Dateline NBC - Evil Intent

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

When a young woman fails to show up to work, her mother rushes to her home to try to find her. What she discovers begins an investigation that leads to a suspect no one imagined. Keith Morrison reports.

My mom found her. She said it looked like she might have slipped in the shower. She was in the fetal position in this bathtub. You could see marks on Jessica's neck. They said, we're going to rule this as a homicide. Detectives using new technology to view this crime scene in extreme detail. There was no forced entry, no tool marks. There was blood on the, no tool marks. There was blood on the couch.

Who could have done this? They say that usually it's someone close. An investigation focusing on friends and family. He brought up his association with a motorcycle gang. He came off as kind of a tough guy. We'd fool around a little bit, just like teasing, sibling-teasing, I guess you could call it. He threatened to take out my whole entire family to get custody of our kids.

Wow. A chilling story of danger and duplicity. We were trying to figure out who did this. He knew the whole time. This is the ultimate betrayal. Was the killer closer than anyone knew? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here is Keith Morrison with Evil Intent.

It was 9 o'clock in the morning on the 25th of June, 2015, Omaha, Nebraska. Missy Nelson's morning ritual was interrupted by a phone call. It was the bank where her daughter Jessica worked. She was an hour late. I was like, what? What do you mean she's not there? They're like, she's not here and we've been calling her and she's not answering.

Thing was, Jessica was never late. Missy tried calling her. No answer. Panicked now, she ran to her car. Was Jessica at home, sick? So I was calling her all the way over there, and I was thinking, I don't know where she's at. And then I started to think the really bad things. Maybe she was in a ditch somewhere, passed out. Maybe she was in a really bad car accident. But you knew it was something bad? I felt something was wrong.

So I get over there and her car's in the driveway so I'm relieved and I'm like, okay, she's here. She's not in an accident. But why isn't she answering the phone? The door was locked, so Missy used her key to let herself in. I walk in and her house is really dark.

I can't find her and it's like, you know, everything's dark so I don't know where I'm going. And the bathroom is like the first door on the left and the door was closed, but I hear water running and I'm like, okay, maybe she just used the bathroom. I opened up the door, I turned on the light and she was in the bathtub. The water was running. The water was up to her nose. She was laying there like this. She had something in her hand. It was a phone cord.

I didn't understand where that came from. I started screaming. I had my cell phone, so I called 911. 911, do you need police, fire, rescue? I'm trying to get out of here. I'm trying to get out of here. I'm trying to get out of here. 911. 911, do you need police, fire, rescue? I don't understand a word you're saying. What's going on? I got drained of water thinking I could help her, but she was already gone. You could tell? I could tell she was blue.

Her face was a really weird pattern on her face that looked checkered, but her body was still like a normal color. I can't imagine that. It was horrible. It's like a nightmare. I still see it. Like one of the worst feelings in the world. You can't help your daughter because she's gone. By the time Jessica's father, Harry, got there...

There was a policeman in the driveway. And not far away, he found Missy, a wreck, a mess. I hugged her. What's going on? What do we know? I don't know anything. Had she slipped in the shower? He thought that at first, but I saw that mark on her neck and the cord in her hand, and I just didn't think it sounded right. She shouldn't have had her phone charger there. Her phone wasn't there. So you didn't know what to think? I didn't know what to think.

I was devastated. I wasn't even thinking at that point. First responders trained to keep an open mind weren't sure what to think either. It wasn't an obvious homicide. They didn't know if it was a medical emergency, because we find people like that that have suffered a stroke or a heart attack or something in similar kind of situations, so they really didn't know what they had. Homicide detectives Derek Moyes and Ryan Davis. I do a cursory walk through the residence. They show me where Jessica was at. She's in the bathtub.

And oddly enough, her clothes were in the bathtub with her. But not on her? Not on her. No, they were laying near her feet. The couch in the living room had blood all over it. So my initial reaction was maybe there was some sort of a medical emergency that occurred on the couch. She had gone to the bathroom maybe to clean herself off and had collapsed and succumbed to whatever medical emergency she was having. There wasn't any obvious signs of trauma on her body. She had a small bruise on the side of her neck. It didn't look like any sort of a injury. Could have got it anyway.

