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

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Correspondent Jamie Yuccas and producers Asena Basak and Jordan Kinsey discuss theories of whether Heidi Firkus' death was an unfortunate accident or an intentional murder. Minnesota couple Heidi and Nick Firkus frantically called 9-1-1 to report a break-in at their home. A gunshot was heard over the phone and Heidi was killed. Nick claimed the intruder shot Heidi, but prosecutors believed he staged his wife’s murder to cover up their home foreclosure.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I'm Anne-Marie Green, and we are back for another episode of 48 Hours Postmortem. Today, we're here with CBS News correspondent Jamie Ucas and producers Asena Basak and Jordan Kinsey, who worked on this week's episode. It's called Death at the Front Door. Who shot Heidi Furcus? Welcome, guys. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. Hi, everyone. So, Jamie, first off, you are actually from Minnesota. This case took place in St. Paul.

What was it like covering a case in your hometown? Well, you know, it's one of those things. It is always a little strange to be back home covering something, especially something like this, a murder that you watch for years not be solved. At the time that this murder took place, I was living in Fort Myers, Florida, which we jokingly call Minnesota South. It's where all the snowbirds in Minnesota head. And I frequently talked to one of my best friends from college lived in St. Paul. My brother lives in St. Paul. It was one of those that when we heard about it, it's a neighborhood that's very residential, very quiet, very nice. I mean, you know,

there's parks nearby, big trees, old porches. So it was one of those things that was very strange to hear. Sometimes maybe you'd hear about a break-in, something like that, but nothing like a murder. And then several years later, I went back and I worked in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market. And every year we would do the update of, you know, now a sketch is being posted of a potential suspect or the yearly update, and nothing ever came of it. So now to see, you know, living in Los Angeles, to see this all come to fruition, I mean, I've had like four lifetimes since this case took place. It's something else. I mean, just to see it actually conclude, I think is shocking. And I think the way it concluded is even more surprising

to people who are from that area. Right. So, and Jordan, you're not from Minnesota, but you went back there. You know, you've gone back there quite a lot now. I don't know if you feel like you're from Minnesota because you've been back so often, but what was it like for you? Yeah. Yeah. At this point, I feel like I'm a Minnesotan Viking for sure. But yes, I was flying back and forth to and from Minnesota several times this year. And what viewers may not realize is how much the culture of Minnesota plays and influences this case. Yeah. You know, Jamie was talking about that a little bit earlier when we were talking about this case about Minnesota nice. And I said, I kind of understand because I'm

Canadian and Canadians have this reputation of being quite nice. Yeah, it's one of those things. You know, you'll always open the door for people. You'll, you know, chit chat about the weather in the elevator. But you don't ask deep questions. So while it's nice, it's not direct and you're not asking tough questions of people. And all of that kind of plays into this case, which we will get into. So before we get to our postmortem, let's listen to an overview of this week's episode. Someone's trying to break into my home.

Heidi Furcus's 911 call went dead after a loud noise. About a minute later, her husband, Nick Fur Furcus called 911. Furcus was treated for a Gray's gunshot wound to his leg. There was nothing the first responders could do for Heidi. Sergeant Jim Gray of St. Paul Police Department. It was a shotgun blast that killed her right away. Furcus told police he heard someone fiddling with the front doorknob from upstairs.

He then armed himself with a shotgun. Nick says as the couple tried to escape out the back, the front door burst open. And Nick and the intruder struggled over the shotgun. After Furcus was treated at the hospital, he gave a statement to Sergeant Gray at the police station. I think he grabbed the barrel. Let's say the intruder gets in. Prosecutor Elizabeth Lawman.

