48 Hours - The Disappearance of Nicole VanderHeyden: A Close Call | My Life of Crime

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

Doug Detrie and Nicole VanderHeyden go out for the evening to a rock concert in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They later end up at separate bars, with Doug not answering Nicole’s calls. Nicole vanishes and is found dead in a nearby field the next day. Though the situation first suggests Doug may be the killer, evidence across the street from Doug’s house including a clump of hair and a phone cord, and the actions of a man named George Steven Burch cause police to think otherwise. Erin takes you inside the 48 Hours episode, "The FitBit Alibi”.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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ConstantContact.ca It's Erin Moriarty, and we have a special episode for you today from my original podcast, My Life of Crime. I'm taking you inside true crime investigations like no one else, taking on killers and those accused of crimes. Here's an all-new episode of My Life of Crime that takes you deeper into the Fitbit alibi. Follow along as I go beyond the scene of each crime, beyond prison walls, and into the killer's inner thoughts. It's all on this season of My Life of Crime. Continuing coverage tonight of a death investigation in the village of Bellevue. Nicole Vander Heiden was 31 years old.

She was living with her boyfriend, Doug Dietry, and they had just had a baby together. It was Friday, May 20th of 2016. Doug and Nicole decided to go out that night. This was an opportunity for them to go out and have a great time. The night didn't end in a great time. It ended in a nightmare. Nikki walked off into the darkness that night. She just walked off. She vanished. It's shocking whenever a young woman disappears. She just walked off. She vanished.

It's shocking whenever a young woman disappears. But in Green Bay, Wisconsin, it was also inconceivable. Green Bay is a great downtown pulse, and I feel it's relatively safe. Nobody would ever think that something like this would happen in our community. But it did happen, and worse, hours hours later Nicole Vanderheiden was found dead just miles from her home. But as tragic as it was it's not just the story of Nicole's death that matters it's how police caught the killer, with Google data and how a Fitbit seemed to absolve the main suspect. I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 hours, and this is my Life of Crime. Around a quarter of a million people live in Brown County, Wisconsin, a rural community

way north and probably best known as the home of the Green Bay Packers. But to my surprise, it's also where one of the best murder investigations I've ever witnessed took place, led by Sergeant Brian Slinger and his partner, Sergeant Rick Lopnow. About where was she found? Right down this embankment. When we arrived on scene on this one, we kind of knew right away it was probably going to be different. So at the scene, that was the most apparent thing, is the trauma to the left side of the face.

When you came here, there was no way to identify her. You had no idea who she was? Not right away, no. Shortly after Nicole Vander Heiden was found that Saturday afternoon in a farmer's field, her live-in boyfriend, Doug Dietry, called to report her missing. Sergeant Slinger. Doug Dietry, he woke up in the morning. Eventually later that afternoon, he had called the sheriff's officer 911 to report that his girlfriend did not come home from the night before. What you're hearing is the conversation with Doug that police recorded

when they arrived at the couple's home. I'm here for a missing persons report. So this is not normal behavior for her? Not at all. Sergeant Slinger took me to Nicole's neighborhood. And this is where Nicole was living? Where I could see for myself why Doug Dietry was so quickly the main suspect in Nicole's murder.

And you believe that she was killed here? Correct. Across the street, in the roadway. A large quantity of blood that was determined to be Nicole's. Everything's pointing to Doug Dietry's. Yeah, so then Monday night... Nicole's body was found in a field, but police believe that she had actually been killed just across the street from her home. Right now, I'm going to be taking you into custody.

We felt we had probable cause to arrest Doug Dietry. I'm a decent guy. I'm a decent guy too. I get that. I'm sure you are. Doug Dietry was arrested and held on a $1 million bond, but he was never charged with murder and was eventually released, not only due to a lack of evidence, but because of an alibi confirmed by his Fitbit,

a device worn on the wrist that digitally tracks a person's movements. I think people were shocked. People are wondering, could he have done it? Did Doug do it? His alibi was his Fitbit that he had been wearing all night and that supposedly proved that he was asleep at the time of her murder. Kate Bricolet was another journalist who, just like me, was drawn to the investigation that relied on evidence that we had never seen in court. A Fitbit, the GPS on Doug Dietrich's car, and the Google dashboard found on Android phones. The technology is really what drew me to this case. Me too. It was the Fitbit and the other devices that allowed investigators to find and build a case against the real killer,

