48 Hours - Mystery on Eagle Creek

Episode Date: March 18, 2018

Did a young model jump off a mountain cliff or was she pushed? 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. I want people to know that Rhonda wasn't just beautiful. Bye, Daddy. People always are surprised when they hear this, like,

no, you can't be super beautiful like her and be intelligent at the same time. I'm like, actually, she was wicked smart. Very in love. We planned on getting married in the summer. That was my timetable. They did look at wedding rings. I think she wanted one that was around $35,000, and I was thinking more $15,000 was my range. And you and Rhonda, did you like to get outdoors? All the time. We loved hiking. We played a lot of frisbee golf.

So, yeah, we were outdoors most of the time. We woke up early. She opened the drapes, and we saw, oh, it's a beautiful day, okay, so we are going to go hiking. One of the things she asked me on the drive over, she said, if anything ever happens to me, do you promise to watch our daughter and take care of her? And I go, what are you talking about? She goes, I have dreams all the time that I am dead before 25.

Did Rhonda ever tell you that she was sensing something bad was going to happen to her? She said that he's either going to propose to me or kill me. She wasn't happy. She just fell out of love with him, and they were fighting all the time. She had mentioned wanting to take the baby and leave Steve. It started pouring down rain, and leave Steve. Started pouring down rain and thunder came. And so she just started bolting down, like at a full sprint, running down the trail. And what unfolded before your eyes?

I don't know how far down it was, but she went off the trail. A man hiking with Rhonda Castro says that she fell off a cliff last night. Did she take a step and her feet went out in front of her? Did she tumble forward? What did you see? Next question. I'm Steve Nichols, and in February of 2015, I was charged and arrested for the murder of Rhonda Casto, my fiancée. We're in Hood River, Oregon. It's been six years, one month, and 26 days since Rhonda fell off that trail to her death. And for the first time, Stephen Nichols will enter a formal plea. Accident or murder?

Murder. Murder. And from a mother's heart and mind, you are certain of that? I am 100% certain of that. He's evil. He's totally evil. I think I've just left a path of destruction. I'm Attila the Hun, basically, going through women. 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. Hotshot 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. When you have a case where someone's falsely accused, you can't really separate yourself from work and home life. For defense attorney Mike Arnold... Mr. Nichols is here with his lawyer.

...representing Stephen Nichols gives new meaning to the phrase full-time job. You know, while I'd prefer to be coming home, doing farm chores and listening to wildlife, instead I'll be thinking about my closing argument or what the next step of the case is. We are on the record in Hood River County, Instead, I'll be thinking about my closing argument or what the next step of the case is. We are on the record in Hood River County, state of Oregon, versus Stephen Wagner Nichols.

Nichols was arrested for murder in February 2015. Accused of pushing his girlfriend, Rhonda Casto, off this trail in Oregon six years earlier. To that charge, what's your plea? Not guilty. Bail was set at $2 million. Nichols would spend the next 14 months in jail awaiting trial. I try to just take it one day at a time. I read a lot. I play chess.

But really, when it comes down to it, I miss my daughter. So that's the hardest part. But in April 2016, with a trial date nowhere in sight, Judge John Olson reduced Nichols' bail to $250,000. Mike Arnold set out on a frantic mission to gather the 10% needed in cash to free his client. So the farming defense attorney becomes a personal banker. People have taken off work to be there to get him out. So it sounds like a small price to pay to be there when my client gets to see freedom for the first time in a year. So, wish us luck.

But Arnold would need more than luck. We can't get the client bailed out until tomorrow morning. He'd need an extra day to arrange for the ankle monitor required for Nichols' release. So, we're going to hold on tight to this and go get some supper. The next day... It was a little unexpected overnight trip in Hood River. I'm on recycled clothes. Looking forward to get home to my family. It's my son's first birthday today.

