[MUSIC]
>> I want people to know that Ronda wasn't just beautiful. >> By daddy.
>> People always are surprised when they hear this like, no,
you can't be super beautiful like her and be intelligent at the same time. I'm like, actually, she was wicked smart. [MUSIC] >> Very in love. We planned on getting married in the summer.
That was my timetable. >> They did look at wedding rings.
“>> I think she wanted one that was around 35,000.”
And I was slicking more 15,000 with my range. >> And you and Ronda did you like to get outdoors? >> All the time. We love hiking. We played a lot of Frisbee golf.
So yeah, we were outdoors most of the time. [MUSIC] >> We woke up early. She opened the drapes and we saw it's beautiful day. Okay, so we are going to go hiking.
What are the things she asked me on the drive over? She said, if anything ever happens to me, do you promise to watch her daughter and take care of her? [MUSIC] >> And I go, what are you talking about?
She goes, I have dreams all the time that I am dead before 25. [MUSIC] >> Did Ronda ever tell you that she was sensing something bad was going to happen to her? >> She said that.
He's either going to propose to me or kill me. She wasn't happy. She just fell out of love with him and they were fighting all the time. She had mentioned wanting to take the baby and leave Steve. [MUSIC]
>> Started pouring down right and thunder came. And so she just started bolting down like at a full sprint, running down the trail. >> And what unfolded before your eyes? >> I don't know how far down it was, but she went off the trail.
[MUSIC] >> A man hiking with Ronda Castro to the she fell off a cliff last night.
“>> Did she take a step and her feet went out in front of her?”
Did she tumble forward? What did you see? >> Next question. [MUSIC] >> I'm Steve Nichols and in February of 2015,
I was charged and arrested for the murder of Ronda Castro, my fiance. [MUSIC] >> We're in Hood River, Oregon. It's been six years one month and 26 days since Ronda fell off that trail to her death. [MUSIC]
And for the first time, Steven Nichols will enter a formal plea.
[MUSIC] >> Accident or murder? >> Murder. >> Murder. >> And from a mother's heart and mind, you are certain of that.
>> I am a hundred percent certain of that. He's evil. He's totally evil.
“>> I think I've just left a path of destruction.”
I'm a tiller the Han basically, going through women. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> When you have a case where someone's policy accused, you can't really separate yourself from work and home life.
>> For defense attorney, Mike Arnold. >> Mr. Nichols is here with his lawyer. >> Representing Steven Nichols gives new meaning to the phrase, "The full-time job." >> You know, while I prefer to be coming home to farm chores and
listen to wildlife, instead I'll be thinking about my closing argument or with the next step of the cases. >> We are on the record in Pid River County, state of Oregon versus Steven Wagner Nichols. >> Nichols was arrested for murder in February 2015.
Accused of pushing his girlfriend, Ronda Casto off this trail in Oregon six years earlier. >> To that charge, what you believe? >> Not guilty.
>> Bale was set at $2 million.
Nichols would spend the next 14 months in jail awaiting trial. >> I tried to just take it one day at a time. I read a lot, I play chess, but really when it comes down to it, I miss my daughter, so that's the hardest part. >> But in April 2016, with a trial date nowhere in sight, Judge John Olsen
reduced Nichols bail to $250,000. Mike Arnold set out on a frantic mission to gather the 10% needed in cash to free his client. So the farming defense attorney becomes a personal banker.
>> People have taken off work to be there to get him out, so it sounds like a...
to pay to be there when my client gets to see freedom for the first time in a year. So it was just luck. >> But Arnold would need more than luck. >> We can't get the client bailed out to it's more or more. >> He'd need an extra day to arrange for the ankle monitor required for Nichols' release.
>> So hold on tight to this and we'll get something. >> The next day is a little unexpected. A overnight trip and a good river on recycled clothes and looking forward to get home to my family and my son's first birthday today. >> Presumption of innocence ladies and gentlemen.