a man that no one suspected. It's definitely a whodunit. There's lots of twists and turns to it, and it's hard to know who's telling the truth. But before I get to that, let me tell you a bit about Nicole, known to her close friends as Nikki, and how she disappeared. I was just, it's not real. You know, that can't be. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of her? Light, spirit, a verve and a zest and zeal. She was close with her family and loved her children. That's Tiffany Hoffman, a close friend. Nicole had already two children

when she met Doug, and now they had a six-month-old baby of their own. She was really, really happy when she talked to me. She said they both were excited. Yeah, that they both were excited to have a baby. But it's not easy to get out of the house with a baby, so Friday, May 20, 2016, out of the house with the baby. So Friday, May 20th, 2016 was a special occasion. The couple got a babysitter and planned to join friends at a place called The Watering Hole to see a concert. I think Nikki was really looking to let loose and have a good time. As the concert came to a close, Nicole decided to go with Doug's friends to another bar called The Sardine Can. Doug stayed behind and planned to catch up with her later,

but then he never showed up. And after a while, Nicole began to send him texts that got angrier and angrier with time. They were scorching and they were all but accusing him of infidelity. Sometime after 11 p.m., Nicole called Doug's cell phone, but he didn't answer. So another friend calls Doug and he answers. And this enrages Nikki. And that's when she got up, left the bar, and vanished into the darkness. Doug did eventually make it to the

sardine can, but he couldn't find her. He is actually seen on security camera drinking before he left with a friend to go looking for Nicole. Front County Number One, what is it, Anderson? We just found a human body laying in the weeds. Okay, sir. It's the next afternoon when a farmer, for Nicole. It's the next afternoon when a farmer, Richard

Vanderhey, finds her and calls 911. Over this hill right over here. Yep. At first I thought it was a deer because of the rust color in her hair. Then I realized it was a young lady. She was naked other than socks that were on her feet and then I realized it was a young lady.

She was naked, other than socks that were on her feet and a pink wristband. Other than that, we had no form of identification. She was badly beaten, says Sergeant Rick Lopp now, which made it difficult to identify the victim. There was a lot of blood. There was obvious injury, trauma on the side of her face. But within hours, they knew the name of the victim. From County Public Safety, this is Therese.

Because that's when the phone call from Doug Dietry came in. He had called 911 and told the operator that Nicole had not come home from their night out. And her date of birth? March 29, 1985. and her date of birth? March 29th, 1985. Her description matched what we had found in the field as far as age, proximate size, hair color. It all seemed suspicious to Slinger,

so we sent officers with a hidden camera to talk to Doug. Hello? Hi. I'm here for a missing persons report. Okay. Okay. So you left this or Dean Kennedy drove room for another 30 to 40 minutes? Yeah, because we didn't get back here.

I don't even know what time it was. It was late. 2.30? Did you do anything to cause her to go missing? No. Not at all. Doug was taken to the station for questioning when he's first told that Nicole had been murdered.

I can't believe this. Please, no. Doug seemed sincerely shocked and upset. But when detectives searched the couple's home, there was blood on the garage floor and inside Nicole's car. And there appeared to be blood smudges on a pair of Air Jordans. For us, it's adding up. Okay, this is our guy.

But most damaging, says Sergeant Slinger, is the evidence found in the neighbor's lawn just across the street. And what was found here? A large quantity of blood that was determined to be Nicole's, as well as some clumps of blonde hair. And then there was also a cord, which I would describe as like a phone charging cord.

This is where detectives believe Nicole was murdered just 118 feet from her front door. Doug Dietry was held on a $1 million bond while detectives waited for results of DNA tests that were done on the blood found in the house and on Doug's shoes. And to their shock, that blood in Nicole's car, it wasn't hers. The blood in the garage wasn't human. And the stains on the Air Jordans, wasn't human. And the stains on the Air Jordans? Not blood at all. We had nothing on Doug, so he was released. What also helped Doug was that Fitbit he was wearing. When it was examined by investigators, the data corroborated Doug's story that he arrived home around 2.30 in the morning,

went to bed, and only got up for the baby. He had a few footsteps throughout the night, getting up to go to the bathroom, check on the baby, whatever. His story that he told us was absolutely 100% true. Which meant Sergeants Lopnow and Slinger were back to square one. Two of you have this horrific murder on your hands. What are you feeling at that moment? We needed to figure out how Nicole got home.