Presumption of innocence, ladies and gentlemen. Mike feeds the cash into the bale machine. I'm very excited to see Steve for the first time outside in the fresh air. Two more hours, and Arnold gets his wish. I wanna cry actually, I'm so happy. But it's a bittersweet victory. We will continue to fight until I've proven my innocence. Still a long fight ahead,

but now I've got him out with me so we can work on this as a team. So this is a big deal. But how exactly did Nichols and his attorney end up at this moment? It all started 11 years earlier when a stunning 20-year-old woman knocked on Nichols' bedroom door

at his home just outside Portland, Oregon. And I turn around and I look at her, and my tongue pretty much hit the floor. Up until that point, she's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. And she's like, hi, my name is Rhonda. In 2005, Nichols, who is 10 years older than Rhonda and recently divorced, was working as a day trader. I had a three-bedroom condo, and the other two rooms were just empty.

So he decided to get a roommate. I first met Stephen Nichols through the Internet. I was looking for a place, a room to rent. Who turned out to be Rhonda's mother, Julia Simmons. He can be very charming and, you know, somebody that's really nice. Rhonda's best friend, Jessica Colburn,

wasn't surprised Stephen was instantly attracted to Rhonda, who was an aspiring model. Tell me about this. That was part of her modeling portfolio. I just love it because she just looks amazing in all of those pictures. Everything about her was impressive, and I just immediately fell in love with her. And what were you sensing from Rhonda?

I felt she was into me, too. I could tell that she valued intelligence, and I've always thought that that's one of my strongest assets. I think she was attracted not so much to his looks but to his his what he had his condo his money his you know his status. Soon Rhonda joined her mother Julia in the condo not as a roommate but as Stephen's girlfriend. Rhonda's younger sister, Tessa, was just nine years old at the time. When I first met Steve, he was really fun because I was a little girl.

He was playful, you know. Three years into their relationship, Rhonda and Nichols, living together but not married, became parents. Don't daddy help you a little? Ah, me got this for you. Did you see her face? She's all... When our daughter was born, it meant everything to her. She became the focus and the center of her life. I loved having a niece. I was always over there and she loved playing with

jewelry just like Rhonda did. She's just like her mom. She loves jewelry. Rhonda loved being a mom, but hoped to restart her modeling career. She had gained quite a bit of weight from having our daughter. She was the heaviest she had ever been and she felt really disgusting. So Stephen says the couple came up with an adventurous plan to lose weight.

We made it a pact that we would hike 20 or 25 of the top trails in Oregon. We'll just start crossing them off the list. But Jessica says Rhonda told her about only one planned hike. She was so happy that he was finally planning something. In all the years they had been together, he had never put any effort into planning anything for her. Including those plans to get married. The proposal never happened.

Things were tough after the baby was born. He wasn't around as much. I think she held on for longer for the sake of the baby. Daddy gonna open it for you? Jessica says Rhonda had grown unhappy and that the relationship had taken a dangerous turn. She told me that he had in the recent months been physically abusive to her. But Nichols claims just the opposite was true. We wouldn't argue at all. We were spending a lot of time together.

So I would think that would be the closest we ever were. So when Stephen is telling us that they were planning their future together and everything was great and it was a lovey-dovey relationship, is he lying to me? He's absolutely lying to you. I've witnessed their fights. I was on the phone a couple of times when they were

in a physical fight, actually. And Julia claims Rhonda made a chilling statement to her just before the hike. She said he's either going to give me a ring or he's going to throw me off a cliff. On March 16, 2009, Rhonda and Stephen would set out on that fitness hike and Rhonda would not live to see the end of the day. There's a smile. Bye, Daddy. 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+. Join Wondery 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

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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. This is probably the most hiked area in the Columbia River Gorge for several reasons. One the sheer beauty of the hike. Three months after Stephen Nichols' arrest in 2015, his attorney, Mike Arnold, took his own investigative team up the Eagle Creek Trail, where he believes Rhonda Casto slipped and fell to her death. Inclement weather hits and disaster happens. Between the physical evidence and the science,

there won't be much dispute about this being a tragic accident on a dangerous trail. Stephen Nichols says this is how the tragedy unfolded. They are heading down the trail. Rhonda was in a great mood, and jokingly, she put a towel around her shoulders and was calling herself Supergirl. She broke into a run, and according to Nichols, at this very point, she slipped on the wet path and fell more than 150 feet to her death.

