317. The Fitbit That Solved a Murder - Nicole VanderHeyden

Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast, this is Murder With My Husband, I'm Pete Moreland, and I'm Gary Moreland, 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, for following, liking, commenting, hating. I don't even care if you hate and do it, and there you.

Anyways, that's all we got going on, however, once having, we're going to have a great week. And yeah, that's our interim. A reminder real quick for those who don't know, we did bonus content. We've bonus episodes and ad free content over on Apple, Spotify, and Patreon. And that's that. Go check that out if you want that.

“Do you think the listeners know that I just glazed them all the time?”

Is that up though 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 wasn't thinking about this, this week I was thinking about how I feel. Like, we have like, top one percent listeners.

Okay.

Like, I feel like our listeners are the go.

And I only stay that because of the feedback that we receive from like, ad companies or, you know, people who interact with our listeners. Yeah, you guys are the go to mock in life. 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 this point they don't believe me? I think they probably just tune it out. Yeah. Well, I'm not trying to glazing anything.

But 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 don't know. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Like, obviously they are.

We wouldn't be here without them. Sure. So you're special too though. Well, thank you.

“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 want to be here without you. Do you have a 10 seconds? Yes. You do?

No. No. I was so excited. I haven't slept. I don't need a probably lost and pounds stress in my life way.

That's what I got going. I'm stressed working doing a much stuff. But it's okay. I'm pretty soon here. Hopefully everything will be chill and won't look at 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.

This is one more, right? Gosh, that gave me a heart that makes me sick. It makes me sick my stomach. Yeah. My barfe all over the place.

Yeah. Yeah, that's how I feel about it too. Anyways, I hope everything's going well. I've nothing else to say. I'm sorry, guys.

I have ten seconds. Any hot takes. I was going to say a lot of things have gone wrong this week for you. You're not just like a little. It's just like a little.

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? Yeah. The 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'll 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 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 greenbay pres Gazette.com. CBS News.com, oxygen.com, WBate.com, and some funeral service.com.

Box 11 online.com, WNCY.com. We are greenbay.com. WTXL.com, mirror.co.uk. 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. Geophensing and location analytics, genetic genealogy, digital forensics.

We made a joke about this on last week's episode.

“Bringing a year phone with you to commit a crime could literally mean life in prison.”

Throwing out a used soda can 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 circumstances 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 D. Tree. I know this is going to sound a little ditty, but it's just weird to think that like, it doesn't 15 grand was 11 years ago now, which is scary.

It doesn't feel that long. But we just live normal lives while all this insanity happens around us. Right. Like, we were just at college during this time. Like, people are killing people and just doing insane crap. And I was just going to college. And is it an idiot?

Isn't that just the weird? It's weird. It's like, yeah, that's weird. The irony of life. Yeah, exactly. And like, in 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. 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. Though that afternoon, Nikki and Doug spoke to some friends about going to see a last minute concert. And was this glam metal band called Steel Panther. It 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.

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 the state 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 Erin, 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, "Niki, I understand you're mad, but you can't just 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 Erin, 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. You're a babe in the woods."

But she just gets up, storms off in another direction on herself, though. Now, eventually, around 12, 30am, 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 12, 36, 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.

But a few minutes later, their calls stop going through because Nikki's phone is either turned off and dead.

Oh, God, okay. One of the last messages she had sent Doug said something about how she had 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 me, "I'm there."”

They wait till 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, she probably just got a ride." Yeah. And that's when Greg drives Doug back to his house to relieve the babysitter. Now, they're back at the house by 24 a.m.

And Nikki's friend, Dallas, who was there to babysit, is passed 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?"

Come. She starts asking him some questions.

“And then Dallas says something to Doug that was half kidding half serious.”

She says, "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. Now, the following morning may 21st, Doug wakes up with the baby around 6.30 a.m. And after feeding his son goes back to bed and then he gets up around 11 a.m.

That's when he realizes, "Niki 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 like 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. And she's still not home. Exactly.

I 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 into her right mind. That seems kind of nuts to be like-- So isn't that a little nerve-racking 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 o'clock 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 rush to the scene and they discover that this woman is dead in this farmer's field. And they're having a hard time identifying her. There's 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. So when they roll her over, they find there's 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 in her belongings. I know there's any time killing someone in generals insane, but I don't think I could strangle somebody less.

You know? Yeah.

Like I just find out where people are like, I'm going to kill this person by strangling them.

There's definitely something psychological. I guess, but I guess it depends. Anyways, keep going. That means 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 it? What? Weird naked choking somebody? No, it was just saying.

What is that? What do you mean? Weird naked choking, that's a name for it. Oh, yeah, just choking somebody. Please.

You know me? You're like an MMA fighter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay, so I agree with you though.

Yeah. I do think like strangling is so intimate in a way. So again, this is all happening. Like the farmer found her at 130 calls the cops there. Now blocking off the scene, getting investigators, crime scene investigators there.

And as this is happening, a call is made to the local police at 430 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 recall. And we just found a body. Yeah.