We pulled video cameras from every single bridge in the city of Green Bay because in order for her to walk home, she would have had to cross a bridge. It was getting to the point where, you know, we had looked at each other and said, oh, I really hope this isn't a cold case. Getting to the point where, you know, we had looked at each other and said, oh, I really hope this isn't a cold case. 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. 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 on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. That summer, they get a break. DNA samples from Nicole's clothing and from the neighbor's yard, have DNA from an unidentified man. It's not a full profile,

so investigators aren't able to make a positive ID. We had this one consistent mystery guy, I guess you'd call it, and our job was to try and find out who that was. It was just a very confusing time. Nobody knew who would have done this to Nikki. But in August, the crime lab is finally able to get enough of the mystery DNA to run it through the national database. And this time, there's a match and a name.

Sergeant Slinger again. The excitement was amazing. The DNA belongs to a man named George Stephen Birch. I was a hit out of the state of Virginia. Virginia? Yeah, Virginia. So I was like, okay, who is George Birch, and why is he in Green Bay, Wisconsin, of all places?

Yes, we have a name now, but now we need to start digging on who this person is. Birch was a long way from home. He had moved from Virginia to Green Bay in March of that year. A friend had given him a place to stay and loaned him a red Chevy Blazer. And just weeks after Nicole disappeared, that Blazer was involved in a hit-and-run accident and destroyed by fire. in a hit-and-run accident and destroyed by fire.

Detectives pulled up the accident report and got an address for George Birch. Swear to God, drive by the first time, who's standing out in front of the house smoking a cigarette? George Birch. My hair stood up on the back of my neck. I had goosebumps. It was like, oh, my God, there's our guy.

They began to videotape Birch's movements and soon got the biggest break of all. They discovered that when Birch had been questioned about that hit and run accident, he had handed over his cell phone. He gave them consent to search his phone. They extracted the entire thing. So I requested a copy of that.

It's an Android phone that had a Gmail account associated with it. We were recently made aware of this Google Dashboard data that could potentially give us GPS data. Until I began working on this story, I had never heard of Google Dashboard. But if you own an Android device and have a Google account, your exact location is constantly tracked and stored within Google servers. That information can be viewed with the Google dashboard. So detectives got a warrant to view Birch's Google dashboard, and what they found gave them the break they needed.

On the night that Nicole disappeared, Birch had been inside a bar just half a mile from the sardine can. And then the phone tracks him later as he traveled, wait for it, to Nicole's home, where he stayed for nearly an hour. Sergeant Lopnow. It was very obvious that here's our guy. According to the data on his phone, Birch then traveled to the field where Nicole's body was found and arrives back at his home at 4.22 in the morning. Bingo.

That was enough to make an arrest. We sent one guy out to the house a little bit earlier to get eyes on and he called me and he's like, oh my God, he's on the move. We got to go now. We all had a rally up, get in our cars and drive. On a chilly, drizzly day in September, four months after Nicole's murder, George Birch's arrest is recorded and he's charged with first degree intentional homicide. The reason you're here is in reference to a homicide investigation into Nicole Vander Heiden. So if I read you in Miranda rights, you don't want to talk to me. For a lawyer. Okay. All rise.

On February 19, 2018, a year and a half after Nicole was murdered, George Birch went on trial. Mr. Birch must be held accountable. I was in the courtroom for that trial, which turned out to be one of the strangest I've ever sat through, and here's why. George Birch was the defendant, but George's defense is, I didn't do it. Nicole's boyfriend did. Doug Dietry did it. Cops are just pinning it on me. And it was a defense that just might work.

Because remember, the first suspect was Doug Dietry. He was even arrested. He was Nicole's boyfriend. They fought the night she disappeared. And think about it. Why would a stranger kill her? Prosecutors have no choice. They will have to call Doug Dietry as a state witness. Kind of interesting that the man who you first thought might have killed his girlfriend

is going to be one of the most important witnesses at this trial, right? Right. He will be very important. Because there's also crucial digital evidence that shows that Doug Dietry couldn't be the killer, including data from the Fitbit device that he had been wearing. District Attorney David Lassie prepares the jury.

