Dateline Originals - Murder in the Moonlight - Ep. 2: Keep Your Enemies Close

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

A suspect emerges, along with a theory of the crime. This episode originally published on February 17, 2025.

It was 1966 when the archetype of what would come to be known as the true crime novel barged into the culture. In no time at all that book, In Cold Blood, was as famous as a book could be. And so was its author, Truman Capote. Unusual man. Unusual man. Unusual book. In Cold Blood reads like a novel, though it was a true story, the mean, hard facts of it exhaustively reported.

Literary critics called it a masterpiece, though the story was as disturbing as a story could be. Somehow Capote's masterpiece caught the mood of those turbulent years. In Cold Blood tells the story of a wealthy farm family called the Clutters. Herb, Bonnie and their two children murdered during an apparent robbery at night in their farmhouse in Kansas in 1959. The story was so influential, such a cultural touchstone, that even decades after its release, people just couldn't help but see the parallels between the Clutters and the Stock families.

They were both good people, successful farmers in the middle of America, attacked in their sleep, murdered in cold blood. One line in particular penned by Capote seemed fitting to describe what had happened to Wayne and Charman Stock. They shared a doom against which virtue was no defense. Those days that followed the murders were dreadful ones for the three adult stock children. There was shock and grief and confusion and anger.

The whole catalog of emotions. They tried to keep busy. There were arrangements to make, a funeral to prepare. It was apparent that the local Methodist church would be too small to accommodate all those who wanted to pay their respects. So it was decided they'd have the funeral in the Murdoch High School gym.

It was the right thing to do. The place was packed to the rafters. There were speeches lauding the stocks and everything about them. Daughter Tammy. I call them pillars of the community. There's over 2,000 people at the funeral. Son Steve.

They filled the whole gymnasium and the floor and the stands and everything. What was that like, that funeral? It was a little overwhelming. We were off in a separate area, kind of secluded, and then when it started, they walked us in and it was just like, holy cow. And we were just packed with people. It was really overwhelming. It was a great tribute.

They were good people and loved by many. Leading that huge crowd of mourners were, of course, the many members of the stock's large extended family. Watched by a quiet sharp-eyed contingent of people from the Sheriff's Office, detectives scanning the crowd. And not long after they began to focus on one particular member of the family. I'm on suspicions. Oh yes, families can be complicated with their secret feelings, their resentments, and private rages. I'm Keith Morrison and this is Dateline's newest podcast, Murder in the Moonlight. Murder in the Moonlight.

Episode 2. Keep Your Enemies Close. First of all, the fellow investigators were keeping an eye on was not Andy Stock. In fact, the police cleared the Stock's youngest son and it didn't take very long. Andy's Easter weekend was entirely accounted for. He couldn't have been the one. So they returned the grief-stricken man to his family. Now, the name of this man, this person of interest, was not Stokes at all, even though he was family. His name was Matt Livers, and he was Wayne and Charman's 28-year-old nephew. In fact, Matt attended the Easter dinner at the Stock Farmhouse a

few hours before the murders. But he wasn't there by virtue of being a family favorite. No. In fact, Matt Livers was considered something of a black sheep, quite unlike the industrious stocks. Matt had bounced around from one dead end job to another, never seeming to find his niche, never seemed that interested in having a niche. Instead, he lived with his grandmother, took advantage of her and the opinion of the rest of the family.

Him and Dad kind of had a lot of falling outs about him staying with Grandma. Dad didn't think he should be here because he needed to find a job of his own and get out and put a little more effort into things maybe or something, so they kind of butted ahead just a little bit. Even so, Matt's Uncle Wayne had frequently gone out of his way to help the young man get going in life. Not that it did much good. One time I was at work and Dad called me and said, I want to know if he could stop by and see me. So he did and he had Matt with him. And he'd spent the whole day driving Matt

around Lincoln applying for jobs. And I was like, you know, wow, and there's another guy there working with me when they left, he's like, I don't know anybody that would do that. I don't know anybody that would take their nephew out and drive all over town helping him find a job. He goes, that's pretty cool that your dad would do that. Still, when family members learned

that detectives were looking at Matt, well, they had opinions. For one thing, they told police he seemed a bit slow and different. But more to the point, some of them had noticed problems between Matt Livers and the Stalks. They described heated disagreements, said Charmin, disliked Matt. But, said the surviving Stalks, their parents didn't complain about him, not openly anyway. In our family, they didn't bother us with the little things.

They never made anything into a big production with us. No drama household. No drama household. Still, after the murders, everyone was a suspect, and Matt was no different in that respect. Again, the Starkss' son Steve. I think in my head I went through it a little bit just knowing that they hadn't got along real well.

