Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Nacole's Killer: Part 2

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

In part two of this special edition of Cold Case Files follows detectives as they pursue every lead and work to solve the 1995 rape and murder of 14-year-old Nacole Smith, one of Atlanta's most notorious unsolved crimes.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpBetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/COLDCASE to get 10% off your first month.Hydrow: Head over to Hydrow.com and use code COLDCASE to save up to $475 off your Hydrow Pro RowerSee 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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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Use your best judgment. In 1995, 14-year-old Nicole Smith was raped and murdered,

and nearly 10 years later, every lead brought detectives to a dead end. The most recent of which involved COTUS privacy laws, and what seemed like the investigators' only, shot at a DNA match. But just as it seemed like the case might remain unsolved forever, a new lead broke. And detectives hoped this new tip might crack the case. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's Bill Curtis with part two of the classic case, Nicole's Killer.

On a Sunday morning, Reverend Gerald Durley greets his congregation with a call to action. If there's to be a difference in the reduction of crime and violence and hate, then we need to be involved. Church leaders across Atlanta are working with cold case detectives spreading the word about a killer. This 13-year-old girl came up with this description of the man. a brother wanted for rape and murder

raped and killed a young girl on Camelton Road in 1995 and raped a young girl on Connolly Drive in East Point feeling that the perpetrator is from this area I don't feel it's lost or hopeless because

I do think there's somebody in this area that either still here or live here that knows this guy and the key is to trying to find that person. I contend that if we're going to make a difference, we need to get involved. Take these. Talk it up. Talk it up. Talk it up. Will you work with us on it? On this Sunday morning, nearly 500 people listen, learn and pledge to do their part. You know, I don't think there's anything that we wouldn't try. We feel that this person is from that

community as lived in that community perhaps still does we've reached out the churches to civic groups to schools clinics and that's the real reason why we're really hitting this community as you know as hard as we've been hitting two days later detectives get a break in the form of school attendance records from the day Nicole smith was killed this is the uh absent tardy list for The Thore High School on the day Nicole Smith was killed. On the absentee and tardy list are the names of 153 male students, each a potential suspect. Of course, if you were in school that day, you're eliminated. You're accounted for.

So these are the people that were unaccounted for. So that's a potential, large number of people that we would want to look at. Stephen Burris was on the list. He attended Therrell High School. Did not attend school that day. This is Stephen Burris. Stephen Burris is of particular interest to Velazquez and Popham because of his checkered past. We'll get in this criminal history faxed over here.

We do know that he was arrested for statutory rape and false imprisonment. I remember this now. Those charges were later dropped, but Burris is not in the clear yet. But right now he's wanted by Douglas County for probation violation. You know, if they ever catch him, we'll stay in prison or stay in their jail for about a year. A wanted man who was in the area and unaccounted for at the time Nicole was killed. Cold case detectives are very interested.

When we look at his picture, he looks similar to the composites. He's got glasses on in the photograph. Gold glasses that were described similar to the ones worn by the rape victim. Velazquez and Popham feel the trail heating up. They try to contact Burris through, a local number without success. I've called that number before and a woman answers

and she'll say she'll get on the message, but they'll call. Detectives run a trace on the phone. That's probably a good address. They get back a name and an address in a neighboring county. She could be a girlfriend, most likely. She looks like she was

born in 1980, so she's 25 years old. I'm going to Douglasville. It's a suburb of Atlanta. It's about 30 miles away. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. October 10th is World Mental Health Day, and this year, BetterHelp is shining the spotlight

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helped millions of people take a step forward. If you're ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help start that journey. Our listeners get tempers and off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash coldcase. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com slash cold case. If he's there, they're going to take him into custody on the probation warrant that he has, and we're going to attempt to talk to him and get a swab from him. It's just after two in the afternoon. Belasquez and Popham have called ahead to the Douglas County fugitive squad

who want Burris on a probation violation. Detectives approach the house where they believe Burris is staying. How you doing, sir? We're from Atlanta Police. Is that your daughter's boyfriend? They identified him as their daughter's boyfriend. Not very happy about him, but they didn't seem like them too much. Stephen Burris has really mistreated their daughter through their relationship.

Belisquez contacts the daughter who will. appears willing to help police. I was able to speak with her. She gave us an address of where he's staying with his cousin. And now with Douglas County, Sheriff's Office, we're going to head over to that location and see if he's there. A lot of crime in this particular apartment complex, drugs, guns, murders, that type of thing over the years.

Detectives arrive at the apartment complex and surround the house. This is the only side. It's one side. only to find no one at home. You're a truly a fugitive man. We're going to track him down. We're fine. I think once I talk to her,

he'll be willing to the other side. Okay, all right, yeah. He's supposed to be at nobody answer the door. So Douglas County's going to keep looking for him and call us as soon as they put him in their jail, and we'll come back out and interview him in the jail. Two days later, there's still no trace of Burris. And his girlfriend is giving police the runaround.

