, 22, got married. Nick Furcus had a very warm and

engaging personality, always smiling. He carried himself with confidence and he had high character, high integrity in the church. That was the reputation he built for himself. But just a few hours after Heidi's death, Sergeant Jim Gray found himself questioning Nick Furcus' account. He couldn't figure out why the couple would leave the safety of their bedroom. You come upstairs, I hate to tell you this, but my house, I'm justified in killing you if you come breaking into my house. Nick explained that the couple had a plan in place. If they were ever in a precarious situation, they would avoid a confrontation and escape to their car in the garage and get away. If we can save ourselves, let's do that instead of getting into a situation where...

His story didn't make a lot of sense to me. Sergeant Gray started probing into their marriage. You guys have any problems or anything like that? Sergeant Gray started probing into their marriage. We have a lot in the bills, which is a little stressful. In fact, we were planning on moving tomorrow. Moving where? Well, we hadn't figured that out yet. And this is a hard place for us. We foreclosed on our house. Nick revealed they were behind on their mortgage payments

and just 24 hours away from being evicted from their home. Well, that's kind of, I mean, kind of close notice. It is, and I think the reason is because we're both kind of dealing with the shame of the whole thing. Gray says his suspicions were raised, and minutes later, he was struck by the way Nick asked about Heidi. Well, I just want to know the final answer on Heidi. She had bacon. I figured that. I mean, is that typically how someone asks if their loved one or spouse has been killed? Not only is that not typical, that that's how they'd ask it,

but they wouldn't wait an hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question. I've watched the interview, obviously, numerous times, and I understand people react to trauma differently. But this was different than what I'd seen. Anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck by Nick's demeanor during it. And that demeanor was? This was just another day.

This was something he had to get through. Skeptical of Nick's story, Sergeant Gray confronted Nick about what happened that day. Nick, you know, part of me wants to ask you this question. Did you have anything to do with this? No, absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not. All right.

Why is there a part of you that wants to ask that? Well, Nick, I'm a police officer, okay? Yeah. I got to ask tough questions, all right? After the interview, Nick left the police station. That day, investigators returned to the Furcus home with a search warrant. Gray says it did not look like anyone was planning to move out the next day. Nothing was packaged up at all.

The closet was still full of clothes. We noticed that there was still food in the refrigerator. And there was something else that investigators questioned. We didn't see any signs of forced entry into the house. Based off of the physical evidence at the scene, his version of the incident couldn't be plausible. What do you think of Nick's story about the intruder? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X.

Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X. T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder 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 and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet.

right now by joining Wondery+. It's just the best idea yet. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. 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. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. 48 hours after Nick Furcus said an intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi, police went back to the crime scene to check out his story. He told us that there was a life and death struggle inside the house. But Sergeant Gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't match Nick's account.

There was a vase, some receipts, a beer bottle, and none of that was knocked over. So that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was such a struggle, why wasn't any of this stuff knocked over? Sergeant Gray says he examined the front door for signs of a break-in and did notice some markings. But it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that the door had been forced open the day of the murder. In his interview, Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door from upstairs. And what were they doing? They were just going like this?

Yeah. Kind of like that? Yeah, just shaking the knob and shoving the door. That day, Sergeant Gray and his colleagues did a reenactment. April 27, 2010. To determine if they could hear the front door shaking from the bedroom. We're in the bedroom. Sergeant Shackle and Sergeant Wright were upstairs in the bedroom.

I'm at the front door, so let me know when you guys are ready. I'll try to knock for 15 seconds, then. We are ready. They could not hear me fiddling with the door. All right. Sergeant Gray says he also doubted Nick's story about the couple's eviction and a scheduled move the day after Heidi was shot. There didn't appear to be anything boxed up or packaged up to go.