So a few days after the murders, detectives visited Matt Liver's former employer, asked about his personality, asked about rumors that he had a temper. They assigned officers to keep watch on him. They even went through his garbage. And then on April 25th, eight days after the murders, investigators asked Matt to come down to the station and answer some questions. You're not being drugged in here, you were invited in here. Right, right.

You came here of your own free will. and answer some questions. You're not being drugged in here, you're invited in here. Right, right. Came here of your own free will. Certainly, said Matt, happy to help. And he took a seat in the interrogation room. The conversation was recorded. You're free to leave at any time. Well, I'm here to cooperate with you gentlemen. Okay.

He was, or seemed to be, courteous, deferential. He said, almost with a sense of childlike wonder, that he'd never been interviewed by police before. Things proceeded from there. I'd like to know why, but whom, what, when, where, how, and why? Of course, the investigators wanted to know where Matt Libors was when the murders happened. Who could vouch for him?

And he told them that after the big family Easter dinner with the Stocks, he drove to Lincoln, Nebraska, about a half an hour away, and tucked in with his girlfriend, Sarah. Stayed there all night. Sarah could confirm it, he said. Oh, and Sarah's young son and a roommate were there too. Mind you, he told the investigators,

he hadn't always been in his Uncle Wayne Stark's good books. He knew he was not exactly a family favorite. And he and his uncle had, they had disagreed about a thing or two. A tiff, Matt called it, a minor thing. But this questioning session went on for quite some time, five hours in fact. So naturally, a lot of those questions were asked again and again and again. Just a different way of putting it each time. Why so long? Well, there was a reason for that. Matt seemed to know more than he was saying. It seemed like he was hiding something. So finally the detective asked him if he'd agreed to

take a polygraph and Matt said yes he would. So they hooked him up. And here he was getting and answering the big question. Do you know the share of food costs we brought to White and Folk now? With that simple no, Matt Livers tried to put an end to it. Surely those cops who'd been badgering him for all these hours, who didn't seem to believe him, would be convinced by the polygraph, right? It would prove he was telling the truth, Matt believed, and now he could finally get out of there and go home. And? Well, the police believed in the polygraph, yes, they did.

But not quite the way Matt was hoping for. Because the polygraphist told Matt quite bluntly, he failed. Your subconscious body is telling the machine you cannot fool it. I didn't have anything to do with this. You did. I did not. You did. I did not, Bill.

You did. I did. I'm sorry. You did. I did not, Bill. You did. I'm sorry. You did. So they went back to the interview room where the tone of the questions became quite pointed, accusing even. I like said I want to get my name out of this. I had nothing to do with this. Again and again, Matt denied having anything to do with murdering Wayne and Charmin Stock.

More than 100 times. All I remember is sleeping in bed that night. I never did anything. Gosh. I mean, my goodness. But the more he said it, and the more insistent he was... Guys, I had nothing to do with this. Let's just get this out of here, okay? The more sure the detectives were that Matt was lying, they were quite certain, in fact. We've had so many people sitting in that chair, okay, that think that they're smarter than us and you're not.

No. Okay? Dumb as a brick. No, not dumb as a brick, okay? You made a mistake. You f***ed up. You did. You f***ed up and now you've got to pay for it.

Why were investigators investigating Matt's case? Okay? No, I'm not dumb as a brick, okay? You made a mistake. You f***ed up. You did. You f***ed up and now you're going to pay for it. Why were investigators in Nebraska so convinced Matt Livers was lying? Well, in addition to the polygraph, there was a state profiler who suggested that this was the kind of crime committed by young males who knew their victims. And add to that, said the profiler, this was the sort of crime that appeared to be very personal. Two executions. A crime very likely driven by intense personal emotion toward the victims.

Feelings like jealousy, anger, or revenge. Oh, and finally there was this. The Starks lived in the middle of nowhere, and it made sense that a family member would know exactly where to find them. But a stranger? A stranger would have no idea. The stranger would have no idea. If those factors were bells, Matt Livers rang more bells in a royal wedding. Loudly. And in that interview room, detectives were losing patience. You religious man, what's God going to say? Huh? Eventually, they got quite explicit, telling Matt that he was headed for death row, unless he would start giving them what they knew to be true. You're gonna admit to me exactly what you've done. I'm gonna walk out that door and I'm gonna do my level best to hang your ass from the high street.

You're done. I'll go after the death penalty. I'll push, I'll push and I'll push until I get everything I need to make sure you go down hard for this. This is your one shot. Look with the olive branch out right now and attempt to help you, okay?