Yeah, it didn't look like she was assaulted. But there was something off, too. Didn't quite look right. They decided to treat it like a homicide. Because you only get one chance at this. And so if you go in and you go guns blazing and you try to rush through things, you're going to miss things.

The CSI people arrived, used a laser scanner to quickly take billions of measurements and create this virtual representation of Jessica's house, 3D, so more accurate than any photo. And then they removed Jessica's body. And, yes, detectives could see homicide was the right call. When we were able to actually look at her eyes, it was fairly evident that there had been some sort of a strangulation, an asphyxiation at the very least that took place. And one of the things we noted right away is that she had longer fingernails. And one of those fingernails was quite evidently bent back. And we knew that there was a chance then that she had fought back against her attacker. There's potentially DNA there.

The next day, the autopsy confirmed that Jessica had indeed been strangled to death. There was a slight ligature mark around her neck, but it was disrupted. And it almost appeared as though there was possibly a hand. Her hand maybe trying to pull, so the ligature marks were kind of intermittent. And one more thing the autopsy revealed. She'd been sexually assaulted. The first thing that goes through your head is why, how, who? Yeah. I mean everybody is a suspect and nobody's a suspect. That's who could have done this? Why? Should it be the enemies? None that we knew of. When we come back, the man in Jessica's life and their volatile relationship. She would call us, like, every other week.

Can you come and get me when you're trying to have a fight? And then, did a Facebook post put her in danger? She just put out there that she was home alone. So if anybody was following her, they'd know. Yep. There's nothing better than a close family and friends who are like family. Missy and Harry Nelson had it. Three kids, kids' partners, grandchildren. Until...

Until the morning they found their beloved eldest child there, Jessica, just 28 years old, dead in her own bathtub. But who was she? Detectives needed to know. And so did we. Everybody loved her. Very bright. Both my girls were really smart. Very smart.

Jessica was Ashley and Matt's big sister. She's very outgoing. She's just always wanted to have fun. But, you know, the older we got, the more she was kind of like another mom to us. She would always be there, even if we were fighting. If we needed her, she was there. Big sister to the whole extended family. Her cousins, her close friends who were more like siblings. Her siblings' close friends who were more like relatives. She was always really nice to everybody.

Laura Wonder had been a friend since grade school. She just wanted to have a good time. She was just kind of, I wouldn't say crazy, but she was just kind of goofy. She did whatever she wanted to do. And that held true in her choice of men. Her first serious boyfriend was him. With his tattoos and stuff, it was like, he seemed to be something that she would have been into because she had a few tattoos as well.

His name was John McDowell. He and Jessica were good together and sometimes not. She would call us like what, like every other week. Can you come and get me? We've been trying to have a fight and I'm not staying out here. So we drive out there to Missouri Valley and a couple weeks later she's back out there again. A year in, there was still no wedding. But there was a baby. Dominic. Dom.

I just remember everyone was so excited wanting to meet him. She loved him and I think it was just an instinct she had. She wanted to do the best for him she could and that drove everything else. And then one day Dom was still quite small.

It all seemed to come apart. They were doing okay until he left her a voicemail. My accident. An unintentional voicemail. And the message that was left was, well, bad. Very bad. Talking to friends, he didn't know he left her a voicemail telling her that he slept with another girl. And that was it. Shit was done. Whoa. So I helped her move that day. She must have been so upset.

She was. She was devastated. To get an accidental voicemail from the guy, the father of your baby, I slept with another woman. Kind of bragging about it. Yeah. You should have seen the one I was with. And that's why Jessica elected to be a single mom. Better she decided to concentrate on her little boy, the center of her life, Dominic. She did everything she could for her son. Just to try to do it right. I have to work, pay bills, I have things I want him to have, so I need to pay for those things.

