Death at the Front Door: Who Shot Heidi Firkus? | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] there's a saying here in Minnesota Minnesota nice and that Minnesota nice only goes so far and
Heidi fcus she went all away she was genuine and she loved deep she definitely lived a life of love that was
the mark that she left and that's hard to let go you know this is a a terrible terrible
incident you know we're hoping to find other physical evidence that might help us lead us in a direction toward a
suspect the morning of April 25th 2010 at 6:30 a.m. heid fcus calls 911 someone's trying to break into my house
she tells the state patrol dispatcher that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to give her
address 1794 many haha every while she's on the phone you can hear a loud noise and the phone goes dead well I
don't know where she went there 6 approximately a minute later Nicholas Fergus calls 911 says that he and his
wife have both been shot brok okay are you in St Paul sir St Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to the
ambulance and transported him to Region's hospital he had been shot in the leg Heidi was struck in the back
back as she was trying to flee towards the kitchen it was a shotgun blast that killed her right away the shotgun was
laying inside front door area there's a little foyer Nick gave a brief story he heard
somebody fiddling around with the door and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the Intruder
struggled over the shotgun the responding officers uh went up and down the block try to talk to
neighbors I was next door house sitting when the a crime happened really all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell
of you shot her you shot me it never felt right the story never made sense to me he tells investigators
that he grabbed a shotgun loaded it with two shells and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the stairs in front of him
towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at why you would send the unarmed person down in front of you is
beyond me to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and
Heidi in order to believe that Nick killed Heidi you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get
there [Music] [Music] while this area of St Paul where Heidi and Nick ferus lived I would characterize as generally
a quiet neighborhood back in 2010 9 years before she took charge of the fcus case
detective Nicole cyes of the St Paul police department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood do you remember
first hearing about the fcus case I do broken okay it early on a Sunday morning the 911 call was at 6:30 Nick fergus's
Story of a burglar didn't make sense to cypes most people are home at 6:30 on a Sunday morning especially in a family
neighborhood like that the last thing that most burglars want to encounter are people did police ever
have any luck tracking down the Intruder that Nick described no you know I'm looking I didn't see
anybody come out of that house Brandon ' Conor was house sitting next door to the
fasses and taking care of kittens I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around some noise caught my attention so
stuck my head out the window kind of listen Brandon said says he recalls hearing a muffled argument coming from
the fergus's house listening through an open window that's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots
around this time Brandon said he also heard that voice crying out kind of this agonizing yell
of you shot her you shot me uh please please no something along those lines and then then it was done
First Responders rushed to the scene there was nothing they could do for Heidi she was pronounced dead Nick was
rushed to the hospital and treated for a gry gunshot wound to his leg he seemed not to be sure whether or not Heidi had
been killed like I said we'll do our best to find out how how Heidi's doing hours later Nick was transported
to the St Paul police department then Nick and I started to have have our conversation in the conference room
Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement you know I know this is a very traumatic
situation okay and I'm just going to try and ease into it okay so Nick said the couple ordered in food the night before
and watched the movie Avatar they went upstairs to their bedroom around 11:00 p.m. the next morning Nick got up around
6:00 a.m. to get a drink of water from the bathroom go back to sleep but just kind of fitfully sleep for 10 or 15
minutes and then I heard the screen door open kind of let it go for a little while but then I started hearing filling
with our G now and is Heidi still sleeping then yeah okay like a rock Nick said he retrieved his shotgun from the
closet I keep two shells for it just in case things go weird so when I heard things this morning I did load it and
then I wake up Heidi okay according to Nick he told Heidi someone was trying to break in and to call call
911 as she spoke with the dispatcher someone tring a break into my house they headed downstairs so they could get out
of the house what address are you at all right so you going first down the stairs
or is she is she behind you or is she in front of you or what um she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to move her along
quickly Nick said as they passed by the front door it burst open guy that was there I think he he grabbed the barrel I
don't remember exactly what happened but the gun went on off so my finger slipped
out of the trigger Nick told Sergeant gray during the struggle over the weapon the gun
fired striking Heidi who he said was in the kitchen okay so the guns guns here chest High yep you and I are like this
yeah and then the gun goes off mhm I I mean I know it hit Heidi I just I know it did she was running away so it
definitely hit her in the back hit her in the back yeah I couldn't believe it I I didn't want to believe it it can't be
true that's there's no way CA and Marcus sarzen mentored Heidi at Calvary Church
I think she's one of those uh people that you can't not like everyone liked Heidi she genuinely loved people she was
the life of the party always finding fun ways to engage people and um she was very loyal the couple met at the church
and in 2005 Heidi 20 and Nick 22 got married Nick ferus had a very warm and engaging
personality always smiling he carried himself with confidence and he had High character high integrity in the church
that was the reputation he built for himself but just a few hours after Heidi's death Sergeant Jim Gray found
himself questioning Nick fergus's account he couldn't figure out why the couple would leave the safety of their
bedroom come upstairs you know I hate to tell you this but my house you know I'm
justified in killing you if you come break it in my house yeah and I guess Nick explained that the couple had a
plan in place if they were ever in a precarious situation they would avoid a confrontation and escape to their car in
the garage and get away if we can save ourselves let's let's do that instead of getting into a situation where his story
didn't make a lot of sense to me Sergeant gray started probing into their marriage you guys uh have any problems
or anything like that most just the normal stuff like U you know stresses about finances and quality
to vacations and all that stuff yeah but you guys aren't behind in the bills or anything we are behind in the bills um
which is a little stressful in fact we were planning on moving tomorrow Mo it where well we hadn't
figured that out yet we were and and this is a a hard it's a hard place for us that we
were foreclosing on WE foreclosed on our house Nick revealed they were behind on
