True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: Mom of 3 Murdered: DIARY Holds a CLUE! Denise Leuthold | True Crime Stories

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

In this heart breaking episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, the tragic murder of Denise Leuthold unfolds—a devoted mother of three whose life ended in a shocking and mysterious way. As investigators dig deeper, a personal diary surfaces, holding clues that may point to a darker truth behind closed doors. Was this a random act, or something far more personal? True Crime with Kimbyr explores the emotional weight, hidden tensions, and haunting evidence in a case that leaves more questions than answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Where taste recognizes taste. Helping many families in need, and they started their own family. In 2013, Denise was the mother of three children. The family just celebrated Valentine's Day that morning sharing gifts, but she never showed up to pick up her daughter from school later that day. Something sinister happened. On a day we usually celebrate love.

This is her story. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlya. you've never been here before, nice to finally meet you. Today I'm going to introduce you to Denise Newton. She was born February 3rd, 1974 in Miami, Florida, Dade County to her parents Diane and Douglas Newton. During her childhood, her family moved to Illinois from Florida. Denise and her siblings attended Faith Baptist Christian School in Peacin, Illinois. The school says it strives to provide a solid

education in a nurturing and safe environment based on Christ's philosophy. And their graduates possessed the knowledge to succeed in college, a desire to serve in their local churches, and a commitment to strong Christian families and education. They graduate as leaders in their community, churches, and their workplaces. As a graduate of Faith Baptist School, Denise Newton possessed all of those admirable qualities and more. While Denise was attending Faith Baptist, she met her first crush. His name was Nathan. Nathan and Denise met when Nathan was in third grade and Denise was in fourth.

Denise swept Nathan off his feet with her bouncy little curls and her bright personality. For Nathan, Denise was not only the most beautiful girl in the school, but in the whole world. Nathan doubted Denise knew he even existed at the time, but they developed a friendship in junior high school, and Denise and Nathan both had crushes on one another up until high school. But since they had conservative religious backgrounds, they weren't allowed to date each other. Neither one of their parents believed in dating. So all they could do is maintain a good friendship.

Most of the time, they would just hang out with each other at the youth group or church-related activities. That didn't stop them from being absolutely inseparable, and everyone noticed their connection. They spent every waking moment with one another. Nathan was smitten with Denise, his first and only girlfriend. The couple were popular students during their high school years. Nathan was a star basketball player, and Denise cheered him on from the sidelines. Even the teachers could see that they had this connection

between them. Something special. Denise was a year older than Nathan, so she ended up graduating in 1992, and she left Illinois to attend a college in Minnesota. It was the first time that the pair was truly a part. But the following year, Nathan graduated from Faith Baptist Christian School, and he followed Denise to Minnesota. Denise and Nathan's engaged,

one year later didn't surprise anyone that knew them. Nathan said he proposed to Denise without a second of hesitation. Growing up, Nathan admired Denise's parents because he thought they had a perfect relationship. In Nathan's mind, Denise's mother, Diane, was the ideal wife and mother. He thought that the marriage she had to Douglas was the epitome of love, and he wanted the same. He spent almost every day at the Newton's home. It was like a second home to him, and Denise's parents loved him and saw him as one of their own children. And when Nathan saw the way that Denise was a lot like her mother, he knew he wanted to spend forever with her.

Denise married Nathan Luthold, her high school sweetheart, on July 15th, 1995 in LaSalle, Illinois. Diane was so happy for Denise. So happy. She always loved being a wife and a mother herself, so she was excited that her daughter finally found true love to experience that with. Before Denise and Nathan exchanged their

vows at their wedding ceremony, she actually prepared in saying a song for Nathan about how he was her everything that everything Denise ever wanted was standing before her in him. That's really special. Wow. It's like a once in a lifetime love. She knew that their marriage was going to be everything that she dreamed of since she was a little girl. Many women know exactly what they want down to the colors of flowers from a very young age. After they got married, the couple made their home in Peoria, Illinois, where Denise began working for a local insurance company, and Nathan took a job in sales. The Lutholds were very active members of their local church, Lamarst Baptist Church in Mapleton, Illinois. Religion and God were at the center of their marriage and their lives.