That was his story almost three years ago. I'm not going to comment on that. When Nichols was forbidden by his attorney from discussing details of Rhonda's deadly fall with 48 hours. Until now, his only account was the one he gave to police the day of the tragedy. Again, something I'm not going to comment on. But just a few months ago, Stephen Nichols broke that silence. Either I pushed her, she jumped of her own accord, or she slipped. He sat down and spoke to us about the day Rhonda Casto died. Let's get in that time machine and go back to March 16, 2009.

We woke up early. Stephen says Rhonda seemed focused on the future as they drove to Eagle Creek Trail. She says, I desperately need to lose weight because they want to use me as the Maria Sharapova lookalike model. I'm like, yeah, you really do look like her. But then, Nichols claims, Rhonda asked him a startling question, completely out of the blue. She said, if anything ever happens to me, do you promise to watch our daughter and take care of her? And I said, of course.

Stephen says the question unnerved him, especially since three months earlier, he claims Rhonda had demanded he buy life insurance. She was adamant about it. I said, why do you want this life insurance? And she goes, because I want to leave our daughter something in case I die. So both Stephen and Rhonda had each taken out a $1 million policy on the other. He planned the whole thing, was premeditated, the whole thing.

Rhonda's mother doesn't believe a word of Nichols' story, saying the insurance was all his idea the whole thing. Rhonda's mother doesn't believe a word of Nichols' story, saying the insurance was all his idea and that Nichols, the day trader, had an ulterior motive. He had lost a bunch of money the year before. He lost like a quarter of a million dollars

because of the insurance, and then four months later, she's dead. The couple got to the trailhead, where Rhonda snapped this photo of Steve, later found on her cell phone. The weather was excellent, actually. But Stephen says Rhonda was acting strangely. I asked her, are you okay hiking on this trail? And she goes, I used to come up here with a bottle of vodka and a bag of weed.

She goes, I'll be fine. So I said, okay. They hiked up a few miles. I remember we kissed for a little bit. I remember she wanted to have sex. And I said, no. Like, I'm very prim and proper. I didn't want to do that.

Then, Nichols says, Rhonda once again asked him that unsettling question. She asked me if anything ever happened to her, which would I promise to take care of our daughter. But Rhonda may have been thinking about more than their daughter. What are you saying, Steven? I mean, I think anyone with an ounce of intelligence can fill in the blanks.

You would have to look into how many times in her past she committed suicide. Attempted suicide. Yeah, of course, attempted. I mean... Nichols says Rhonda was depressed and, shock shockingly that she had tried to take her own life at least three times before he even met her. She's never attempted suicide. Never. He's lying. But you know what? People that have to make up lies or, you know, you can obviously tell they're guilty. And there's more. Nichols claims that Rhonda had long struggled with a serious drug problem. She's never been off drugs since the age of 12. What kind of drugs?

Everything. Everything. Alcohol? Cocaine? All of them. Marijuana? Crystal meth? All of them. Heroin. But Rhonda's autopsy would show that she only had traces of marijuana, as well as prescription drugs for anxiety and depression in her system. Jessica Colburn says Rhonda did suffer from postpartum depression.

She was in therapy, and that's why she was on the prescription medications. Nichols says they didn't linger on the trail for long. And who decides, hey, let's head back? It was decided by the weather. Started pouring down rain and thunder came. And so she just started bolting down, like at a full sprint, running down the trail. Now, I've been on that trail. It's a narrow trail. It is very narrow. Did you yell at her, hey, what are you doing? Stop. Walk. We're walking down. Um, I don't think I screamed anything at her. Nichols says the steep trail became slick. I hugged the right wall pretty much on the way down.