So of course, the detective's first stop is to Doug and Nicky's house to find out what even happened.

“Like how was she here, what happened the night before?”

Not as when they learned 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 Nicky'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 Nicky.

They lost her that night. We hung out around the sardine can, we waited till 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. 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. Arms are exposed legs that they can see. It doesn't look like someone who's been in a fight and they know that Nicky fought whoever did this to hurt. 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 Nicky had exchanged the night before. I feel like I used to ask all the time where the cameras were. Look, I've kind of gone away from that. And I also feel like even, here's not moving with dialogue with the buff.

Eagle lie. I haven't seen it so long. Oh, shy, sorry. God, shy a little buff. Called eagle lie and haven't seen it in so long.

“But if I remember right, there's basically a camera.”

Like anything can mean seen at any time. Like nothing's ever missed. What? I thought, like, his, he's in disturbia. He thought it was going to be like a scared movie.

Well, that's like a camera in that one too. The whole movie's based on him. No, no, no, no. But like it's like, are you surprised? It'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, wouldn't bother me. I'm not doing anything wrong. I mean, my little awkward, like when we're, you know, doing dirty stuff. Other than that, like outside.

No, I'm, I mean, I guess it can't see you inside. Yeah, it doesn't bother me. Yeah. Like you're really wouldn't bother me. And if that's my hot take.

Watch me 24/7 as a 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 blocked block. For sure.

Yeah. So they're going through these text messages. And this is also shy as in holes. Yep, they can. And I do like that movie a lot.

You can transform. He's in a bunch of ways, yeah. Oh, transform, I haven't seen that. But I didn't know he was in that, too. I just don't know what eagle I is.

I don't. I don't know. 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 shouldn't mean. But obviously, when detectives read this and 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.

that they tell him, we actually think Nikki's body was found earlier today at 130.

Which is Loki, like, oh, 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 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 forced object.

But the medical examiner couldn't conclusively stay what came first.

And in addition, she concludes that Nikki had about 240 separate injuries on her body, including once to her face. She had a fractured jaw and had injuries suggesting that she had been sexually assaulted. Though, obviously, they're having her 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 her. You can leave some energy.

Okay. They're going to the surveillance. Oh, okay. Good. Good. From the starting can. You were just a little early. All right. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. So the starting can.

Yeah, the second. We got the watering hole. We got the starting 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 11.15 p.m. Then, a little after 11.30 p.m., she does get visibly upset after being on her phone. And she does storm out of the bar. Now, that footage does show their friend Erin following her to check on her. So this is when they decide to call Erin in for questioning.

Like, hey, tell us a little bit more about what happened when she stormed out of the bar. And he tells police, ah, 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, Erin'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, 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.

You know what I mean? I do think there's, maybe. Yeah. This is okay. Yeah, maybe. I don't know why I said that like that. I do think that.

I want to sound your blood. I do sound your blue. 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.

And when they dive into his past, they learn 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, you know, new girlfriend wound up dead, his ex girlfriend filed a domestic violence claim. Plus the more they talk to witnesses, the more they learn 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.

“But you should probably figure that out before you decide to have a baby on 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 should feel the way. I can see that. You know, yeah. But this is the part that 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, I wanted to be a deadbeat dad. Yeah, little. He was like, I don't want to go back to the bachelor lifestyle. I don't want a kid.

I just wanted to like hang out. Did some people when any form of hardships or trials happen? They just hold like a lawn chair. Just straight. Just nope.

Nope.

“I'm not going to do anything hard in my life.”

And when police talked to Nikki's friends, they learned that she had told them that Doug, and it wasn't 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 it sexually explicit messages to other women.

Basically, when police are learning about this, they realize Doug does not seem right.

He for fatherhood and that began to take a toll on their relationship. They want to different things. But is this enough motivation for murder? Also, it doesn't get rid of the fact that he's 12 a kid at home. Yeah.

So get rid of the wife. But I mean, that isn'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 morning. He was yelling losses patients with a baby. This made her sad. But it's these subtle clues that got police thinking you 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 tread marks

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 sent 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 or 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 board. 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, I can't help people, just leave. Like, just disappear in the night. I mean, this is pretty damning. Like, the neighbors, 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, just don't kill. Don't kill somebody.

We 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, please 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. Doug, I'm sorry, dude.

I'm sorry. But 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? Well, that's true, yeah.

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, he people are going to slaughter us. That we don't know the name of the show. I know the name of the show.

I've never watched it, but I know it.

It's far to the end. Maury? Is that him? I don't know. You were not the father.

And everyone. 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 what you're saying. Yeah, it's really sad. Okay. So who's the killer?

I was trying to relate to, but they didn't. Well, keep going. You and police. You and police are trying to watch this to you show because they're like.

“Why are we now seeing stuff that points away from our number one suspect?”

This is right in front of his house. Uh-huh. For example, Doug left his car overnight at the watering hole. He had to go get it the next day. Remember, great.

