Murder With My Husband - 317. The Fitbit That Solved a Murder - Nicole VanderHeyden

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

On this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of Nicole VanderHeyden. What starts as a normal night out quickly spirals into something far more sinister when Nicole disappears without a trace. Links: Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: GreenBayPressGazette.com - https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2018/03/04/big-brother-phone-george-burch-nicole-vanderheyden-murder-trial-gps-fitbit-snapshot-google/390236002/ CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-fitbit-alibi-21st-century-technology-used-to-help-solve-wisconsin-moms-murder/# Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/an-unexpected-killer/crime-news/george-burch-killed-nicole-vanderheyden-why WBay.com - https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Nicole-VanderHeydens-family-to-appear-in-court-for-restitution-hearing-500293111.html HansenFuneralService.com - https://www.hansenfuneralservice.com/obituaries/nicole-nikki-meyer-vanderheyden/#!/TributeWall Fox11Online.com - https://fox11online.com/news/crime/george-steve-burchs-conviction-in-nicole-vanderheyden-murder-upheld WNCY.com - https://wncy.com/2021/06/29/george-burchs-conviction-in-nicole-vanderheyden-murder-is-upheld/ WeAreGreenbay.com - https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/local-news/suspect-in-nicole-vanderheyden-case-was-also-accused-of-murder-20-years-ago-in-virginia/ WTXL.com - https://www.wtxl.com/syndication/wi-man-sentenced-in-county-s-most-brutal-murder/article_d0b81e83-3566-5768-95b7-da5cf810fc5b.html Mirror.co.uk - https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/man-accused-stabbing-girlfriend-death-35898563 TheTroubleWithJustice.com - https://thetroublewithjustice.com/2018/03/09/babe-in-the-woods-big-country-the-murder-of-nicole-vanderheyden/ WICourts.com - https://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=382720 Legacy.com - https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/greenbaypressgazette/name/nicole-vanderheyden-obituary?id=14653513 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Happy Monday.

Happy Monday. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you for following, liking, commenting, hating. Hating. I don't even care if you hate and do it. And dare you.

Anyways, that's all we got going on. I hope everyone's having, we're going to have a great week. And yeah, that's our intro. A reminder real quick, for those who don't know, we do have bonus content. We have bonus episodes and ad free content over on Apple, Spotify, and Patreon. And that's that. So go check that out if you want that. Do you think the listeners know that I just glaze them all the time?

Is that the thing I would say or what? What do you mean? Are you glazing them? Like, I feel like sometimes they're probably like, if I were to be like, oh, I was thinking about this because I was thinking about this this week. I was thinking about how I feel like we have like top 1% listeners. Okay. I feel like our listeners are exceptional.

The goats? Wait, exceptional? Yeah. The goats. And I only stay that because of the feedback that we receive from like ad companies or people who interact with our listeners. Yeah, you guys are the goats. I'm not going to lie.

But do you think they think I'm glazing all the time? No. Do I say this too much is what I'm saying? Or do you think that at this point they don't believe me? They probably just tune it out. Yeah. Well, I'm not trying to glaze or anything. I think there's no problem with glazing. Like, I just, like, I feel sometimes with the feedback we receive, I don't know, sometimes I just feel like our listeners are a little special. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I agree. Like, obviously they are. We wouldn't be here without them. It's true. So. You're special too, though.

Well, thank you. Welcome. That means a lot. But I just want you to know if you're listening to this that you matter and you matter to me because I wouldn't be here without you. You have a 10 seconds? Yes. You do.

No. No. I was so excited. I haven't slept. I don't eat. I've probably lost 10 pounds. Stress in my life away. That's what I got going.

I'm stressed, working, doing a bunch of stuff. But it's okay. I'm pretty soon here. hopefully everything will be chill and well look it it is what it is you know by the time they listen to this well we've had the opening yes by the time no no no no no this is one more one more right gosh that gave me a hard that kind of gave me that makes me sick to my stomach yeah my barf all over the place yeah that's how I feel about it anyways hope everything's going well I have nothing else to say I'm sorry guys I have 10 seconds any hot takes I was going to say I was going to

a lot of things have gone wrong this week for you. Dude, just like, oh my gosh. It's a little discouraging because it's like, like his mixer broke today. So now you can't make bagels, can't practice with employees.

How do we even get that fixed? Are they going to have to ship another one? You know, opening is soon. I just, I think I'm going to close shop, you know? No.