This was cascading rain. Like you can actually just see the water flowing down the trail. And so, take me to the time of the fall. What do you remember? Hmm. That part I'm not going to take you through because she did fall off. She did fall off, and I can say I had absolutely nothing to do, either directly or indirectly, with her falling off.

But what Nichols seems to be suggesting to 48 Hours is that Rhonda may have chosen to go off that cliff. Did she tumble forward? What did you see? Next question. Was it a large skid mark on the path where she had slipped and went off? No, it was just a footprint. Just a footprint. Steve, look at me.

What you're saying is she jumped. She was going down at almost a run pace. There's a single footprint, you're telling me, at the edge of the cliff, and she goes over. That's a jump. I've laid everything out there. People can reach whatever conclusion they want. See how prosecutors believe Rhonda fell to her death on Facebook at 48 hours. While not saying it in so many words, she did fall off,

and I can say I had absolutely nothing to do either directly or indirectly with her falling off. Stephen Nichols' mind games... There's definitely a lot more to the story, but I'm not going to say it, so... Manage to drop a bombshell. You've led me down a path to believe this was a suicide. And I don't think you can look me in the eye and say, well, Peter, you're wrong. Can you?

No. Suggesting that Rhonda Casto chose to jump to her death from Eagle Creek Trail. What was her point in going up there? How to say this? She knew she wasn't living past the age of 25. She knew that for a reason. She just wasn't a happy person. And she thought that having our daughter would bring her happiness,

and it didn't. She had a nine-month-old baby at home that she loved dearly, and she loved her family. So that's just another one of his lies to take the heat off of himself. After Rhonda went off the trail, Stephen says he hiked down the deep ravine. What'd you do when you got to her? Well, I held her. That's the first thing I did when I got there.

With no cell service to call for help, Nichols says he made his way back to the trailhead and dialed 911. The police never once asked me if it was a suicide. They never even brought up suicide. I just answered the questions that they asked. Why didn't you tell them back in the day that suicide was something she was contemplating? Would it have made a difference, do you really think? Nichols may have had a million reasons to keep suicide a secret.

If it's a suicide, life insurance doesn't pay out. So our daughter would have gotten nothing. Is Stephen being self-sacrificing, having said nothing about suicide until now, even as he stands charged with murder? You were willing to essentially take a bullet for that. Or is he self-serving? I think Steve is just throwing all these ideas out to throw people off the fact that he pushed her.

Oh, well, she killed herself because she wanted to make a better life for her daughter. An investigation into Rhonda's death was immediately launched, and a memorial was held. Rhonda's family claims that you were not grieving, that you seemed unmoved by Rhonda's death. The exact opposite. I was crying nonstop. I was crying nonstop. When I'm really, really sad, I just, I close down. That's just the way I deal with pain.

Shortly afterward, Stephen moved across the state with his daughter to live with family. For about three months after Rhonda died, I completely shut down. By 2013, four years had gone by and no charges had been filed against Nichols. He decided to start a new life in a new land. So how does a kid from Oregon end up in China? I had been there before and I liked China. Stephen packed up. I would tell my daughter, this is our new life. Let's make it work.

And headed here to Wuxi, about 75 miles from Shanghai. I decided when I got to China, this is a whole fresh start. I was like, f*** America, f*** all the past. Stephen got a job teaching English to Chinese businessmen. My daughter was absolutely thriving. A little over two months, and she was fluent in Mandarin. She had dance lessons. She was taking Taekwondo.

She was learning to play the piano. And Stephen began to thrive too, falling in love with Landy Yin-Yan. She's beautiful, of course, but she's the deepest, funniest person I've ever met. Stephen says Landy became like a mother to his daughter. And I can say this with being with so many American women. Chinese women, all-inclusive, are better partners. Sounds so insulting to American women, but they just, they make better partners. They make better wives.