their mortgage payments and just 24 hours away from being evicted from their home well that's kind of I mean kind of
close notice it is and I think the reason is cuz we're both kind of dealing with the shape of the whole thing gray
says his suspicions were raised and minutes later he was struck by the way Nick asked about Heidi well I just want
to know the final answer on the final answer on he she didn't make it I figured that I mean is that
typically how someone asks if their loved one or spouse has been killed not only is that not typical but that's how
they'd ask it but they wouldn't wait an hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to ask that question I've
watched the interview obviously numerous times and I understand people react to trauma
differently but this was different than what I'd seen anybody that's watched that interview cannot help but be struck
by Nick's demeanor during it and that to meeter was this was just another day this was something he had to get through
skeptical of Nick's story Sergeant gray confronted Nick about what happened that
day Nick you know part of me watch ask you this question did you have anything to do with
this no absolutely not okay absolutely not all right why is there a party that wants to ask that well Nick I'm I'm a
police officer okay I got to ask I got to ask the tough questions all right after the interview Nick left the
police station that day investigators returned to the fcus home with a search warrant gray says it did not not look
like anyone was planning to move out the next day nothing was packaged up at all
the closet was still full of clothes we noticed that there was still food in the
refrigerator and there was something else that investigators questioned we didn't see any signs of forced entry
into the house based off of the physical evidence at the scene his version of the
incident couldn't be plausible what do you think of Nick's story about the Intruder chat now on
Facebook and 48 hours after Nick ferus said an intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi
police went back to the crime scene to check out his story he told us that there was a life and death struggle
inside the house but Sergeant gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't match Nick's account there was a vag
some receipts a beer bottle and none of that was knocked over so that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was
such a struggle why wasn't any of this stuff knocked over Sergeant gray says he examined the front door for signs of a
Breakin and did notice some markings but it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that uh the door had been
forced open the day of the murder in his interview Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door from
upstairs and like what are they doing are they just going like this yeah kind of like that yeah just shaking the knob
and shoving the door that day sergeant gray and his colleagues did a reenactment morning April 27th 2010 to
determine if they could hear the front door shaking from the bedroom we're in the bedroom looking Sergeant shackle and
Sergeant Wright were upstairs in the bedroom I'm at the front door so let me know when you guys are ready I'll I'll
try to KN for 15 seconds then we are ready they could not hear me filling with the
door sorry Sergeant gray says he also doubted Nick's story about the couple's eviction and a scheduled move the day
after Heidi was shot there didn't appear to be anything boxed up or packaged up to
go there were a few empty boxes in the dining room area there was not a grand stack of boxes or anything for that
matter that would lead us to believe that they were going to pack up all in one day meanwhile Heidi's mentors from
Calvary Church Marcus and ktina were learning the details about her death and the eviction it just an add up it just
something wasn't right with that story it seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have
notified anyone not have anything prepared for that because she PL planned things out and she liked things to be
orderly on April 30th 2010 5 days after her passing Marcus and ktina attended Heidi's
funeral yeah the atmosphere at the funeral was there was a lot of emotion at the funeral Marcus and CA say they
were struck by Nick's demeanor I remember going through the receiving line and shaking his hand there was no
grief showing it just felt like he lacked emotion Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the couple's friends if
Nick could have shot his wife and the answer I got was no there's no way that Nick killed Heidi he loved her there
there's just no way he could have done that and I just wasn't so sure about that from what we gathered during our
investigation Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship there was no problems or issues that anybody saw your
first impression upon meeting Nick ferus is no way in the world could he have committed a violent act the day after
the shooting Nick's Family hired attorney Joe Friedberg who advised Nick to stop talking to the police it didn't
take long to realize that he was being looked at as a suspect when investigators asked Nick to sit down
with their artists to draw a sketch of the intruder fredberg advised him not to they were
going to use it as an opportunity to further interview him instead Nick and his attorney hired their own sketch
artist it was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist and brought that drawing to police the
original and at that point we were basically told that Nick would not be answering any more questions with
regards to our investigation investigators released Nick's sketch to the public but it didn't generate any
leads they kept working the case Nick moved out of their home a few weeks after Heidi's
death two months later he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best friends Rachel Sanchez who
is going through a divorce at the time I thought because we shared something traumatic there was a deep connection
there because I had come out of something traumatic myself in a relationship I think Nick seemed to be
handling things well it felt like he was very grounded he was with his friends a
lot and they were processing together so I think just his his steadiness was an attractive quality Rachel says the two
bonded over their faith they began dating in the spring of 2011 at the time God God played a big part in my life and
I think that's another quality that I saw in him that he he loved God like I did one year into their relationship
Nick proposed I knew it was coming we had looked at rings beforeand so it wasn't really a huge surprise and a few
months later the couple married they started a family we did have kids pretty quickly and soon were the parents of
three children he absolutely loves his kids so so much Andrew and Emily Ericson are friends of Nick they say for a long
time Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder yeah it just didn't seem like there was a lot of room for his grief
during that time but they say when he did talk about it his story was always the same what did he tell you same thing
he's always told everyone from the first day same thing he'd tell you today that
someone was breaking into the house and they were going to try to get out and there was an altercation and
tragically Heidi was killed investigators still did not believe that story but 5 years after
Heidi's death with little movement in the case they finally got a break someone called in a tip there was
somebody that looked exactly like the sketch and put a name to Nick's sketch somebody called said I have an