>> Mike feeds the cash into the bail machine. >> I'm very excited to see Steve for the first time outside in the fresh air. Two more hours and Arnold gets his wish. I want to cry actually, I'm so happy. But it's a bit of sweet victory.
We will continue to fight until I prove in my innocence. >> It's still a long fight ahead but now I've got him out with me so we can work on this as a team. So this is a big deal.
“>> But how exactly did Nichols and his attorney end up at this moment?”
It all started 11 years earlier when a stunning 20-year-old woman knocked on Nichols' bedroom door at his home just outside Portland, Oregon. >> Then I turn around and I look at her and my tongue pretty much hit the floor. Up until that point she's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. And she's like, "Hi, my name is Rhonda." >> In 2005 Nichols, who was 10 years older than Rhonda and recently divorced, was working as a day trader.
>> I had a three-bedroom condo and the other two rooms were just empty. So he decided to get a roommate. >> I first met Stephen Nichols through the internet. I was looking for a place to a room to run. >> Who turned out to be Rhonda's mother, Julia Simmons.
He can be very charming and somebody that's really nice. >> Rhonda's best friend, Jessica Colburn, wasn't surprised even was instantly attracted to Rhonda, who was an aspiring model. >> Tell me about this. >> That was part of her modeling portfolio. I just love it because she just looks amazing at all of this pictures.
>> Everything about her was impressive and I just immediately fell in love with her. >> And what were you sensing from Rhonda? >> I felt she was into me too.
I could tell that she valued intelligence and I've always thought that that's one of my strongest assets.
“>> I think she was attracted, not so much to his looks, but to his what he had, his condo, his money, his status.”
>> Soon, Rhonda joined her mother Julia in the condo, not as a roommate, but his Steven's girlfriend. >> Rhonda's younger sister Tessa was just nine years old at the time. >> When I first met Steve, he was really fun because I was a little girl, he's, he was playful, you know. >> Three years into their relationship, Rhonda and Nichols living together, but not married, became parents. >> Don't you feel that you don't feel that?
>> I don't think that was for you. >> Did you see her face, she's all. >> When our daughter was born, it meant everything to her. >> She became the focus in the center of her life.
>> I love having a niece, I was always over there and she was playing with jewelry, just like Rhonda did.
>> She's just like her mother, she loves jewelry. >> Rhonda loved being a mom, but hoped to restart her modeling career. >> She had gained quite a bit of weight from having our daughter. >> She was the heaviest she had ever been and she felt really disgusting. >> So Steven says the couple came up with an adventurous plan to lose weight.
>> We made it a pact that we would hike 20 or 25 of the top trails in Oregon, we'll just start crossing them off the list. >> But Jessica says Rhonda told her about only one planned hike. >> She was so happy that he was finally planning something. And all the years they had been together, he had never put any effort into planning anything for her. >> Including those plans to get married.
>> The proposal never happened, things were tough after the baby was born.
“He wasn't around as much, I think she held on for longer for the sake of the baby.”
>> Getting an open it for you. >> Jessica says Rhonda had grown unhappy and that the relationship had taken a dangerous turn.
>> She told me that he had in the recent months been physically abusive to her.
>> But Nichols claims just the opposite was true.
>> We wouldn't argue at all.
“>> We were spending a lot of time together.”
>> So I would think that would be the closest we ever were. >> So when Steven is telling us that they were planning their future together and everything was great and it was a lovely relationship. Is he lying to me. >> He's absolutely lying to you. I've witnessed their fights, I was on the phone a couple of times when they were in a physical fight. Actually.
>> And Julia claims Rhonda made a chilling statement to her just before the hike. >> She said he's either going to give me a ring or he's going to throw me up the cliff. >> On March 16th 2009, Rhonda and Steven would set out on that fitness hike. And Rhonda would not live to see the end of the day. >> [INAUDIBLE]
>> Bye, Daddy.
>> We always recommend Shopify.
“It took us from an idea to a real business.”