They have this life and death struggle right in this area with nothing disturbed. On the table. Exactly. There was a vase, some receipts, a beer bottle, and none of that was knocked over. His story didn't make a lot of sense to me. His version of the incident couldn't be plausible. So to start, I want to discuss the very first moment of this case. It's the morning of April 25th. It's 2010. Nick alleged that he heard a noise at their front door and

he believes that someone's really trying to break into their home. So Heidi first called 911 and then a minute later, Nick called back saying that both he and his wife had been shot. Here's a never before heard segment that was not included in the hour. Someone's trying to break into my home. Prosecutors also said that no sound of a struggle could be heard on heidi's 911 call when nick called 911 after heidi had been shot you could hear a lot of background noise when the police arrived the police are there okay you can hear the policemen you can hear them talking to him from the front door in heidi's call lawman says there is no indication of nick struggling with

an intruder in the background 1794 up to the moment the gun goes off. Somebody's trying to break in our house. Okay, so they both sound panicked. When there's an incident happening, more than one person often calls 911. So what seemed inconsistent to investigators about this story? Well, there were a number of flags that popped up pretty quickly. First of all, Nick Furcus said that he had heard this intruder jiggling with the door lock from upstairs while he was getting a glass of water. Heidi was sleeping. He hears this happen. According to investigators, he goes back into his room, is what he claimed to them,

and gets his gun, wakes up Heidi, and has her go down the stairs first. Now, most investigators started immediately questioning the story of that because why, in their minds, would someone send their wife in front of them when they're the ones who have the gun? And why would you leave the comfort of your bedroom if you know that you have a firearm? The other thing that you heard a little bit on that call is that Heidi says some things where she's talking about just herself. It doesn't sound like she is actually with Nick Furcus. Why would she be talking about herself in the first person and not about the two of them as a couple trying to get out?

She sounds very hurried. They had a staircase they were trying to get down. So I think that's where you hear kind of a little bit of the, you know, the angst and trying to get down the stairs. But again, investigators wondered, were they together? But, you know, when you listen to Heidi, when you listen to her voice on the 911 recording, I mean, she sounds concerned.

She sounds more than concerned. She sounds scared. She sounds panicked. How was Nick able to create that sense of urgency for her when she's actually not seeing any of this stuff? She's not seeing someone breaking in. She's not hearing anything because presumably that's not happening. Yeah. So, you know, all we have is Nick's narrative. And so, you know, imagine putting yourself in Heidi's shoes. Your husband is telling you someone's trying to break in. So she's trusting her husband's story about what's going on. And he even told investigators that they had a game plan if something were to happen like this,

that they would rush down the stairs into the back entrance of the home leading to the garage. So, you know, we think that, you know, Heidi was just trusting her husband on what was going on. And we should point out they came up with the plan because there had been a number of break-ins in the area. So they had supposedly, according to Nick, they had talked about the break-ins. Heidi had felt nervous. And so they came up with this plan as a couple. I mean, now that I'm sort of putting myself in what could have been her position,

I think about somebody waking me up out of a sleep. You know, if my husband does that and he's saying, where are the car keys? I wake up in a panic, even though it's something sort of benign. So you could see that. So Nick's 911 call was almost seven minutes long. And Jamie, you sort of brought this up.

This was brought up in the hour. But all that you're hearing in the back of that call, those are the officers coming in the door. Right. That's not an intruder. So as we discussed, Heidi was on her phone running down the stairs, supposedly, you know, in this very, very small space, this small foyer that has things too, like a table and other pieces of furniture

and shoes that have been, you know, there's other household items that she's having to try to get around. Supposedly at that moment, that is when Nick is struggling with this intruder and you hear nothing. The defense plays that off saying, well, she had her phone up to her head.

The reason you could hear when the officers arrived and burst through the door and got to Nick Furcus is because Nick had his phone on speaker phone. So they tried to put some doubt into the minds of jurors that way to say, well, the sound would be different, but it is such a small space. I don't know how to hammer that home enough. There's not a lot of space there for one person, much less supposedly three people in this space where two of them are struggling. And you actually, when you see the images of the scene, you don't see a lot of disruption, really.

And perhaps like a really interesting part of the hour was seeing the investigators' reenactment of Nick's version of the story. Can you describe the reenactment? Yeah. So the police went back to the house two days later after Heidi's shooting. It's April 2010. So they were there at 630. There was light out. They were saying, this just makes no sense. If you if you're an intruder, a burglar, do you really want to go inside a house at 630 in the morning on a Sunday where people will be home? The prosecutors and investigators told us the last thing an intruder or a burglar want to do is to encounter people.

