Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Woman's Chopped Off Head Found in Trash Bag

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 family is grieving after a woman's body is discovered in her apartment without her head. I have the details on Heather Bodden's murder out of South Dakota and who is facing charges. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

Starting point is 00:00:25 I have to tell you that this case is unbelievable and it's frankly terrifying. Police believe that Heather Bodden's life was taken sometime on New Year's Day and they say her boyfriend is responsible. On January 2nd, three women who are friends of Heather Bodden's went to an apartment to check on her and what they found is something they will likely never be able to forget, no matter how hard they try. Yankton police in South Dakota said the women went to the apartment on Memory Lane, and when they went inside, they found Heather Bodden's body, and her head was missing. The women called police, and police confirmed that Heather Bodden's body was inside the apartment,

Starting point is 00:01:11 and her head had been removed from her body. An affidavit says, a search warrant was conducted on the residence of 1001 Memory Lane, apartment A20. Upon search of apartment A20, a trash bag was located. Inside the trash bag was the head of the decedent. This is a small city near Sioux Falls, but that doesn't matter. I don't think that anyone could be prepared to find something like this, no matter where they live. Police said they recovered surveillance video of Bodden's boyfriend, 32-year-old Craig Allen Nichols Jr. He goes by CJ, walking in and out of the apartment with multiple trash bags. The footage also showed two other men with nickels at one point in time. Police said the trash bag containing the victim's head matched one of the trash bags that Nichols was seen holding near the apartment. Police tracked down

Starting point is 00:01:55 Nichols and those other men to interview them about what happened that night, and those men told officers that they went to Heather Bodden's apartment to use narcotics with nickels. And when they left, she was still alive. Inside the apartment, the investigators wrote that they recovered several items, including a plastic grocery bag with bloody male clothing. A sticker label was found on the underwear. The label reads Craig N. Additionally, three weapons wrapped in a floor mat were found in a trash bag close to the bag containing the decedent's head and a bag of bloody male clothing. Now, what makes the case even more tragic?

Starting point is 00:02:32 Police said a day before her murder, Heather Bodden told one of her friends that her boyfriend was actually threatening her with a weapon. A no-knock search warrant was granted to bring Nichols into custody. A pair of wet shoes with reddish-brown substance on them were removed from the home as evidence. Nichols is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. He is currently awaiting his next court appearance in custody, and he's being held on a $500,000 bond. Heather did not have life insurance, so her family organized a GoFundme page to help pay for her memorial service and cremation her family and friends described her as a bright spark in this world they loved

Starting point is 00:03:12 her quick wit as she was always ready with a joke or snappy comeback she loved her daughter to the ends of the earth and her mom pat was her best friend in the world her mother and stepfather will continue to care for her 12-year-old daughter. Now, with the help of Baden's daughter, a family friend set up another fundraiser, a pet photo contest. A Facebook page entitled Justice Forever Pet Photo Contest was created for people to submit photos, and Baden's daughter will select the best three photos to receive a prize.

Starting point is 00:03:43 Baden's family members released a statement and it said, We want to express our deepest appreciation to our friends in the community for all of the thoughts, prayers, and acts of kindness on our family's behalf. Your love and support have strengthened us during this very difficult time. I've covered a lot of really big cases over the years. Everything from Stephen Avery in Wisconsin to Johnny Depp, Alec Murdoch, even Luigi Mangione. So I know that some outlets can be a little slanted. That's why I want to tell you about Straight Arrow News. It's an app and website focused on objective reporting. I'm always researching for crime fix. So I take a look at Straight Arrow News for unbiased reporting to just get the facts. The site has great tools like the media landscape,

Starting point is 00:04:24 which shows you where outlets fall on the political spectrum and the media mistool, highlighting stories mainstream media might be skipping. You can check out Straight Arrow News for yourself for free by downloading the app with the QR code on screen or by clicking our link sand.com slash crime fix in the description. Supporting them means supporting journalists like us committed to delivering the truth. Let's bring in Rena Paul to talk about this. Rena, you're a former prosecutor. This case is absolutely horrific. Yes, it is. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, we've got some really awful facts here laid out in the probable cause statement. Obviously, you know, this guy is innocent until proven guilty, but it seems like they could potentially, you know, they have him dead to rights. They've got him on video carrying out trash bags that match the trash bags that they say they found Heather Bodden's head in, her severed head. They've got two guys who came to the house the night before,

Starting point is 00:05:28 in the hours before they believe she was murdered, who were walking in and out of the house. But they went there apparently to use drugs with this couple. But they said they talked to them, and they said that Heather Baden was alive, very much alive when they left. So how challenging is this case going to be from the defense perspective? Yeah. So what we know from the affidavit that has been released is that the evidence that the police are saying they have appears to be overwhelming. So we're talking about the actual severed head of the victim found in a search warrant that was performed in the apartment or the home of the accused, which in a bag with also