There were a few empty boxes in the dining room area. There was not a grand stack of boxes or anything for that matter that would lead us to believe that they were going to pack up all in one day. Meanwhile, Heidi's mentors from Calvary Church, Marcus and Katina, were learning the details about her death and the eviction. It just didn't add up. It just, something wasn't right with that story. It seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have notified anyone, not have anything prepared for that, because she planned things out and she liked things to be orderly.

On April 30, 2010, five days after her passing, Marcus and Katina attended Heidi's funeral. Yeah, the atmosphere at the funeral was, there was a lot of emotion. At the funeral, Marcus and Katina say they were struck by Nick's demeanor. I remember going through the receiving line and shaking his hand. There was no grief showing. It just felt like he lacked emotion. Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the couple's friends if Nick could have shot his wife. And the answer I got was, no, there's no way that Nick killed Heidi. He loved her, there's just no way he could have done that. And I just wasn't so sure about that.

From what we gathered during our investigation, Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship. There was no problems or issues that anybody saw. Your first impression upon meeting Nick Furcus is no way in the world could he have committed a violent act. The day after the shooting, Nick's family hired attorney Joe Friedberg, who advised Nick to stop talking to the police. It didn't take long to realize that he was being looked at as a suspect. When investigators asked Nick to sit down with their artist to draw a sketch of the intruder, Friedberg advised him not to. They were going to use it as an opportunity to further interview him. Instead, Nick and his

attorney hired their own sketch artist. It was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist. And brought that drawing to police. And at that point, we were basically told that Nick would not be answering any more questions with regards to our investigation. Investigators released Nick's sketch to the public, but it didn't generate any leads. They kept working the case. Nick moved out of their home a few weeks after Heidi's death.

Two months later, he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best friends, Rachel Sanchez, who is going through a divorce. At the time, I thought because we shared something traumatic, there was a deep connection there, because I had come out of something traumatic myself in a relationship. I think Nick seemed to be handling things well. It felt like he was very grounded.

He was with his friends a lot and they were processing together. So I think just his steadiness was an attractive quality. Rachel says the two bonded over their faith. They began dating in the spring of 2011. At the time, God played a big part in my life. And I think that's another quality that I saw in him, that he loved God like I did. One year into their relationship, Nick proposed. I knew it was coming. We had looked at rings beforehand,

so it wasn't really a huge surprise. And a few months later, the couple married. They started a family. We did have kids pretty quickly. And soon were the parents of three children. He absolutely loves his kids so much. Andrew and Emily Erickson are friends of Nick. They say for a long time, Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder. It just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief during that time. But they say when he did talk about it, his story was always the same. murder. It just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief during that time.

But they say when he did talk about it, his story was always the same. What did he tell you? Same thing he's always told everyone from the first day, same thing he'd tell you today, that someone was breaking into the house and they were going to try to get out, and there was an altercation, and tragically, Heidi was killed. Investigators still did not believe that story, but five years after Heidi's death, with little movement in the case, they finally got a break.

Someone called in a tip. There was somebody that looked exactly like the sketch. And put a name to Nick's sketch. Somebody called, said, I have an experience with this guy. I think I know who it is. 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 a virgin. 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. After five years without a break in Heidi Furcus' murder case, out of the blue, a tipster called police with a name. After seeing this sketch of the suspect, but there was a problem, says investigator Sipes.

He was already in prison on the date of Heidi's death. Nick's second wife, Rachel, says her husband rarely talked about the case being solved. I had asked him, are you going to put effort into seeing if you can find the person that did this? He didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know. I know that from his lawyers he was told to just stay silent. Police found it odd Nick never checked in. Through four investigators in this case he never contacted one of us to ask the status. Was this case ever considered a cold case? It wasn't ever considered a cold case. Prosecutors Rachel Crocker and Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015. There just was not a lot of new information coming in. Heidi's family would check in on her birthday.

Is there anything new development? And there would be new developments when Detective Sipes took over Heidi's case in 2019. Seems her fresh set of eyes really made a huge difference. It was absolutely critical. I think Sipes definitely restarted something. Sipes dug deep, reviewing the entire case file, including an examination of a financial timeline she compiled with the help of the FBI. I had the luxury of looking back on all of these things several years later.