experience with this guy I think I know who it is [Music] after 5 years without a break in Heidi
fergus's murder case out of the blue a tipster called police with a name after seeing this sketch of the
suspect but there was a problem says investigator cypes he was already in prison
on the date of Heidi's death Nick's second wife Rachel says her husband rarely talked about the case
being solved but I had asked him are you going to put effort into seeing if you can find the person that did this he
didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know I know that from his lawyers he was told to just stay silent police found it
odd Nick never checked in you're four investigators and this case he never contacted one of us to ask the status
was this case ever considered a cold case it wasn't ever considered a Cold Case prosecutors Rachel Crocker and
Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015 there just was not a lot of new information coming in
Heidi's family would check in on her birthday is there anything new development and there would be new
developments when detective cypes took over Heidi's case in in 2019 seems her fresh set of eyes really made a huge
difference it was absolutely critical I think cyp's definitely restarted something cypes dug deep reviewing the
entire case File including an examination of a financial timeline she compiled with the help of the FBI I had
the luxury of looking back on all of these things several years later cypes learned Nick worked at his
family's carpet installation business they were contractors for Home Depot Heidi was a clerk at a financial
services company in St Paul their combined income was about $70,000 a year they seemed like they were on top
of all the bills before they bought the house but Lawman says the home purchase in 2007 strained the couple's
finances and that home was just too much for them by the time Heidi died in April
of 2010 the couple was deeply in debt he had not paid the mortgage in 22 months in fact the couple had lost their home
to foreclosure and would be forced to move out but cyes discovered Heidi apparently had no
idea after reviewing the couple's texts and emails Cy saw no evidence Nick ever told Heidi they were in financial
trouble there was no communication between the two of them to indicate that she had any any idea of the depth of
their financial issues I was able to determine through the foreclosure and eviction attorneys
that there was no paperwork Heidi had signed that nobody had ever talked to Heidi nobody met Heidi Heidi didn't go
to the eviction hearing on March 8th 2010 Cy says Nick and Heidi's family and friends didn't know the couple had to
relocate and if she was serious about moving she would have gotten the day off so she was planning to go to work
yes why do you think he kept her in the dark so long shame I believe he was concerned about the shame of what he had
done how it would look that he couldn't compl clean with her you know it had gotten too big at that
point and when cyes talked to the couple's friends she learned why Nick wanted to hide their financial
situation he was described by his friends as being wise and being the person that they would go to for advice
Nick ferus really presented as somebody who had some of those bigger tougher life questions figured out what kind of
person do you want to be what kind of relationship do you want to have with God what does that tell you as you're
investigating the case and you see someone in that type of Personality it just became easier to see that this was
someone who did not want his friends his family to know the extent to which he had failed
Cy says she discovered more of Nick's Lies when she learned about a conversation Heidi had with a friend
just the day before she died Heidi had talked to us about how Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft
it was somewhere around $180 to $200,000 worth of identity theft wasn't true they weren't the
victims this was all untrue but as cypes tried to figure out if there was a connection between Nick's
lies and Heidi's death she learned Nick and Rachel had divorced I remember very well when Nikki sypes came to my
door and that Nick had also kept secrets from her did Rachel ever say anything about why their marriage dissolved she
did there were Financial issues between the two of them Nick was lying about a lot of things this is a story that's
happened before and it didn't end well that Terri ified [Music] me could there actually have been an
intruder after spending 19 months digging deep into the fcus case File reviewing crime seen
photos 911 calls do you remember what he was wearing and Nick's video interview she was running away so he definitely
hit her in the back investigator Nicole cypes had come to one conclusion what really matters is what happened in that
fire and there was no third person you never found anyone else's DNA no no DNA evidence no physical evidence no sign of
a struggle to me there were only two people in that house when Heidi was killed and they were Nick and
Heidi as part of the new investigation cypes reached out to Nick's second wife Rachel what did she know in 2020 she
came to my door and I was like why are you here and she was like to talk about Heidi Fergus at first Rachel then
divorce from Nick says she was reluctant to talk you're asking for a lot when you
get involved in something like this and I didn't want to but I also knew that it was the right thing to do and it
was for truth Rachel told cyes Nick had lied about their finances during their marriage I found a letter saying that we
hadn't paid our property taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them and when I saw that I
was like oh no like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me during that time Rachel
says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's death and I said we got to
sit down and talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions have caused me to just
distrust you completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that I could prove that he
said it and the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front of me over and over and over makes me
think that I could murder my wife that you could lie about something that I could murder my wife
yes when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think
those things why aren you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right Rachel later shared the recordings
with investigator cypes the behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel was almost duplicative of how he
hid things from Heidi we cannot let this man be out on the street any longer for prosecutor
Elizabeth lman the time had come to ACT I told Sergeant cyes we're charging them
let's do it 11 years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19th 2021 a St Paul Police SWAT team arrested
Nick ferus at his house and charged him with second-degree murder a grand jury ultimately indicted
ferus on first and second degree murder charges our minds were absolutely blown Heidi's friends Marcus and CA were
relieved it's hard to to say I don't know what emotion you even put to it it's hard to say excited I felt grateful
we don't understand Nick's friends Emily and Andrew you have to believe that a good man with no History of Violence
killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason that's what you have to believe we can't get
there after remaining free on bail for almost 2 years on January 27th 2023 Nick ferus went on
trial prosecutors would not be allow owed to call Nick's second wife Rachel to testify or use her taped conversation