And she's supposed to be getting back with us, and here it is, 48 hours later, and she still hasn't gotten back with us. So dial the cell phone, so she'll answer. Your call has been forwarded to it. She knows your number. I mean, she knows 730. That's the prefix.

She knows the number coming up. Detectives suspect the woman is screening her calls. I'm just blocking the number, calling her cell phone and blocking the number. She'll pick it up this way. The ploy works. This is Captain Popham with East Point Police. How are you? Okay. Have you talked to Mr. Burroughs lately? You have?

Well, I want Mr. Burroughs give us a call back. I mean, what's this problem? I don't want to become angry at her. I mean, that's the key, at the time, that was the key to pinpoint him, was her. I mean, she's the only person we knew that saw him on a daily basis. But he's there right now, is what you're saying? Where are you at right now? I mean, she's telling us he's at the house because she knows he's not there. That's why she's telling us that because he's with her.

I mean, but, you know, they're running like to kill somebody. Talking to him right now as far as this case goes, it's about the most important thing that we've had to do on. this case in a while, just because he's avoiding us. If she's with him, she's going to jail. Yeah. Detectives need to track down, Stephen Burris, and ask him the hard questions. Well, here's the thing, man, just to be straight up with you.

What I like to do is explain to, especially in this case, what this is about. It's a rape, it's a murder, and we have DNA. Because what that's going to do is going to tell him, once we ask what we need from him, he's either going to put up a shut up. After nearly a decade without answers, detectives are finally closing in on a person of interest in the rape and murder of Nicole Smith and the assault of another young teenager

who preferred to remain anonymous. With DNA evidence on file, investigators just need a suspect sample to compare. And with the help of the help of a community tip, they're hopeful that the final piece of the puzzle might finally click into place. We're going out to look for Mr. Burris this morning, Stephen Leon Burris. It's 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and cold case detectives gear up for a surprise visit to

Stephen Burris, a person of interest in the 1995 murder of 14-year-old Nicole Smith. The guy was like, he's sitting right over here. He's in jail. just before leaving however captain russell popham learns another county has already picked up his suspect i was like well he brought him in and he said lieutenant pounds did and that was one of the guys from wednesday and lieutenant pounds got him around midnight last night did they take him out already this is the the sketch of our 13-year-old rape victim from august the 27th of 04 when this was done and then this is him back in the guy we're going to talk to back in 1998, January of 98. It's similar, and as we talked about before, he was absent the day of the murder. If I see a gap

in his front mouth, it's going to really get me excited. The following day, Velasquez and Popham arrive at the sheriff's office, ready to question Stephen Burris. Listen, listen. Here go, Mr. Burris. They didn't have any cugs. The coat machine was out. Around 1 p.m., Burris is brought into an interrogation room. Falesquez and Popham watched their suspect on a TV monitor. He was very good at what he was doing.

I mean, I could tell Burris was kind of, you know, kind of easing up to him and kind of letting his guard down a little bit. So we were happy about that. But, I mean, he's getting him relaxed, his body languages, relaxed, looking at this. He's drinking his Dr. Pepper now. For Cold Case Detectives, offering Burris a can of soda, is all part of the strategy to get his DNA.

If he doesn't agree to give his DNA, that's what's called a seraptitious sample. He's going to, you know, he can't, if he wanted to take the can with him, he could. But once he leaves a can there, we'll take the can. Right, it's discarded. We'll take the can and send the can and have the opening the can swab at the crime lab.

Detectives let Burma sit for about five minutes, then it's their turn. There's some level of anxiety before you go in there because you have no idea what they're going to say. You know, sometimes they confess. I mean, you just never know. He got him relaxed for us, so that's good. They're good, man.

Did the slurter speech come out? A little bit, yeah. So how are we going through the... Yeah, right over here. Okay, we're going to go in there and do our thing, right? See what he says. We are very anxious to go in there because, you know, if we had been going in this direction all this time to talk to him,

well, here it is. This is the prize now. He's either going to kind of move us closer to him being a suspect, pull us away, but it kind of, you know, puts us in the right direction. Hey, Mr. First, how you doing, man? Stephen. How you doing? My name's Detective Velasquez. From Alana. You remember me? How you doing? All right. You're talking about you.

Okay, man. We're here because we heard that they had arrested you. I've been trying to talk to you for a while. You know, you told me you called me back, you never did. Now, I want to also know him to know that, you know, you didn't call me back. So we're going to look at you a little closely, more closely than we probably would have you called me. So I wanted to put him on a little bit of an edge, but not so much where he was shut down. Cold case detectives cut to the chase. That explain they are investigating the murder of Nicole Smith.