Nathan couldn't help it feel like he was meant for something more, especially when it came to his spiritual calling. It had been Nathan's dream to participate in missions abroad for the Baptist Church for many years. And he finally shared this dream with Denise. And of course, she felt like it was God's will and they would find a way. In 1998, the Lutheran family was given the opportunity to take parts in a mission trip to Lithuania. Another young couple from their church started their own missionary and they were taking trips to Lithuania to share the gospel. Well, Nathan saw this as his chance to make his dream come true. So we asked the couple running the mission's trip if him and Denise could assist them. Of course, they wanted more people to help them so they agreed, but it wouldn't happen overnight.

It cost money. It was an investment to move. So Denise and Nathan decided to ask her parents if they could come live with them for about six months to save money. And they said yes. So the two of them sold all their possessions and they moved into the Newton's home at 700 West Mossville Road, Peoria, Illinois. While they were there, they worked hard and they studied everything they could about Lithuania. including learning the language. Neither Denise or Nathan were familiar with the country at the time.

I'm half Lithuanian on my dad's side. I've never learned the language either, but Lithuania lies in Eastern Europe, with the Baltic Sea along its western coast. Of the three Baltic states, Lithuania has the largest population and the largest area. In 2015, Lithuania had a population about 2 million people.

Although it does have a large population, the country is slightly smaller than half the size of country. Greece. And the language spoken there is Lithuanian. The main religion is Roman Catholic, with more than three quarters of the population participating in it. Finally, though, their dream came true, and they made their way out to Lithuania. Denise absolutely loved being a part of sharing God's love and message with the Lithuanian children that she mentored. But after about a year, it was time to return home because the Lutholds were about to welcome a new baby of their own

into the world. Shortly after arriving back in 2000, their son, Seth, was born. Now it was time to give their full attention to their own child and spend their time devoted to him. But not too long after Seth was born, Denise found out she was pregnant again. She gave birth to their first daughter, Julia, and by 2002, the Luthold family returned to Lithuania, and they lived there on and off for the next eight years. They would spend time there, and then they would come back to the U.S. for a little bit, until they saved enough money to go back again. Even though Denise was excited about their work in Lithuania, it was really difficult for her to be alone

with two young children in a strange country. She didn't have any family there or any friends to support her. And she missed her family and her loved ones, and they were missing out on little Seth and Julia growing up. Diane, Denise's mom, thought it was actually really traumatic for her daughter to go through this, but Denise knew that this meant so much to Nathan, so she powered through it.

She wanted to be that strong, supportive wife that she believed God wanted her to be. So Denise decided to make the most of her time in Lithuania by sharing her love of Jesus and her faith through music. Her role at the church was to teach the young girls' Bible stories and play the piano. Denise devoted her time to children and their families. And her and Nathan even helped women that were in very toxic and dangerous relationships. They helped them get places where they would be cared for. In addition, they helped several Lithuanian people come to the United States to study, play sports, or work. Sometimes sponsoring students and helping them get set up financially or assisting them with learning the culture in the United States.

One family that got very close to was the Dobolate family, who they met back in the early 2000s. They had a little six-year-old at the time. Her name was Aina, and she was there with her family and they were helping as much as they possibly could. By 2010, Denise was expecting baby number three, little Janelle, and that's my youngest sister's name, too. So once again, the family made plans to go back and spend time in the United States until after the baby was born. They went back to live with Denise's parents while they worked, raised their children, and raise money to return to Lithuania. They wanted to raise enough money so that they could also sponsor students and assist families. A few years later in 2013, the Lutheran family was still living in the United States with Denise's parents.