Yeah. Drill them back. This is something that was confirmed with video footage. So we didn't have a car. They also had data from Nicky's car from an insurance company.

Tracking device called snap shot. It proved that Nicky's car hadn't been used the night of the murder. So wait, how long have you been in jail for? Not super long. Super long.

Okay.

But he is being held with, I mean, 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 is this? Yeah, yes. The like, okay.

This is when police are like, okay. Well, maybe Doug's friend. Rage 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. Bullying Doug are giving police.

Who did it? No, tell me with some random person. Well, okay, police are like, oh, 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. The 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 Nicky disappeared. A Fitbit tracks your movements entirely. Specifically, that he only walked about 12 steps between 245 AM and then 630 AM when he got up to feed his baby. So, according to his story, he went to sleep at 3. And we know Dallas left the house.

Nicky wasn't there. There wasn't that much time between the two. And then 630 AM 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 sit here and Alabama. He was wearing it the whole time, which means there is no way he could

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 a 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 butcher recently. And the blood inside Nicky'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 Nicky'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.

“Detectors are going to complete loss as to what happened here.”

Again, what I said at the beginning, if they did not have modern day technology to the Fitbit surveillance camera. You might have been convicted. He is a perfect suspect. I mean, when you're just basing it solely off of circumstances. Which is why I don't love people going, I mean, there's times.

But yeah, doing life in prison office circumstances 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 Nicky's house kind of by the neighbor's house at the neighbor reported. It does belong to Nicky. So this is their crime scene.

Plus, there's a partial DNA belonging to an unidentified male that was pulled from Nicky's clothes and the cord that was found at the crime scene.

“So now people realize, okay, Nicky was killed in front of her house that night probably before Doug and Greg even got there.”

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 and it's not him. That's insane. Detectives start pulling surveillance footage.

Basically anything that leads from that area where the bars were to home doesn't get them anywhere.

They're starting to hit dead ends and are wearing this case might run cold if nothing turns up soon. But then in August of 2016, three months after Nicky's death, they get some good news. One of the socks Nicky was wearing has enough DNA to run through the national database and they get hit. 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 Nicky's death in March of 2016. And this is a guy who could stand out in a crowd. He was six foot seven, 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 Nicky'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, "What happily give the police his phone to prove it?" The police then say, "Hey, it actually just be a lot easier if we can just download the contents on your phone,

rather than like take a bunch of screen shots. We can just like do a mass download. Is that okay?" When in the police he says, "Yes again, this is questioning a week after for something else." Yeah. They even haven't signed a bunch of consent forms.

Now unfortunately, they never did prove it was George who if he was guilty of the crimes involving 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 Nicky's case." See, George had Google dashboard on his phone, which actually shows them not just what cell towers he peeing to, but every Wi-Fi hotspot the phone encountered as well as more exact GPS coordinates for specific dates and times.

And look, there's a lot going on here. And when they look at the early hours of May 21st when Nicky disappeared, they realized he was really close to where she was.

This is about a 12 minute walk to the sardine canner from the sardine can.

“It says he then went to his house from 232 to 238 AM and then his phone put him at her home or right outside of it.”

He's a why, like why heard his 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 351. The 353 AM. Then he was at that field where her body was later discovered that was from 358 AM to about 402 AM. And by 405 AM, he was right near where her items were later discovered on the side of Highway 172.

And then he was back at home by 422 AM. 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. Please 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 7th, 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 caught drug through the ringer.”

So George claims this night, he met Nikki at the bar, Roger Greeniums. 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 starting in cans weights for her then goes home, gets home, goes to bed, Dallas and Greg leave.

And he's outside with Nikki 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 gun point, Doug forced him to drive to the field to help him get rid of Nikki'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 walk home, where his six-month-old was sleeping in his crib alone.

This, he's blamed Doug basically.

It's a ridiculous tell, one that couldn't be taken seriously at all, mostly because we have the fit bit. Yeah. We have the fit bit. Proved George's story was a lie because he didn't take it off and he was sleeping. So instead, prosecutors painted different picture.

And I, an angry Nikki, did walk to Richard Craniams after leaving her friends at the Sardine camp. And there, she did meet George and after they spent some time together 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. She then fell out of the vehicle, it escalates outside on the neighbor 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 1, 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 is tried to appeal. His sentence claiming the police violated his Fourth Amendment rights when searching his phone for Nikki's case. 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 technologies 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.

I think someone is just nuts. It's crazy. It's just crazy to murder somebody for no reason.

And here's the thing.

“We can't blame you for pointing the finger.”

Well, you can't blame you because in a typical case, this actually does make sense. They found blood in the garage. They found blood in the car. They found the crime scene in front of his house.

It turned out to be Turkey, though.

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?”

Yeah. Doug had his Fitbit. And that is the story of Nicole Vanderhaden. That's crazy. I just also suck just now.

I mean, this was 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 eye witness came forward, it 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, yeah. Now it's even harder because he's going to do it alone. Sure, it's crazy.

Yeah, it's. She's dead. That's as crazy it's sad. And like, okay. God, 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.