Detective on Nicole Pietz cold case | Forensic Files

this case had sat dormant for a couple of years how did you get involved in 2010 I was just finishing up
a two-year assignment in a Cold Case unit and one afternoon Detective Mike melis shows up at my desk and he hey
have you ever taken a look at the Nicole Pete's case are you aware of that case and I said no I haven't but you know I I
certainly will I said yeah I want you to take a look at that I just had a phone call with her mother Gail and quite
honestly I don't want to have to sit down through another call like that again so take a look at it get back with
me and let's let's see what we can do with this and by the time all that was said and done I went back to Mike and I
said you know what Mike you're right there's plenty of evidence here there's plenty of leads for us to follow up on
to tighten up to kind of flesh out a little bit more we can resolve this case there's enough here for us to work with
let's go and how far is this location from the Pete's home from their condo it's going to be just about 30 m
from here directly up to the condo even though we're near the city this is this pretty wild back here it is
it's uh pretty overgrown back here it's always been kind of a popular way for people to cut from one end of the city
to the other or go from Seacor Burian especially if you're on foot people take shortcuts over the hill uh don't
typically come back in here so the killer brought Nicole's naked body back here and where was it
placed under some blackberry bushes just just about 3 or four yards from where we're standing and you hit it right on
the head she wasn't drugged back here somebody carried her back here and put her up underneath those bushes hoping
that she wouldn't be found talk about a mystery this is baffling a successful popular woman loving wife ends up among
these Thorns near Seatac Airport naked with a A Night Guard in her mouth that's one of the strangest
set circumstances I heard of it is no reason for her to be down here uh that we ever found out for the initial
investigators when they find her they figure out several hours later who she is uh looking at some bulletins of
missing persons that had been distributed becomes clear to them as Nicole pets uh right away they're
looking at it as in their minds who done it who could have been responsible for this

Detective Jake Pavlovich of the King County Sheriff's Office talks to Peter Van Sant about how he became involved in the Nicole Pietz murder case and takes "48 Hours" to the place where the Seattle woman's naked body was found in 2006.

Brief Summary

Detective Mike Melis discusses the cold case of Nicole Pete, her mysterious murder, and the evidence surrounding it.

Key points

Reopening the Cold Case. Detective Mike Melis encourages a fresh look at Nicole Pete's case after years of dormancy.
The Discovery of Nicole's Body. Nicole's body was found under blackberry bushes, raising many questions about her death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There's plenty of evidence here, plenty of leads for us to follow up on.

Detective's realization about the case.

0:40WatchNov 3, 2013

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