with Nick the judge ruled her testimony and the recording had no bearing on the case I went into it with an open mind
Natalie Michael served on the jury did he appear like a man who would kill his wife no he did
not a lot through the trial he was putting his head down when they showed the photos of the two of them together
you know he seemed like he really was in love with her I think Nick was someone who lived two lives prosecutors
presented an unusual motive they told the jurors Nick Fergus staged a burglary because he was desperate and ashamed his
secrets were about to be revealed to Heidi and everyone else all of his kind of cards of lies are about to crumble he
would have been exposed as a complete failure a liar um to his friends and community and instead he's a victim he
walks away from this supported by his friends supported by his family Nick had no reason Nick's lawyers Joe fredberg
and Robert Richmond say that simply makes no sense as a motive there was nothing about murdering the woman who
everyone agreed he loved that would help his situation and they say the state's contention that Heidi didn't know about
the couple's finances simply was not true Nicki said she was in on all of the major decisions he would say to us that
they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile at first I was wondering how she couldn't know about the finances or
some of the Foreclosure or some of the things happening but Natalie Michael says the prosecution's case did not
hinge on motive the prosecu said it really is was there an intruder in the house or was there not an intruder it
was our position that there had been an intruder exactly the way Nick described to the police on the 911 call many
broken me at the scene the information that Nick gave at the scene is that this Intruder came into the house at the
hospital he just came in and to Sergeant gray guy that was there I think he he grabbed the barrel Nick's lawyers say
police didn't find The Intruders fingerprints or DNA at the scene because as Nick told investigators in his
interview at the hospital what else can you describe from him the Intruder was wearing gloves gloves he's wearing
gloves you don't always leave DNA and especially when your hands are covered so what am I looking at here but
prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides fingerprints this is a physical model to
scale that was created by the FBI they used this model to show the jurors there was no evidence of a struggle I felt
that it was very important for us to be able to recreate how small that entryway
is let's say the Intruder gets in they have this struggle and they have this life and death struggle right in this
area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly and then Heidi gets shot Square
there in the back in a very clear shot this animation created by the FBI shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was
most likely shot from shoulder level the height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to
fire Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an intruder in fact there were tool marks
in the door which would be consistent with someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door attorney
Joe Friedberg says fergus's nextdoor neighbor Brandon oconor testified he heard a voice you shot her you shot me
uh please please no something along those lines that means there must have been another person in that house Nick
was talking to a third person when he said that but prosecutors said Brandon may have misheard Nick while he was on
the phone with the 911 dispatcher some broken he is screaming about being shot and he did that over almost 7 minutes so
stay on the phone with me okay Nick ferus did not take the stand after an 11-day trial the case
went to the jury if there's anything in this case there's Reasonable Doubt yeah see more evidence from the case at
48 [Music] hours.com it was a hard fought litigated trial as the state and Nick fergus's
defense team presented their closing arguments on February 10th 2023 we had great we thought circumstantial evidence
that what Nick said happened did not happen attorneys on both sides were hopeful the jury would make the right
decision it's not enough if you have a hunch there was no direct evidence that Nick murdered his
wife in her closing argument prosecutor Crocker said ferus shot Heidi while she was on the phone with the 911
operator someone's trying West so that call does end with a very very loud noise and the call goes dead
and we believe that that's the gunshot according to phone records 65 seconds passed from that moment until ferus made
his 911 call Qui somebody just broken up Crocker reenacted for jurors what she believed Nick ferus did before he made
that call I walked over in the courtroom to roughly as far as Heidi would have been on the ground crouched down turned
her over um to check for a pulse to be sure that she was in fact deceased walked back over picked up the
firearm and demonstrated how he could shoot himself and call him1 where is the guy that shot you at 6 5 Seconds there
was more than enough time for all of that to happen to prove their Theory Fus shot himself in the thigh they point to
Mark's left by shotgun pellets at the bottom of the front door when he shot himself we believe
that Nick was about um here which is how you would brace yourself probably against the door if you're doing it to
yourself of his Reasonable Suspicion but fergus's attorneys challenged the 65 second time frame attorney Robert
Richmond says phone records also show ferus misdialed two numbers before getting through to 911 making it
impossible to shoot himself what they reenacted was 65 seconds which was ignoring the two Mis diales which
happened at 38 seconds the fact that we cannot find the Intruder is not evidence
that there was no intruder and if anything because of the next door neighbor because of the tool marks
because of the 38 seconds we feel that the evidence supports that there was an intruder this isn't blind belief Nick's
friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove ferus was the shooter we were open to hearing
inconsistency of what Nick said but that didn't happen on February 10th 2023 the
jurors got the case and in 5 hours returned with a verdict my last text to Nick was it has to be innocent there's
no way that they got to guilty this quickly we rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong Nick
Fergus was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and intentional I believe Justice was served
Marcus and CA were in the courtroom when the verdict was read Justice may have been slow but fortunately the jury got
it right it feels like this is the beginning of healing it's the beginning of a of a new chapter Heidi's mom
actually said that for so many years they had to live with Nick fergus's narrative and they knew it was wrong but
they just didn't have another narrative and to finally be able to have him finally held accountable it it meant a
lot to us for sergeant cypes there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's
financial problems we weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on does
that frustrate you greatly I think it would help complete the picture for some people on April 13th 2023 Nick ferus was
back in court for a sentencing hearing and to hear Victim Impact statements growing up Heidi was the quintessential
little sister to me Heidi's brother Peter Ericson because of the lies we were told as early as the day after her
murder it's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief ferus refused
to admit guilt I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime my body stands condemned