The autopsy results, the DNA identification, the Google dashboard data, the records from Fitbit, that is the evidence that will drive you. You will follow that evidence and you will find it. On day three of the trial, Doug Dietrich takes the stand for the state and he's clearly nervous. Do you swear to tell the truth, the state, and he's clearly nervous. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth? Tell us about your family. My mother, my father, my amazing little son, Dylan. Doug tells jurors that Nicole didn't usually drink, but on the night she disappeared, they both drank a lot.

What was the pace she was drinking that night? Pretty quickly. I think she had like two down and I was still on my first one. As Doug told his story, it became clear why he had been a suspect. He admitted that after Nicole left to go to the Sardine Can bar, he stayed and drank more and smoked marijuana. And as the night went on, he started getting texts from Nicole, angry texts. At any point in response to those messages, did you get upset with Nikki? No, I didn't. Doug offered to pick her up, but by then, Nicole's phone had died. Were you concerned that Nikki was missing at that point in time?

I was not concerned that she was missing. I was kind of concerned, like, why is she upset? Did you have absolutely any involvement in Nikki's disappearance or death? No, I did not. When cross-examined by George Burch's lawyer, Doug had to admit that the couple had been having serious problems.

He sent a text to his mom saying that he was thinking about asking Nicole to move out with her children. So in May of 2016, though, there were times where you were seriously considering breaking up with Nikki and the kids. I never really like seriously thought about it, like I made plans or anything like that. It's just a lie to your mom. Doug was also asked about a text from Nicole that accused him

of being abusive. Did you hurt Nikki that night? Do you mean physically or what? I know. I mean, did you physically beat her in the past? No, I never physically beat Nikki. Had you cheated on her in the past? No, I have not. What would the jury think? Sergeant Slinger insisted he wasn't worried. You know, Doug is not an angel. Isn't that going to be a problem in this jury? Doug Dietry's not on trial.

George Birch is on trial. But would the jurors wonder if the right man was on trial? They would soon get to decide for themselves. Because a few days after hearing from Doug, George Birch was also on the stand, testifying in his own defense. And to be honest, his story is incredible. As in, very hard to believe. All right, you may be seated, Mr. Birch. Let's start from the beginning. Okay. Birch begins by telling jurors that he's a hard-working but

easygoing family man. Most people call me big country. Birch admits that he met Nicole and began flirting with her at another bar called Richard Cranium's. How were you acting towards her? I was flirting. And how was she acting towards you? Somewhat the same, pretty much. Flirting back and forth with each other. According to Birch, he offered to drive Nicole the eight miles to her home after the bar closed at 2.30 a.m. They sat across the street, he said, and just talked.

We sat there and talked for a few minutes. Okay, what happened after that? Started fooling around, messing around a little bit, started kissing. Birch claimed that what happened next was consensual sex, that Nicole disrobed in the back seat while he stood just outside the rear passenger door. I was standing outside the Blazer. Nicole's family, sitting in the courtroom, told me that Nicole would never have done that.

But what Birch said next really strained credibility. He claimed that as he was having sex, he was suddenly knocked out by a stranger who had come up behind him. The next thing that I remember, apart from us having intercourse, was literally waking up on the ground outside the truck. Did you hear anything? The first thing I heard was, don't even think about it. Did you hear anything?

Don't even f***ing think about it. Birch said the stranger was holding a gun on him. At that point, did you know who that individual was? Never seen him before in my life. Do you know who that individual is now? Now I do. Who was it? It was Doug Dietrich.

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Doug Dietry, according to Birch, that's the stranger who's holding a gun on him. And Birch says that when he came to, Nicole was now on the sidewalk. I didn't know if she was alive. There was a lot of blood. It's hard

to believe in part because Birch is a big man, a really big man, six foot seven, 250 pounds, and he would have towered over Doug Dietry. Still, his story is that Doug forced him at gunpoint to drive Nicole's body to the field and carry it down an embankment. Nicole's body to the field and carry it down an embankment. That's when I turned and with everything I had, I lunged at him and pushed him as hard as I possibly could. Birch claimed that he ran to the Chevy Blazer, threw out Nicole's clothing on the highway, and then just went home.