So she worked two to three jobs sometimes. How does a person even do that? She worked at the First National Bank. She liked that job. She loved it. That was her dream job. By then, Jessica and Dominic lived in the little house on the north side of town. It wasn't very big, but Dom had the bigger room.

And she's like, well, he has more toys, and his bed has a slide. I'm like, he has a slide? And she's like, yeah, he needed a slide. I'm like, yeah, sure, he needed a slide. It was just she gave everything up for him. He was her world. In fact, Jessica's last words on Facebook the night she died when Dom was at his dad's were, I am such a mess when Dom is gone.

She had lost the remote and thought it was the worst 15 minutes of her life. She was lost without Dominic because he could find the remote. But she just put out there that she was home alone and she did it without even realizing.

So if anybody was following her, they'd know. But of course, someone was following her on Facebook. Maybe quite a few someones, but finding the one with evil intent? Not so easy.

Coming up, troubling stories about Jessica's ex. She would post pictures, and if she's around just another guy, even though they're just friends. Like John, you can tell he's like a little, like, who's that? And her sister Ashley's ex, too. He threatened to take out my whole entire family to get custody of our kids. Wow. When Dateline continues. Word of Jessica Nelson's death spread quickly, if incoherently, among her friends in Omaha. I got a phone call from a mutual friend of ours, and she was so hysterical. I couldn't understand what she was saying, and I thought she said that Dom had been killed.

So I got off the phone with her, and I called John, and he said they found Jess dead. And it was just unreal. You just couldn't believe that. Laura's friendship with Jessica had drifted a bit after high school, but by 2015, it was a little unusual. Laura and Jessica both had babies with John. Laura dated him first, but it was after she broke up with John that her son Christopher was born. And that was not long before Jessica got pregnant.

I found out when I was six months pregnant with our son that him and Jessica had been dating, or just started dating. Two women, two children, one man. I wanted to be mad at her, and I couldn't because she was just too nice. Anyway, pretty soon John was no longer in the picture for either of them. Then, as single mothers, Laura and Jessica reconnected so their sons, half-brothers, could bond. Our kids met each other, and they got to play together. Now, her friend was dead, and the father of both their sons

was sitting in the police station, answering questions. When was the last time you were actually at the house? I can't even tell you for sure. It's probably been three months. So when did you actually last see Jessica? When she dropped my son off to me last night. Which meant John was the last known person to see Jessica alive, except for the killer, unless he was the killer.

Detectives brought in Jessica's family members and friends and questioned them all about John. I think everybody kind of had their own impression of Jonathan. And some of those impressions were not flattering. She would post pictures, you know, of us just out with friends. And if she's around just another guy, even though they're just friends, like John, you can tell he's like a little, like, who's that? Yeah.

Okay. Did Jessica trust John? No. No. I know she was planning on filing for sole custody of Dominic. She was just tired of it because half the time when it was John's time to take him, he refused. They had these fights over Dominic, over custody, over money. Jessica was routinely upset with him.

John seemed to be trying to minimize those issues. You guys don't have issues around each other's throats or anything like that? No. The biggest thing that we might fight about is she's like, you have a pair of shorts that I bought him two weeks ago and I haven't got to see them since I sent them to your house. I need to find them. Okay.

After a few hours of questioning, they let John go with a warning. He was suspect number one. And they kept an eye on him as they investigated other men who'd crossed paths with Jessica. We were interested in any male party she had recently been introduced to. Anybody at all that could have been showing interest in her, communicating that with her via social media or any other means that maybe seemed kind of unwanted. Can you tell me is there anybody that she's seen like right now or she's been

seen up until recently and I'm talking about any even casual hookups, one in a great while hookup, anything at all. I know her last hookup was with a old high school crush that had came back to town. He doesn't live here. He was a high school crush and he's in the military, so when he was home on leave, she hung out with him for a few days, but then that was it. He was gone again. And I know she stayed over there once. Detectives looked into his whereabouts the night Jessica was killed.