We got set up. I think in less than a day. >> With very little effort, we could just focus on the supply chain to the product development. Shopify gives us the ability to customize without the complexity. We can change something without introducing fragility or having to pay a developer.
>> Well, thirsty turtle and we leveled up our business with Shopify. >> Start your free trial at Shopify.com/AU. >> This is probably the most high area in the Columbia Evergorge for several reasons. One that the sheer beauty of the hike. >> Three months after Steven Nichols arrest in 2015,
his attorney, Mike Arnold, took his own investigative team up the Eagle Creek Trail. Where he believes Rhonda Casto slipped and fell to her death. >> Equalment weather hits and disaster happens between the physical evidence and the science. There won't be much dispute about this being a tragic accident on a dangerous trail. >> Steven Nichols says this is how the tragedy unfolded.
They are heading down the trail. Rhonda was in a great mood and jokingly, she put a towel around her shoulders and was calling herself Supergirl. She broke into a run. And according to Nichols, at this very point, she slipped on the wet path and fell more than 150 feet to her death.
>> That was his story in 2015. >> I'm not going to comment on that. >> When Nichols was forbidden by a attorney from discussing details of Rhonda's deadly fall with 48 hours. Until now, his only account was the one he gave to police the day of the tragedy. >> Again, something I'm not going to comment on.
But in 2017, Steven Nichols broke that silence. >> Either I push her, she jumped over on a cord or she slipped. He sat down and spoke to us about the day, Rhonda Casto died. Let's get in that time machine and go back to March 16th, 209. >> We woke up early.
Steven says Rhonda seemed focused on the future as they drove to Eagle Creek Trail. She says I desperately need to lose weight because they want to use me as the Maria Sharipova look like model. I'm like, yeah, you really do look like her. But then Nichols claims Rhonda asked him a startling question completely out of the blue. She said, uh, if anything ever happens to me,
“do you promise to watch her daughter and take care of her?”
And I said of course. Steven says the question unnerved him, especially since three months earlier, he claims Rhonda had demanded he buy life insurance. She was adamant about it. I said, why do you want this life insurance? And she goes because I want to leave her daughter something in case I die.
>> So both Steven and Rhonda had each taken out a $1 million policy on the other.
>> He planned the whole thing. Let's pre-meditated the whole thing. >> Rhonda's mother doesn't believe a word of Nichols story. Saying the insurance was all his idea and that Nichols, the day trader, had an ulterior motive.
>> He had lost a bunch of money the year before.
He lost like a quarter of a million dollars.
He's an insurance and then four months later, she's dead. >> The couple got to the trailhead where Rhonda snapped this photo of Steve, later found on her cell phone. The weather was excellent, actually. But Steven says, Rhonda was acting strangely.
>> I asked her, are you okay hiking on this trail? And she goes, I used to come up here with a bottle of vodka and a bag of weed. She goes, I'll be fine.
So I said, okay, they hiked up a few miles.
I remember we kissed for a little bit. I remember she wanted to have sex. I said, no, like I'm very prim and proper. I didn't want to do that. >> Then Nichols says, Rhonda once again asked him that unsettling question.
She asked me if anything ever happened to her, which would I promise to take care of her daughter. But Rhonda may have been thinking about more than their daughter. >> What do you say, Steven?
“>> I mean, I think anyone with an ounce of intelligence can fill in the blanks.”
You would have to look into how many times in her past. She committed suicide. >> Attempted suicide. >> Yeah, of course, Attempted, I mean. >> Nichols says Rhonda was depressed and shockingly that she had tried to take her own life
at least three times before he even met her.
She's never attempted suicide, never. He's lying. But you know what people
have to make up lies or you know, you can obviously tell of their guilty. >> And there's more. Nichols claims that Rhonda had long struggled with a serious drug problem. >> She's never been off drugs since the age of 12. >> What kind of drugs? >> Everything, everything.
>> Alcohol, cocaine, all of them. >> marijuana, crystal meth, all of them. >> heroin. But Rhonda's autopsy would show that she only had traces of marijuana as well as prescription drugs for anxiety and depression in her system. Jessica Colburn says Rhonda did suffer from postpartum depression.