I tried. Damn, hard. It's tough. I know. It's fine. It'll be okay. I don't want to talk too much about the bagel shop, but I will talk about any hot takes that I have, but I feel like I can't think of any right now. If I think of a hot take in the middle of the episode, I'll spit it right out. So on that note, let's hop into this week's episode. Our sources for this episode are Green Baypres Gazette.com, CBSNews.com, Oxygen.com, W-Bay.com, Hansen Funeral Service.com.com. VN-11.com.com.com. WN-C-Y.com.com.com.com. We are Greenbay.com, Wtxl.com, mirror.co.com, The Trouble with Justice.com, Wicorts.com, and legacy.com. I feel like lately, we've kind of covered a lot of cases that have to do with technology,

and I know that I'm kind of including my solo show into the dark in that, because I just kind of feel like this has been a theme lately. We see a lot of cases getting solved with some new form of technology, geofencing and location analytics, genetic genealogy, digital forensics. Because of these tools, Googling one damning search phrase can literally lead to an arrest. We made a joke about this on last week's episode. Bringing your phone with you to commit a crime could literally mean life in prison. Throwing out a used soda can could now prove it was your DNA left at a crime scene years ago. But what we often don't highlight is how that same technology can actually save a life, not just solve a crime. Or more specifically, keep someone from being wrongfully accused of a crime they didn't commit.

Which is why today's case shows circumstantial evidence might tell one story. But with the tech we have nowadays, concrete evidence has the power to change the narrative entirely. And this is definitely something about technology that we don't often go over in true crime. And that is, again, like, we have all these new ways of solving crime. But because of these advances, we've now also made it easier to not put the wrong person in prison. Yeah. So today I want to introduce you to a 31-year-old mother of three from Green Bay, Wisconsin, named Nicole Vanderhaden.

Or Nikki, as her friends called her. Nikki was the kind of person who lived for everyone else. She put others before herself constantly, and she took a lot of pride in this. Born on March 29, 1985, Nikki graduated from high school in 2003 and went on to get a degree in science and education. Now, after that, she spent the next six years of her life. working as a substitute teacher for the Green Bay Area Public School System. And on her off days, Nikki would do anything to get outside for a good hike or to connect with nature. She loved exercising and taking care of herself.

But Nikki's number one priority in her life eventually was her family. She got married. She had two kids with her first husband. But eventually they felt it was best if they parted ways. and Nikki leaned on those closest to her to get through those difficult times, especially when she learned that she would have to share custody of her son and daughter with her ex. But as someone who always embraced the journey that is life, Nikki soon met and fell in love with someone else.

It was January 2015 when Nikki met Doug Dietree. I know this is going to sound a little ditsy, but it's just weird to think that, like, 1015 grand it was 11 years ago now, which is scary. Don't feel that long. It doesn't feel that long. But, like, we were just living, we're like, we just live normal lives while all this insanity happens around us. Right.

Like, we were just at college during this time. Like, people were killing people and just doing insane crap. And I was just going to college. And isn't, isn't that just the... Just weird. weird. It's like, yeah, it's weird. The irony of life. Yeah, exactly. And like, an uncomfortable one. So just a few months after they actually started seeing each other, Nikki and Doug got some unexpected news. She was pregnant with her third child that was Doug's child. And even though

the two were still basically getting to know each other, they both felt this was something they wanted. Now, at the time, Doug was working for his family's company in business development. And it seemed like he was ready to kind of start settling down. And eventually, Nikki moved into their home. And they welcomed their young son in the winter of 2015. But as any parent or even non-parent knows, the first six months with a newborn can be extremely daunting. So by May of 2016,

both Nikki and Doug were in desperate need of a date night. So that afternoon, Nikki and Doug spoke to some friends about going to see a last-minute concert. And it was this glam metal band called Steel Panther that was in town. And they figured this is going to make the perfect date night. So Nikki asked her mom to babysit. Again, she has just a little six-month-old at home with her other kids. And since they planned to stay out later, her friend Dallas would then come to relieve her mother later in the evening. Now, around 8 p.m. that night, Nikki and Doug met their friend Greg Matthew and some others at a bar called the watering hole in Green Bay.

Okay. Now, Doug said Nikki was excited this night about letting loose. According to him, she had had two drinks before he had even finished his first. Nikki deserved to blow off some steam after not having gone out for the last six months with a brand new baby. So Doug wasn't holding her back. But around 11 p.m. as the concert began to wrap up, things started to get a little tense with the couple. Doug and Greg had actually run into some old friends from high school at the watering hole. But the rest of the friends they had gone to the show with, including Nikki, were now trying to leave.

So they wanted to go to another bar called the sardine can that was nearby. But Doug and Greg, who are now catching up with their old friends, are like, we don't want to go to sardine can. We want to stay at watering hole with our friends. So they told Nikki, you go with the rest of the group on this date night to the other bar and we will meet you there shortly. Now, Nikki obviously is not exactly happy to hear about this because the group they had even come here with was mostly Doug's friends, not even her own. And some of the people he was now catching up. with were attractive young women from his past. Still, she didn't want to wait around for him to finish catching up, finish his conversation. So she left with the original friends, figuring Doug and Greg would be along in a matter of minutes. Now, this ends up not being the case this night. Instead, Doug continued to hang around the watering hole for a while longer. And at first, Nikki seems fine at the new bar. She's seen on security footage looking happy, dancing, having a good time.