And so Stephen decided to make Landy his wife after a year of dating. I had actually proposed to her right before I came back to America. Stephen flew back to the U.S. with his daughter in February 2015 to get married. Landy would follow a few days later. We were planning on getting married both in America and China to make it official. What Stephen didn't know is that the entire time he was out of the country, investigators stayed on Rhonda's case, and Julia stayed on theirs. I kept calling and asking why nothing was happening.

But something did happen. In April 2014, a secret grand jury heard evidence and indicted Nichols for the murder of Rhonda Castro. So ten months later, when Stephen and his daughter arrived in San Francisco... They said something was wrong with my bags. I was like, that's interesting. Instead of catching his connecting flight to Oregon, Stephen says authorities separated him from his daughter.

I'm like, what is going on here? Something's fishy. And then, yeah, that's when they arrested me. And I could hear my daughter in the other room crying, and she goes, I want to be back with my dad. Stephen would be extradited to Oregon, and his daughter would be sent to live with Rhonda's family. I was shocked. It's one of those things where you think you're in a dream and you're going to wake up at any time. I'm like, okay, I'm going to wake up in China. My daughter will be nudging me. I'll be back to normal, but that never happens.

Back in Oregon, it was like a dream. 40-year-old Stephen Nichols was arrested last week. One that had come true for Rhonda's loved ones. And I just, I was busted out crying. It was amazing. I couldn't believe it. I was just like, after all this time, finally. We are on the record in a state of Oregon versus Stephen Nichols. For months following his February 2015 arrest for murder, When you ready, Mr. Arnold?

Stephen Nichols faced pre-trial hearings on a slew of issues, from evidence to motive. The state is present and represented by Kerry Rasmussen. Including whether there should even be a trial, since the defense considers Rhonda Castro's death an accident.

Both sides called witnesses. Was this immediately investigated as a murder? No. And when did it become a homicide investigation as opposed to an accidental fall? Pretty much the next morning. I can tell that based on the injuries that she has, she landed predominantly on her legs and her pelvis. Medical examiner and forensic pathologist

Dr. Christopher Young says Rhonda's injuries were mostly below the waist. The pelvis was essentially shattered. The defense argues the location of her injuries indicate Rhonda left the trail feet first, not tumbling head over heels from a push. It's a theory that could support Nichols' new suggestion of suicide. When you look at the relationship that the defendant then had with Rhonda Casto... Notes from a therapist Rhonda had been seen reveal she was depressed

but not suicidal from her relationship with Stephen, which she described as loveless. What the state has to prove in this case is the defendant did a criminal act. Prosecutors hope the judge will allow them to tell jurors about some bad acts in Stephen Nichols' troubled past at his upcoming murder trial. It's something that obviously is titillating and interesting. The first one, a shocking love triangle, involving another of Rhonda's younger sisters, Melanie, that may have provided a motive for murder.

Do you believe that Stephen was in love with Melanie? Yes, I do. Jessica says Rhonda learned that Stephen was having sex with Melanie. And did Rhonda ever tell you how young her sister was when she first had sex with Stephen? She was 15. 15 years old? Yes. In fact, just after his arrest for murder, Stephen was indicted on two counts of third-degree rape and three counts of third-degree sodomy

for allegedly having sexual relations with an underage Melanie back in 2005. He did rape my daughter, and I didn't want to believe it. In October 2016, while awaiting his murder trial... You agreed to plead guilty to two counts of sexual abuse with Melanie Casto. Mm-hmm. And you signed your name under this statement. I had sexual intercourse with Melanie Casto twice. Stephen insists his admission was false.

Did you have sex with her? No. I'm like, well, can I take a plea and then just say obviously obviously it never happened, and I was told later, nope. In order to pass the sex offender treatment, you have to admit that. Even though he'd be a registered sex offender, the law would allow Steven to still fight and regain custody of his daughter, who is in the care of the state.

