Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Nebraska Dad Smothered His Children and Tucked Them Into Bed: 'I'd Do It Again'

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

In May 2021, 5-year-old Emi Price and her younger brother, Teddy, 3, were found dead in their father's home in a suburb of Omaha. Prosecutors said Adam Price smothered his children and tucked them into their beds. Price admitted to a priest that he killed the children after fleeing to California. Last week, a jury deliberated for just two hours before finding Adam Price guilty. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with the lead detective and the lead prosecutor in the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host: Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Gage Cobb - https://www.facebook.com/sarpycountyattorneyDet. Michael Holm - https://twitter.com/BPDRecruitmentCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee 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 binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A Nebraska man found guilty of murdering his two young children by smothering them and tucking them into their beds to make it look like they were sleeping. Two of the men who put Adam Price behind bars for life are here. I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Emily and Teddy Price were sweet, beautiful young children. Prosecutors in Sarpy County, Nebraska, say Emmy and Teddy's father, Adam Price, smothered his daughter and son at his home in May of 2021

and then tucked them into their beds to make it look as if they were asleep. It's absolutely unbelievable. Then Price went to an ATM, took out some money, and fled to California. Price was later brought back to Sarpy County, a suburb of Omaha, to face two first-degree murder charges. Price was in the middle of a custody dispute with his ex-wife, Mary. A jury deliberated for just two hours last week before finding Price guilty of murdering Emmy, who was just five years old, and Teddy, who was three.

Joining me to discuss this incredibly disturbing case are two people who were key to the prosecution of Adam Price for the murders of his two young children. Detective Michael Holm is with the Bellevue Police Department and Gage Cobb is a deputy county attorney with Sarpy County. Thanks to both of you for coming on. I'll start with you, Gage. First of all, your thoughts on this trial. You had to prosecute it, question all of the witnesses. You got the guilty verdict that you wanted.

Yeah, it's these things are always difficult, dealing with any time that there's a loss of life. And it's especially difficult when you're dealing with two young children, as we were here, and me and Teddy, who were five and three. So I'm thankful to everybody involved. It takes more than me. It's a valiant effort by law enforcement. There's so many other people behind the scenes, especially the victim witness advocates are crucial and then other people in our office. And so we were thankful that we were able to present the case, that we didn't have any issues and that we were able to get it to the jury. And the jury was able to look at the evidence and give a verdict that they gave. Detective Holm, take me back to the beginning of this case.

It's incredibly disturbing on so many levels anytime you have a case involving children but these were two children who according to everything we've learned throughout the dependency of this case were tucked into bed by their father to make it look as if they were asleep and then he was the one who actually suffocated them, smothered them. He confessed to this and then he takes off. So when you all first started investigating this case, did you think there was a potential that maybe this was something like CO poisoning or something like that? Or from the very beginning, did you think this is suspicious? We have a homicide on our hands. Well, from the

beginning, we really didn't know what we had. So what we had to do is we had to keep all of our options open. While the fire department did come in and test for carbon monoxide, and they didn't find anything that they thought was suspicious, we still just had to keep a lot of our options open. It's important that we try not to get too much tunnel vision in cases like this. So take me from there. Obviously, Adam Price fled. He left the children in their beds and he took off. So when did you all realize that he had fled the jurisdiction? So we figured this out early on in the investigation. We learned that he was the last caretaker for the children and a license plate reader hit out of Nevada. It would be the

day after he left his home. We went back and canvassed the neighborhood and also canvassed the park where the children were last known to be. And we're able to get some start tracking down. And we figured out that there was a neighbor who actually had footage of him driving off on Friday morning. So you know he's taken off and you all track him down in California. Tell me about that. So what happened is Mr. Price went out and spoke with two priests. He spoke with one on Saturday night when he got there. And then the next day, he spoke to another priest and eventually mentioned that priest that he had killed his children. That priest asked if he wanted us, wanted him to call the police.

And he said that he did. So officers of the Pacifica Police Department came out and arrested him on the outstanding warrant for him. Gage, tell me a little bit about this issue with the statements that Adam Price made to this member of the clergy. I would think that once he said it was okay for the member of the clergy to call police, that the privilege would go out the window. But there was an issue with that pretrial. Yeah, it was a heavily litigated issue. Obviously, they sought to keep those statements out, claiming that they were privileged. We presented arguments to the court that, first, they weren't considered privileged at all, based on the manner and the circumstances surrounding in which they were made. And second,

if they were privileged, that he waived them when he spoke to the priest, and the priest indicated that they were going to call the police, to which he agreed to do. So it was an interesting issue. It was one that was heavily litigated. I wouldn't say that those statements in and of themselves were, you know, the linchpin. His other statements that he made to the police, although they weren't as direct, they still implicated him. And a rational juror could reasonably view those statements that he made to the police as indicating that he killed his children as well. Have you ever wondered who's really living next door to you or wanted to learn more about someone you just met? Truthfinder.com is a website that