to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains free judge Leonardo Castro imposed the
maximum sentence it is the sentence of Law and Judgment of this court that you be committed to the commission of
Corrections for the remainder of your life without the possibility of release good luck to you sir God's
speak my kids are always what I think of first fergus's second wife Rachel they lost in this too because one day they
had a dad that they thought was somebody and the next day he's not that person anymore she often thinks about Heidi too
I like to think I have a connection with Heidi she didn't get to have the voice that I have now and so I can only hope
that my voice is something she would be proud of Heidi was a genuine loving sincere young woman who wanted to
live life to the fullest she wouldn't want people to become bitter or angry because of what she had to experience I
think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of [Music] circumstances CBS next Saturday 48 Hours
brings you back to back episodes all summer long next week social media Clues Johnny altinger would answer a dating ad
and disappear she would track his location 48 Hours Crime Time double feature next Saturday on CBS streaming
on Paramount Plus [Music] I'm anarie green and we are back for another episode of 48 Hours host morm
today uh we're here with CBS News correspondent Jamie yugas and producers asena basak and Jordan Kinsey who worked
on this week's episode It's called Death at the front door who shot Heidi ferus welcome guys thanks for joining us thank
you hello thank you hi everyone so Jamie first off you actually from Minnesota this case took place in St Paul what was
it like covering a case in your hometown well you know it's one of those things it is always a little strange to be back
home covering something especially something like this a murder that you watch for years not be solved at the
time that this murder took place I was living in Fort Meers Florida which we jokingly call Minnesota South it's where
uh all the snowbirds in Minnesota Head um and I frequently talk to one of my best friends from college lived in St
Paul my brother lives in St Paul um it was one of those that when we heard about it it's a neighborhood that's very
residential very quiet very um nice I mean you know there's parks nearby Big Trees old porches um so it was one of
those things it was very strange to hear you sometimes maybe you'd hear about a Breakin something like that but nothing
like a murder um and then several years later I went back and I worked in the Minneapolis St Paul Market
um and every year we would do the update of you know there now a sketch is being
posted of a potential suspect or the yearly update and nothing ever came of it so now to see you know um living in
Los Angeles to see this all come to fruition I mean I've had like four lifetimes since this case uh took place
uh it's it's something else I mean just to see it actually conclude I think is shocking and I think the way it
concluded is even more surprising to people who are from that area right so and Jordan you're not from Minnesota but
you went back there you know you've gone back there quite a lot now I don't know
if you feel like you're from Minnesota because you've been back so often but what was it like for you yeah yeah at
this point I feel like I'm a Minnesotan Viking for sure but um yes uh but uh yes
I was flying back and forth uh to and from Minnesota several times this year and uh what viewers may not realize is
how much the culture of Minnesota plays and influ inuences this case yeah you know Jamie was talking about that a
little bit earlier when we were talking about this case about Minnesota nice and
I said I kind of understand because I'm Canadian and Canadians have this reputation of being quite nice yeah it's
one of those things um you know you'll always open the door for people you'll you know chitchat about the weather in
the elevator um but you don't ask deep questions so while it's nice it's not direct and you're not asking tough
questions of people and all of that kind of plays into this this case which we we
will get into so before we get to our postmortem let's listen to an overview of this week's episode someone's trying
to break into my home Heidi fergus's 911 call went dead after a loud noise about a minute later her husband
Nick ferus called 911 somebody broken me ferus was treated for a gry gunshot wound to his leg there was nothing the
First Responders could do for Heidi Sergeant Jim Gray of St Paul police department it was a shotgun blast that
killed her right away Fergus told police he heard someone fiddling with the front
door knob from upstairs he then armed himself with a shotgun Nick says as the couple tried to escape out the back the
front door burst open and Nick and the Intruder struggled over the shotgun after ferus was treated at the
hospital he gave a statement to Sergeant gray at the police station I think he he
grabbed the barrel let's say the Intruder gets in prosecutor Elizabeth Lawman they have this life and death
struggle right in this area with nothing Disturbed on the table exactly there was
a vase uh some receipts a beer bottle and none of that was knocked over his story didn't make a lot of
sense to me his version of the incident couldn't be plausible so to start I want to discuss the very
first moment of this case it's the morning of April 25th it's 2010 Nick alleged that he heard a noise at their
front door and he believes that someone's really trying to break into their home so Heidi first called 911 and
then a minute later Nick called back saying that both he and his wife have been shot here's a neverbe heard segment
that was not included in the hour someone's trying to break into my home prosecutors also said that no sound of a
struggle could be heard on Heidi's 911 call when Nick called 911 after Heidi had been shot
broken me you could hear a lot of background noise when the police [Applause] arrived the police are there
okay you can hear the police Comm in you can hear them talking to him from the front door in Heidi's call Lawman says
there is no indication of Nick struggling with an intruder in the background 1794 many haha up to the moment the gun
goes off somebody's trying to break in her house okay so they both sound panicked when there's an incident
happening more than one person often calls 911 so what seemed inconsistent to investigators about this story well
there were a number of flags that popped up uh pretty quickly uh first of all Nick ferus said that he had heard this
Intruder jiggling with the door lock um from upstairs while he was getting a glass of water Heidi was sleeping he
hears this happen according to investigators he goes back into his room is what he claimed to them um and gets
his gun wakes up Heidi and has her go down the stairs first now most investigators started immediately
questioning the story of that because why in their minds would someone send their wife in front of them when they're
the ones who have the gun and why would you leave the comfort of your bedroom if
you know that you have a firearm the other thing that you heard a little bit on that call is that Heidi says some
things um where she's talking about just herself it doesn't sound like she is actually with Nick ferus why would she
be talking about herself in the first person and not uh about the two of them as a couple trying to get out she sounds
very hurried they had a staircase they were trying to get down um so I think that's where you hear kind of a little
bit of the you know The Angst and and trying to get down the stairs um but again investigators wondered were they