“>> She was in therapy and that's why she was on the prescription medications.”
>> Nichols says they didn't linger on the trail for long and who decides, hey, let's head back. As decided by the weather, started pouring down rain and thunder came. And so she just started bolting down like at a full sprint running down the trail. >> Now I've been on that trail. It's a narrow trail. >> It is right there. >> Did you yell at her? Hey, what do you do? Stop. Walk. We're walking down.
I don't think I screamed anything out of her. Nichols says the steep trail became slick. I hugged the right wall pretty much on the way down. This is cascading rain. Like you can actually just see the water flowing down the trail. And so take me to the time of of the fall. What do you remember? That part I'm not going to take you through because she did fall off. And I can say I had absolutely nothing to do either directly or indirectly
with her falling off. But what Nichols seems to be suggesting to 48 hours is that Ronda
“may have chosen to go off that cliff. Did she tumble forward? What did you see?”
>> Hmm. Next question. >> Was a large skid mark on the path where she had slipped and went off? >> No, let's just say footprint. Just a footprint. Steve, look at me. What you're saying is she jumped. She was going down at almost a run pace. There's a single footprint you're telling me at the edge of the cliff and she goes over. That's a jump. I've laid everything out there. People can reach whatever conclusion they want.
Well, not saying it in so many words. She did fall off. And I can say I had absolutely nothing to do
Either directly or indirectly with her falling off.
There's definitely a lot more to the story. But I'm not going to say it. So
“manage to drop a bombshell. Well, you've let me down a path to believe this was a suicide.”
And I don't think you can look me in the eye and say, well, Peter, you're wrong. Can you? No. Suggesting that Ronda Casto chose to jump to her death from Eagle Creek Trail. What was her point in going up there? How to say this? She knew she wasn't living past the age of 25. She knew that for a reason. She just wasn't a happy person. And she thought that having
our daughter would bring her happiness and it didn't. She had a nine-month-old baby at home that she loved early and she loved her family. So that's just another one of his lies to take the heat off of himself. After Ronda went off the trail, Steven says he hiked down the deep ravine. What'd you do when you got to her? Well, I halter. That's the first thing I did when I got there. With no cell service to call for help,
Nichols says he made his way back to the trailhead and dialed 9-1-1. The police never once asked
me if it was a suicide. And every and brought up suicide. I just answered the questions that they asked.
“Why didn't you tell them back in the day that suicide was something she was contemplating?”
Would it have made a difference do you really think? Nichols may have had a million reasons to keep suicide a secret. If it's a suicide, life insurance doesn't pay up. So our daughter would have gotten nothing. Is Steven being self-sacrificing? Having said nothing about suicide until now?
Even as he stands charged with murder, you were willing to essentially take a bullet for that.
Or is he self-serving? I think Steve is just throwing all these ideas out to throw people off the fact that he pushed her. Oh, well, she killed herself because she wanted to make a better life for her daughter. An investigation into Rhonda's death was immediately launched and a memorial was held. Rhonda's family claims that you were not grieving, that you seemed unmoved by Rhonda's death. The exact opposite. I was crying nonstop. When I'm really, really sad,
I just, I closed down. It's just the way I deal with pain. Shortly afterward, Steven moved across the state with his daughter to live with family. For about three months after Rhonda died, I completely shut down. By 2013, four years had gone by and no charges had been filed against
“nickels. He decided to start a new life in a new land. So how does a kid from Oregon end up in China?”
I had been there before and I liked China. Steven packed up. I would tell him my daughter. This is our new life. Let's make it work. And headed here to Wushi about 75 miles from Shanghai. I decided when I got the China, this is a whole fresh start. And I was like, America, all the past. Steven got a job teaching English to Chinese businessmen. My daughter was absolutely thriving. A little over two months and she was fluent in Mandarin. She had dance lessons.