Sipes learned Nick worked at his family's carpet installation business. They were contractors for Home Depot. Heidi was a clerk at a financial services company in St. Paul. Their combined income was about $70,000 a year. They seemed like they were on top of all the bills before they bought the house. But Lawman says the home purchase in 2007 strained the couple's finances. And that home was just too much for them. By the time Heidi died in April of 2010,

the couple was deeply in debt. He had not paid the mortgage in 22 months. In fact, the couple had lost their home to foreclosure and would be forced to move out. But Sipes discovered Heidi apparently had no idea. After reviewing the couple's texts and emails, Sipes saw no evidence Nick ever told Heidi they were in financial trouble. There was no communication between the two of them to indicate that she had any idea of the depth of their financial issues.

I was able to determine through the foreclosure and eviction attorneys that there was no paperwork Heidi had signed, that nobody had ever talked to Heidi. Nobody met Heidi. Heidi didn't go to the eviction hearing on March 8, 2010. Seip says Nick and Heidi's family and friends didn't know the couple had to relocate.

And if she was serious about moving, she would have gotten the day off. So she was planning to go to work? Yes. Why do you think he kept her in the dark so long? Shame. I believe he was concerned about the shame of what he had done, how it would look, that he couldn't come clean with her. You know, it had gotten too big at that point. And when Sipes talked to the couple's friends, she learned why Nick wanted to hide their financial situation. He was described by his friends as being wise and being the person that they would go to for advice.

Nick Furcus really presented as somebody who had some of those bigger, tougher life questions figured out. What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of relationship do you want to have with God? What does that tell do you want to have with God? What does that tell you as you're investigating the case and you see someone in that type of personality? It just became easier to see that this was someone who did not want his friends, his family to know the extent to which he had failed. Sipes says she discovered more of Nick's lies when she learned about a conversation Heidi had with a friend just the day before she died.

Heidi had talked to us about how Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft. It was somewhere around $180,000 to $200,000 worth of identity theft. It wasn't true. They weren't the victims. This was all untrue. But as Sipes tried to figure out if there was a connection between Nick's lies and Heidi's death,

she learned Nick and Rachel had divorced. I remember very well when Nikki Sipes came to my door. And that Nick had also kept secrets from her. Did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved? And that Nick had also kept secrets from her. Did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved? She did. There were financial issues between the two of them. Nick was lying about a lot of things.

This is a story that's happened before and it didn't end well. That terrified me. Could there actually have been an intruder? After spending 19 months digging deep into the Furcus case file, reviewing crime scene photos, 911 calls, and Nick's video interview, She was running away, so he definitely hit her in the back. Investigator Nicole Sipes had come to one conclusion.

What really matters is what happened in that foyer, and there was no third person. You never found anyone else's DNA? No. No DNA evidence. No physical evidence. No sign of a struggle. To me, there were only two people in

that house when Heidi was killed. And they were? Nick and Heidi. As part of the new investigation, Sipes reached out to Nick's second wife, Rachel. What did she know? In 2020, she came to my door and I was like, why are you here? And she was like, to talk about Heidi Furcus. At first, Rachel, then divorced from Nick, says she was reluctant to talk.

You're asking for a lot when you get involved in something like this. And I didn't want to, but I also knew that it was the right thing to do and it was for truth. Rachel told Snipes Nick had lied about their finances during their marriage. I found a letter saying that we hadn't paid our property taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them. And when I saw that, I was like, oh no. Like, he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me. During that time, Rachel says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's death.

And I said, we got to sit down and talk. Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone. Your actions have caused me to just distrust you completely. If there was going to be a confession, I was going to make sure that I could prove that he said it. And the fact that your lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over makes me think. That I could murder my wife.