Lecture, gas, lethal injection. That's what kind of case this is. and attempt to help you, okay? Let your chair gas lethal injection. That's what kind of case this is. And it was that technique that finally produced the desired effect. Rough, perhaps, yes. But Matt Livers admitted it, as if his denial was too heavy a load to carry. It happened rather suddenly here.

You got a gun. Right or wrong? Right. Among the traits of a good detective is persistence and it is prized because once the door is opened things spill out and spill out they did. Six hours, enough time to cook an 18 pound turkey, or watch two professional football games. And six hours was enough time, in the face of intense questioning by the detectives, for Matt Livers to finally break and begin to admit his involvement in the murders of his aunt and uncle,

Wayne and Charmin Stock. You got a gun. Right or wrong? Right. And you took that gun back to your uncle Wayne and Charman's house, right? Right or wrong? Come on, man.

Right. Now that the cat was out of the bag, Matt began filling in more of the blanks, the awful specifics of how he killed them, for one thing. I was already fired up and you know, I had a... Yes, I had a grudge to sell, I guess. And then a bonus. Remember that blood spatter and the void on the wall behind? That was clear evidence that a second killer was involved. And Matt Livers filled in the blank.

You weren't alone that night. Is that right or wrong? Right. There was somebody else with you, wasn't there? Yeah. And who was that second person? Well, Matt was beyond denial now, beyond hesitation. He simply offered the name, gave it up without protest.

Who was with you that night? Nick Sampson. Nick Sampson? He was a 21-year-old cousin on another branch of that big family tree. And that is how the interview ended. They cuffed Matt then, let him off to the county jail, and they sent someone to pick up Nick Sampson and They charged them both with murder

It was late in the evening when Andy stock answered his phone and heard the news from one of the detectives Andy called his sister Tammy There's about 1230 a night And he called his sister Tammy. It was about 1230 at night. He says, Tam, I need you to be awake. Are you awake? And I said, yeah. And he says, are you sure?

And I said, yes, I'm awake. What's going on? And he said, they arrested Matt and Nick. And I said, Matt and Nick who? And he said, our cousin Matt and Nick Sampson. And thus, yet another emotion was added to Tammy's grief. My husband had given me the phone and I was sitting up in bed and I said, should I be shaken?

And he said, that's normal, the shock. But Matt Livers had been with them at Easter dinner. And then just a few hours later, according to him, he returned with Nick Sampson in tow to kill his aunt and uncle? Her parents? Tammy tried to focus. Things needed doing. Our first reaction was, is, Grandma, somebody needs to tell our grandma. She had just lost her only son, and her grandson is being arrested for this. And we thought, what 80-year-old has to go through this?

And pretty much we were up at dawn, and we called the pastor and said, you need to meet us because we need to tell grandma, and we don't know how to do it. And so we went over and talked to grandma that next day and told her. And just like us, she's like, I don't understand. And I said, grandma, none of us understand any of this.

Dami's brother, Steve, did it give you any sense that, well, at least somebody has been found responsible that would make it feel any better? Yeah, I think there was quite a bit of that. I was like, well, at least we're moving on to the next phase of this. We're not going to wonder for the rest of our lives. So, I was relieved, I guess, to know that they had somebody.

And just who was the accomplice, Nick Sampson? Just an ordinary guy, the investigators figured. Unlike Matt, he had a job, two jobs in fact. By day, he reconditioned propane gas cylinders. Evenings, he was a cook at Bulldogs Bar in Murdoch. Anyway, once he was printed and processed, they sat him down in an interview room and they asked him straight out, why did he think they were talking to him?

They think that I'm involved with the murders. But Nick Sampson was not like Matt Livers. Well, Matt initially denied any involvement before changing his story and confessing, Nick stuck with one story and one story only. You know, I have absolutely nothing to do with this. During three hours of questioning, Nick denied everything. You know, I have absolutely nothing to do with this. During three hours of questioning, Nick denied everything. What I need from you is absolute honesty.

I am being 100% honest. Then one of the detectives employed a frequently used and often successful technique, the what if question. If something's left of that house, okay, with your DNA and or your prints, how are you going to explain how it got there? I'm not, because I don't think you have my DNA for anywhere near that house, because I've never been in that house, never, ever, once in my entire life have I ever been inside their house. Then, like Matt, Nick agreed. In fact, he volunteered to take a polygraph. They have absolutely nothing to do with this. But again, the result wasn't quite what Nick was obviously hoping for. The

polygrapher said the tests showed that Nick Sapson was deceptive when he denied being at Wayne Stark's home when Wayne was shot. Just as he had done with Matt Liebers, the polygraphed told Nick his own subconscious body had done the confessing for him. Your body's telling me that you were there. All the information that's come in through the law enforcement is showing you were there.