But when Doug still hasn't shown up, 15 minutes later, Nikki does start to get pissed. She texts Doug wondering where he is. Now, eventually, those texts escalate as Nikki begins to accuse Doug of cheating on her. And she also mentions something about him being abusive towards. her. Now soon, Doug does text back with some cavalier response like LOL stop and be good. I'll see you at the sardine can. But when he still doesn't show up to the second place by 1130, she calls Doug and he doesn't answer. So she asks one of the other friends there with, hey, can you try calling

Doug? And when they call, he does answer. So this sets Nikki. off because her boyfriend has now screened her call on their date night. I mean, they have a newborn baby at home. This is their night out. He's at a completely different place and is now ignoring her. She gets so angry. She runs out of the bar. And one of Doug's friends, a guy named Aaron, chases her out to the street to try and convince her to come back. Again, he's probably just being a good friend. They've had a lot to drink this night. He's like, hey, Nikki, I understand. you're mad, but you can't just, like, go out alone and leave. He tells her, hey, the rest of us are actually calling Uber's and we're going to head home. Why don't you just catch a ride with us?

But by this point, Nikki is in hysterics. And when Doug's friend Aaron, who's trying to help, tries to approach her, she actually pushes him away, ends up falling on the ground and kind of just starts kicking and screaming at him. And when he realizes people are looking, he's like, that's it. I'm on a just back away, leave her be. I mean, this isn't even his friend. This is, you know, he knows her through Doug. And as he's leaving, he yells to her one last time, quote, We can get you home faster to your child, your babe in the woods.

But she just gets up, storms off in another direction on her cell phone. Now, eventually, around 12.30 a.m., so an hour and a half after the concert ended, Doug and Greg finally decide to leave the watering hole. Doug at this point has been trying to call Nikki back, texting her, hello, I've tried calling you 10 times, but Nikki at this point isn't responding. And apparently, once he hears that the rest of the friends have actually already left the sardine can and that Nikki had wandered off on her own, refused to go with them, refused to take an Uber home, him and Greg decide to start driving around the area looking for her because she's not answering her phone.

Now around 1236, she actually finally does answer. But according to Doug, she is slurring her words so badly that he can hardly understand her. And he's like, listen, I don't know where you are. Just go back to the sardine can. We will meet you there in five minutes and then we can go home. But a few minutes later, their calls stop going through because Nikki's phone is either turned off or dead. Oh my gosh. Okay. One of the last messages she had sent Doug said something about how she'd met up with a friend.

Though, again, she's not being coherent. It doesn't say where. So around 1 a.m., Doug and Greg go into the sardine can hoping Nikki went inside with said friend, but she's not there. They wait around, because remember, he said to meet him there. They wait until about 2.15 a.m. And then they're like, okay, maybe she's not coming here. Maybe she just found her way home, especially if she had met up with someone she knew that she probably just got a ride. And that's when Greg drives Doug back to his house to relieve the babysitter. Now, they are back at the house by 2.40 a.m.

And Nikki's friend Dallas, who was there to babysit, is past. out on the couch. When Doug wakes her up, they are both shocked to learn that Nikki hasn't made it back yet. So Dallas gets woken up. It's extremely late. Nikki, her friend, is nowhere to be found. They have lost track of her. And now Doug and Greg are just being obnoxiously drunk. The baby's asleep upstairs. And she's like, oh my gosh, can you guys calm down? She starts asking him some questions. And then Dallas says something to Doug that was half kidding, half serious. She says, quote, is Nikki in the trunk of your car? Doug literally looks at her and goes, no.

But something about Doug's demeanor when she jokes just isn't sitting well with her. Something in her gut in this moment is like, okay, something's not right. Like Nikki's not here. That was weird. Dallas says good night, closes the door behind her, though, not realizing how correct. her instincts might have been. All right, we are jumping into an ad. It is Rocket Money.

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Join at RocketMoney.com slash husband. That's rocketmoney.com slash husband. RocketMoney.com slash husband. Check it out. Now the following morning, May 21st, Doug wakes up with the baby around 6.30 a.m. And after feeding his son, he goes back to bed. And then he gets up around 11 a.m. That's when he realizes

Nikki still isn't back and her phone still isn't on. So for the next few hours, he just assumes that, okay, she got really mad at me last night. She's probably still mad at me. She's probably sleeping off a hangover

at this friend's place that she texted him about. But as the day goes on, he gets more and more worried. Also, like, I don't know. I guess I can't judge. It's just that's something I feel like, we wouldn't do, but maybe other couples do it.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's even more worrisome that she has a newborn at home. Yeah, like she's still not home. Exactly. It just sounds like I'd be in full panic mode. Like, I understand him being like, maybe she's mad at me. Maybe she really did run into a friend. But also, you know that your wife was, you know, so out of it that she wouldn't get a ride home with the friends. She was kind of kicking and screaming at them.

Like, she clearly was not in her right mind. That seems kind of nuts to be like... So isn't that a little nerve-wracking that you don't know who she's with or where she's at when you know the state she was in? Exactly. So he begins calling hospitals and local jails, but none of them have Nikki.

