48 Hours - Murder in Aspen

Episode Date: December 20, 2015

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Aspen has a reputation for glitz and glamour. Love you, Mariah. I love you so much. You know, the billionaires have replaced the millionaires here. But it's so much more than that. It's always been a place of pioneers, people who came out here with this Western pioneer spirit to start all over again. It was this wild and free-spirited Aspen

that Nancy Pfister belonged. When I met Nancy, she was beautiful and vivacious. She turned wherever she was into a party. And this is where all the rich and famous people come. She could turn the Black Plague into a party. Sorry it was a rough night. Nancy was an Aspen princess. Her father owned the ski mountain.

My name is Mark Seal. I'm a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and I call Aspen Princess, her father owned the ski mountain. My name is Mark Seal, I'm a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and I call Aspen home. All doors were open to her. She was known by people all over the world. She dated Jack Nicholson and she dated Michael Douglas, everyone knows that. There was only one Nancy Pfister. I was at my desk that night and heard the scanner call, and we heard the word murder, and we looked up the address, and sure enough, it was her.

It was all hands on deck. A common thread that we were receiving was that anyone who had ever met Nancy Pfister was a potential suspect. Can you just say that again? I want to make sure I heard you correctly. Anyone who ever met Nancy Pfister was a potential suspect? You didn't want to be on Nancy Pfister's bad side. She was a tough, strong woman.

Woe unto you who messed with Nancy Pfister. Even Nancy Pfister was really no match for a killer who approached her at her absolute most vulnerable. Nancy Pfister was murdered in her sleep with several blows to her head. Everybody wanted to know what. Everybody wanted to know how. Everybody wanted to know why. And everybody wanted to know how. Everybody wanted to know why. And everybody wanted to know who. I'm Maureen Maher.

Tonight on 48 Hours. Murder in Aspen. 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 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+. It's just The Best Idea Yet. Did you know that the movie Candyman

was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. No one could believe it. One of Aspen's true originals, Nancy Pfister, was dead. Bludgeoned in her own bedroom, her body bound with an electrical cord, wrapped in plastic garbage bags, and hidden underneath sheets in her closet. Whoever did this really did this in an extremely horrible way.

I mean, in her bed, in her sleep. I mean, can you imagine? Suddenly, doors were being locked and alarms turned on. The Aspen residents wanted to know that they were safe. This was a very big deal for the community. And a very big deal for Deputy DA Andrea Bryan. I was feeling a little bit of fear. It was her first homicide case, her first visit to a working murder scene. And you don't know what your reaction is going to be to seeing a dead body. And the first time she had smelled death. Could tell immediately that there was a body in that room. Yet strangely, the room itself did not look like someone had just been beaten to death. It wasn't particularly bloody. There was hardly any visible blood at all, except for a small smear on the

headboard, a very small smear. With the death of Nancy Pfister, Aspen lost a piece of its history, a member of its royalty. In this part of the world, the Pfister family is as much a part of the landscape as the trees for which the city was named. Behind me to the west is Buttermilk, and that's really what made the Pfister family part of the royalty of Aspen. Family friend Tim Mooney is talking about Buttermilk Mountain, one of Aspen's world-famous ski hills developed by Nancy's father, Art Pfister. Art Pfister was definitely a Clark Gable kind of bigger than life, kind of movie star character. He had the real stuff.

Art Pfister met his match in Wife Betty, says CBS consultant Mark Seale. So Betty Pfister was as epic as Art Pfister. She was a legendary World War II woman pilot. She flew gliders, hot air balloons. She had a brightly colored helicopter that she called Tinker Bell. I mean, these are people who were adventurous to the end. And they passed on that adventurous spirit

to all three daughters, especially Nancy. She was a real heartbreaker, says close friend, artist Michael Cleverley. She had a lot of boyfriends. As a rule, they didn't last terribly long. She was a complicated girl. I'm sure it was hard for her and hard for the boys in her life.