Your body, you got no way of controlling that. Your body is telling me you were there. Your body, you got no way of controlling that. Your body is telling me you were there. But I know it wasn't. Polygraph results in hand. The detectives went back at it hard this time. We were at the house when he was killed. Normal, no. Your body's telling me otherwise. So we need to get past that. What's going on there? I honestly was not at this house when they were killed.

But the investigators did not believe Nick Sampson. After all, Matt Livers had already told them Nick was there. He was behind the whole thing, actually. Matt said they planned it all out in the two days or so before the murder. They talked it through on their cell phones. So, said the detectives, they knew Nick Sampson was lying.

Just like the polygraphers said. You were there when he was shot. Nobody's heard you told me that. I was not there. Just like the polygrapher said. That's true. I was not there. I was nowhere around Murdoch. I want you to understand how the system works. I do understand. I'm getting framed for something I didn't even f***ing do. But was he? Because the test results from all that physical evidence at the murder scene were beginning to come back. As was the background check on Nick Sampson.

Sampson, all of 21 years old at the time, had a problem with marijuana as a teenager. He had done two separate stints in boys' homes. And while he denied being a marijuana user anymore, remember investigators had found that marijuana pipe at the scene of the crime. Remember, investigators had found that marijuana pipe at the scene of the crime. Then, when detectives visited Nick's grandfather in Murdoch, the old man told them that a month before the murders, Nick had borrowed a 12 gauge shotgun from him. That's the same gauge weapon that was used in the murders. Then, investigators executed a search warrant at Sampson's home, Then investigators executed a search warrant at Sampson's home, and among the items seized from under the bed, that very 12 gauge shotgun borrowed from his grandfather, and a pair of blue jeans, which were examined by CSI Chief David Kofod's team.

Remember, Kofod was the big city CSI guy from Omaha who had been brought in to help. We had a pair of pants. It looked like blood on him. We had tested that and that was positive. Now that was the real smoking gun. I mean, you've got him. And there was even more, more evidence. Remember that car apparently seen by the newspaper carrier parked just a mile from the farmhouse

on the night of the murders. The one described as tan or light brown, a sedan, that later passed the newspaper carrier going pretty fast, 60 or 70 miles an hour on a gravel road. Well, detectives found it, a 1997 Ford Contour owned, believe it or not, by Nick Sampson's brother. And the car had been cleaned, detailed actually, at 5.30 Eastern Monday morning, which was just a few hours after Wayne and Charmin Stalk were gunned to death. Who details a car at 5.30 in the morning? That's exactly why the detectives thought it was pretty suspicious. Charmin's stock were gunned to death. Who details the car at 5.30 in the morning? That's exactly why the detectives thought it was pretty suspicious. So the CSI team searched the car and found nothing.

But then CSI chief Kofod got a call from one of the lead investigators. When Matt confessed, he said they threw the shotgun in the back seat of the Ford Contour. And he said, maybe you can find some, you know, trance evidence there, maybe just take another look at it, you know, and I said, well, maybe we missed it. So they examined the car again and Kofod himself, using sterile filter paper, wiped the interior surfaces of the car. And just below the steering wheel on the dashboard he found it a stain and it looked like blood. I just took it along that edge and wiped it because I figured that way I wouldn't miss anything and it reacted. So you got

a hit though? I got a presumptive positive, yes. And before long tests confirmed that what the CSI chief found under the dashboard was indeed blood. The blood of Wayne Stock, the victim. And the only way anyone could figure out how it got there was via Matt Livers and Nick Sampson. So there it was. Persistence had paid off with a confession and some real physical evidence to back it up.

The murders of Wayne and Charman Stock had been solved. So it certainly seemed, and of course around the Sheriff's Office they felt pretty good about that. Certainty set in, they'd bet their careers on it now, and the whole apparatus of the law began to relax a little. Except, except for the one who found, stumbled on it really, and overlooked little curiosity everyone else missed somehow. It was a ring, a gold ring just lying there in the farmhouse, quite unobtrusively, in a place it had no business being. And no one seemed to have any idea who the thing belonged to. Such a mystery.

Coming up in future episodes of Murder in the Moonlight. There were three words in the inscription, two names and three tiny letters. A puzzle, the key to a secret and the start of a very strange trip. That must have been a shocker to get that information, to have it across your desk. A huge shocker to get that information, to have it across your desk. A huge shocker. That pretty much sends a chill down your spine. Murder in the Moonlight is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Shane Bishop is the producer. Brian Drew, Kelly Laudeen, Bruce Berger, Marshall Hausfeld, and Candice Goldman are audio editors.

Brittany Morris is field producer. Leslie Grossman is program coordinator. Adam Gorfain is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Bob Mallory and Katie Lau. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production.