So finally, at 4.30 p.m. that day, he calls the police to file a missing person's report. But I'm going to rewind just a little earlier that day, around 1.30 p.m. And you're like, wait, why did you probably go 4.30 to, you know, making the missing person's report? But this is important to the story. So earlier that day at 1.30, a farmer is out homing his land just a few miles from Doug and

Nikki's house. And he finds what he thinks is a deer laying on his property. Though as he gets closer, he sees it is far, far worse. There is a woman completely naked other than her socks and a pink wristband. So he calls the police who rushed to the scene and they discuss. that this woman is dead in this farmer's field, and they're having a hard time identifying her. There is no ID. There is no purse or phone. She has a severe injury to the side of her face. She has a shoe mark on her back. Oh my gosh. And while there's a lot of blood on her body,

there is not a ton on the ground, which indicates to them that she was likely killed elsewhere and then dumped here afterwards. When they roll her over, they find there's a tonne. They find there a significant injury to this woman's neck. So she appears to have been strangled. Her fingernails are actually damaged so badly, which tells them that she definitely fought for her life. Strangling someone's crazy. Also, wear her clothes and her belongings.

Like, I know there's any time killing someone in general is insane, but I don't think I could strangle somebody unless I was like completely, fighting for my life. You know? Yeah. Like I just find it weird people are like, I'm going to kill this person by strangling them. There's definitely something psychological. I guess, but I guess depend.

Anyways, keep going. I mean, you could like weird naked choke somebody. But like when I imagine strangling, like, I imagine they're strangling them like this, like on top of them. Yeah. You know? What was I? Were you just rear naked choking somebody?

No, I was just saying like. What is that? What do you mean? Rear naked, choking. That's a name for it? Oh, yeah. He's choking somebody. Geez.

You know me? You're like an M.MA fighter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. So, I agree with you, though. I do think, like, strangling is so intimate in a way. So, again, this is all happening.

They, like, the farmer found her at 1.30. He calls the cops. They are now, you know, blocking off the scene, getting investigators, crime scene investigators. there. And as this is happening, a call is made to the local police at 4.30 p.m. Back up to now where I took you before this. It is the report about a missing woman named Nicole Vanderhaden, who perfectly fits the description of the body they had just found. Remember, this body is only a couple miles away from her home. So it's very easy for police to be like,

we just got a missing person's call, and we just found a body. Yeah. So of course, The detective's first stop is to Doug at Nikki's house to find out what even happened to her. Like how is she here? What happened the night before? And that is when they learn she only lives three or so miles from where she was found dead. But when police get to Doug's house and sit him down, they actually don't tell him right away that they found Nikki's body. They want to just see how the interview plays out as her being a missing person's report. So he explains to them, he couldn't find Nikki. They lost her that night.

We hung out around the sardine can. We waited until about 2.15 for her to show up. We drove around for another 20 minutes or so trying to find her. Then we just came back here. He said, I was asleep by 3 a.m. Woke up to feed the baby at 6, went back to bed until 11. And one of the first things police notice about Doug is he does seem visibly distraught.

He doesn't have any signs of injury on his face, bare arms, or exposed. legs that they can see. It doesn't look like someone who's been in a fight, and they know that Nikki fought whoever did this to her. Plus, he does fully cooperate with the investigation. He even allows police to confiscate his cell phone for forensic analysis. And during that interview, they come across the text that him and Nikki had exchanged the night before.

I feel like I used to ask all the time where the cameras were I feel like I've kind of gone away from that And I also feel like Do you remember, have you seen that movie with Dialo Labuff? Eagle Eye I haven't seen in so long. Shia Labov

Oh Shia, sorry. Gosh, Shia Lubbuff. Called Eagle Eye and I haven't seen it in so long but if I remember right, he, there's basically like a camera and like anything can be seen at any time. Like nothing's ever missed. What? I thought like his, he's in disturbia.

You thought it's going to be like a scare movie? Well, that's like a camera in that one too. The whole movie's based on the camera. No, no, no. But like it's, like, are you surprised there's not like a camera on the sky that just constantly sees us and just always keeping an eye on us? Is this your hot take? Oh, it wouldn't bother me.

I'm not doing anything wrong. I mean, might be a little awkward like when we're, you know, doing dirty stuff. But other than that, like. Outside? No, I'm, I mean, I guess I can't see you inside. Yeah, it doesn't bother me. Yeah. Like, it really wouldn't bother me.

Anyways, that's my hot take. Watch me 24-7 doesn't bother me. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's so many cameras outside. You kind of are being watched. I might be saying some crazy stuff, but whatever. Anyways, we'll keep going. Like, if you live in a city,

yeah. They can track, you block to block. For sure. So, yeah. So they're going through these text messages, and this is also shy as in holes. Yep, thank you. And I do like that movie a lot. He didn't transform.

He's on a bunch of movies. Oh, Transformers. I haven't seen that. But I did know he was in that, too. I just don't know what Eagle Eye is. I don't. I've never heard of that. So they're going through the text messages,

and this is when they come across the one, where Nikki called Doug, a quote, abusive, a hole, to which Doug said, oh, she just gets that way sometimes when she's been drinking too much. He's like, she says things she doesn't mean. But obviously, when detectives read this

in someone's phone, it's going to set off alarm bells. So they ask him, Hey, can you just come down to the station later tonight? And he complies. And it's not until that interview around midnight that they tell him, we actually think Nikki's body was found earlier today at 1.30, which is Loki, like.

