Friends were told Mindi Kassotis died in a hospital, but her body was found in a swamp | 48 Hours | Forensic Files

[music] >> Down here is where the hunters had discovered the torso of a female in the
[music] ditch. Jack, had you ever run into anything like this? No, ma'am. >> [music]
>> What day were you out here and what do you remember from that day? This was December the 2nd of 2022, I
believe. We was hunting that block of woods that particular day. Well, I kind of thought it was a mannequin to start
with. It didn't look real. And this area right here and all around this is where all the
trash, the bags of clothes, the tote, the knife, that's where all that was found right here.
And your big priority was to >> [music] >> find the rest of this woman and find out
who she is. That's correct. It was getting about dusk. We started walking and got to a point where I'm
looking up and the sun's going down. It's shining in my eyes and there's an oak tree and I kind of look behind it
and I see a little disturbed area, a mound. All the remains were found fairly close
to the edge of the road. And at that point, as far as what we knew, there was the female had dark
brown hair. You put out a sketch? GBI had had a forensic artist put out a sketch.
According to deputies, hunters found the body in the area of Barrington Ferry Road. This sketch from the GBI serving
as one of the only glimpses of who the woman could be. >> like, "Whoa, wait a minute.
Like, that looks like Mindy. That looks like Mindy." And I just froze. I said, "I have reason to believe that
this person is Mindy Cassodus. [music] Looks very like much like her." I was like, "I want to be wrong. I have never
wanted to be wrong like this in my whole entire life." A drive through the area shows how dense
the wooded area where the woman was found can be. That was on the local news, but I had zero
reason to connect it to Mindy. [music] So, you get this call from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent and he
says, "You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you." >> Yeah, he absolutely said that.
I think the first thing through my mind was disbelief. I had been told back in December that
she had died in the hospital. That's what all of the immediate friends and family of Mindy's had been told.
Nobody was looking for a murder victim. They thought she had died of natural causes.
>> What did they think had happened to her? >> She died at the hospital on December
1st. She's not in the woods. She was cremated. What do you do? What do you do when
you're in a situation and you feel like something is wrong, but also the entire story is so crazy, who's
going to believe you? >> [music] [music] [music] >> Investigator Jack Frost, now with the
Liberty County, Georgia DA's office, was one of the first detectives [music] called to the scene on December 2nd,
2022. The hunters had seen a knife and a um tote and some wipes back there. Detectives recovered a razor sharp
Milwaukee brand knife, a plastic storage tub with what looked like traces of blood
>> [music] >> and wipes. Do you think whoever brought her out here had to know this area? That
would be a safe assumption because it's so desolate. It would take 5 days until Investigator
Frost found the rest of her body. Authorities said it appeared the woman had defensive wounds.
There's no one that winds up dismembered in the woods that's not a victim of homicide.
My name is Lori Bayo. I'm an assistant district attorney with the Atlantic Judicial Circuit.
Investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released two sketches. There were hundreds [music]
and hundreds of calls and leads that came in through the forensic sketches that were published from civilians
calling in. One call came from a woman 500 miles away in Virginia, Heather Thomas.
>> I was like, "Whoa, wait a minute. Like, that looks like Mindy." Mindy Cassodus.
Heather Thomas turned out is one of the people that recognized the photograph and said, "This could be
Mindy." [music] Heather recognized Mindy because Mindy was married to Heather's ex-husband,
Nick Cassodus, [music] a naval officer, a lawyer in JAG, the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps.
Nick had traveled the globe, was deployed to Iraq. He served in Italy and the Pentagon. He dealt with sensitive
cases [music] involving Afghanistan. He definitely had an air about him of of confidence,
of you know, reassurance, but never, in an egotistical way, cuz you could sort of
pick that out from a mile away. Heather and Nick got married in 2009. Back then, she was a brunette. Was he
wearing a uniform? >> Yes. [music] He was in his uniform. I was in I had two different dresses. It
was a very big deal. It was a It was a happy day. He had a lot of friends and he
just knew everyone and he had a very outgoing personality and just was a talker and
loved to read and just was It was very different than kind of how I I was. Things started out well, but eventually,
after 6 years, their marriage faded. I felt like we had grown apart. I felt like he was my best friend, but at the
same time, like didn't have the romance. And in 2015, they divorced. Nick Cassodus bounced back quickly. That
same year, he started dating Mindy. She was working as a legal secretary in Washington, D.C. Mindy was the
consummate romantic for a while there, right? Angela Wynn and Morgan Paddock were
long-time friends of Mindy. Angela says Mindy met Nick on a dating app. When she
finally did meet him, [music] that was just her fairy tale ending coming to fruition. Even Heather was happy. He
told me all about it. He was so excited that they met and I was excited for him.
Nick and [music] Mindy married in 2016. Her friends say the couple soon started looking for a home and planning [music]
a family. It's one of the things that that she wanted. She wanted to have kids. >> And Mindy became a podcaster.