That you could lie about something. That I could murder my wife. Yes. That you could lie about something. That I could murder my wife. Yes. When I listen, I think this silence kills me. He's angry at me.

How dare I think those things? Why aren't you saying you didn't? Tell me I'm not right. Rachel later shared the recordings with investigator Sipes. The behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel was almost duplicative of how he hid things from Heidi. We cannot let this man be out on the street any longer. For prosecutor Elizabeth Lawman, the time had come to act. I told Sergeant Sipes we're charging him. Let's do it. Eleven years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19, 2021, a St. Paul police SWAT team arrested Nick Furcus at his house and charged him with second-degree murder.

arrested Nick Furcus at his house and charged him with second-degree murder. A grand jury ultimately indicted Furcus on first and second-degree murder charges. Our minds were absolutely blown. Heidi's friends, Marcus and Katina, were relieved. It's hard to say. I don't know what emotion to even put to it. It's hard to say excited. I felt grateful. We don't understand. Nick's friends, Emily and Andrew. You have to believe that a good man with no history of violence killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason. That's what you have to believe. We can't get there. After remaining free on bail for almost two years, on January 27, 2023, Nick Furcus went on trial.

Prosecutors would not be allowed to call Nick's second wife, Rachel, to testify or use her taped conversation with Nick. The judge ruled her testimony and the recording had no bearing on the case. I went into it with an open mind. Natalie Michael served on the jury. Did he appear like a man who would kill his wife? No, he did not. A lot through the trial, he was putting his head down. When they showed the photos of the two of them together, you know, he seemed like he really was in love with her. I think Nick was someone who lived two lives. Prosecutors presented an unusual motive. They told the jurors Nick Furcus staged a burglary because he was desperate and ashamed. His secrets were about to be revealed to Heidi and everyone else. All of his kind of cards of lies are about to crumble. He would have been exposed as a complete failure, a liar to his friends and community, and instead he's a victim.

He walks away from this supported by his friends, say that simply makes no sense as a motive. There was nothing about murdering the woman who everyone agreed he loved that would help his situation. And they say the state's contention that Heidi didn't know about the couple's finances simply was not true. Nick said she was in on all of the major decisions. He would say to us that they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile. At first, I was wondering how she couldn't know about the finances or some of the foreclosure or some of the things happening. But Natalie Michael says the prosecution's case did not hinge on motive.

The prosecution said it really is, was there an intruder in the house, or was there not an intruder? It was our position that there had been an intruder, exactly the way Nick described to the police on the 911 call. Somebody just broke into my house and shot me. At the scene.

The information that Nick gave at the scene is that this intruder came into the house. At the hospital. He just came in. And to Sergeant Gray. Guy that was there. I think he grabbed the barrel. Nick's lawyers say police didn't find the intruder's fingerprints or DNA at the scene because, as Nick told investigators in his

interview at the hospital, the intruder was wearing gloves. You don't always leave DNA, and especially when your hands are covered. So what am I looking at here? But prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides fingerprints. This is a physical model to scale that was created by the FBI. They used this model to show the jurors there was no evidence of a struggle. I felt that it was very important for us to be able to recreate how small that entryway is. Let's say the intruder gets in. They have this struggle. And they have this life and death struggle right in this area with nothing disturbed. On the table. Exactly.

And then Heidi gets shot square in the back in a very clear shot. This animation, created by the FBI, shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was most likely shot from shoulder level. The height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to fire. Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an intruder. In fact, there were tool marks in the door, which would be consistent with someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door. Attorney Joe Friedberg says Furcus's next-door neighbor, Brandon O'Connor, testified he heard a voice. Furcus's next-door neighbor, Brandon O'Connor, testified he heard a voice. You shot her, you shot me.

Please, please, no, something along those lines. That means there must have been another person in that house. Nick was talking to a third person when he said that. But prosecutors say Brandon may have misheard Nick while he was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. He is screaming about being shot, and he did that over almost seven minutes. Nick Furcus did not take the stand. After an 11-day trial, the case went to the jury. If there's anything in this case, there's reasonable doubt.