I became desperate. I wanted my daughter back. You'll be amazed at what you're willing to sign to stay out of prison. But investigators believe there really was a relationship between Stephen and Melanie, one that continued on and off for four years, right up to that fateful last hike. Just a few hours before her death, Rhonda, who had learned of the affair, sent this text to her sister. I don't know what to say besides he's a piece of s**t. He used you to hurt me. I won't let him screw us up again. When you need me, I am waiting. This Rhonda sounds like somebody that doesn't care much at all about you. She's angry with you. It does sound like she's angry.

I have no idea why she sent those. But Julia says she knows why. She loved her sister, and she knew that Steve was trying to drive a wedge between them. And I guess she figured it all out and realized what he was doing. On the night of Rhonda Casto's death, the defendant didn't run to where his daughter was, didn't run to his parents. The first person to whom he went was Melanie.

Melanie Casto. And it's not the only allegation Nichols has faced involving a minor. Less than six months after Rhonda's death, he was charged with five counts of sex abuse for allegedly touching a 13-year-old girl on the buttocks. He claims that didn't happen, but something else did. You sent sexually suggestive texts to her and a selfie with your shirt off. And you agreed to a plea deal in this case. Yeah, that was definitely, I was in the wrong on that one.

In terms of sending the photo, that was... No kidding. Yeah. That's terrible. It's disgusting. It is. Nichols pleaded guilty to one count of sexual harassment. Nichols pleaded guilty to one count of sexual harassment.

I have been emotionally abusive at times to people, but I've never physically hurt anyone. Prosecutors don't agree and want a jury to see this picture, taken by Rhonda, showing red marks left from an alleged physical encounter with Nichols. Right before they went on their hike, they had a little scuffle on the stairs and he put some bruises on her back and she took pictures of them in the mirror. And there are allegations of another physical assault of a woman with eerie similarities

to what Nichols stands accused of now. Allegations made by his ex-wife. He did try to push his wife over a balcony in China. In November 2003, Stephen was still married to his ex, an American woman and living in China for the first time when his spouse accused him of trying to suffocate her and throw her over the railing of their eighth-floor apartment.

We were both holding on onto each other's clothing, and we were both yelling. Nichols denies the claim and was not charged with the crime in China, but Oregon court documents show a witness confirmed Nichols' ex-wife's account. As Nichols awaits trial in the death of Rhonda Casto, he has some pleasant distraction. My Chinese fiance, Landy, is arriving here in about an hour.

I'm nervous. I'm excited. Visits from his fiance. Hello. Today I had my first court appearance. The case was involving my daughter. At our request, Stephen Nichols has kept a video diary while out on bail. Blue sky, many, many big trees.

Including Landy hiking to that fateful spot on Eagle Creek Trail. Very beautiful, but a little dangerous. And on the eve of his trial... We're at the top of Spencer Butte in Eugene. Love the hike. This is one of the happiest days of my life. A defiant Nichols is convinced there will be many

more happy days ahead. I had nothing to do with Rhonda Casso's death. I had nothing to do with Rhonda Casso's death. You didn't push her? No. What is it? What is it? What is it? So you're telling us you are completely innocent of these charges? Yes. There's a smile.

In May 2017, following several hearings about what evidence could be used against Stephen Nichols, which would include his plea to having sex with Melanie, it looked like his true day in court was finally on the horizon. And then I got a call from Carrie Rasmussen, the prosecutor, and she slowly told me the news about him taking a plea. To Julia's shock and horror, there had been a settlement conference, with the prosecution and the defense agreeing to allow Nichols to plead guilty to lesser charges. I started to cry. I got really upset.