Nancy Pfister was perfect casting for that moment in time in Aspen history, the era of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, an iconic figure who defined the drug culture in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Nancy and Hunter were a team, and they'd laugh and cry, but they were always at the top of the heap. Are you ready? I'll be showing you all the rich and famous people that I know.

Pfister, seen here showing off her hometown in a documentary. This is the house of Jack Nicholson. So you can just kind of follow me and I'll show you the creek and the little pond. Never settled down long enough to get married. People like to have their privacy, and that's what we have here. But she did have a little girl named Juliana. She absolutely loved people. She was a complete social butterfly.

When she walked into the room, it was just like an energy force field. It was like a bright light. I've never met anyone else in the whole world like my mom. She was just a really, really special person. If you came into town, you would end up meeting Nancy Pfister. When Kathy Carpenter came into town, she was a single mother working as a bank teller. She met Pfister, and the two became fast friends. Either you love Nancy,

or you hate her. And I loved her. There was just something special about her. She introduced me to art, eating sushi, drinking champagne. It sounds like she really took you, introduced you to places you had never seen and might not have ever seen if it hadn't been for her. Exactly. In return, Kathy says Pfister expected her to take on a sort of personal assistant role, something that occasionally led to friction in their relationship. She could be demanding, you know, Kathy, would you go get that? You know, when she'd leave town, I'd watch over the house, collect her mail, help her pack. And did she pay you to help her do those things? No.

Despite their conflicts, Kathy Carpenter says she cared deeply for Nancy. And on February 26, 2014, when Pfister had not been heard from in several days, it would be Kathy Carpenter who went to check on her. My friend is in your closet, Jack! 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 Marcia 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 Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. 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. 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. Nancy came of age in a magical era of Aspen.

Nancy came of age in a magical era of Aspen. She was 14 when John Denver wrote his Aspen anthem, Rocky Mountain High, which made the whole world fall in love with the place. But over the years, Pfister grew tired of those famous Rocky Mountain winters. Each year, she would escape to someplace warm. That year, she was planning a trip to Australia. However, the Princess of Aspen had limited access to the family fortune. So to pay for the trip to Australia, Nancy Pfister decided to rent her home and took out an ad in the Aspen Times.

The ad read, three-bedroom house, three-and-a-half baths, house on the mountain, no cats. Nancy Styler, a world-renowned lily pad expert, and her husband Trey, a retired anesthesiologist, were looking to leave Denver and start over in Aspen to rebuild a once-prosper prosperous life that had fallen on hard times. Starting over at what age? I'm 62 and he was 65. Their problems began when Trey developed a serious neurological disorder and could no longer practice.

Then he lost all their savings in an unsuccessful lawsuit. What kind of debt were you in at that point? About half a million. They had to move from their home and beautiful water gardens. A happy family with one small problem. The cultured life they had worked so hard to create, seen here on this HGTV special... And modeling the latest in pond wear. ...slipped away.

Gore-Tex waiters. He was so distraught that he was talking suicide. But Nancy Styler, who had also attended medical school, decided it was her turn. I said, I can go back to work. So last year we went back and we both got trained in Botox and laser and thought that we'll go to Aspen and start a spa. In October of 2013, they answered Pfister's rental ad. And I came upstairs and she was in a bathrobe with pearls and a glass of champagne. Soon, the two ladies were bonding over their love of organic gardening and the glass of champagne. Soon, the two ladies were bonding over their love of organic gardening

and the possibility of launching a business. She said, I love the idea of having a spa. Do it right here. The concierges from the hotels will bring their clients to you. Well, you must have just thought you paid her. I thought I died and went to heaven. And when I said that to her, she said, it's karma, darling. And I thought, okay, this is it.