She was taking Taekwondo. She was learning to play the piano. And Steven began to thrive too, falling in love with landy Yin Yan. She's beautiful, of course. But she's the deepest, funniest person I've ever met. Steven says landy became like a mother to his daughter. And I can say this with being with so many American women, Chinese women, all inclusive are better partners. Sounds so insulting to American women, but they just they make better partners. They make better
wives. And so Steven decided to make landy his wife after a year of dating. I'd actually proposed to her right before I came back to America. Steven flew back to the US with his daughter in February 2015 to get married. Landy would follow a few days later. We were planning on getting married both in America and China to make it official. What Steven didn't know is that the entire time he was out of the country, investigators stayed on Rhonda's case and Julia stayed
on theirs. I kept calling and asking why anything was happening. But something did happen.
In April 2014, a secret grand jury heard evidence and indicted nickels for th...
Casto. So 10 months later, when Steven and his daughter arrived in San Francisco,
“they said something was wrong with my bags. I was like, I'm interesting.”
Instead of catching his connecting flight to Oregon, Steven says authorities separated him from his daughter. I'm like, what is going on? There's something's fishy. And then, yeah, that's when they arrested me. And I could hear my daughter in the other room crying and she goes, I want to be back with my dad. Steven would be extradited to Oregon and his daughter would be sent to live with Rhonda's family. I was shocked. So one of those things where you think you're in a dream,
you're going to wake up at any time, I'm like, okay, I'm going to wake up in China.
Yeah, my daughter will be nudging me. I'll be back to normal, but that never happens.
Back in Oregon, it was like a dream. 40-year-old Steven Nichols was arrested last. One that had come true for Rhonda's loved ones. And I just, I was busted out crying. It was amazing. I couldn't believe it. I was like, after all this time, finally, it was a dream. For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South.
But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South. And in a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to Gone South season five. The Odyssey Podcast. Available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. We are on the record in a state of Oregon versus Steven Nichols.
For months, following his February 2015 arrest for murder when you're ready, Mr. Arnold. Steven Nichols faced pre-trial hearings on a slew of issues, from evidence to motive. The state is present represented by Carrie Rasmussen. Including whether there should even be a trial, since the defense considers Rhonda Casto's death
“and accident. Both sides called witnesses. Was this immediately investigated as a murder?”
And when did it become a homicide investigation as opposed to an accidental fall? Pretty much the next morning. I can tell that based on the injuries that she has, she landed predominantly on her legs and her pelvis. Medical examiner and forensic pathologist, Dr. Christopher Young, says Rhonda's injuries were mostly below the waist. The pelvis was essentially shattered.
The defense argues the location of her injuries indicate Rhonda left the trail feet first.
Not tumbling head over heels from a push. It's a theory that could support Nichols' new suggestion of suicide. When you look at the relationship that the defendant then had with Rhonda Casto, and notes from a therapist Rhonda had been seen, revealed she was depressed, but not suicidal from her relationship with Steven, which she described as loveless.
What the state has to prove in this case is the defendant did a criminal act. Prosecutors hope the judge will allow them to tell jurors about some bad acts in Steven Nichols' troubled past at his upcoming murder trial.
“Is something that obviously is titillating and interesting?”
The first one, a shocking love triangle, involving another of Rhonda's younger sisters,
Melanie, that may have provided a motive for murder. Do you believe that Steven was in love with Melanie? Yes, I do. Jessica says Rhonda learned that Steven was having sex with Melanie, and did Rhonda ever tell you how young her sister was when she first had sex with Steven. She was 15. 15 years old. Yes. In fact, just after his arrest for murder, Steven was indicted on two counts of third degree rape
and three counts of third degree autonomy, for allegedly having sexual relations with an underage Melanie back in 2005. He did great my daughter, and I didn't want to believe it. In October 2016, while awaiting his murder trial, you agreed to plead guilty to two counts of sexual abuse with Melanie Casto, and you signed your name under this statement. I had sexual intercourse with Melanie Casto, twice. Steven insists his admission was false.
Did you have sex with her?