together but you know when you listen to Heidi when you listen to her voice on the 911 uh recording I mean she sounds
concerned she sounds more than concerned she sounds scared she sounds panicked How was Nick able to create that sense
of urgency for her when she's actually not seeing any of this stuff she's not seeing someone breaking in she's not
hearing anything because presumably that's not happening yeah so you know all we have is Nick's narrative and so
you know imagine putting yourself in hidey shoes you know your husband is telling you someone's trying to break in
so she's trusting her her husband's uh story about what's going on and so you know and he even you know told uh
investigators that they had a game plan if something were to happen like this that you know that they would rush down
the stairs into uh the back entrance of the home leading to the garage uh so you
know we think that you know Heidi was just trusting her husband on what was going on and we should point out they
came up with the plan because there had been a number of break-ins in the area so they had supposedly according to Nick
they had talked about the break-ins Heidi had felt nervous and so they came up with this plan as a couple I mean now
that I'm sort of putting myself in what could have been her position I think about somebody waking me up out of
asleep you know if my husband does that and he's saying we're the car keys I wake up in Panic even though it's
something sort of benign so you could see that um so Nick's 911 call was almost 7 minutes long and Jamie you sort
of brought this up this was brought up in the hour but all that you're hearing in the back of that call that's those
are the officers coming in the door right that's not an intruder um so as we discussed Heidi was on her phone running
down the stairs supposedly um you know in this very very small space this small foyer that has things too like a table
and other pieces of furniture and shoes that have been you know there's other household items that she's having to try
to get around supposedly at that moment that is when Nick is struggling with this Intruder and you hear nothing the
defense plays that off saying well she had her phone up to her head the reason you could hear when the officers arrived
and burst through the door and got to Nick ferus is because Nick had his phone on speaker phone so they tried to put
some d out into the minds of jurors that way to say well the sound would be different but it is such a small space I
I don't know how to hammer that home enough there's not a lot of space there uh for for one person much less
supposedly three people in this space where two of them are struggling and you actually when you see the images of the
scene you don't see a lot of disruption really and perhaps like a really interesting part of the hour was seeing
the investigator's reenactment of Nick's version of the story can you described the reenactment yeah um so the the
police went back to the house two days later um after Heidi's um shooting it's April 2010 so they were there at 6:30
there was light out they were saying this just makes no sense if you if you're an intruder a burglar do you
really want to go inside a house at 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday where people
will be home uh the prosecutors and the investigators told us um the last thing an intruder or a burglar want to do is
to encounter people also there's one one other thing um they also tested whether
you could hear this filling of the door from the upstairs they didn't the investigators told us they couldn't hear
the door knob being filled with from upstairs and they checked in the bathroom as well that's where Nick said
he was uh to get a drink of water so it just doesn't make sense that he would hear hear these noises from upstairs um
the store didn't check out the other thing I do want to point out too if you are someone who's coming down those
stairs there's a big kind of Half Moon shaped glass panel above the door so at the heights of Heidi and Nick if they
are running down the stairs and you've supposedly heard someone at the door you assume that their head if if he's as
tall as Nick claims he is which is more than six feet tall you would think that either Heidi or Nick would take a look
through that glass window to see if they saw anyone um Nick never pointed out that he saw anyone we unfortunately
don't know you know if Heidi saw anyone cuz she was killed uh pretty quickly but
you know there is that piece of glass there that would give you a window into what was happening outside as someone's
fiddling with the door right and you would presumably go back upstairs or call 911 or do something maybe not run
towards them but that's sort of all part of this kind of story um so hours after
this alleged burglary takes place Nick is questioned by police and again for our listeners I want to describe what
but we see Nick just left the hospital for treatment of his injuries because he was shot as well in the struggle he says
so he's limping he has crutches an hour and 40 minutes into his discussion with investigators he finally asks about his
wife let's just play some of that well I just want to know a final answer on the final answer
on he she had make it I figure that I mean so in you know some of the cases that I've worked on this
sort of thing kind of often stands out that the phrasing or the questioning about whether or not a loved one has
been killed is just not the way you would expect it or comes the timing is odd and as I was watching the hour
that's what I kept on thinking why is this not the first question out of your mouth how is Heidi is Heidi okay is she
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second anarie because I will say that as
a motan people are very stoic right and so I did really question the detective it could it have been just one of those
things that this is his demeanor and this is his demeanor all the time but I think the sticking point for everyone
was the timing um if that was just his regular demeanor all the time okay you could
kind of brush off that point of it but it took him so long to ask about it I also want to mention you know to Jam's
point that you know when we have interviewed investigators on various stories for 48 hours they will say that
you know the way people grieve in moments of shock or trauma varies there's many ways people might uh
process emotions or feelings and and I think you know what Jimmy just mentioned with that being a part of maybe the
culture of Minnesota with people being stoic you know that might have played a role but then again you know people
process deal with moments of trauma and shock in different ways I do want to add
um Nick does get very emotional at the end of the interview when his family and Heidi's family uh come into the
interrogation room he sobs loudly he hugs them he's very emotional um but then the prosecutors thought that's odd
as well you know they were saying to us maybe then he can turn it on and off just like that so I mean I guess you can
think you can go both ways right well the circumstances are so odd um but clearly the Spidey senses for
investigators were tangling yes something was off so Nick also told investigators that he and Heidi were
having financial troubles and in fact they were behind on their mortgage payments and they were about to get
evicted and he said something really weird about we're moving out tomorrow you know could that have been Nick's
motive for murder but when police searched the house nothing was packed up there was even food in the fridge
something was not adding up we are going to get into some possible theories of what really happened that day after the