Also, there's one other thing. They also tested whether you could hear this fiddling of the door from the upstairs. The investigators told us they couldn't hear the doorknob being filled with from upstairs, and they checked in the bathroom as well. That's where Nick said he was to get a drink of water. So it just doesn't make sense that he would hear these noises from upstairs. The store didn't check out. The other thing I do want to point out too, if you are someone who's coming down those stairs, there's a big kind of half moon-shaped glass panel above the door. So at the heights of Heidi and Nick, if they are running down the stairs

and you've supposedly heard someone at the door, you assume that their head, if he's as tall as Nick claims he is, which is more than six feet tall, you would think that either Heidi or Nick would take a look through that glass window to see if they saw anyone. Nick never pointed out that he saw anyone. We unfortunately don't know, you know, if Heidi saw anyone because she was killed pretty quickly. But, you know, there is that piece of glass there that would give you a window into what was happening outside as someone's fiddling with the door. Right. And you would presumably go back upstairs or call 911 or do something, maybe not run towards them. But that's sort of all part of this kind of story.

So hours after this alleged burglary takes place, Nick is questioned by police. And again, for our listeners, I want to describe what we see. Nick just left the hospital for treatment of his injuries because he was shot as well in the struggle, he says. So he's limping. He has crutches. An hour and 40 minutes into his discussion with investigators, he finally asks about his wife. Let's just play some of that. about his wife. Let's just play some of that. I just want to know the final answer.

The final answer. She didn't make it. I figured that. So in, you know, some of the cases that I've worked on, this sort of thing kind of often stands out. that the phrasing or the questioning about whether or not a loved one has been killed is just not the way you would

expect it or the timing is odd. And as I was watching The Hour, that's what I kept on thinking. Why is this not the first question out of your mouth? How is Heidi? Is Heidi okay? Is she alive? I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second, Anne-Marie, because I will say that as a Minnesotan, people are very stoic, right? And so I did really question the detective. Could it have been just one of those things that this is his demeanor? And this is his demeanor all the time. But I think the sticking point for everyone was the timing. If that was just his regular demeanor all the time. But I think the sticking point for everyone was the timing. If that was just his regular demeanor all the time, okay, you could kind of brush off that point of it.

But it took him so long to ask about it. I also want to mention, you know, to Jamie's point that, you know, when we have interviewed investigators on various stories for 48 hours, they will say that, you know, the way people grieve in moments of shock or trauma varies. There's many ways people might process emotions or feelings. And I think, you know, what Jimmy just mentioned with that being a part of maybe the culture of Minnesota with people being stoic, you know, that might have played a role. But then again, you know, people process and deal with moments of trauma is shock in different ways. I do want to add, Nick does get

very emotional at the end of the interview when his family and Heidi's family come into the interrogation room. He sobs loudly. He hugs them. He's very emotional. But then the prosecutors thought that's odd as well. You know, they were saying to us, maybe then he can turn it on and off just like that. So, I mean, I guess you can think you can go both ways. Right. Well, the circumstances are so odd. But clearly the spidey senses for investigators were tingling. Yeah. Something was off. So Nick also told investigators that he and Heidi were having financial troubles. And in fact, they were behind on their mortgage payments and they were about to get evicted. And he says something really weird about we're moving out tomorrow.

You know, could that have been Nick's motive for murder? But when police searched the house, nothing was packed up. There was even food in the fridge. Something was not adding up. We are going to get into some possible theories of what really happened that day after the break. So stay tuned. 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.

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Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Welcome back. In the hour, it is clear that Nick is worried about Heidi and others finding out about his financial troubles. So first off, how did Heidi not know that they were so far behind on their mortgage payments and that they were about to be evicted? This is a woman who seems on the ball. She knows how much they both make. They should have been able to afford their bills. How does she not know?

It was brought up in the trial by the defense that there would be notices on the door at Heidi and Nick's house that they had lost their house. And how could Heidi miss these notices that were left there? Investigator Sipes believes that Nick was actually intercepting the mail. He didn't have an office job. He could go wherever he wanted during the day while Heidi had an office job. So her theory was that Nick removed those notices from the front door. They're a young religious couple in Minnesota who, you know, got married very young and she was very trusting of her husband. And her husband was supposed to take care of the finances. She went to work and he was supposed to pay the bills. She would occasionally get a call about a bill not being paid or something not happening. And she'd call him and say, hey, can you take care of this? And the one thing that stuck out to me that did not make it into the show is that Heidi Furcus went shopping at Mall of America with a friend