Diana Doug. You may remember this home 700 West Mossville Road. It's where both of them live when they were saving up the first time to go to Lithuania. And it was probably a little cramped with Denise's mom and dad, plus the Lutholds and their three children. It was just a three bedroom home with three bathrooms. Maybe it was just enough for the two couples to have their own rooms and the kids to take the third. At the time, Seth was 12, Julia was 10 and little Janelle was only four. They really did have a growing family and it was very generous of Denise's family to allow them to stay there. Denise was really happy to be back at home in Illinois with her family and friends. Besides being reunited with her loved ones, being back in the United States allowed Nathan to visit various Baptist churches and raise funds

for their next mission trip to Lithuania, which was still his number one passion. But a part of me kind of thought that the reason Denise wanted to get pregnant again was to move back to the United States. I could tell through everything I've read, that it made her really homesick to be there, no matter how much she wanted to do for her husband. But let's go to Thursday, February 14th, 2013, Valentine's Day. It was a normal weekday, except it was a holiday. And when the lootholds were back in the United States, they took pride in the American holidays, making sure their children's got to celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, even Valentine's Day. So that morning, Seth, Julian, Janelle woke up to find that Denise had laid out gifts for them on the kitchen table. The night before, Nathan had purchased a

card and a rose for Denise and left them on the table as well for his wife of almost 18 years. After the Luthal family exchanged their Valentine's Day gifts, the day continued as usual. Seth and Julia attended school and Nathan ran errands and Denise took Janelle to her pre-K session at 12, 15 p.m. and both of Denise's parents went to work. At around 3 p.m., though, Nathan was on his way to pick up Janelle from daycare, and Denise was supposed to pick up Julia. However, Nathan was surprised because he gets a phone call from his dad, Bruce, asking, hey, do you need help getting Julia from school? And Nathan's confused. He's like, what do you mean? Well, it turns out. According to Nathan's dad, the school called him and said that Denise had never

arrived at school to pick Julia up and she was just sitting there waiting. So Nathan told his father to just wait a few minutes because he knew Denise would most likely be on her way to the school. She was just probably late. Maybe she was in traffic or her errands ran longer than usual. Because Denise was very responsible. This was unlike her, very out of character. Nathan started to call Denise, but she didn't answer. He texted her, but those messages were not returned. As soon as he hung up with his father, Nathan called him back and told him, you know what? Just go ahead and pick up Julia because I don't know where Denise is. Nathan also said, I'm going to go to the house and see what the reason is for her not being there.

Maybe she forgot. So when Nathan pulls up into their driveway, he's immediately concerned. The garage door was wide open, which is very odd. And Denise's vehicle was nowhere to be found. Nathan parks his car in the driveway and begins to walk around the home. He gets about halfway through the backyard and he notices, you know what, something's wrong here. He looks back into the garage and he notices.

something just didn't seem right. So he goes back to the garage and that's when he sees broken glass, the door that's between the garage and the home had broken glass in it. He thought that someone may have broken into their home. So Nathan ran back to his car and little Janelle was still waiting in the back seat

and he just gets in and he backs his car out of the driveway and backs it right into his neighbor's driveway across the street and he calls 911. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do. know if the person was still inside. He wasn't a very confrontational type of person. He would rather the burglar just take all their material possessions that don't mean anything than to risk something happening to his family. In the meantime, as he waited for the police to arrive, Nathan continued

to call Denise and her relatives and her friends hoping that someone had heard from her, but no one had. Two officers arrived a few minutes later. They pull into the Newton's driveway and they're looking around for the man who put in the 911 call and they can't locate Nathan. That's when they realize he's parked at the neighbor's house. An officer spotted him holding his little daughter across the street at 703 West Mossville Road. So he walks over to Nathan and says, what is going on? Nathan tells the officer he had just returned home from picking up his youngest daughter from the school. And when he came to the house, he saw the garage door open and some broken glass. And he explained that prior to this, he'd been calling his wife who failed to pick up their 10-year-old daughter from her school. And it also seemed like his wife's

phone was off. No one was able to get a hold of her, and he thought maybe she was at home running late, but her car isn't there. The officers make their way over to the Newton's home, and Nathan called Denise's mom, Diane, who was still at work at the time. Nathan told his mother-in-law that it looked like someone had broken into their home, and no one could get in touch with Denise, so she left work and raced over immediately. Meanwhile, officers are surveying the outside of the Newton's home, and they don't find any forced entry. But they do find a muddy puddle in the backyard. However, they don't see any footprints or other disturbances in it. The officers decide to enter through the open garage. Since the officer doesn't know what he's about to walk into, he calls her backup