The Stylers agreed to give Nancy Pfister $12,000 up front, three months rent. And did you have that $12,000 cash? We had most of it. We gave her $6,000 three days after we met her. We thought that, you know, this will work out okay. Apparently, so did Nancy Pfister. She invited the Stylers to live with her for the next month before she left for Australia. In return, Nancy Styler, a fastidious cleaner and expert seamstress, would help her get ready for the trip. Before we gave her the money, she treated me as an equal. Once we gave her the money, I became kind of a slave.

Get my cigarettes, get my champagne, get this, do that, rub my feet, rub my neck. I want you to alter 22 Brooks Brothers shirts. I've never been treated so poorly by anyone in my life. How testy did things get between you and Nancy Pfister? She pushed me to my limits, and I didn't know I had limits. But the Stylers had already paid Pfister six grand, and fairly certain they were not going to get any of it back, they decided to stick it out.

For you, this was all about the house. I just got to get this person out of the door. I'm going to fulfill my obligations, get her packed, and get on with business. She says her one saving grace was Pfister's friend and helper, Kathy Carpenter. Kathy Carpenter and I started commiserating. About what? About how she used people. Kathy had been her personal assistant for no pay for many years. Did Kathy describe herself as personal assistant or friend who did favors? I think Kathy described herself as friend who did favors. Nancy described her as a personal assistant. The two women became

close friends and even agreed to share care of Pfister's Labradoodle Gabe while she was in Australia. And so Nancy Pfister left her dog and home in the care of Nancy and Trey Styler and said goodbye to Aspen for the winter. In November 2013, Pfister flew to Australia, leaving Kathy Carpenter in charge of collecting the rent. Did they ever come up with the additional $6,000? They did in December. Who did they give it to? To me. I put it in the safe deposit box. I emailed Nancy to let her know that they did pay the $6,000.

Even though the stylers say they had paid the rent, by January, Pfister, from the other side of the world, was complaining they had not, and that they also owed her for utilities. She was on Facebook saying awful things about us, sending us emails. You're liars, you're cheats, you're taking advantage of my good nature. You owe me money for this, you owe me money for that. In February 2014, before the stylers even had a chance to launch their spa business, Nancy Pfister announced she was coming home three months early and issued Kathy Carpenter her orders.

Make sure that those effers are out of my house. She was that angry? She was angry. She wanted them out. She was that angry? She was angry. She wanted them out. The eviction came so suddenly, the Stylers were unable to remove thousands of dollars worth of spy equipment, which was being stored in Pfister's garage. On February 22nd, the same day Nancy Pfister arrived back in Aspen, the Stylers took a room at the Aspen Alt Lodge.

the Stylers took a room at the Aspinalt Lodge. The following day, Pfister handed Kathy Carpenter a note to give to Trey Styler. Do you remember exactly what the note said, Kathy? Well, it's just a list. I want money for this, I want you to pay me this. Pfister had demanded almost $14,000 for utilities and damages to her house, says Carpenter. She also threatened to get a restraining order to keep the Stylers off her property. She said, I'll hold on to their property until they pay me in full. And why does the subject of handing the note to Dr. Styler bring you to tears? Had I not handed him the note as she had asked me to, she may still be here today.

Aspen has always been a place for dreamers, but the Stylers' dream of a fresh start was quickly dying. Three months after arriving, they were broke, homeless, and locked in a bitter dispute with Nancy Pfister over property and money. Nancy was a tough girl. She was supremely pissed off. Supremely pissed off. I'm sure she was hell on wheels. Pfister was denying the Stylers access to her home and their expensive spa equipment. But after learning Pfister had no legal leg to stand on, the Stylers marched right back up to her house, prepared to fight for their property.

But they didn't have to, says Nancy Styler, because Pfister was nowhere to be found. The dog greets me at the door. He's all over me. And I was upset because I thought Nancy's leaving this dog alone with no way to go out to the bathroom. Styler says they packed up until 4 in the afternoon. And still no Nancy Pfister. They returned the next morning to finish the move.