He was nowhere around. Couldn't have been him. Thing was, it had to be someone close, someone she knew or trusted. Someone with a key, maybe? After all, there was no forced entry, but the door was locked when Jessica's mother arrived in the morning. Then her family told police about someone who'd been violent toward Jessica's sister, Ashley, just a few days before the murder. I was going through a divorce and my ex was not so nice. He threatened to take out my whole entire family and then myself just to get custody of our kids.

Wow. And the week before that, he physically assaulted me. He had pinned her on the floor, and he left bruises on her arm. He'd been arrested, was facing charges for domestic assault. A man had been violent, who threatened family. Detectives checked out his alibi for the night of Jessica's murder. But they also went looking for anyone else who might have had access to Jessica's home, like maybe some spurned lover.

But apparently, there weren't any, spurned or otherwise. Everybody, when I asked that dating question, they would say that Jessica often referred to the only man in her life as Dominic, and her other man was her job. And that's all she wanted to concentrate on was her work and providing for Dominic. But sometimes, Jessica had friends over for Saturday night gatherings when Dom was at John's. And the last one, maybe ten days before she was killed, came with trouble. Jessica's freaking out.

Next to me, she's like, are they doing a drug deal in my house? Coming up, investigators discover odd text messages on Jessica's phone. There was just something weird about him. Maybe we need to figure out who this person is. It was a week before they could have a funeral for Jessica.

A small, sad service for family and friends is what they expected. But it wasn't small. Not at all. It was overwhelming just to see that that many people knew her or at some point had cared enough to show up and say, hey, we're sorry. And some of the young men vowed revenge as they wore their Justice for Jessica bracelets.

Her brother, Matt, her brother's best friend, also named Matt, who once lived with him, who knew Jessica like a sister. He was with us throughout the whole thing. Like another son? Like another son. Just doing what he needed help with. People would bring over food.

He's there helping us carry it in, you know, that kind of thing. And there as well, helping out, grieving, was John McDowell, Jessica's ex. He may have looked the part of a tough guy, but police had checked his alibi. He could not have been the killer. We were also able to look at his cell phone locations, and they were exactly where he said he was. At no point did his phone ever put him anywhere near Jessica's house. John did not kill Jessica.

And when he first learned she was dead? I just felt completely lost. I was instantly trying to figure out how I was going to tell my son that his mother, which was, that was his world, was no longer here and I didn't know what to do. He tried, but even at Jessica's funeral, her son, then just six years old, didn't seem to comprehend. What was that like for you? Her son, then just six years old, didn't seem to comprehend. What was that like for you? It was horrible.

Especially with her being right there and he still wasn't comprehending that she wasn't with us anymore. That was when the detectives were tracking down, well, they didn't know who. The sister's ex, the guy who'd been charged with assault, had a solid alibi. But what about the men who'd attended Jessica's small parties? One party in particular. One of her friends invited her boyfriend. Her boyfriend invited some of his friends. Those friends invited others. So as this get-together kind of went on in the evening, more and more people were showing up to Jessica's residence whom she didn't know. What does that do to an investigation when you've got... It opened our suspect pool up quite a bit. Especially after friends told Detective Moyes that Jessica thought something illegal

was going on at her party. Asking them... Are they doing a drug deal in my house? This is not okay. I just know that he came outside and said, hey, that guy in there, he's got pills if anybody needs any. So I want to know exactly who invited this guy

to Jessica's house that night. Who thought that would have been okay to do. The answer complicated matters even more. Friends told detectives that the man who'd invited the drug dealer also tried at the party to initiate some kind of sexual encounter with Jessica. He was in the bathroom and she went to grab a towel and said, hey, can you grab me a towel? And he let her in the bathroom. And then he was like towel and said, hey, can you grab me a towel? And he let her in the bathroom.