before entering the home. The officer headed back to the front of the house to wait for backup, and Nathan was still in his car outside the neighbor's home with his daughter. After the second officer arrived, they entered the house. And they noticed something strange. The drawers were pulled out of the kitchen. All the kitchen cabinets were open and all the kitchen drawers were ransacked. Things had definitely been rummaged through. It looked like they were dealing with a robbery, but it got worse.

As the officers approached the house's entryway, they discovered a woman lying face down on. the floor. She was wearing her winter coat and her gloves and it looked like she had just come inside and was knocked to the ground. They could even see her glasses laying right next to her. And that's when they saw it. A pool of blood under her matted hair. There was a shell casing in a live round near the woman's head and a set of car keys were tangled in her hair. They surmised that she'd come inside as the burglar was ransacking the house and she was killed as a result. So the officers step outside and immediately called dispatch

alerting the department that there was a murder at the scene. After grabbing their bulletproof shields, the officers re-enter the home and cleared it room by room to make sure the intruder was gone. The house was empty except for the deceased female, and they didn't know who this woman was. But considering Denise had been missing and was unable to be reached,

they believed it was most likely her. But they didn't want to upset Nathan, that Nathan before they knew for sure. So they went outside to gather some more information from him. But Nathan and his daughter, Janelle, are no longer in the car. They had actually gone into their neighbor's home. So after knocking on their neighbor's door and requesting that Nathan come outside,

the officers asked him for a description of Denise's vehicle so they could see if the keys that they found matched it. But as Nathan began telling the officers what kind of car she drives, detectives back at the Newton's home started to put up the huge. yellow crime scene tape and cordoned off the area. Nathan was just sitting there watching anxiously from across the street. The detectives that were on scene thought the same thing as a first responders.

Since Denise was wearing her coat and gloves when she was shot in the head, the detectives concluded that her shooter ambushed her she walked inside. There was no sign of a murder weapon at the crime scene, but it did appear to be a 40-calibre handgun. Although they didn't have an official identification through, let's say, an autopsy, the detectives matched Denise's body to pictures of her. Now they needed to notify Nathan about the horrific news that his wife of almost two decades, the mother of his three children, his soulmate, was dead. The thing is, Nathan already knew. And no, it wasn't a gut instinct or anything spiritual. His father told him.

His father called Nathan and said, I'm on my way. I just heard the radio. Local news said that someone was found shot in your home, and Nathan figured it had to be Denise because everyone else was accounted for. It was like time had stopped. He was in disbelief. He covered his face, and he embraced his beautiful, curly-haired, four-year-old little daughter, Janelle, who was the spitting image of her mother. This couldn't be happening. He didn't know what he was going to do. His young daughter, she just smiled at him, not even understanding the gravity of what had just happened. Now it was time for the officers to notify Denise's other family members, but Diane was already approaching her street. And she noticed the road was blocked off and she couldn't pass.

She was concerned for her daughter. So Diane abandoned her vehicle and tried to run to her home, but the officers wouldn't let her in. She kept saying, I don't understand. I just need to get in there. Where is my daughter? What happened? Eventually they were able to calm her down and they told her that they told her that they needed her to come down to the police station so they could gather some more information from her.