break so stay tuned welcome back in the hour it is clear that Nick is worried about Heidi
and others finding out about his financial troubles so first off how did Heidi not know that they were so far
behind on their mortgage payments and that they were about to be evicted this is a woman who seems on the ball she
knows how much they both make they should have been able to afford their bills how did she not know it was
brought up in the trial by the defense that there would be notices on the door uh at Heidi in Nick's house that they
had lost their house and how could Heidi miss these um notices that were left there investigator cypes believes that
Nick was actually intercepting the mail he didn't have an office job he could uh
go wherever he wanted during the day while Heidi had an office job so her theory was that uh Nick removed those
notices from the front door there're a young religious couple in Minnesota who you know got married very young and she
was very trusting of her husband and her husband was supposed to take care of the
finances she went to work and he he was supposed to pay the bills she would occasionally get a call about a bill not
being paid or something not happening and she'd call him and say hey can you take care of this and the one thing that
stuck out to me that did not make it into the show is that Heidi ferus went shopping at Mall of America with a
friend and bought things so if she did have an idea you would not go with someone to Mall of America and purchase
things and act like everything was fine her friend said she didn't make any mention of financial troubles to her it
was just you know just a normal day and and also whether or not Heidi knew about
the mortgage payments the eviction is a point of contention in this entire story
did Heidi know or not and so Nick's defense team is claiming that she was fully aware and that she wasn't in the
dark you know but her family were not aware apparently um you know according to uh investigators and the prosecutors
Heidi talked to her parents regularly and they did not know that the couple were going to be evicted the next day so
that's still sort of the million-dollar question did Heidi know about the financial situation or not but still I
mean and I know money is often a motive for murder but it's an extreme motive I still don't really understand I know
it's embarrassing to say you're in financial trouble I know your wife's going to get mad at you but often in
cases like that you know you might see an argument that spirals out of control over money but that wasn't the case here
what would Nick be accomplishing by killing his wife for us especially working in True Crime you know we're
always trying to figure out motives and what is the reason for it and so life insurance policies are a big one for
certain cases in Heidi fergus's case you know there was a life insurance policy uh but it was only uh about 30,000 her
it was her salaries worth a year worth of her salary according to investigators Nick who received uh the that insurance
policy as the spouse he didn't spend that money he returned he returned the check and it was given to Heidi
appearance so it kind of leaves that question well in was the life insurance policy a motive who knows you know it's
it's one of those things that I remember living in Florida in 2007 as the housing
crisis was you know really running rampant through that state and I remember calling home to a number of my
friends in Minnesota who didn't even know what the word foreclosure meant it was it's just something ingrained in the
culture you pay your bills you you know you go to work they're hardworking hardy
people you know and it wasn't it's not as surprising to me as it was to a number of my colleagues and I think
probably not as surprising to investigators um in that sense because of the culture of the state and Nick had
had talked about you know he had had to ask his parents for help at other times you ask your family in Minnesota one too
many times for money you start getting talked about about in the family right so if all of a sudden he comes forward
and they're getting evicted from their house the shame of that could potentially I mean it wouldn't drive me
to murder but there'd be a tremendous amount of shame in that culture that you could not pay your bills the prosecutors
also told us nick uh presented himself as this person who figured the big questions in life like how do you want
your relationship with God to be what kind of a spouse do you want to be so his friends looked up to him so he had
this Persona at church with his friends uh he was very well-liked well respected
so perhaps that also played into this how ashamed he would be from uh causing the financial ruin ASA you spoke to his
second wife Rachel which is like this there's always a Twist in these stories and this is this crazy twist that he
goes on and falls in love and has a whole family by the time of the interview though they had already gotten
a divorce but when they were still married she started to become suspicious of Nick and decided to secretly record
their conversation which I thought was a very extreme thing to do when you're just starting to get suspicious about
your spouse let's hear a clip from Rachel I found a letter saying that we hadn't paid our property taxes and that
we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them and when I saw that I
was like oh no like he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me
during that time Rachel says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's
death and I said we got to sit down and talk Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone your actions
have caused me to just distrust you completely if there was going to be a confession I was going to make sure that
I could prove that he said it and the fact that you're lying was so easy for you to do in front
of me over and over and over makes me think that I should murder my wife that you could lie about something that I
could Murder My Life yes when I listen I think this silence kills me he's angry at me how dare I think
those things why aren't you saying you didn't tell me I'm not right it's very interesting that
Nick never gives a solid answer to Rachel about the murder so he never says what are you talking about I never did
something like this I didn't kill Heidi he never uh denies how did Rachel become
so suspicious of Nick when did that start I think it was a process for her I think um it started with small lies it
was nothing big but it added up eventually she found a miss invoice wasn't paid for the property taxes and
they could lose their house in in 2020 that was a huge red flag for her so she then decided to get her kids they have
three children together to get their kids out of the house and she came back the next day and confronted him about
what we just heard Jamie were there other red flags that Rachel started to notice a couple things that stuck out to
me as as things for Rachel seem to unravel is that she she mentioned at some point in her interview that her
father-in-law Nick's father had one time said to her we don't get divorced in this family it's another one of those uh
situations I think goes back to them being a religious family but it was something that stuck with her Jordan you
met with Rachel I met with Rachel for dinner and let me tell you it was really eye openening as you know she was
getting into a relationship with Nick she was aware of the financial troubles that Nick had with Heidi um and so as
they were getting you know ready for marriage her father-in-law uh warned her basically that you know Nick is not good