And then he was like, do you want to stay in here with me? And she's like, no, I just want a towel. And I guess she said that he had tried to close the door and all that stuff. She said no, opened the door and walked away. Now they had to track him down, him and every male who attended the party. How long did you spend on this? We spent several weeks. That's all we were doing, is attempting to identify these people,

locate them, interview them, and go through the same vetting process as far as getting a timeline and alibying them as everybody else. And we were taking DNA samples from every single person we talked to. At the same time, they asked one of their tech investigators, Nick Hereford, to look for clues in Jessica's cell phone. You find all kinds of stuff on people's cell phones, I bet you. Oh my gosh, yeah, absolutely. But what's actually remarkable about this one, when you say all kinds of stuff,

on this one, it was pretty much just one thing on there. And it was just pictures of her son. This kind of stuff. Her life just completely revolved around him. But there were text messages, too, lots of them, and some were pretty interesting. One of the last people she was communicating with, someone was named Matt Kidder. Matt Kidder, he was the friend, more like a son, who'd grieved with the Nelson family and was like a second brother to Jessica.

They'd always had an easy, teasing sort of relationship, son who'd grieved with the Nelson family and was like a second brother to Jessica. It always had an easy, teasing sort of relationship, and so of course they texted each other. But Officer Herford didn't know any of that when the texts caught his attention. There was just something weird about him. Just the way that he was, he would be constantly asking her basically out to do stuff. He would say, hey, do you want to go bowling? And she'd be like, you know what? I got to clean up the house. And then he'd be like, oh, well, I can come over

and maybe help you clean up the house. And then she'd reply like, oh, you know what? I'm almost done. Don't worry about it. And now I'm really tired, so I'm just going to go to bed. Something like that. And it was like this over and over. So I talked to the sergeant who was in charge

and said that maybe we need to kind of figure out who this person is. Jessica's friends and family said that sort of back and forth was quite typical of their relationship. It was just like brother and sister type of thing. You know, he'd get smart with her, she'd get smart back, and they'd go on their way.

So apparently nothing to see here. But of course detectives had to dig a little. Who was this Matt Kidder, whom the Nelsons loved like their own? Coming up, Matt says he feels guilt that he didn't stop the killer. I feel like I was there and I could have done something if I drove by that night, if I had known. When Dateline continues. A murder investigation is often a collection of stories. Whodunit stories, yes, but also love, loss, regret.

John McDowell was innocent, but he didn't feel innocent. The only thing that went through my head is that really it was all my fault. Because if I would have never messed up and if we would have never split up, then I would have been there to protect her. I think you still feel that way a little bit, don't you? Yes, sir. Does she intrude upon your thoughts a lot? Yes, sir. So many stories. Witnesses, family, friends of the victim, like Matt Kidder. When I got the call, I walked out of the room to make sure the sky wasn't on fire.

Because I couldn't, no, I wasn't, no, Jessica wouldn't be dead. When Detective Davis interviewed Matt, he encountered a man still apparently grieving. She had a really good heart. Yeah. Good mother, good friend. I don't think I've ever heard her not putting herself out for somebody in need. And so Davis was sympathetic. And Matt opened up. Talked about his brotherly, teasy sort of relationship with Jessica.

Me and Jess, we've always had the relationship where we have like inside sexually no jokes. We've never had an interest in each other like that. I've kind of always enjoyed that, being able to joke around with somebody without, you know, we know it's never going to lead anywhere, so like everything's on the table. And like brother and sister, he said they'd sometimes get physical in a playful way. We'd fool around a little bit. How do you mean? Kind of like she'd pinch me, I'd poke her in her side. I mean, just like teasing, sibling teasing, I guess you could call it. Okay.

Kind of like flirting, though. I don't know, maybe. I didn't consider it flirting. And it wasn't like, I mean, as far as I know, she's never been interested in me. We were just friends. And after Jessica't like, I mean, as far as I know, she's never been interested in me. We were just friends. And after Jessica was murdered, it was Matt who vowed to take revenge and told detectives he felt so guilty for failing to protect her. I would do anything for my friends.

I would die for them if I had to. Okay. It's just, I know it's stupid. I've talked to her mom because she's kind of going through the same thing. I shouldn't put it on myself, but I feel like I was there and I could have done something if I drove by that night or if I had known. After all, he was at work that evening close by. So he said he struggled with regret even as he tried to figure out what happened.