Holy crap. Now, at first, it almost seems like he's in denial. He's like, well, it couldn't be her until they're like, well, she had a pink wristband on her. And that is the one that was given to them at the watering hole for the con. concert. So he completely loses it. It's like reality sinks in in this moment. It confirms to him

that this was Nikki. But tears are not, the police aren't convinced that Doug is free and clear. They think it's very possible. He did have something to do with this. And after three to four more hours of questioning, that becomes very clear to Doug too. He suddenly

asks for a lawyer. He refuses to give a DNA sample without a warrant. His cooperation comes to a complete stop. Now, meanwhile, just before dawn the next morning, more evidence is found in connection to Nikki's murder. Just off a highway on ramp, about a mile from where her body was found, an off-duty police officer actually spots something. It's a purse. Then he finds some shoes and some clothes nearby. And when detectives get the purse, they find it contains Nikki's ID and her cell phone.

Now, around the same time, a medical examiner is performing Nikki's autopsy and it confirms two things. One, that she had been strangled with something that resembled an electrical cord of some kind, so it wasn't hands. There was a weapon used. And she had been hit in the head with a blunt force object. But the medical examiner couldn't conclusively state what came first. And in addition, she concludes that Nikki had about 240 separate injuries on her body, including ones to her face, she had a fractured jaw,

and had injuries suggesting that she had been sexually assaulted. Though, obviously, they're having a hard time rolling out the possibility that she might have just been murdered after having consensual sex.

So investigators turn to what little evidence they have to determine what happened to Nikki in the final hours of her life. I just, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying to figure out. Well, I'm about to make you happy because they're starting with surveillance footage.

You can make me happy. Okay. They're going to the surveillance footage. Oh, okay, good, good. From the sardine can. You were just a little early. All right, let's hear it. Let's hear it.

So they... From the sardine can? Yeah, the second bar. We got the watering hole. We got the sardine can. Yes. Nice, nice. So on that footage, like I said,

Nikki appears to be having a fun time, dancing and drinking with friends until 1115 p.m. Then a little after 11.30 p.m. She does get visibly upset after. after being on her phone and she does storm out of the bar. Now, that footage does show their friend Aaron following her to check on her. So this is when they decide to call Aaron in for questioning. Like, hey, tell us a little bit more about what happened when she stormed out of the bar.

He tells police, she did have odd behavior in the street and how he did actually eventually go back to the bar after Nikki got physical with him. Remember, they had that little altercation and he goes back in. Plus, they have surveillance footage that shows him coming back alone around 11.45 p.m. just minutes after he had walked out after her. So Aaron's kind of a dead end and can easily be rolled off the suspect list. But there's more to that footage that night that does raise alarm bells, particularly how Doug and Greg come into the sardine can later. remember you come to meet her there so they can take her home?

And they keep drinking in this footage. They don't seem too concerned about the fact that Nikki is missing, that she's supposed to be meeting them there. Which messed up? Yes. Illegal? No? I also think there could be like, well, she's still coming. This has been a messy night.

She said she was talking to a friend. She's going to meet us here. so we're just going to keep the night going until she walks in. Okay. You know what I mean? I do think there's... Maybe. I do.

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, maybe. I don't know why I said that like that. I do, I think. I do think that. I want to suck your blood.

You suck your blood. I know I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. But let me know if this changes when I tell you that they stayed there for two hours. having a good time basically waiting for her to show up. So when police see this, they're like, well, he said he went there to go pick her up, but on this footage, they seem to be having a good time. So they continue to look closer at Doug. And when they dive into his past,

they learned that an ex-girlfriend of his once filed a domestic violence claim against him. It seems that she never actually pressed charges, but it was enough for police to wonder, hey, is this a pattern? His new girlfriend wound up dead. His ex-girlfriend filed a domestic violence claim. Plus, the more they talk to witnesses, the more they learned that this couple had their fair share of issues. I guess Doug had told his mother at one point that he just wasn't cut out to be a family man after they had their baby. Yeah, you should probably figure that out before you decide to have a baby, by the way. He even sent her a text that read, quote, this is going to be nothing but hell.

for 18 years, which I would dare say a lot of newborn parents probably do feel that way. No, I can see that. You know. Yeah. But this is the part that not a lot of newborn parents might feel. He was even thinking of kicking Nicole and the kids, his newborn baby, out of his house and just going single. So he basically was, wanted to be a deadbeat dad. Yeah, a little.

He was like, I want to go back to the Bachelor lifestyle. I don't want a kid. I just wanted to like hang out. Dude, some people, when any form of hardships or trials happen, they just fold like a lawn chair. Just straight. Just, nope. I'm not going to do anything hard in my life. And when police talk to Nikki's friends, they learned that she had told them that Doug, he kind of was a little bit of not a good dad.