And it didn't take long after that for the police to inform her in no uncertain terms that her daughter Denise had been shot and that she did not survive. Diane called it the worst day of her life. And I can't even imagine that pain. And then she had to do something that takes a lot of courage. Diane had to notify her husband that their beloved daughter had passed away. When Denise's dad Doug heard that his daughter had been killed. He couldn't contain a sadness. He was an absolute mess. His little girl, even though she was 39 at the time, his little girl was gone. It was unbelievable. And of course, the word traveled fast. It was shocking for everyone close to the family and the community. A murder on Valentine's Day? The day of love? And this happened to a loving person. Someone that devoted

their whole life to helping others and no one could understand why this was happening. But if it was random, then of course the thief didn't care who they were when they crossed his path. But for this couple, they were so kind and their faith Baptist church community was devastated. This was the family they helped raise funds for from missionary work. In this post from back in 2012, just a year before the tragedy, the church said, we received a call from Nathan Luthold, our missionary to Lithuania. He's going to be passing through tomorrow night and will be in our Wednesday night service. It's obvious that the church held Nathan in high regard, and they looked forward to his presence. And now they had to deal with the reality of his wife's absence, and everyone wanted answers.

And they might just get some. An officer located Denise's vehicle down the street at Robinson Park shortly after taking Nathan's description of her car. When I say down the street, it's a one-minute drive from the home, about a 10-minute walk. In addition, it's a large natural area with forests for hiking and lots of land around there. It looked like this may have been the getaway car. Maybe the perpetrator used it to flee from the scene and they dumped it in this nearby park and then ran on foot. After Denise's body was found, Nathan was escorted by a detective to the police station for questioning. At the beginning of the interview, the detectives asked Nathan if he and Denise had any problems.

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And Nathan and Denise's vehicles, their cell phones, or laptops, their cell phones, or laptop. laptops and hard drives. Denise's parents were also more than willing to give crime scene investigators access to their entire home. They wanted to find any evidence to who would have murdered their daughter. And they felt like this was quite the mystery. When Nathan was asked what Denise did that morning, he said she woke up around 6.45, which was usual. And while Denise woke up their children for school, Nathan got into the shower and was shaving and doing his everyday routine. Before Nathan drove his two older children to school, he explained that they exchanged. their Valentine's gifts. And Nathan told the detective he had stopped at a spot and picked up a $75

gift card for Denise after dropping his children off at school. He also said that Denise stayed home with her daughter all morning until she drove her to daycare around noon. Detectives were very thankful for this information. It was very helpful. That timeline and a routine is significant. With this information, they thought that maybe they can pull up some surveillance footage and see if anyone had been following Denise or if there was anything out of the ordinary. They told Nathan that it was imperative to find out when the last time she had been seen was so they can narrow down the time frame of when Denise was murdered. She was supposed to go shopping after she dropped Janelle off to her pre-K session and according to Nathan, Denise was supposed to pick up their older daughter Julia

at middle school. However, that's when she never showed up. Nathan told the detectives he drove home to check on Denise and that's when he saw the signs of a break in at the house. Basically everything we already know. They asked Nathan if Denise had any problems with anyone and he said no. They got along with everyone, their neighbors, they were well-liked at the church, and they had actually just returned to Illinois from Lithuania a few years ago. He didn't even say they were back long enough to make any enemies. And of course they had to ask him some uncomfortable questions. One's about marriage. Specifically whether Denise had ever done anything behind his back, had any affairs or any boyfriends, anything like that. And he said, no. And then

they said, well, what about you? And again, he says no. He described Denise, as the main one that holds her entire family together. She sounds like an amazing person. And as a matter of fact, anyone the detective spoke to about Denise only had good things to say about this woman. She was nearly perfect, a great mother, wife, friend, anyone who knew her loved her. And whenever the detectives asked Nathan if anything valuable

and said the home was missing, he said, no. That the only thing he could think of was that there were two, maybe $200 watches, but nothing else high-end. Sometime at the end of the interview, Nathan was getting tired. It had been a long time, and he'd been away from his children, and he really wanted to get back to them. And he said, quote,

help me get back to my kids tonight, end quote. And one of the detectives said, we hope you will be. Nathan added, I can't leave them all night long. And they did finally let Nathan leave. They were very thankful for all the information that he provided, and they wanted to get on the case ASAP. detectives interviewed Nathan for over six hours. And after leaving the police station at 1230 in the morning,

on February 15th, 2013, he headed to his sister's house to spend time with his children and grieve the loss of their mother and his wife. Residents in Peoria, Illinois, where Denise and Nathan lived, were terrified after hearing that even the police thought there could be a crazy killer on the loose. They were holding press conferences and telling people they need to be on high alert.