can help you with that. We cover so many horrible cases like this one about Adam Price, and it really makes me think about how important it is for all of us to do whatever we can to stay safe. Truthfinder is one of the largest public record search services in the world. The goal is to help people like you and me learn the truth about the people in our lives. You can never, ever be too careful. Truthfinder background checks anyone you search to look for any possible red flags. Log on to truthfinder.com and for example, type in the name of Adam Price. Results will appear within seconds telling you about him. You can even search yourself. I've done it just to see what's out there. I've also

searched my family members and people I've just met and even people living down the street from me. So right now you can get 50 percent off confidential background reports at www.truthfinder.com slash LC Crime Fix and access information about almost anyone. One of the things, Gage, that I find so incredibly disturbing about this case is the fact that and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I was reading some reports about his statement, his seven hour confession. And he was quoted as saying that he would do this again. He it sounds like he had no regrets. Yeah, and that's an interesting statement. It kind of came up in trial. And the way that that came about is that officer, when he was doing the interrogation in to it, it's one of those things where you have those videos where a certain word is said and 50% of the people will hear it one way

and 50% will hear it the other way. And looking back at that, the officer, he believed that that's what he said at that time, but re-listening to that audio, it sounds like he might have said, would I do it again? Sort of asking rhetorically in follow-up to the officer's question, would you do it again? So at trial, that officer indicated, you know, that's what I heard at the time, but he acknowledged that he could have actually said, would I do it again? You have to remember during this interrogation, it was kind of during COVID. He had a mask over for some of it, but also he was very soft-spoken at times. And so again, the officer, that's what he heard at the time,

but he would acknowledge in listening to the audio, it's very possible he really said, would I do it? That's interesting. We've seen that in other cases as well, particularly in the Alec Murdoch case. People here heard a statement differently and it meant different things to different people. Detective Holm, if you would tell me a little bit about investigating this case. And, you know, you have a suspect who confessed. It sounds like it was fairly obvious who the main suspect would be because he was the caretaker of these young children. He was the father responsible for them. He takes off.

He confesses to a member of the clergy. Was this a difficult case to investigate? You have a mother who was in a contentious custody dispute of sorts with her ex-husband. Tell me a little bit about how difficult it was to investigate this case. Sure. So when it comes to this case, obviously, we had to start from all of our realm of beliefs and start kind of narrowing things down. One of the things that we just kind of started to look at is like, okay, well, he's gone and he's confessed to this. But just because he's confessed, you know, now we have to go back and prove it. We can't just stop there.

So it just became a matter of just starting to reconstruct the timeline of the events of the week leading up to the murders, going back and finding court records and just showing records related to the divorce and being able to really put that all together with the other evidence that we had to make sure that it all worked with each other. And that's something I think a lot of people maybe don't understand. You can have a confession or a statement, but you have to have corroborating evidence. You can't just go based on a confession or a police statement. So you have to have some things that back it up as well. So Gage, how is Mary Nielsen doing, the mother of Emmy and Teddy? I know you said that she testified at the trial. I can't imagine what she's going through heard from her and how she was doing. And they indicated she's doing well. You know, she's had, I won't say had, but it's been three years since this happened. And so time has passed, but it's still very hard for her. And at trial, you know,

there's a lot of things as a prosecution team that unfortunately we're not able to share with witnesses and victims, especially since she was going to be a witness. So there were things that she heard for the first time in closing argument that she hadn't heard. And so that was a heavy burden for her to carry. A wave of emotion came over her hearing some of those things that she had never known. But she's a very strong, courageous woman. And she's doing, I guess, as best as you can be having lost both of your children in this way. Yeah, definitely. You just never recover from that, especially like this, you know, their father, Adam Price was supposed to protect them and love them.

Detective Holm, do you think this was all about just, what do you think the motive was here? Was it just this custody dispute and Adam Price wanting to have ultimate control over these children? You know, I think that's what Mr. Cobb was able to really kind of bring out during the closing arguments that that seems to be what this was all about. Gage, what sentence will you be asking for? Obviously, this is the murder of two children. Life in prison without parole seems like a foregone conclusion to me. Yeah. So in Nebraska, with this type of charge and this conviction, it's an automatic life in prison. There is no range for him to get. So the judge will have, he has no discretion. He'll have to sentence him to life in prison. And that's, that's obviously a significant sentence. It's, you know, we didn't seek the

death penalty in this case. It was considered by the county attorney, but this is one that we didn't seek it. And so he'll be sentenced to life in prison. Is there any particular reason why the county attorney opted against the death penalty? You know, it's something that you have to consider and you have to take in all the facts. There certainly may have been some aggravating factors that would have warranted it. There's a whole list of aggravating factors that you have to look and consider. Multiple deaths is one of those. But just at the end of the day, after it was all examined and looked at, my boss decided that this just wasn't the case that we were going to seek the death penalty on. Well, thank you both for joining me. I really appreciate it.

Our thoughts are with Emmy and Teddy and their mother. I just can't imagine what she is going to be going through for the rest of her life. But thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a great night. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law and Crime's YouTube channel. Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki.

Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Bynes. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests. And Brad Mabey is our audio editor.