It was the same as when we left. I thought that she just took off. Styler admits she did notice a foul odor coming from Pfister's bedroom closet, but says she didn't put two and two together. You haven't heard from her, right? You know the dog is alone. Right.

And you're in her bedroom and it smells horrible. It didn't occur to you to look in the closet? I didn't have the key to the closet. And yet, Styler was worried enough, says Kathy Carpenter, to call her three or four times that day. She said, you know, I'm just really concerned. Some things are fishy around here. Carpenter, who says she had not seen or spoken to Pfister in three days,

went up to the house that Wednesday after work. I went into the bedroom, called her name, looked around. And that's when, she says, she saw it. Blood. That small smear on the headboard of Pfister's bed. Then I was very concerned. I was starting to panic. I walked towards the closet and it was closed and it was locked. And there was a strong odor.

It just wasn't right. Carpenter says she tore out of the house, got a spare key at her own home, and then rushed back to open Pfister's closet. I was hit with the most atrocious, awful odor. I saw that there was something wrapped. I screamed out her name. No! Oh, my God. I jumped in my car. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. 911, what is the address? She immediately brought up the trouble between the Stylers and Pfister. She had some people living there, and she really pissed them off. Were you thinking at that moment that the Stylers may have had something to do with her murder? I did, yes. They were there in the house. They were there moving out on Tuesday.

They were there Wednesday. Who else but them? Kathy, stay in the vehicle. Carpenter was so hysterical, she was taken to the emergency room and sedated, while law enforcement started following up on her lead. 5.30 on Thursday morning, I hear pounding on the hotel door. I looked out the door, and there's all these policemen.

I said, Trey, is this a dream? And one of the policemen answered, it's not a dream, that's a dead body. And I said, who? And they wouldn't answer. You really had no idea. Nancy Pfister's been missing for a few days. There's a bad odor in the room and you can't think of anything. Right, and Kathy went to the emergency room and I knew it had probably something to do with that and they were questioning us because we had lived there. The Stylers were separated, put in prison jumpsuits and interrogated. Nancy Styler's interview is audio only. She treated me as an equal until she got our money. And then she treated me like a slave.

What really struck out to me was how she couldn't stop talking about how horrible of a person that she thought Nancy Pfister was. She's a liar. She's an alcoholic. And she is the most self-loathing person that I've ever met. There is not one person who said a nice thing about her. It appeared that there could have been enough anger there that she would actually have been the one who killed Nancy Pfister. She told us we belonged in a trailer park in Basalt and that we were trailer trash. I have never been disrespected by anyone in my life as much as I've been disrespected by this woman.

With respect to Trey Styler's interview... Do you feel bad about what she's done? A little. He really exhibited some very strong anger. On the other hand, Trey Styler did not look capable of killing somebody, says DA chief investigator Lisa Miller. He's obviously an elderly man. Lisa Miller. He's obviously an elderly man. He's spinning over, he's holding his head,

he's telling us over and over how infirm he is, how weak he is. We came to the conclusion that Mr. Steiler could not have perpetrated this crime and moved the body by himself. Despite their suspicions, investigators did not believe they had enough evidence to show probable cause. And after 12 hours of interviews, the Stylers were released. But then, a huge break in the case. Just 100 yards from this motel where the Stylers were staying, a trash collector emptied a garbage can. And purely by accident, he happened to notice items belonging to Nancy Pfister, the murdered woman he'd just seen in all the news reports.

We find a vehicle registration for the Stylers Jaguar in the same bag with personal items belonging to Nancy Pfister. And there it was, in there with everything else. An old hammer with Nancy Pfister's blood on it. The murder weapon. And on one of the plastic bags, DNA that matched Trey Styler's profile. Four days later, the Stylers were arrested. In connection with the Aspen murder.