The schools were on lockdown. Residents were scared for their lives because this happened in the middle of the day. It could have been anyone. Things like this just didn't happen there. This was a place where kids played in the streets and everyone trusted one another and knew one another. And now the streets were bare. Everyone was scared. Since Nathan and Denise did not live in a high crime area, residents began to be extra cautious. This was a big story. And although residents were like triple checking their doors and their windows, an eerie feeling came over the town. They were panicked and paranoid. An investigation into Denise's murder began immediately. And detectives did confirm a laptop, two guns, a digital camera, and several pieces of jewelry had been stolen from the home and they were never recovered. Among the missing guns was a 40-caliber Glock. That was the same weapon that investigators believed Denise was shot with. Then they got a

very important piece of evidence. When they were searching through reports at the police station, they come across a report from just two days before Denise's murder. It was made by Nathan. What they could gather from this report was that it was made on February 12, 2013, shortly after midnight. Nathan called to report a suspicious vehicle that was outside driving in the neighborhood. It even parked in their driveway and parked in the driveway directly across the street as well. An officer Needham responded to the call, but by the time he arrived, the car was no longer there. The officer searched the area but didn't find anything suspicious. He said, should I go speak to your neighbors?

And Nathan discussed it with him and they said, you know what? I don't think it's necessary to wake people up and disturb them at this time of the night. At that point, it was just a suspicious car driving around in the neighborhood, parking in their driveway. But what was this all about? Was this car casing the neighborhood looking for homes to hit? That's what they thought. The detectives wanted to know more. So Nathan told them about that.

them about the suspicious car that he saw. First, it was about a few weeks ago. So he saw it more than once. That's why it was really peculiar. He said that the first time it pulled into their driveway without any headlights on, which was odd because they had the lights on when they were on the road, but when they pulled into the driveway, they switched them off. So he goes to the front door, he turns on the outside light, and as soon as he does, the car backs up and leaves. And then it happened again for the second time. Just two days. before Denise's murder and that's why he decided to call the police. This time they pulled into the neighbor's driveway but he could tell it was the exact same

car. So now they're gathering all of the information to go around and look to see if they can find it. After the media reported Denise's murder, Diane Parrish, a neighbor of Nathan and Denise's, contacted the detectives. She said sometime in the afternoon on February 14th she saw a man walking in the direction of Denise's home wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up over his head and his hands in his pockets. Diane Parrish was concerned about this man because of the way his face looked. She said she could tell he was agitated and something was wrong and that's pretty terrifying. Since Diane Parrish saw this man walking around Robertson Park, she had to notify

detectives when she heard that Denise's car was found there. Then another neighbor reported hearing a gunshot between 1230 and 1240. which is around the same time detectives think that Denise was shot. If Denise stumbled across an intruder in her home, why would they kill her in cold blood? This was an issue that several detectives were having difficulty understanding. Maybe Denise's murder was not part of a robbery at all, but something else entirely, something more sinister.

At first glance, it appeared to be a robbery gone wrong, but investigators realized a robbery turned murder was not. was not common. In the days following Denise's murder, Nathan stayed at his sister's house with his three children, and Nathan's mom and sister comforted him and help him grieve the loss of his wife. They also helped him explain to Seth and Julia and Janelle that their mom had died. Nathan sat all of his children down and told them their mommy had been called home to be with God. He told his children that their mommy was loved and that she loved them very much. After that, Nathan said that they all hugged,

and they cried with one another, but they also prayed. And they thank the Lord for giving them such a wonderful wife and mother. On February 19th, Faith Baptist Church posted this on Facebook. Quote, Nathan and Denise Luthold, are missionaries to Lithuania that our church has supported through the years, have been on furlough. And Denise was murdered in Peoria last week. Her funeral is today.