And I'm just say, "Obviously, never happened." And I was told later, "Nope."
“In order to pass the sex offender treatment, you have to admit that”
even though he'd be a registered sex offender, the law would allow Steven to still fight and regain custody of his daughter who is in the care of the state. I became desperate. I wanted my daughter back. He'll be amazed at what you're willing to sign to stay out of prison. But investigators believe there really was a relationship between Steven and Melanie, one that continued on and off for four years, right up to that fateful last hike.
Just a few hours before her death, Ronda, who had learned of the affair, sent this text to her sister. I don't know what to say besides, he's a piece of f***. He used you to hurt me.
“I won't let him screw us up again. When you need me, I am waiting. This Ronda sounds like somebody”
that doesn't care much at all about you. She's angry with you. That sounds like she's angry. I have no idea why she sent those. But Julia says she knows why. She loved her sister, and she knew that Steve was trying to drive a wedge between him. And she, I guess, she figured it all out and realized what he was doing. On the night of Ronda Casto's death, the defendant
didn't run to where his daughter was. Didn't run to his parents. The first person
to whom he went was Melanie. Melanie Casto. And it's not the only allegation Nichols has faced involving a minor. Less than six months after Ronda's death,
“he was charged with five counts of sex abuse for allegedly touching a 13-year-old girl on the”
buttocks. He claims that didn't happen, but something else did. He sent sexually suggestive text to her and a selfie with your shirt off. And you agreed to a plea deal in this. Yeah, that was definitely I was in the wrong and that one in terms of sending the photo. That was no kidding. Yeah, that's terrible. It's disgusting. It is Nichols pleaded guilty to one count of sexual harassment.
I have been emotionally abusive at times to people, but I've never physically hurt anyone.
Prosecutors don't agree. And want a jury to see this picture taken by Ronda, showing red marks left from an alleged physical encounter with Nichols. Right before they went on their hike, they had a little scuffle on the stairs and he put some bruises on her back and she took pictures of them in the mirror. And there are allegations of another physical assault of a woman with eerie similarities to what Nichols stands accused of now. Allegations made by his ex-wife.
He did try to push his wife over balcony in China. In November 2003, Steven was still married to his ex and American woman and living in China for the first time when his spouse accused him of trying to suffocate her and throw her over the railing of their eighth floor apartment. We're both holding on to each other's clothing and we were both yelling. Nichols denies the claim and was not charged with a crime in China, but Oregon court documents show a witness confirmed Nichols
ex-wife's account. As Nichols awaits trial in the death of Ronda Casto, he has some pleasant distraction. My tiniest fiancee Landi is arriving here in about an hour. I'm nervous. I'm excited. Visits from his fiancee. Hello. Today I had my first court appearance. The case wasn't involving my daughter. At our request, Steven Nichols has kept a video diary while out on bail. Including Landi Hiking to that fateful spot on Eagle Creek Trail.
And on the eve of his trial, we're at the top of Spencer Butte in Eugene. Love the hike. So on the happiest days of my life, a defiant Nichols is convinced there will be many more happy days ahead. I'd nothing to do with Ronda Casto's death.
Heises catching.
Now costs a lot of people. "Save! Noine! Noine!" "What? Noine!" "What? Noine!" "What is it? What is it? Have Nutella vergessen?" "Noine!" "I'm sorry."
“"Smeck this on himless before you are on the Montván. No Nutella is Nutella."”
"I had nothing to do with Ronda Casto's death. You didn't push her." "No." "What is it? What is it?" "What is it?" "So you're telling us you're completely innocent of these charges." "Yes." "How did it fly out?" In May 2017, following several hearings about what evidence could be used against Stephen Nichols, which would include his plea to having sex with Melanie, it looked like his true day in court
was finally on the horizon. "And then I got a call from Carrie Rasmussen, the prosecutor,
and she slowly told me the news about him taking a plea. "To Julia's shock, and horror, there had been a settlement conference with the prosecution and the defense
“agreeing to allow Nichols to plead guilty to lesser charges." "I started to cry. I got really upset.”