He often slept in. He called out of work. She tells her friends, this is irritating. Like, we have a baby. This is immature. And then there were rumors that he was talking with other women, sending sexually explicit messages to other women. Basically, when police are learning about this, they realize Doug does not seem ready for fatherhood. And that began to take a toll on their relationship.

Okay. They wanted different things. But is this enough motivation for murder? Also, it doesn't get rid of the fact that you used to have a kid at home. Yeah. So get rid of the wife. But, I mean, that doesn't solve the problem. that you think you have.

Right. So police found this text message sent from Nikki to Doug on the 16th. So this is four days before their date night where she disappeared. And it said, quote, yelling at one of her kids this morning and talking about moving out, he's just a baby and filling your hatred. It makes me want to cry all day. Now, Doug does apologize to her over text after this. She's obviously alluding to they had a rough mourning.

He was yelling, lost his patients with a baby. This made her sad. But it's these subtle clues that got police thinking. He could be their best potential suspect, especially because while he was speaking with detectives the day before, they executed a search warrant on the house that he shared with Nikki, and they found a few things that didn't look great for him. While searching their garage, detectives spotted blood on the floor.

They also found some on the inside of Nikki's car, specifically in the back seat. And then they discover a pair of Air Jordans that have what appear to be the same treadmarks as the footprint they found on Nikki's back. And there was some bloody smudges on the bottom. Obviously, they bag and tag all of this, send it to the lab for confirmation. And eventually the theory becomes, maybe Nikki did come home from the bar that night. and the two got into an argument at the house. Maybe he put her in her car and took her out to that field where he left her body after killing her either in the car back at home. Now, shockingly, this theory holds even more weight when the day after executing the search warrant, a neighbor goes to the police and they say, hey, I think I found your crime scene.

So this person lives right across the street from the couple. and they tell police they noticed a pool of blood right along the curb in front of their house. They also found a phone charger cord, one that seemed to match what the medical examiner had believed was a murder weapon. It's just crazy to me. Like, it's just crazy to me that people will just kill people. Just leave. Like, just disappear in the night. I mean, this is pretty damning.

Like, the neighbor's like, I know you were looking over there, but right here, on our sidewalk, we think we found your murder weapon? Like, just, if you, like, just disappear in the night. If you can't handle having a kid and you can't handle being a dad, first of all, embarrassing. Second of all, just leave. Like, just don't kill. Don't kill somebody.

Crazy. You also find a few clumps of blonde hair that does seem to be a perfect match with Nicky's. All of this is about 118 feet from Doug's front door. So police call him back in for questioning around May 23rd, two days after Nicky's found dead. And while they aren't ready to charge him with murder, they arrest 35-year-old Doug on suspicions of first-degree murder. And they hold him on a $1 million bond. And in the meantime, they're waiting for the DNA results on the evidence to come back. And during this, he's sitting in jail.

Okay. On a $1 million bond, he can't pay. Okay. This feels pretty obvious. Like, even friends and family were like they've not been doing very well. The whole story's a little weird. So they're like, we got our guy. We just need to get an airtight case.

And as all this is going on, little details start pointing away from Doug. For example. Shoot, it's not Doug. Yeah, I just ripped Doug a new one and it's not Doug. Or would you let me do that? Well, I will say if you did pay attention to my intro, which I know you weren't, I talked all about how DNA can exonerate wrongfully convicted people. Doug, I'm sorry, dude. I'm sorry.

It's not my fault. You were busy during the intro. Also, you can't blame me. You kind of seemed like you were a little sketchy, but you're not. So I'm sorry. I apologize. Well, it's not just you. He's in jail.

What's that? What's that? Oh, that's true. Like everyone is thinking he looks sketchy. It's not just you. Who's the father? Or how does it go? You are not the father? You are not the father.

Yeah. But doesn't he come out and he goes like... People are going to slaughter us that we don't know the name of this show. I know the name of the show. I've never watched it, but I know... It starts with an M. Mari? Is that him? I don't know. You were not the father.

And everyone... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways. I've seen one where they say you are not the father and she cheers because she didn't want him to be the dad. Oh yeah, I know. I've seen that one. It's really sad. Yeah, it's really sad. Okay, so who's the killer? This is what I was trying to relate to, but they didn't keep going. You and police. You and police are trying to watch this TV show because they're like, why are we now seeing stuff that points away from our number one suspect? This right in front of his house. For example, Doug left his car overnight at the watering hole. He had to go get it the next day. Remember Greg drove them back? This is something that was confirmed with video footage. So he didn't have a car. They also had. data from Nikki's car from an insurance company tracking device called Snapshot, it proved that Nikki's car hadn't been used the night of the murder.

So wait, how long have he been in jail for? Not super long, right? Not super long, but he is being held with, I mean, a million dollar bond. He's not going to pay that. When they think he did it, yeah. So if he, if his car is on surveillance footage at the watering hole all night, and her car is not moved according to the tracking device, how did Doug kill her and then go drop her body off in a field?