And charged with first-degree murder. I kept thinking that I would wake up from this horrible dream, being treated like a criminal, being shackled, wearing orange, being paraded in front of the media with cameras like I was walking down the red carpet. Every piece of dignity in my life was taken away. But there was something nagging at investigator Lisa Miller. The murder weapon was... That evidence drop seemed almost too good to be true.

Right here. And then they found that missing key to Nancy Pfister's closet, just a few yards from the Stylers' motel room. Did these educated professionals really make that severe of a mistake? Investigators started looking at the possibility that the Stylers were being framed, or that someone else was in on it with them. Someone like Kathy Carpenter. Kathy Carpenter was a little bit too quick to point the finger at suspects after discovering the body.

What would be her motive to kill Nancy Pfister? She did have motive because Nancy Pfister treated her badly at times. She hurt her. And investigators say Carpenter's actions following the murder confirmed their suspicions. Just a day after the body was found, she went to Nancy Pfister's safety deposit box at Alpine Bank and took $6,000 of Nancy Pfister's money and two family rings. But Pfister had given Carpenter legal access to the safe deposit box, and she insists she took the money and rings for Pfister's only child. She said to me,

anything ever happens to me, you make sure that Juliana gets this ring. Investigators did not believe her. Eleven days after the Stylers were arrested... She's the third person to be charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Kathy Carpenter became the third person charged with the murder of Nancy Pfister. They came banging on my door and they arrested me for the murder of my friend is what they said. News of a third arrest in the slaying of Nancy Pfister had all of Aspen buzzing again. If the murder wasn't shocking enough, then come the suspects.

I mean, first you have the doctor and his horticulturalist wife, and then you see the bank teller. I mean, everybody's wondering what went on here. Kathy Carpenter says she was as shocked as anyone else. She had just bought a new outfit to wear to her friend's memorial. Instead, she sat in an orange jumpsuit alone in a jail cell. I could hear the music and, oh, so hurtful. I just, I cried. I have never seen anything like it. Defense attorney Greg Greer believes Kathy Carpenter was a scapegoat in an investigation so flawed they even got the 911 call wrong. 911, what is the address of the emergency? According to the 911 transcript, According to the 911 transcript, Kathy Carpenter said she saw blood on Pfister's forehead.

But prosecutors insist no one could have seen any part of the body because it was covered with a sheet. In your opinion, investigators believed this was their most important piece of evidence. Greer was dumbfounded when he listened to the 911 call himself. I listened, I listened, I listened. It says headboard. She said headboard. She didn't say forehead. Prosecutors admit the error, but say it's only part of the story. That was one statement. She made numerous statements about the body that had raised huge red flags in our mind. Statements like these. She's dead, full of blood, wrapped in a string. There's just one problem, says investigator Lisa Miller.

There is no way in looking at this you can say, this is full of blood, and you definitively cannot say, this is Nancy Pfister. How could she know her friend was dead? How could she know it was her friend? Nancy Pfister's been missing for a few days. There's a bad odor. The body is locked inside Nancy Pfister's closet. It seems reasonable that she would think she's dead. And if you phrase it like that, sure, it seems reasonable, but look at how the body was found. The body was covered up.

But Kathy Carpenter insists she did see the plastic bag wrapped around Pfister's head, and it was translucent enough to give her an impression of what was inside. I looked down when I saw there was some hair and blood. I just assumed it was Nancy. Who else? So now they had three people in jail. Kathy Carpenter, Nancy Styler, and Trey Styler. All there because a judge determined there was enough probable cause to make the arrests.

But prosecutors still had to build a case against three different people that would hold up in court. What was your working theory? The theory was that they were all involved in some aspect of the murder, whether it was the planning of the murder or the ultimate clean-up. Ryan believes they bonded over their resentment of Pfister, but they still only had physical evidence against one of them, Trey Styler. That DNA they had found on the bag containing the murder weapon.

Is there any DNA found of Nancy Styler? No. But you still think that she's involved? Even though there's no physical evidence? Absolutely. Nancy ruled the roost, if you will. William Styler didn't make any moves without Nancy. And investigators believed she was the one who most wanted Nancy Pfister dead.