Starting point is 00:06:17 seemingly other evidence and weapons found in the home as well. So it's a very, it appears from what is being alleged in the affidavit, giving probable cause for the arrest of this, of Craig Allen, that this is an overwhelming case. One of the interesting things about this, you know, they're saying that narcotics were being used. Not a shock here. If Craig Allen is indeed guilty of this, that drugs were involved in this crime, which makes what makes me so sad about this. One of the many things that makes me so incredibly sad about this case is the fact that Heather Bodden apparently told her friend the day before she was murdered. He's threatening me with a weapon. I, oh my God, I just can't even imagine. And she has a 12 year old daughter. So she had told her friend and we, and we don't know, you know, the extent of what she said to her friend, but she said, he's threatening me with

Starting point is 00:07:17 a weapon. Time transpires. And then she's found, you know, a day or so later with her head severed. Yeah. And, you know, as as someone who has worked on domestic violence matters for a lot of my career, you know, one thing that I took notice of in the complaint, which is the document in which all of the charges are laid out against Craig Allen is a charge of contempt. And often when we see a charge of contempt in a domestic violence affidavit or complaint or indictment, it signals that there may have been an order of protection in place previously between the couple. Many times in domestic violence matters you see that there is some violence that's charged and then also a violation of a court order which suggests to me and I don't know if that's true here but I have seen it in other matters where there is an order of protection that is in place meaning protecting the victim against the person who she's accusing. And the violation

Starting point is 00:08:28 of that order in and of itself is a crime, if true. So I noticed that when I was reviewing the complaint and that if that is what that charge is about, give some additional information and context to what we're seeing. Oh, God, that is so sad. You know, one thing that always also stood out to me, this guy, C.J. Nichols, he goes by C.J. His name's Craig Nichols. They go to find him.

Starting point is 00:08:57 They go to track him down. They have a no-knock search warrant because they're thinking to themselves, I'm sure the cops are like, this guy cut off a woman's head. We don't know what we're going to find. So they get a no-knock search warrant. They go to his apartment. He barricades himself in there. And then he refuses to give a statement, which was totally his right to do. Totally his right to do.

Starting point is 00:09:17 He refuses to give a urine sample. He refuses to give a blood sample. Totally not cooperative. They charge him with homicide, you know, with murder. So, I mean, he's giving all the cues, all the signals that he is somebody who, you know, this is all kind of like consciousness of guilt type of evidence and type of behavior. Well, when we look at consciousness of guilt evidence usually in a case, typically include statements of those two people that you mentioned were in the house and had said that according to this affidavit that they had been doing drugs with

Starting point is 00:10:12 this couple, along with video footage, physical evidence, devastating physical evidence of physical body parts, as well as the attendant blood evidence that I would imagine is there. I saw a mention about his boots that are in the house. We're talking about direct evidence of crime as opposed to consciousness of guilt, which is something that, yes, is something to look at when there is a defense and what we're looking to try to determine if where the jury is, what is the meaning of this evidence? Here, it seems like there is evidence that is directly pointing to just what happened during those hours, late hours, the night before her body was discovered. I guess though, I was thinking though, that barricading yourself in

Starting point is 00:11:05 your apartment is probably not, it makes you look guilty is what I'm saying. I mean, you could just say, oh, well, I was on drugs or I was on, you know, I was scared, I was freaked out. But I mean, it doesn't exactly make him look any better. Well, you if, if this ends up in a trial and we'll see how the case goes, uh, the evidence of what he did in response to the police being at the door, I, I would imagine if I were, uh, the prosecutor on the case with evidence that is laid out in the arrest warrant, that there is stronger evidence of direct guilt that I, it appears there is here than that evidence. So just in thinking about trying the case as a prosecutor and what use you would make of the fact that he did that, if that is what he did in response, you know, weighing those sort of as a thinking about that

Starting point is 00:12:06 from a juror's perspective, I'm just thinking about the way that you would use that evidence if you were a prosecutor. Sure, sure. I mean, of course, the video evidence, as you mentioned, the blood evidence, the trash bag, all of that, the people, the witnesses who were in the house, that's all obviously very strong evidence pointing to him as the person who committed this crime. You know, Rena, I just I can't imagine being you know, you were a former former prosecutor, being the family members of Heather Bodden. And she has a daughter that she leaves behind who has to now be raised by her parents. This type of crime, you know, families never recover from this type of thing. Yeah, it's very difficult. Certainly, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:53 the legal system, when we see trials and what we see in the news is often about, you know, the headline about what happened or it didn't happen between two people, but there is a wake of people that these sorts of crimes leave in their wake. And you're referencing some of the people who will be, you know, left behind. I'm interested, what struck me about reading through was the question of what's going to become of the two people that were interviewed. I'm curious whether or not they're suspects in any way or persons of interest and how they were interviewed as those are two people who were near in time, it seems according to the affidavit that and the that the police issued were around around the time that this may have happened. Yeah, this is just an awful, awful heartbreaking case. And I mean, my heart goes out to Heather Bodden

Starting point is 00:13:51 and just the whole fact that, you know, the thing that gets me to, I know it's happened on memory lane, you know, that I just, just an awful set of facts. And the people, her friends left behind, too, who discovered her body. They are never going to be able to to erase this from their minds. So, Reena Paul, we'll keep an eye on it and see how this case pans out and whether or not it actually goes to trial. Thank you so much for coming on and offering your expertise.

Starting point is 00:14:21 I appreciate it. Thank you. And Heather Bodden's funeral is scheduled for later this week. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Woman's Chopped Off Head Found in Trash Bag

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.