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Well, here's the thing, man, just to be straight up with you. What we're looking at is we're looking at everybody that lived in the neighborhood. Let me tell you why. We feel that the guy that did this probably lived in the neighborhood. And then we're going to take a step further, and we're looking at everybody that went to Thoreau High School, a bunch middle school, and we took

that a step further, and we even looked at people who didn't show for school that day. You were on the list. What I like to do is explain to, especially in this case, what this is about. It's a rape, it's a murder, and we have DNA. Because what that's going to do is going to tell him, once we ask what we need from him, he's either going to put up or shut up. So what we're doing is this, so we're asking everybody, that was either on that list that was abstinent to cemental swab, right?

So what that means is it's a Q-tip who will put in your mouth, ruby side, right? What's that for, though? Okay, we're going to compare it to evidence found at the crime scene, okay? Basically, what that means is this, if you have absolutely nothing to do with the murder of Nicole'sman, right? I'm worried about that. I ain't killed no bad. Listen to what I'm saying. Or the rape of another young girl in East Point in 2004.

Right, what you mean? Another young girl was raped at East Point. Same guy. The guy that killed Nicole Smith, raped. He's from East Point. Yeah, from East Point. Yeah. That's why we're working this together.

That's, you know, the DNA is the same. I mean, that's why we're telling you. We're up front where you, you know, there's DNA from when Nicole was killed. So, but basically, that's it. We want to ask you for your permission to get your DNA. So at that point, honestly, I was a little more anxious than when I first walked in. Because I really thought at that point he was going to backped him, where he was going to tell us no. I mean, I ain't y'all know no reason not to.

I mean, y'all being blunt with me, you know what I'm saying? That don't mean, straight up. I mean, I ain't killed nobody. Right. I ain't going to rape nobody. Right. You know what I'm saying? So I don't mean, I have no problem with anybody.

Come on, I don't know that. Yeah. Burris consents to provide a saliva sample. Turn it the other way where this is sticking off the table and let it dry, just like that. Okay. And grab this one and do your right side. Yeah. Gold case detectives have what they came for.

Yeah, we have to wait and see it. While Stephen Burris sits in the interrogation room, detectives watch as the suspect appears to talk to himself. He's a little off, a little bit. Yeah. I almost thought he was going to say no when we asked for the DNA. He was stuttering. Yeah, just classic signs of being nervous.

I think he thought there was some tricks up our sleeves as far as what we were doing. But, you know, he knew from the onset this was about the Nicole Smith case. So gut instinct tells Detective Spurris is not their man. I mean, it's almost like we know this guy. We know who he is, and we know when we meet him, we'll know it's him, you know, because that's how much we know about him. We haven't had that feeling yet. We haven't walked into a room and went, you know, and I think what I suspect is when that happens, we're going to look at each other and go, okay, are you feeling what I'm feeling? DNA test results on Stephen Burris come back from the lamp.

He is not the man who raped and killed Nicole Smith. As the date this show goes to air, DNA testing on Richard Mitchell is still pending. After 20 months working this cold case, detectives are back where they started, with a suspect sketch, a profile, and a hope that someone somewhere can help them find a killer. I think, you know, of course, we want people to look at this, sketch that we have here. So anybody that has any knowledge of anybody around the time that Nicole Smith was killed that had a gap to, that lived in that area, that looked even remotely similar

to this, those are the people we want to find and have contact us. And he has a potential to kill again, you know, and I really think the people standing next to him have no idea. So he's there, he's out there. He's in our city right now. And that's what we're trying to find the people that, you know, any information they think they might know about this case. We want this go off the street. So we're asking anybody that watches the show to think back 10 years ago, 11 years ago, you know, who was somebody that might have did this? And just give us a call.

Anyone who's information about the case can submit it anonymously through the Atlanta Crime Stoppers Tip Line, 404-577 Tips, or online at Crimesoppersalanta.org, or by texting the tip to crime stoppers at 274-637. In 2015, Nicole's family held a vigil on the 20-year anniversary of her death. Detective Velasquez attended.

He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that every detective has a case that they feel compelled to solve and Nicole's case was his. Aquinella Smith, Nicole's mother, said it had been 20 years. Someone knows something.

She just wants them to come forward. Cold Case Files the podcast is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McCamey Lynn and Steve Delameter. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz and Ted Butler. Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast 1. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and is hosted by Bill Curtis.

You can find me at Brooke Giddings on Twitter and at Brooke the podcaster on Instagram. I'm also active in the Facebook group, Podcast for Justice. Check out more cold case files at AETV.com or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at AETV.com slash real crime. This September,

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