How did he kill her in front of the neighbor's house and then drop her body off in a field three miles away without a car? Police are like, what did he use? Like, okay, this is when police are like, okay, well, maybe Doug's friend, Greg came back. Drove Doug home. Maybe Doug then killed her and called Greg. and Greg came back and was an accessory.

But when they look at the location data from his phone, he's at home. It lines up with the story. Bolkey and Doug are giving police. Who did it? Don't tell me with some random person. Well, okay, police are like, ah, this isn't looking good. Like, how are we going to approach this at trial? How did he move the body?

And then they discover one giant piece of evidence that pretty much proves Doug's telling the truth. This is when they get into. his Fitbit. Okay. Now remember we're back and we're not, he's rocking a Fitbit. Doug was wearing it the night Nikki disappeared. A Fitbit tracks your movements entirely. Specifically, that he'd only walked about 12 steps between 2.45 a.m.

and then 6.30 a.m. when he got up to feed his baby. So according to his story, he went to sleep at three. and we know Dallas left the house. Nikki wasn't there. There wasn't that much time between the two. And then 6.30 a.m. when he feeds the baby. And in between that time, it continued registering his data. It still tracked his heart rate, which showed he didn't just take it off in between that and then put it back on to secure an alibi.

He was wearing it the whole time, which means there is no way he could have killed his girlfriend and moved her body in 12. steps in between the time he falls asleep and Dallas leaves. So he didn't kill his girlfriend and he now doesn't have a girlfriend. And he's sitting in prison. And he's now with single dad sitting in prison. And this is something that becomes even more apparent 18 days after his arrest when the DNA results finally come back and show the blood that was found in their garage was from a turkey. He had hunted and butchered recently.

And the blood inside Nikki's car, it wasn't hers. It was from one of her kids. And the shoes, the shoes that they were like, there's blood smudges and it matches. It wasn't even blood on them after all. And apparently it wasn't a match for the print on Nikki's body either. They just looked similar. Is this a cold case? So Doug is a free man.

He's released from jail. Obviously, his name's cleared. And detectives are at a complete loss as to what happened here. Again, what I said at the beginning, if they did not have mocked, day technology, the Fitbit, surveillance camera, DNA. Convicted. He is a perfect suspect. I mean, when you're just basing it solely off of circumstantial evidence.

Which is why I don't love people going. I mean, there's times, but yeah, doing life in prison off a circumstantial evidence can be hard. So they're at a loss, but they do have one thing. The blood and the hair that was found in front of Doug and Nikki's house kind of, by the neighbor's house that the neighbor reported, it does belong to Nikki. So this is their crime scene. Plus,

there's a partial DNA belonging to an unidentified male that was pulled from Nikki's clothes and the cord that was found at the crime scene. So now people realize, okay, Nikki was killed in front of her house that night, probably before Doug and Greg even got there. Okay, yeah. How did she get there from the bar?

Which is kind of devastating if you think about the reality of this, that she's going to die right in front of her house, and then her boyfriend's going to come home and then get put in prison for her murder. That's not him. That's insane. Put in jail. I said prison. He doesn't go to prison.

He's just in jail. Detectives start pulling surveillance footage. Basically anything that leads from that area where the bars were to home. It doesn't get them anywhere. They're starting to hit dead ends and are worrying this case might run cold if nothing turns up soon, But then in August of 2016, three months after Nikki's death, they get some good news. One of the socks Nikki was wearing has enough DNA to run through the national database and they get it. Okay.

It belongs to someone from the state of Virginia, 38-year-old George Birch. Now, George had just moved from Virginia to the Green Bay area two months before Nikki's death in March of 2016. And this is a guy who could stand out in a crowd. He was 6'7, 270 pounds. It's not someone who would really blend in, and the police definitely took notice of that. So now that they have his name and his DNA on her socks, they start looking into his history.

They find that back on June 8th, just a week or so after Nikki's death, George was questioned by the sheriff's department, but it was for something else. They believed he was involved in a hit-and-run accident with a stolen vehicle and that he then tried to burn that car in a fire. But George denied the accusation saying he was at a bar. Texting with a woman on the evening in question would happily give the police his phone to prove it.

The police then say, hey, it'd actually just be a lot easier if we can just download the contents on your phone rather than like take a bunch of screenshots. We can just like do a mass download. Is that okay? According to the police, he says yes. Again, this is questioning a week after for something else. They even have them sign a bunch of consent forms. Now, unfortunately, they never did prove it was George, who, if he was guilty of the crimes involving the stone vehicle and burning it. But when those DNA results come back in August of 2016 and they get George's name and they're like, hey, wait a second, we actually have George's entire phone history in our systems from the week after this murder.

We should use that to our advantage now that his DNA is linked to Nikki's case. See, George had Google dashboard on his phone, which actually shows them not just what cell towers he pinged, but every Wi-Fi hotspot the phone encountered as well as more exact GPS coordinates for specific dates and times. Okay, there's a lot going on here. And when they look at the early hours of May 21st when Nikki disappeared, they realized he was really close. to where she was. His night had started a half a mile away from where she was last seen

at a bar called Richard Craniums. This is about a 12-minute walk to the sardine can or from the sardine can. It says he then went to his house from 232 to 238 a.m. And then his phone put him at her home.