You didn't call 911? No, sir. You don't tell them people. People get killed all the time where I'm from for that. But then it's Birch's turn to get cross-examined by Brown County District Attorney David Lassie. And Lassie begins by ridiculing Birch's story. So Nicole would rather have sex with you

in front of her neighbor's home with your butt hanging out the door of the car than ask the babysitter to go home? Sure, I don't know. I wasn't the one making decisions. And if Birch had been knocked out, why didn't anyone see his injuries when he went fishing the very next day with friends? I'm six foot seven, so it's hard for someone to see the top of my head. And also, does it make sense that Doug would kill Nicole but let Birch live?

So rather than just beating you or killing you in the middle of the street, he decided to enlist you, a total stranger, to help him dispose of the body of his girlfriend. I don't know what his plans were. What really happened was you drove Nicole home fully expecting that you were going to have sex, right? I was hoping that we would. When you get there and it becomes clear that Nikki isn't going to have sex with you, when she attempts to go into her house and leave your vehicle, that's when your mood changes, right? No, sir.

That's when things get aggressive, don't they? Not at all. That's when you grab that cord and strangle her, don't you? No, sir, not at all. That's when Nikki gets slammed on the ground repeatedly when she's trying to run toward her house. None of that is true. The district attorney pushes and pushes. You're assaulted. You're held at gunpoint.

You carried the mangled body of a woman to her final resting place. And the next day, you're going fishing with your buddy with a smile on your face and not a care in the world. I wouldn't say not a care in the world. That definitely would not be something I would say. Birch doesn't get the last word. Morning, everyone. Be seated. Is the state of any rebuttal witnesses?

The final witnesses, rebuttal witnesses for the state, are the detectives who worked so hard on the case. Carefully, respectfully, Brian Slinger and Rick Lopnow unwrapped and display for the jurors the clothing Nicole wore the night she died, found on the highway where Birch discarded them. If she had been disrobed in her car,

how do those clothes get not just bloody, but dirty and hairy? Those clothes are filthy, and they're demonstrative of being worn during a struggle. It goes to George's credibility, which is zero, that this was not a consensual act. She fought, escaped the vehicle. He bludgeoned her, strangled her, and with her clothes on, and then transported her body to the scene.

His story was a lie. He disrobed her at the scene and forgot her socks. So what will the jury believe? The trial with more than 50 witnesses lasted nine days. And just three hours later, the jury returned to the courtroom. The judge read the verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, George Stephen Birch, guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, is charged in the information...

Guilty. Doug Dietry, sitting in the courtroom, took a big breath and hugged his mother tightly. And if he was relieved, so were the detectives who once arrested him and then let him go. Sergeant Brian Slinger. who once arrested him and then let him go, Sergeant Brian Slinger. So what you found from this case is that this technology can do more than connect someone to a crime. It can actually exonerate a person. Absolutely, yeah. I feel bad that he sat in jail for 18, 19 days.

I mean, technology is very important, and our goal is to exonerate people just as it is to find them guilty. If we didn't have these Google data locations on George's phone, if we didn't have the Fitbit, would it be Doug Dietry sitting in prison as opposed to George Birch? Two months later, George Birch was sentenced to life without parole. And I kept thinking about how close he came to getting away with it all.

Think about it. Doug Dietry had been a perfect suspect. If he had not been wearing a Fitbit, if there had been no GPS on his car showing how far he traveled, and most significant, if the data on George Burch's cell phone didn't give him away, Doug Dietry would have been on trial and maybe even convicted

for a murder we now know he didn't commit. As I said, the most impressive murder investigation I've ever witnessed. I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 hours, and this is my life of crime. I've ever witnessed. I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 Hours, and this is my life of crime. This podcast series is developed by 48 Hours

in partnership with CBS News Radio. Judy Tigard is 48 Hours' executive producer. Jonathan Clark is CBS News Radio executive producer. Production and editing for this season of My Life of Crime by Alan Pang. This episode was also produced by Marianne Rotundi. Craig Swagler is vice president and general manager of CBS News Radio. And finally, a thank you to all of you, our listeners. We owe it all to you, the millions of 48 Hours fans. Don't forget to join me online. I'm at EF Moriarty on Twitter,

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