We will be taking up a love offering, Sunday to give towards the fun they've set up for their three young children. Please pray for them and leads in the investigation." End quote. Nathan then moved his family to the church mission home. His parents told his friends that Nathan left his sister's home out of fear for his family's safety. The person who killed Denise could return and take out the rest of their family, including their children. So Nathan was concerned that they were in danger, which was smart. It's better to be safe. and the church members were helping out their bringing home-cooked meals to them, but life just wasn't the same.

Nathan and the kids were changed. Sometimes they would just stare into space still in shock. When the crime scene had been cleared and cleaned, Denise's parents, Diane and Doug, asked Nathan to come by with the children so they could be with their family, but Nathan was to overcome with emotion. And he was really hesitant about bringing the children back to where their mother was killed. The children were too afraid, which is completely understandable.

It would be very traumatic and hard. Of course, Diane and Doug Newton kept thinking about their daughter's murder. Diane worked at a store that sold high-definition TVs, and their home had a lot of electronic equipment in it. But it was all accounted for, and as a matter of fact, in the living room, the officers found all the electronic devices, including a TV and a Blu-ray player in their proper places and nothing of value. seemed to be gone. Everything was still available for the taking. And back in 2013, Blu-ray players, I don't know if you remember this, they were the hottest item on the market. And the Nunes had several expensive DVD players in their home, but they weren't stolen by the person who killed Denise. However, the murderer did take three of Diane's rings. And she wondered how this person who killed her daughter would even know that those rings were worth anything.

Detectives began asking the same questions as Denise's parents. Despite everything that they were observing they didn't think the crime scene looked like a real robbery. One of the first strange things that detectives noticed was the neatly arranged junk drawers on the kitchen floor. Yes, the drawers were removed, but they were placed neatly on the floor like someone was concerned with making a mess. And the officers noted that nothing was scattered around. The drawers were there, but you would assume if someone broke in and was rummaging through,

there would be a mess all around. And even more confusing was why would a burglar Go through a junk drawer. I'm talking a junk drawer full of pens and scissors. It was obvious when you opened it up. There was nothing significant in there whatsoever. So why waste your time? It didn't fit the normal MO. Another thing, one of the missing guns belonged to Nathan. It just happened to be the same caliber weapon responsible for shooting his wife in the head. Nathan owned a few guns, a 12-gauge shotgun, a 22 pistol, and a 40-caliber Glock. He said he kept the 40-caliber, in a gun case. So detective said, how hard is it to open this case? Do you have to use, like, a crowbar?

And he goes, no, nothing like that. Okay. So the killer broke open a gun case. And he goes, yeah, I guess so. But there was no broken gun case on the scene. So they asked him, what do you think happened to the gun case? And Nathan said, well, Denise's murder must have taken it with him when he fled. Hmm. Really? You know what they're thinking, right? They're starting to look at the husband. They always do, no matter how good of a person you are. If you're close to the victim, you're going to be on their radar. And after shooting somebody in the head, detectives find it very difficult to believe a killer would have just stopped and then taken a broken gun case because, you know, he had to open it up somehow, right?

With him. A gun case that Nathan owned. The murderer would have probably wanted to get out of that house immediately. He wouldn't have wasted time looking for. or the gun case that he broke so that he could take it with him. It would also be another thing for him to carry. The detectives asked Nathan when the last time he fired this weapon was, and he said, it was about two weeks ago.

I was in Oklahoma, and I shot my 40-caliber Glock. But other things started to look suspicious as well. When the investigators initially came to the scene, Nathan didn't ask the police why they were entering the home with giant bulletproof shields. What do you be concerned if they were, entering your house like that? Most people would, but Nathan did not seem concerned at all. And then later, as Nathan is starting to tell the officer what kind of car his wife drives,

the officer thought it was odd. He didn't even ask why. Wouldn't he want to know? Did you find anything inside? Nothing. Not one question. Not to mention the fact he already knew his wife was dead, which according to him was relayed to him via his father. Another thing detectives couldn't understand was how the killer drove Denise's car. Recall that they found a set of car keys matted in her blood-soaked hair. Did he hotwire the car or did someone use a spare set? Detectives asked Nathan whether he knew if there was a spare set of keys to Denise's car and he said, I don't know. Anytime I drove Denise's car, she just gave me her keys. They asked, when's the last time you drove it?