and bought things. So if she did have an idea, you would not go with someone to Mall of America and purchase things and act like everything was fine. Her friend said she didn't make any mention of financial troubles to her. It was just, you know, just a normal day. And also, whether or not Heidi knew about the mortgage payments, the eviction is a point of contention in this entire story. Did Heidi know or not? And so Nick's defense team is claiming that she was fully aware and that she wasn't in the dark,

but her family were not aware. Apparently, according to investigators and the prosecutors, Heidi talked to her parents regularly and they did not know that the couple were going to be evicted the next day. So that's still sort of the million dollar question. Did Heidi know about the financial situation or not? But still, I mean, I know money is often a motive for murder, but it's an extreme motive. I still don't really understand. I know it's embarrassing

to say you're in financial trouble. I know your wife's going to get mad at you, but often in cases like that, you know, you might see an argument that spirals out of control over money, but that wasn't the case here. What would Nick be accomplishing by killing his wife? For us, especially working in true crime, you know, we're always trying to figure out motives and what is the reason for it. And so life insurance policies are a big one for certain cases. In Heidi Ferguson's case, there was a life insurance policy, but it was only about $30,000. It was her salary's worth, a year worth for salary. According to investigators, Nick, who received that insurance policy as a spouse, he didn't spend that money. He returned the check and it was given to Heidi's parents. So it kind of leaves that question, well, then was the life insurance policy

a motive? Who knows? You know, it's one of those things that I remember living in Florida in 2007 as the housing crisis was, you know, really running rampant through that state. And I remember living in Florida in 2007 as the housing crisis was, you know, really running rampant through that state. And I remember calling home to a number of my friends in Minnesota who didn't even know what the word foreclosure meant. It was, it's just something ingrained in the culture. You pay your bills.

You, you know, you go to work. They're hardworking, hardy people, you know, and it wasn't, it's not as surprising to me as it was to a number of my colleagues. And I think probably not as surprising to investigators in that sense because of the culture of the state. And Nick had talked about, you know, he had had to ask his parents for help at other times. You ask your family in Minnesota one too many times for money, you start getting talked about in the family, right? So if all of a sudden he comes forward and they're getting evicted from their house, the shame of that could potentially, I mean, it wouldn't drive me to murder, but there'd be a tremendous amount of shame in that culture that

you could not pay your bills. The prosecutors also told us Nick presented himself as this person who figured the big questions in life, like how do you want your relationship with God to be? What kind of spouse do you want to be? So his friends looked up to him. So he had this persona at church with his friends. He was very well liked, well respected. So perhaps that also played into this, how ashamed he would be from causing the financial ruin. Asena, you spoke to his second wife, Rachel, which is like this, there's always a twist in these stories. And this is crazy twist that he goes on and falls in love and has a whole family. By the time of the interview, though, they had already gotten a divorce.

But when they were still married, she started to become suspicious of Nick and decided to secretly record their conversation, which I thought was a very extreme thing to do when you're just starting to get suspicious about your spouse. Let's hear a clip from Rachel. 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 you're 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. 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. It's very interesting that Nick never gives a solid answer to Rachel about the murder. So he never says, what are you talking about? I never did something like this. I didn't kill Heidi. He never denies. How did Rachel become so suspicious of Nick? When did that start? I think it was a process for her. I think it started with small lies. It was nothing big, but it added up. Eventually, she found a missed

invoice wasn't paid for the property taxes and they could lose their house in 2020. That was a huge red flag for her. So she then decided to get her kids. They have three children together to get their kids out of the house. And she came back the next day and confronted him about what we just heard. Jamie, were there other red flags that Rachel started to notice? A couple of things that stuck out to me as things for Rachel seemed to unravel is that she mentioned at some point in her interview that her father-in-law, Nick's father, had one time said to her, we don't get divorced in this family. It's another one of those situations I think goes back to them being a religious family, but it was something that stuck with her. Jordan, you met with Rachel. I met with Rachel for dinner. And let me tell you, it was really eye-opening as she was getting into a relationship with Nick. She was aware of the

financial troubles that Nick had with Heidi. And so as they were getting ready for marriage, her father-in-law warned her basically that Nick is not good with finances. I wouldn't let him handle the finances. And she said at that moment, she trusted her husband. He had gone through sort of a financial recovery program. So she assumed that he had a good control over the finances. And so she said she allowed him to do that. And then in the interview we did with her, she said hindsight is 20-20. And she regretted that decision. You know, if you look at this case and when the murder occurred was 2010, a lot of people aren't texting.