I have an overactive imagination or brain or whatever you want to call it. Whoever did it, said Matt, must have been waiting to find her home alone and must have seen her Facebook post, the one about her son Dom being away that night. That has to be a million shot to get there without Dom being there. Like if they were watching her Facebook feed to go in. Somebody had been watching the house for a while to know that she was 100% alone there. And maybe, he said, maybe it was more than one guy. I'm a fairly strong guy.

I have weaknesses. My body's pretty f***ed up. But, I mean, she can kick my ass. So it doesn't make sense for one person. He knew something about bad guys. He'd spend some time in prison, he said, for something he didn't do, attempted sexual assault. I was dating a married woman

and when I broke up with her she called the cops and reported me for rape. But she lied, he said, a false accusation. And the Nelsons supported him. This guy somehow got railroaded over this. So this poor kid had some kind of consensual relationship,

and then afterwards, instead of getting in trouble for it, she blamed him and accused him of rape. And I even knew somebody that knew her. And she told me the same thing, that she was always up to no good. So after Matt got out of prison, the Nelsons celebrated with him and his family. After all, his dad and Harry Nelson had been best friends for decades, just as he was best friends with Jessica's brother.

They've had my back for as long as I can remember. After Jessica's death, Matt provided a sample of his DNA. He said, of course, he'd been to Jessica's house, so if his DNA happened to turn up there, well, perfectly innocent reason for that. I'm pretty much bleeding everybody's houses I go to.

Because I get bored and either pick at a scab or I cut myself on something. But if they were looking at him as a suspect, they had the wrong guy. I wouldn't be able to look them in the eye if I did this. I wouldn't be wearing Justice for Jessica on my wrist. I wouldn't be sharing her picture on Facebook looking for people that did this. I'm not built that way. No. Matt Kidder was virtually a member of the family.

Because we're all suffering, I feel better being around their family sometimes. He couldn't have killed Jessica. Could he? Coming up, stunning and heartbreaking. What this woman has to say about Jessica's murder. It never should have happened. Because you already warned everybody about him. Yep.

What her story will mean for the case. Matt Kidder, the young man who was like a brother to Jessica Nelson, like a son to her parents, was sitting in the police station three weeks after Jessica's death. Do you think I consider you a suspect? I think you consider everybody a suspect at this point. Okay. But specifically, do you think I consider you one? I hope not. But by then, the Omaha police did see him as a suspect.

They knew that Matt checked Facebook the night Jessica was killed, would have seen the post that revealed she was home alone. They had discovered that Matt's cell phone was at or near Jessica's place for 17 minutes that night. Police tech experts Oscar Diegas and Nick Hereford. So right now it's about 11 o'clock. Okay. And you're going to see a couple more activations where he's still at work and right there. And so, and then all of a sudden, it switches. And that's at her house?

Yes. That is directly near the house. And there was more. The detectives had noticed a crescent-shaped cut on Matt's hand. Could have been made by Jessica's thumbnail bending back as she defended herself. And they found his DNA under

that nail. and on the cord she was strangled with. So now Detective Davis played his hand. I think you were there when this went down, and I think you had something to do with it. And Matt exploded a stream of

loud and determined denials. I didn't kill her. I don't know who did. I wasn't there that night. I wouldn't be able to watch my Uncle Harry basically collapse over the body of his daughter at the funeral if I had done this. Somebody's murdered my friend, and here you are trying to accuse me of it. You arrest me for something I didn't do, especially on this. It's going to destroy your family. Brenda Beadle was lead prosecutor. He was narcissistic, and he is a sociopath.

And so if you were just watching that interview without knowing the evidence we had, you might scratch your head and go, do we have the right guy? Because he was so convincing. But police believed they did have the right guy. And they arrested him for the murder of his lifelong friend, Jessica Nelson. Stand up, Nelson. No, I'm not going to jail for this. It's not up to you.

Decision's been made, so I need you to stand up. It's a wrong f***ing decision. That's something you can take up with your attorney. Right now, you need to stand up, because you're leaving here. Okay? Now, it was time to tell the Nelsons. He said, we have made an arrest, and we have arrested Matthew Kidder. My head hit the table.