with finances I wouldn't let him handle the the finances and she said at that moment she trusted her husband he had
gone through sort of a financial recovery program so she assumed that he had a good control over the finances and so
she said she allowed him to do that and then in the interview we did with her she said hi Insight Is 2020 and she
regretted that decision you know if you look at this case and when the murder occurred was 2010 a lot of people aren't
texting you're still calling people you're still leaving a voicemail however if you fast forward several years later
and Rachel and Nick are in a relationship a lot more conversations are happening by including recording
different conversations even using voice memos or sending little voice texts to one another so in some ways I think as
this case developed the technology also changed and some of what we now have in terms of conversations between the
married couples would also evolve and change fascinating so 11 years after Heidi's death Nick is charged with her
murder and then two years later in January of 2023 he's brought to trial what was it like being in the courtroom
I covered the trial and and this was a a very extensive trial it was uh nearly two weeks and the thing that stood out
to me the most was the fact that it was packed on both sides it was standing room only and I I think it really spoke
to how how much both of these people Nick and Heidi were cherished and the feeling in the entire courtroom because
it was both families were still sort of torn in deeply fractured I had an opportunity to talk to some of the
friends and I think the thing that struck me um in speaking to people is that Nick's friends truly believe him
and believe and back him and will not be swayed do not think the prosecution did
uh their job um and really have faith in him that he is a good man he would never
do this they actually are more Angry it seems at Rachel the second wife um and feel that she's to blame for for
bringing all this up what's interesting if you kind of peel back the onion a little bit you have this young couple
Heidi and Nick who get married and you know they had their friend group Nick's very well regarded within that friend
group he's somebody that everyone's looking up to because he's one of the first to get married and they own a home
and then when this happened part of the prosecution's belief was that he instead
of looking like the guy who couldn't pay his bills and take care of his family they had compassion for him oh my
goodness he's the man who's now lost his wife that he would be able to turn the friend group into having empathy for him
rather than him being a bad guy and that that could have played a part of the motive uh to investigators as they're
looking at this case instead of just the finances the psychological part of it so
ultimately the jury believes the prosecution though Nick was found guilty on two counts of murder premeditated and
and intentional and given the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole I want to listen
to some of Nick's statement at sentencing I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence
of this crime my body stands condemned to serve another man's sentence but my soul my soul remains
free I mean that's kind of powerful I was there at the sentencing and you can feel
just the dread from kind of both sides right um because uh family and friends of Heidi they wanted Justice and and it
was hard to to accept that someone who used to be a a family member is now found you know guilty of killing Heidi
and then of course Nick's family and friends you know who never believed that Nick was the Killer and in fact even
Nick's father who who spoke at the sentencing had asked for anyone to come forward if they know who is the actual
killer so that still spoke to the fact that many people on Nick's side thought he was innocent and still is innocent
wow Jamie Jordan asena what will be your big takeaways from this case for me there's a number of things I'll remember
just because as we said in the beginning being from there just seeing the conclusion of it um I I think just
sticks out to me I think having someone like detective cypes have a a fresh pair
of eyes on the case it was all the same evidence for 10 years it was a a detective who was determined to get the
case solved one way or another the prosecution who really enabled that detective to take a fresh look and be
able to really comb through the financial records and take the time and really look at the interviews and all
the different pieces um it's it's unusual right I mean it's it's not it's not something you hear about a lot so
the fact that it there was a conclusion and how that conclusion came about will be the thing that sticks out to me most
the work that the investigation poured into this this case it took over a decade went through the
hands of you know four different investigators uh even getting um assisted by the FBI just I thought that
was just really just interesting that they never gave up and that they kept working hard at trying to find out what
happened to Heidi ferus I walk away from this case thinking if you feel there's something wrong there's probably
something wrong I think if you have a gut feeling you should probably listen to that God feeling so that's what I
take away uh from this case Jamie asenna Jordan thank you so much for joining me
for this thank you thank you thank you so be sure to join us next Tuesday for another postmortem and watch 48
hours Saturday 109 Central on CBS in streaming on param Mount plus and if you're liking the show please rate and
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A frantic 911 call captures the sound of a gunshot as a couple reports a break-in. The husband claims an intruder shot his wife.

00:00 Death at the Front Door: Who Shot Heidi Firkus? 41:50 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://apple.co/3NiA3d1

Watch "Death at the Front Door: Who Shot Heidi Firkus?" and then catch up with "48 Hours" contributor Jamie Yuccas and producers Asena Basak and Jordan Kinsey on "Post Mortem" as they discuss theories of whether Heidi Firkus' death was an unfortunate accident or an intentional murder. Minnesota couple Heidi and Nick Firkus frantically called 9-1-1 to report a break-in at their home. A gunshot was heard over the phone and Heidi was killed. Nick claimed the intruder shot Heidi, but prosecutors believed he staged his wife’s murder to cover up their home foreclosure.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Heidi Ferus was murdered; her husband Nick was found guilty after inconsistencies in his story emerged.

Key points

The 911 Call. On April 25th, 2010, Heidi Fergus calls 911, fearing a break-in. Moments later, her husband Nicholas calls, reporting they have both been shot.
Doubts Arise. Detective Jim Gray begins to question Nick's story, noting inconsistencies and a lack of evidence for a break-in.
Financial Troubles. Investigators uncover that Nick and Heidi were deeply in debt, with Nick hiding their financial troubles from Heidi.
Nick's Lies Unraveled. Cy discovers Nick's deception about identity theft and its connection to Heidi's death.
Rachel's Revelation. Rachel shares her suspicions about Nick's dishonesty and its implications for Heidi's death.
Arrest After Years. After 11 years, Nick is arrested and charged with murder, shocking friends and family.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I didn't want to believe it; it can't be true.

8:00WatchOct 18, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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