Or right outside of it. Okay, so why? Like, why her just wrong place? wrong time just like insane or yeah i'll tell you what police come up with his phone says he was right outside her house where we know the crime happened for about an hour from 301 to 353 a m then he was at that field where her body was later discovered that was from 358 a.m. to about 402 a.m. And by 405 a.m. he was right near where her items were later discovered on the side of Highway 172. And then he was back at home by 4.22 a.m.

Now, in the days after this, his phone showed he had searched the internet over 60 times for new stories about Nikki's death. And maybe one of the most disturbing parts about all of this is this is not the first time he's accused of murder. Back in 1998, He stood trial for shooting and killing a gang leader named Joey White. He was found not guilty on all charges due to lack of evidence. Police are basically armed with all of this explosive evidence against him, including DNA. Police are ready to arrest George for Nikki's murder on September 7, 2016. And then finally, two years later in February of 2018, his case goes to trial.

George even took the stand in his own defense, but the story he told was shocking. He tried to put the heat back on the one person who had already taken enough. Doug. Doug. Dang, Doug just got drug through the ringer. So George claims this night he met Nikki at the bar, Roger Craniums. She had left Sardine Bar and walked to Roger and then met. George and the two started flirting.

He offered her a ride back to her house and said that was when the two actually ended up having sex in his car outside the house, which is why his phone's there. But then he says, Doug, who's home at this time, comes out with a gun. So from the time she's at the bar with George, Doug goes to with Greg to Sardine Cairdian Cairns waits for her, then goes home, gets home, goes to bed. Dallas and Greg leave and he's outside with Nicky and then Doug comes out with a gun.

George claims Doug hit him over the head and knocked him unconscious and the next thing he remembered was waking up on the ground outside of his truck and that Nikki was dead. He said then at gunpoint Doug forced him to drive to the field to help him get rid of Nicky's body

which explains the car. And after that George claimed he fought Doug off, got back into his truck and Doug was forced to home where his six-month-old was sleeping in his crib alone. So he just blamed Doug, basically. It's a ridiculous tell, one that couldn't be taken seriously at all, mostly because we have the Fitbit. Yeah.

We have the Fitbit. Proved George's story was a lie because he didn't take it off and he was sleeping. So instead, prosecutors paint a different picture. That night, an angry Nikki did walk to Richard Craniums after leaving her friends at the Sardine Can. And there, she did meet George. And after they spent some time to get her at the bar, he did offer her a ride home. Then once he pulled up in front of her house,

he sexually assaulted her, likely strangling her with a phone cord. Insane. Okay. She then fell out of the vehicle. It escalates outside on the neighbor's side. He continues to stomp on her back, her head ends up killing her. This is the story that obviously rings true.

to the jury. On March 1st, 2018, 44-year-old George Birch was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Since then, George has tried to appeal his sentence claiming the police violated his Fourth Amendment rights when searching his phone for Nikki's case. Okay, dude. He also argued that evidence from Doug's bit bit should not have been allowed at trial because there was no expert to analyze the technology's reliability. The Supreme Court disagreed. they rejected his appeal in 2021. But perhaps one silver lining in this case that I started it off with

is an innocent man didn't take the fall because of these new technologies, modern day crime solving, if you will. The right person is behind bars. George Birch can't hurt anyone else. Killing someone is just nuts. It's crazy to...

Like not kill someone out of it. It's just crazy to murder somebody for no reason. And here's the thing. We can't blame you for pointing the finger. I feel bad. Sorry, Doug. Well, you can't blame you because in a typical case, this actually does make sense. Like, most, they found blood in the garage.

They found blood in the car. Yeah, but... They found the crime scene in front of his house. Yeah, it turned out to be turkey. Yeah. But it's like, I mean, it almost feels like a CSI episode where it's like all the evidence just points to someone and then there's just this random coincidence where it's not them. That's almost what it feels like. And thankfully, because of these technologies, they were able to get the right person.

And while some may argue that technology can be invasive and it definitely can be used against us. There is one thing that helps me sleep at night. and it's that most of my devices, if I'm not doing anything wrong, should have my back. And they offer indiscriminate proof should I ever find myself in an unthinkable situation.

Doug had his Fitbit. And that is the story of Nicole Vanderhaden. It's crazy. I just also sucked just now. I mean, this was, I guess, a while ago, but just having to raise a kid on your own now. Yeah.

When? this wasn't even what he saw for his life. Like every single eyewitness came forward and was like, he does not want to be a dad. I'm sure it's different now. Well, I know, but I'm just saying like, now it's even harder because he's going to do it alone. For sure. It's crazy.

Yeah, it's, she's dead. That's what's crazy. It's sad. And like, okay. Got a ride home from the wrong person. Just got killed for no reason. All right, you guys. That was our episode for this week. and we will see you next time with another one.

I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.