You're still calling people. You're still leaving a voicemail. However, if you fast forward several years later and Rachel and Nick are in a relationship, a lot more conversations are happening by phone, including recording different conversations, even using voice memos or sending little voice texts to one another. So in some ways, I think as this case developed, the technology also changed

and some of what we now have in terms of conversations between the married couples would also evolve and change. Fascinating. So 11 years after Heidi's death, Nick is charged with her murder. And then two years later, in January of 2023, he's brought to trial. What was it like being in the courtroom? I covered the trial.

And this was a very extensive trial. It was nearly two weeks. And the thing that stood out to me the most was the fact that it was packed on both sides. It was standing room only. And I think it really spoke to how much both of these people, Nick and Heidi, were cherished. And the feeling in the entire courtroom because it was both families were still sort of torn and deeply fractured. I had an opportunity to talk to some of the friends. And I think the thing that struck me in speaking to people is that Nick's friends truly believe him and believe and back

him and will not be swayed, do not think the prosecution did their job and really have faith in him that he is a good man, he would never do this. They actually are more angry, it seems, at Rachel, the second wife, and feel that she's to blame for bringing all this up. What's interesting, if you kind of peel back the onion a little bit, you have this young couple, Heidi and Nick, who get married and, you know, they had their friend group. Nick's very well regarded within that friend group. He's somebody that everyone's looking up to because he's one of the first to get married and they own a home. And then when this happened, part of the prosecution's belief was that he, instead of looking like the guy who couldn't pay his bills and take care of his family, they had compassion for him. Oh, my goodness, he's the man who's now lost his wife, that he would be able to turn the friend group into having empathy for him rather than him being a bad guy and that that could have played a part of the motive to investigators as they're looking at this case instead of just the finances, the psychological part of it. So ultimately, the jury believes the prosecution, though. Nick

was found guilty on two counts of murder, premeditated and intentional, and given the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. I want to listen to some of Nick's statement at sentencing. 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. I mean, that's kind of powerful. I was there at the sentencing and you can feel just the dread from kind of both sides, right? Because family and friends of Heidi, they wanted justice and it was hard to accept that someone who used to be a family member is now found guilty of killing Heidi. And then, of course, Nick's family and friends,

who never believed that Nick was the killer. And in fact, even Nick's father, who spoke at the sentencing, had asked for anyone to come forward if they know who is the actual killer. So that still spoke to the fact that many people on Nick's side thought he was innocent and still is innocent actual killer. So that still spoke to the fact that many people on Nick's side thought he was innocent and still is innocent. Wow. Jamie, Jordan, Asena, what will be your big takeaways

from this case? For me, there's a number of things I'll remember just because, as we said in the beginning, being from there, just seeing the conclusion of it, I think just sticks out to me. I think having someone like Detective Sipes have a fresh pair of eyes on the case, it was all the same evidence for 10 years. It was a detective who was determined to get the case solved one way or another. The prosecution who really enabled that detective to take a fresh look and be able to really comb through the financial records and take the time and really look at the interviews and all the different pieces, it's unusual, right? I mean, it's not something you hear about a lot. So the fact that there was a conclusion and how that

conclusion came about will be the thing that sticks out to me most. The work that the investigation poured into this case, it took over a decade. It went through the hands of, you know, four different investigators, even getting assisted by the FBI. I thought that was just really just interesting that they never gave up and that they kept working hard at trying to find out what happened to Heidi Furcus. I walk away from this case thinking if you feel there's something wrong, there's probably something wrong. I think if you have a gut feeling, you should probably listen to that gut feeling. So that's what I take away from this case. Jamie, Asana, Jordan, thank you so much for joining me for this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

you so much for joining me for this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So be sure to join us next Tuesday for another Postmortem and watch 48 Hours, Saturday, 10, 9 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. And if you're liking the show, please rate and review 48 Hours on Apple Podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen ad-free on the Amazon Music and Wondery app or with a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. 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. 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

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