Yeah. case at 48hours.com. It was a hard-fought litigated trial. As the state and Nick Furcus' defense team presented their closing arguments on February 10, 2023. We had great, we thought, circumstantial evidence that what Nick said happened did not happen. Attorneys on both sides were hopeful the jury would make the right decision. It's not enough if you have a hunch. There was no direct evidence that Nick murdered his wife. In her closing argument, Prosecutor Crocker said

Furcus shot Heidi while she was on the phone with the 911 operator. Someone's trying west. So that call does end with a very, very loud noise and the call goes dead. And we believe that that's the gunshot. According to phone records, 65 seconds passed from that moment until Furcus made his 911 call. Crocker reenacted for jurors what she believed Nick Furcus did before he made that call.

I walked over in the courtroom to roughly as far as Heidi would have been on the ground, crouched down, turned her over to check for a pulse to be sure that she was in fact deceased. Walked back over, picked up the, and demonstrated how he could shoot himself and call 911. Where is the guy that shot you? At 65 seconds, there was more than enough time for all of that to happen. To prove their theory, Ferkus shot himself in the thigh. They point to marks left by shotgun pellets at the bottom of the front door. When he shot himself, we believed that Nick was about here, which is how you would brace yourself, probably against the door if you're doing it to yourself. But Furcus's attorneys challenged the 65-second time frame. Attorney Robert Richman says phone records also show

Furcus misdialed two numbers before getting through to 911, making it impossible to shoot himself. What they reenacted was 65 seconds, which was ignoring the two misdials, which happened at 38 seconds, the fact that we cannot find the intruder is not evidence that there was no intruder. And if anything, because of the next-door neighbor, because of the tool marks, because of the 38 seconds, we feel that the evidence supports that there was an intruder.

This isn't blind belief. Nick's friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove Furcus was the shooter. We were open to hearing an inconsistency of what Nick said, but that didn't happen. On February 10th, 2023, the jurors got the case and in five hours returned with a verdict. My last text to Nick was, it has to be innocent. There's no way that they got to guilty this quickly. We rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong. Nick Furcus was found guilty on two counts of murder, premeditated and intentional. I believe justice was served. Marcus and Katina were in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

Justice may have been slow, but fortunately the jury got it right. It feels like this is the beginning of healing. It's the beginning of a new chapter. Heidi's mom actually said that for so many years, they had to live with Nick Furcus's narrative, and they knew it was wrong, but they just didn't have another narrative. And to finally be able to have him finally held accountable, it meant a lot to us. For Sergeant Sipes, there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's financial problems. We weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on. Does that frustrate you?

Greatly. I think it would help complete the picture for some people. On April 13, 2023, Nick Furcus was back in court for a sentencing hearing and to hear victim impact statements. Growing up, Heidi was the quintessential little sister to me. Heidi's brother, Peter Erickson. Because of the lies we were told as early as the day after her murder, it's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief. Furcus refused to admit guilt.

I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime. My body stands condemned to serve another man's sentence. But my soul, my soul remains free. Judge Leonardo Castro imposed the maximum sentence. It is the sentence of law and judgment of this court that you be committed to the commission of corrections for the remainder of your life without the possibility of release. Good luck to you, sir. Godspeed. My kids are always what I think of first. Furcus' second wife, Rachel. They lost in this too, because one day they had a dad that they thought was somebody,

and the next day he's not that person anymore. She often thinks about Heidi too. I like to think I have a connection with Heidi. She didn't get to have the voice that I have now, and so I can only hope that my voice is something she would be proud of. Heidi was a genuine, loving, sincere young woman who wanted to live life to the fullest. She wouldn't want people to become bitter or angry because of what she had to experience. I think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of circumstances. We'll be right back. When success becomes a curse. 48 Hours, Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours,

where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.