I just said, I was screaming on the phone to Carrie, no, no, you can't do this. Please don't, don't plead out. But prosecutors knew their case against Nichols could fail. For years, the district attorney's office has believed that Mr. Nichols is responsible for the death of Rhonda Casto. But this case is not about belief. It's about the facts that can be presented to a jury at trial. What is your plea to the charge of criminally negligent homicide? Guilty. And to the charge of coercion? Guilty. People take pleas for all sorts of reasons. Most of the time, innocent people plead guilty in order to gain an advantage or meet a goal. In this case, this is Mr. Nichols purchasing insurance.

There's now a zero percent chance that Steve goes to prison for murder, that a jury gets it wrong. Nichols was given credit for time served while awaiting trial. He remains on parole for three years. His ankle monitor was removed, and his days behind bars are over. This plea deal, is it justice to you? No, it's not justice. I felt like it happened out of nowhere. I'm still completely blown away by the decision that was made in this. You destroyed my whole family.

Still firmly believing Nichols is a murderer, Rhonda's mother, Julia, was allowed to address the court. I don't see how you could do that, how you could take a mother away from their child like that by killing her. That's just horrible, Steve. I'll just bide my time and wait until you screw up or when you die, because I know you're going to go to hell for what you did. Nichols claims he took the deal for just one reason.

Time was running out to regain custody of his daughter. If I waited over a year to go to trial, I probably had a 0% chance. There's some problems with the juvenile court system that the longer you wait, the harder it is to get a child returned to parent. But having now admitted to inappropriate behavior with a 13-year-old girl, pleading to having sex with Rhonda's underage sister, and playing a role in Rhonda's death, Nichols' chances of regaining custody of his daughter are in jeopardy.

I think I've just left a path of destruction. I'm a tiller of the Hun, basically, going through women. Unable to leave Oregon until his parole expires in 2020, Stephen broke up with his fiancée, who had returned to China. I'm alone about 99% of the time. I never go out. I have nobody. Then, for the second time in our 48 Hours interview,

Nichols brings up the topic of suicide. But this time, he's not speaking about Rhonda. If I don't have my daughter, then it's pretty much game over for me. I'm checking out, so. You're saying you'll take your own life. Um, I hate all the suicide questions. I'm not going to answer that, but like I said, if I don't get my daughter back, I'm done. I'll just say that. Yeah, right. I doubt that. He's too narcissistic, egotistical, sociopath. There's no way he would take his own life. He's just said that to get sympathy.

And if your granddaughter were to be placed back into his custody, what do you think would happen? She would not be a normal child. She would be emotionally and mentally abused and possibly physical. And then, just when we thought this story had come to an end, our interview with Nichols took a turn into the surreal. I'm trying to think of a way to think of this. For the first time, he talks about what may have happened in Rhonda's last moments of life that day in 2009, comparing her to a wounded soldier.

Let's say you're in a war situation and you're with your buddy and, I don't know, he takes a landmine or a grenade or something. You're 100% certain this guy's going to die. Remember Nichols climbed down 150 feet to where Rhonda's broken body lay. Was she alive when you got to her? An hour. And that's the part I'm not going into. Is Stephen Nichols about to admit something?

Did you put Rhonda out of misery that day? Let me ask you, if you shoot your war buddy because you see how much pain he's in, is that murder? What do you say? I say no, of course not. So to me, that's a justified, I don't want to say homicide, but technically it is homicide, but it's justified as of that point. You are putting someone out of their misery that essentially has zero chance of survival. And is that what you did? Of course, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying.

Well, you brought this up. You brought up this whole... It seems a dangerous word game. Nichols stood on the cliff's edge, then took a step back. A final twist in a tragedy where only Nichols knows the real ending. It's all hypothetical because I'm telling people, you know, think outside the box. Like, there's always other options there. About half of Rhonda's million-dollar life insurance policy is being held in a court-controlled account for her daughter.

The rest of the money has gone to attorney's fees and Julia Simmons. Stephen Nichols still awaits a decision regarding custody of his daughter, now nine years old. To hear more from Stephen Nichols, go to 48hours.com. 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.