I didn't have a great relationship with her, but what would that have done for me to kill her? Did you hear Mrs. Styler say threatening or menacing things about Nancy Pfister? You know, in the very beginning, you know, she made some threats. I'm just this angry at her. I could just kill her. Did you say that you wanted to kill Nancy Pfister? I said at one point in time that I'd like to kill her, yes. I did say that.

It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good, but if every person who said that was taken at their word, how many times have you said, I'd like to kill her? But District Attorney Sherry Kaluuya says someone did kill Nancy Pfister. After someone says that, people don't ordinarily end up dead. And Bryan says even more curious... Here's Nancy Pfister, who had asked to get a restraining order and had told them that they cannot come to the house. And now they seem totally unconcerned about whether or not she finds them there. Well, the reasonable conclusion is because they know that she is dead.

And what about all those phone calls Nancy Styler made to Kathy Carpenter before the body was found? Why did you keep calling her? Because she was going to be picking up the dog, and it was important for me that she came and got that dog, and that she knew what was going on. While there could be an innocent explanation for that communication, the explanation can also be that they're talking about the body, and what is going to be done with the body in the closet and how it's going to get out of the closet.

A good story, but where's the proof? Styler's attorney, Garth McCarty, wants to know. Speculation and conjecture were all they ever had against Nancy Styler. But investigators were convinced they had the right three people in jail. And in time, they would eventually turn on each other. I have them in jail, and you have to worry greatly what they tell me. So what you're telling me is your wife was probably in on it then. Is that true? Did she have anything to do with Nancy's death?

Did you have anything to do with the murder of Nancy Pfister? Nothing whatsoever. At no point did you think that, was there any way that Trey could have been responsible for this? Never even crossed my mind. I thought for sure in my little courtroom in my mind that Kathy had done this. Did you kill Nancy Pfister? No. Did you take a hammer, hit your friend in the head, wrap her up in plastic and leave her to die in a closet? No.

As the alpine snows began to melt and winter gave way to spring, three people, Kathy Carpenter, Trey Styler and Nancy Styler, watched the changing of the seasons from behind bars, waiting, as was all of Aspen, for their day in court. There was anticipation of the trial when everything would come out. People were eager to hear exactly what happened, why, and then all of a sudden another bombshell. And I was blown away And I was blown away. I was blown away. It promised to be one of the most sensational murder trials in Aspen history.

Did you ever worry that you might be convicted? No, because I'm totally innocent. Kathy Carpenter wasn't nearly as hopeful. If they don't find the truth out and they send me to prison, I can't live. Then, a shocking development. It was one of those moments that rarely happen in real life. The courtroom is packed. Everyone is desperate to know what will happen next. And then a bombshell.

Three months after being hauled off to jail for murder, Trey Styler tells the judge he knows who did it. Who killed Nancy Pfister? He did. And he says he did it alone. He did. And he says he did it alone. Both women were released from jail. Trey Styler had agreed to tell all the details of the crime in exchange for a 20-year sentence and his wife's unconditional freedom.

Peacefully, ma'am. Nancy Styler can never be charged in connection with Nancy Pfister's death. If he said, I'll take the hit, I'll throw myself on the sword, would you let him do it? No, if I had done it. Or been involved? No, absolutely not. I couldn't have lived with myself. According to Trey Styler, he left his wife sleeping at the motel and went to Nancy Pfister's house to try to reason with her. The door was unlocked. He went upstairs to her bedroom. He said it bothered him that our whole lives were falling apart and she was there sleeping peacefully.

And he snapped. And suddenly it occurred to me that I could prove myself in this problem once and for all. And I killed her. Trey Styler says after retrieving a garbage bag and a hammer from the garage, he returned to the bedroom and began hitting Nancy Pfister in the head again and again until she was dead.