Missy and Harry gathered the family to tell them. I said, look around, look at everybody here, who is one person that would probably be here, but isn't. And my son, Matthew, kind of raised his eyebrows like, oh my God, no. Up until that moment, Matt Kidder had been Matt Nelson's best friend in the world, the one he trusted implicitly, the one who would never, ever betray them.

And here they were. Everyone who was there broke down. Like, just falling their eyes out. As Matt Kidder waited in the local jail, evidence piled up. He talked to his father on the phone. Recorded,

of course. I think she fell asleep on the couch after I left. And somebody came in behind. You were never there. Dad, my phone puts me there. Huh? Dad, my phone puts me there. It's changed now from the 169 times he denied being in the house,

yelling at the detective, very sternly denying that he was even there. That was big. There was more. He got chatty with his cellmate, told him the whole ugly story. This is prosecutor Beth Beninato. This informant and the details he gave us, they were accurate. From walking into her house, headbutting her, which would explain the blood we saw and the blood patterns on the couch cushions, to the sexual assault itself, to the things that she said, to the injury on his hand and the injury on her finger, to the cell phone charging cord.

This informant gave us a view into what Jessica went through. It was about power and control. And I think being rejected by her via text just made him angry. He's a very angry individual. Or was that, in a weird way, his turn on? The more he's rejected, the more he needs to have that power and control, and that's kind of part of the buildup or something. We think so. Which brings us to this woman, Patricia Springborg, the woman who accused Matt of rape. Remember, he went to prison, attempted sexual assault, but convinced the Nelsons she was lying. It was no lie. And when Patricia heard about Jessica...

That's the hardest thing for me. Because it never should have happened. Because you already warned everybody about him. Yep. Her experience with Matt at first was not unlike the Nelsons. He wormed his way into our family, and none of us thought he would do anything like that. So he was actually a good friend to your family too? Yes. Yes. I met him through my oldest daughter. Wow.

My husband taught him how to drive his truck. You know, things like that. Things that you would do if we had a teenage boy. Sure. And then one day he caught her alone at home, and he grabbed her neck and tried to choke her. And she, fearing he would kill her, stopped struggling and discovered something revealing about Matt. From what I could tell, and with my situation, is the violence and stuff is what got him. Yeah. Because when you relented, it obviously wasn't a turn-on for him anymore. Uh-uh.

And if she hadn't given in? I wouldn't be here. You would have been in Jessica's place. Yeah. This shouldn't happen to that girl. No, it shouldn't. And she's got a little boy. And it just shouldn't happen. That's why, after everything that happened,

when the prosecutor asked me if I would testify for them. Yeah. Damn right. And she did. And there was one more thing. The police had seized Matt's laptop when they arrested him. And what they found? Well, you know, you've seen I've seen some weird stuff. Yeah. But nothing like this. It was a lot of rape videos and torture videos and just like the combination of them. I mean, it let us know basically his intent and his mindset, because what he ended up doing is basically recreated one of these kind of videos that he likes in real life, where he stormed somebody, assaulted them, killed them, and then left. Matt Kidder did not testify, but his defense said all the evidence, DNA, cell phone tracking, the cellmate's story, all had innocent explanations.

And, besides, they said he wasn't the killer, plain and simple. But the jury deliberated just 41 minutes before convicting Matt Kidder of Jessica's murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Nelsons, of course, still missed Jessica terribly.

And Dominic? He moved in with his dad, John. And also with Laura and his half-brother, Christopher. After Jessica's death, Laura stepped in to help out as much as she could. We were over there all the time with Dom and John and the kids all playing together, and it was just one day after the next, after the next, and you just fall together.

I mean, it's the one good thing that came out of this tragedy. Dom has a whole family, and he's so happy about that. You know, he says, I got a mommy in heaven, and I got a mom here. In time, Laura and John got engaged. And the Nelson family grew by a few more. Just one empty place. But you never fill the hole in your life, do you, when you lose a child?

No. How often do you think about Jessica? Every day. Every day. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.