And he said, I don't know, maybe like a year ago. But what didn't make sense or was if the killer had to use a set of spare car keys. They had to be somewhere in the house that could be easily accessible, especially because there was no evidence that the ignition had been tampered with, so the car was not hot-wired. He used the key. So where did he get this key?

So detectives want to know. And they asked Nathan, was your car ever at Robinson Park that day? And he actually says yes, which is very odd. He said, yeah, it was sometime in the early morning and then backtracks and says, well, it wasn't like early. It was just earlier before I came back to the house. And they want to know why. And Nathan explained, oh, I just pulled over to take a phone call. Dude, you're one minute away from being home.

That really did not make any sense. And still, the weirdest statement yet came from Nathan when he was driving with them to the police station. When they passed Robinson Park, one of the detectives heard. Nathan whisper, if you didn't get that, he said, the car is gone under his breath. Almost as though he didn't know he was saying it out loud like it was shocking to him. At that point, however, Nathan had not been told that anyone found Denise's car at the park. So why would he say that? It's looking like Nathan has some explaining to do, but first, investigators want to take a deeper

dive to see what they can find out about him. I definitely was not ready for this. at all. The detectives confront Nathan with everything. The fact that there's a missing 40 caliber just like the one he owned, plus the case, and Denise's car was moved seemingly by magic, since supposedly there's no spare keys, and he fails to mention that his car was also at the park where they found her car that day. But he didn't have much to say. He kept saying, I don't have the answer. When they asked him, why didn't you mention that you're at that park? His excuse for him, for not telling them he was at the park was because he just took a short phone call, but they

didn't like what they were hearing and putting together. Let's go back to what they found inside the home. While searching in Diana Doug Newton's home, the investigators uncovered $300 in a drawer, Denise's wallet, her purse, and then they find a day planner with a bunch of notes jotted down by Denise. It had quotes, scriptures, information about the case. kid's school, but one entry really stood out to detectives. Denise's entry written to Nathan, and it painted a very different picture of their relationship, different than the one Nathan claimed that he had with his wife. Additionally, this entry in the day planner might have hinted at Nathan's motive for murdering Denise if he was indeed her killer. The entry read, quote,

what on earth could you possibly be thinking? I can't imagine anything you could tell me. that would hurt me worse than what you're doing to me right now. I don't think there's anything I've done or not done to deserve this. I have tried to please you for 17 years and never succeeded. Never been enough. Never done enough. I know you want me dead. I'm not stupid.

I suppose I will confirm my worthlessness to you when I write that I am not brave enough to do that job for you. And now all of a sudden you're taking me to places? What is that all about? Maybe you think I don't feel bad enough. You act like you're somehow noble because you won't tell me why you're doing this. It makes me sick. I have been willing at any time to fall in love with you again, but you reject me every time.

I wish I could hate you. I have tried to hate you because I thought you would make it easier. I thought it wouldn't hurt so bad. Of course I couldn't do so. I failed that too. I've been without pride. Humiliated myself to try and win something the best. belongs to me. You don't seem to care. Well, I quit. I'm not going to try and please you anymore.

I'll do what I have to do, but no more of that game. You want to humiliate me by running around with a 20-year-old? Fine. I won't grovel. If I have not pleased you in 17 years, nothing I do now will. And I refuse to leave my children just because you decided to do this to me. You're the only person who thinks that I'm a bad mother. Complete strangers compliment me on them, so I will not join you an obsession for perfection. I'm the same person I've always been. I am not weaker and in many ways I am stronger. I refuse to play to your perfectionism and that too. I have borne neglect and criticism and kept going. But now this. How long are you going to do this to me? Oh yeah, until I break.

That's what you said, isn't it? Well, happy waiting. And quote. That was very emotional. That is a letter and words from a wife that is grieving. She's grieving the loss of the love of her life. Clearly, there were issues in their relationship.