Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Gold Digger is in BIG Trouble // The Nanette Johnston Murder Story

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

Nanette Johnston (now Nanette Packard) orchestrated the 1994 murder of her millionaire fiancé, Bill McLaughlin, to secure a $1 million life insurance payout and hide her extensive embezzlement of his funds. While living with McLaughlin in Newport Beach, she maintained a secret affair with former NFL player Eric Naposki and provided him with a house key and his schedule to facilitate the shooting.

One day, you're negotiating with suppliers. The next, you're installing a shelf in the back room. Running a business means moving in many directions all the time. TD's new small business banking accounts are built for how your business moves. It's how we're making banking more human. So this woman is looking for a rich man to take care of her. You interested? Now, the woman's name is Nanette, and Nanette is 25 when the story starts,

and she's living in Newport Beach, California. Here's the thing about Nanette. She really loves money. And you know, all the stuff she can get with it. You know, the cars and the jewelry and the vacations and all that stuff. But the net isn't trying to work for that life? No, no, no. She doesn't even have a job or a career path. Instead, she dates older, wealthy men who will fund her lifestyle.

So one day in 1991, she places an ad in a dating magazine. Because I guess they used to have dating magazines in the 90s? I don't know. Anyway, in the ad, she makes it clear that she's looking for a rich guy who can take care of her needs. And in return, she'll take care of their needs too. Now, one of the people who sees her ad is this guy, Bill. And Bill, he's around 52, and he's a wealthy entrepreneur who made all his money by inventing some blood filtration device or something like that. Now, Bill, he's just coming out of a divorce. So he's kind of lonely, and he's

looking for some companionship. So when he sees Nanette's ad, he hits her up. And eventually, they meet up and they start talking and they hit it off. And once Nanette sees how rich Bill is, they start dating. And things are going well for them. Bill gives her everything she wants. He takes her on nice ski vacations and expensive cruises and trips to Europe. He buys her jewelry. He buys her a new car.

He even gives her a huge allowance. And because Bill is a good dude, he accepts Nanette's two children from a previous relationship as his own and all of them move in with him and his badass beachfront house and eventually Bill proposes to Nanette and now that they're engaged he wants to make sure that she's taken care of if anything ever happens to him so he takes out a one million dollar life insurance policy on himself and he names Nanette as the beneficiary so now Nanette finally has it she finally has the rich life that

she's always been looking for. However, for whatever reason, Nanette isn't satisfied with all this. Her greedy ass wants more. So she decides to start stealing from poor Bill. She starts forging checks in his name. And over time, all this theft starts to add up. In total, she steals about $500,000 from him little by little. And if that isn't shady enough, in 1993, she also starts cheating and smashing with another guy. This guy, Eric. Eric is a former NFL linebacker. He played briefly for the Patriots and the Colts.

Now, Eric is not a wealthy man like the net would normally be into. In fact, he works a regular job as a bouncer at a nightclub. But for whatever reason, she likes him. And soon they go beyond just smashing and they start actually dating behind Bill's back. Like they are in a legit relationship. And of course she doesn't tell Eric that Bill is her fiancé. No, no. She tells him, oh, Bill is just my business partner and I'm sharing my house with him and we have separate rooms.

And if you think the net couldn't get any worse, she starts taking credit for Bill's work. She tells Eric that she's the one who's rich because she's the one who invented the blood filtration device. And Eric actually believes her. I guess he has no reason not to. And so they keep dating. Meanwhile, Bill, he has no idea that this cheating is going on. He just thinks Eric is a close friend of Nanette's. Now, here's where the story gets really dark.

So a few months go by, and it's now 1994. And around this time, it seems like Nanette starts getting scared, scared that Bill is going to find out that she's been stealing from him for all these years and that he'll figure out that she's been dating Eric on the side. So she comes up with a plan, a plan to make sure that that doesn't happen. She wants to kill Bill. Because if he dies, not only will he never discover that she was cheating and stealing, but she'll also get the $1 million life insurance payout that he set up.

And she'll get about $150,000 from his will, and she'll get access to his awesome beach house. And from there, she'll be able to move on with her life. and she can continue seeing Eric. Now, she's not going to kill Bill herself. No, no, that's too much. She's going to trick Eric into doing it. So one day, she goes to Eric,

and she lies to him and she tells him that Bill has been essaying her. And this, of course, pisses Eric off, and he agrees to help her murder Bill. So they plan it all out, and the net provides all the details Eric needs to catch Bill alone. His schedule, the key to get into their gated community, community, and the keys to his house. And once the day comes, Nanette goes to her son's soccer game and she makes sure to bring her ex-husband along with her, because she's trying to create a series of

alibis. At the same time, Eric is at the game too. And after the game, Nanette drops Eric off near his house, and then she leaves to go Christmas shopping. Again, being at department stores with all kinds of cameras around, that'll help create an alibi for her. And we mean, While Eric gets into his car and he drives to Bill's house, and he uses the key to get into the gated community, and then he uses the other key to get into the house, and there he finds Bill sitting at the kitchen table. And then he pulls out a pistol, and blam, blam, he shoots Bill, and unfortunately, poor Bill doesn't survive. And immediately, Eric flees the scene, and he heads straight to work because he actually has a shift that night. Later, Bill's son finds him and he calls the police. And then police start investigating all of this.

And of course, they question his fiance, Nanette. And Nanette, you know, she says she was at her son's soccer game with her ex-husband and she knows nothing about this. So the police check with the ex-husband. And the ex-husband says, yeah, he confirms that she was at the soccer game. But then he adds that Eric was there too. And so police are like, Eric, who the fuck is Eric? So they investigate more, and they discover that Nanette and Eric are in a relationship and that she had been cheating on Bill. So they start thinking, oh, maybe she and Eric collaborated and killed Bill together.

But both their alibis check out. And there's really no solid proof tying either of them directly to the murder that night. However, they then discover something else. Annette has been stealing from Bill for years. before he died, even after his death. And that's enough for a charge. And so, bam, Nanette gets arrested. Here's her mugshot.

And in 1995, she takes a plea deal for the financial crimes, and she's sentenced to one year in prison, but after about six months, she gets out. And many years go by. And eventually, Nanette and Eric break up. And she goes on to marry another wealthy man, and she starts a new family. Eric also moves on and he starts his own family too. So it's starting to look like both Annette and Eric are going to end up getting away with murder. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive.

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That MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Until. 15 years pass, and it's now 2009, and some detectives in the police department are revisiting some old cold cases. And so they decide to look into the murder of Bill. And in this new investigation, they talked to some previously overlooked witnesses, and they also use improved ballistics tests. ballistics test to identify the murder weapon and they're able to gather enough evidence that connects both Nanette and Eric to Bill's murder and so bam

the net is arrested here's her mugshot also bam Eric gets arrested too here's his mugshot and ultimately Eric goes to trial and he's found guilty and he gets sentenced to life in prison while Nanette also goes to trial and she's also found guilty and she also gets life in prison.