I just said I was screaming on the phone to Carrie. No, no, you can't do this. Please don't. Don't plea out." "But prosecutors knew their case against Nichols could fail." For years, the district attorney's office has believed that Mr. Nichols is responsible for the death of Rhonda Casto, but this case is not about belief. It's about the facts that can be presented to a jury at trial. "What is your plea to the charge of criminally negligent homicide?"
"Guilty." "And to the charge of coercion." "Guilty." "People take pleas for all sorts of reasons. Most of the time innocent people plead guilty in order to gain an advantage or meet a goal. In this case, this is Mr. Nichols purchasing insurance. There's now a 0% chance that Steve goes to prison for murder that a jury gets it wrong." Nichols was given credit for time served while awaiting trial. He remains on parole for three years. His ankle monitor was removed,
and his days behind bars are over. "This plea deal is it justice to you?" "No, it's not justice. I felt like it happened out of nowhere. I'm still completely blown away by the decision that was made in this." "You destroyed my whole family." "Still firmly believing Nichols is a murderer, Rhonda's mother Julia was allowed to address the court." "I can't see how you could do that. I could take a mother away from their child like that by killing her. That's just horrible,
Steve. I'll just buy my time and wait until you screw up or when you die because I know you're going to go hell for what you did." Nichols claims he took the deal for just one reason. Time was running out to regain custody of his daughter. "If I waited over a year to go to trial, I probably had a 0% chance." "There's some problems with the juvenile court system that the longer you wait, the harder it is to get a child returned apparent." "But having now admitted
to inappropriate behavior with a 13-year-old girl, pleading to having sex with Rhonda's underage sister, and playing a role in Rhonda's death, Nichols' chances of regaining
“custody of his daughter are in jeopardy. "I think I've just left a path of destruction.”
I'm a tiller the Han basically, going through women." Unable to leave Oregon until his parole expires in 2020, Stephen broke up with his fiancé who had returned to China.
"I'm alone about 99% of the time. I never go out. I have nobody."
"Then for the second time in our 48 hours interview, Nichols brings up the topic of Suicide. But this time, he's not speaking about Rhonda." "If I don't have my daughter, then it's pretty much game over for me. I'm checking out. So you're saying you'll take your own life." "I hate all the suicide questions. I'm not going to answer that, but I guess if I don't get my daughter back, I'm done. I'll just say that." "Yeah, right. I doubt that. He's too
narcissistic. He's a statistical sociopath. There's no way he would take his own life. He's just said that to get sympathy." "And if your granddaughter were to be placed back into his custody, what do you think would happen?" "She would not be a normal child. She would be emotionally
Mentally abused and possibly physical.
our interview with Nichols took a turn into the surreal." "I'm trying to think of a way to
“think of this. For the first time, he talks about what may have happened in Rhonda's last”
moments of life that day in 2009, comparing her to a wounded soldier." "Let's say you're in a war
situation. And you're with your buddy." "And I don't know. He takes a landmine or grenade or something.
“You're 100% certain. This guy's going to die." "Remember, Nichols climbed down 150 feet”
to where Rhonda's broken body lay." "Was she alive when you got to her?" "Mm, an hour." "And that's the part I'm not going into." "Is Stephen Nichols about to admit something?" "Did you put Rhonda out of misery that day?" "Let me ask you if you shoot your war buddy because you see how much pain he's in. Is that murder?" "What do you say?" "I say no. Of course not. So, to me that's a justified," I don't want to say homicide, but my technically is almost I, but it's justified
as at that point. You are putting someone out of their misery and that essentially has zero chance of survival. "And is that what you did?" "Of course that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying." "Well you brought this up. You brought up this hole." It seems a dangerous word game. Nichols stood on the cliff's edge, then took a step back, a final twist in a tragedy where only Nichols knows the real ending.
“It's all hypothetical because I'm telling people, you know, I think,”
think outside the box, like there's always other options there.