And then he puts the bag over her head after he kills her. Right, and that was to keep the bleeding to a minimum. This feeble-looking man in a wheelchair says he then pulled Nancy Pfister's body onto a sheet on the floor and tied her up with an extension cord. And then just by inches at a time and by squatting and pulling, he moved her deceased body inside the owner's closet. Trey Styler says he then threw the murder weapon and items belonging to Nancy Pfister into a bag, put it into his trunk, and eventually tossed it into that trash can.

Lisa Miller admits Trey Styler told a believable story. The problem is, she doesn't believe it. You don't believe that confession? No, not fully. I do not. You believe Nancy Styler had something to do with that murder? I do. Do you believe Kathy Carpenter had something to do with that murder?

Kathy Carpenter saw that body before that body had been wrapped and packaged as it was. Kathy Carpenter had something to do with the murder or the cleanup afterwards. Brian agrees but says they had no choice but to take the deal that they simply did not have enough evidence against the two women to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt in court. We can't create evidence against them that's just not there. I saw this as really one of our only opportunities to get some closure. But Nancy Styler's attorney says the prosecution is just trying to save face after throwing two innocent women in jail for over three months. It is one of the worst investigations that I have ever seen. Somebody needs to be held accountable.

Somebody needs to lose their job over this. From attorneys and investigators to family and friends, many people in this town are adamant that there are still unanswered questions, including Michael Cleverley, who wants to know how Trey Styler could have committed this crime on his own. He and I are the same age. I think I'm probably in a little better shape than he is.

And if I have to pick up an 80-pound bag of cement, it's a big adventure for me. It's hard for people to believe that you as his wife in no way helped him murder her, wrap the body up, drag it into a closet, and then clean up that place meticulously where there's only just a little bit of blood left on the headboard. And you want people to believe you had no idea that that happened. No knowledge of that at all.

Absolutely nothing. Nothing. The charges may have been dropped, but both women say the prosecution's continued insistence that they were somehow involved in Nancy Pfister's murder has convicted them in the court of public opinion. What does the name Nancy Styler mean now? My reputation was shining and now I'm guilty by matrimony. Carpenter lost her job at the bank and the employee housing that went with it.

This was home. I loved living here. She now lives with her mother in another town. Unlike Nancy Styler, Kathy Carpenter still faces the threat of prosecution, should more evidence be found. It just really hurts me to think that people might think that I was capable of something like this. There's no way. There's no way. The snow is once again falling on Buttermilk Mountain. And the murder of Nancy Pfister has finally faded from the headlines. But friends still mourn. You just lose one of the pillars of joy

when you lose a character like Nancy. And a daughter is still grieving. She was the person I loved the most in the whole entire universe. She is the person I love the most. But I bet if she wasn't my mom, she would have been one of my best friends.

Aspen endures as it always does, but Nancy Pfister will not soon be forgotten. I want to do whatever I can for Nancy. Last April, after 13 months behind bars, Trey Styler sat down for an interview with Dailene Berry, who was writing a book with Styler's wife, guilt by matrimony, in an effort to clear her name. I did snap. God, I wish it had never happened. He talked about the day that he killed Nancy Pfister.

I did not intend to kill her. The thought never went through my conscious mind, oh, I think I'll kill her, or I'm going to kill her. just mind, oh, I think I'll kill her, or I'm going to kill her. First thought I can remember having is, I did kill her. Past tense. Styler insisted he acted alone. One thing I know beyond doubt is that Nancy not only had no involvement in it, she had no knowledge of it. had no involvement in it. She had no knowledge of it. After Trey Styler went to prison, Nancy Styler changed her name,

moved to another state, and filed for divorce. I've been trying to hang on and not do something definitive. I had suicide. Four months after this interview, Trey Styler hanged himself in his prison cell. Do you think Dr. Styler acted alone? Chat now with correspondent Maureen Maher on Twitter. 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.