We both were on her podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Compelling Women podcast. She just
wanted to find the stories of women and elevate them. >> I'm Mindy, your host, >> [music]
>> and I'm really excited to share with you another thought-provoking interview with
a different compelling woman. Mindy and Nick's life seemed good. After leaving active duty, he was still
practicing law. I was so happy that she was so in love and just so enamored and ready to move on to that next [music]
phase of her life. But her friends say Mindy's life began taking some strange turns. She once told
me, "Morgan, if you knew everything that was going on, like, this is something that would be a
like best-selling novel or or a best-selling movie." Mindy and Nick started moving around a
lot, living in three different states. She rarely saw her friends, they say, and was so worried about security, she
started communicating through the encrypted Signal app. We only ever talked on Signal. If we
called, it was through the Signal app. And if we texted, it was through the Signal app. And whose idea was to use
the Signal app? Oh, Nick. And Mindy said at one point, she was being spied upon. I remember her saying,
"I may have had a tail." Someone following her. >> Yeah. Yeah. It ramped up after that.
Mindy's life ramped up into a series of stranger and stranger events. [music] She told me they had been hacked by a
hacker group. Their bank accounts had been completely frozen. They didn't have any money at all. And she told friends
that Nick said they were being surveilled and that he told her, "We have a security issue now and now we're,
you know, we're in danger." Mhm. She thought her life was in danger? Mhm. It was, according to Mindy, all
connected to Nick and some classified work that he had been involved in during his time in the Navy. There had to be
video surveillance in a van down the street to just keep watch to make sure the comings and goings of their home
were safe. Nick warned Mindy that an undercover team disguised as tree surgeons >> [music]
>> were planting surveillance cameras around their house. It sounded crazy. [music]
It did sound crazy because that does sound like something you see in a movie or read in a novel, but again,
you're talking to Mindy whose husband is a JAG who has all of this military clearance.
By June 2022, Nick and Mindy were living in Savannah. Friends say she was afraid to leave the
house. Did she sound scared? Uh she was she was scared. >> [music] [music] >> As Mindy's friends worried about the
strange events in her life in Savannah, 500 miles away in Virginia, Heather Thomas had been trying to track down her
ex-husband Nick Accosotas for nearly 2 years. I tracked him going to South Carolina. He had said something about
Georgia and that was always in the back of my mind. He owed her money from their divorce, a
million and a half dollars. A court had ordered him to pay and issued a warrant for his arrest. His law career was now
in jeopardy. >> If he was willing to throw away his license to practice ever and he was just
going to throw all caution to the wind, you're now dealing with a scenario where
you can't assume anything. So, you have to be prepared. I had to be prepared for anything.
Heather had a friend who was training to be a PI. Through him, she would discover
that Nick had been on the move. She would later find out that he had gone from state to state living in Airbnbs,
motels. Heather didn't know it, but Nick and Mindy were now hiding out in Savannah, [music] Georgia. That summer,
Mindy had told her friend Angela that she was pregnant. She's very excited and very happy.
But months later, just after Thanksgiving 2022, Angela got an unexpected call from Nick
and couldn't believe what he told her. He called me. He told me that Mindy was gone.
Mindy, Nick said, had died from a sudden medical problem, but his details were sketchy. He told her she'd been
cremated. There was no funeral, no memorial. I'm not hearing anything from anybody and I need to know what the hell
is going on cuz in my mind, you know, Mindy's not gone until I see that she is gone.
And I told him that several times. Like, I need to see it. I need to [music] see
her. I I need to see her. She tried to reach Nick again and again. He just dropped off the face of the
earth. It was a very hard and confusing time. >> [music] >> At around the same time, Nick's ex-wife
Heather had also gotten a message telling her that Mindy had died in the hospital. I was contacted saying, "Hey,
you know, Mindy's dead." What was your reaction? Horror. I was just like, "Oh my god." I felt terrible because
no matter what our beef was, Nick and my, like, to hear that a woman around my age is now dead,
I was sad. And just weeks after that sad news was still sinking in, Heather received more
surprising news >> [music] >> in a text from an acquaintance. >> This person says Nick is dead.
Nick Accosotas had died in a car crash. And I said, "Hm." So, you didn't believe that then.
I immediately didn't believe it. I'm like, "Well, something's fishy here." But Heather wasn't the only one who
heard that Nick had died. Mindy's parents received an email from the security department at the tech company
where Nick told them he was working. It read, "I'm very sorry to inform you that
Nicholas passed away late Wednesday evening." As Heather tried to get more details,
Googling news sites online, she came across that police sketch, the one that looks so much like Mindy, and called
authorities in Georgia. That helped police make a positive identification. And once they got a DNA and genetic
genealogy confirmation, they finally had proof [music] that the woman found in the swamp was indeed
Mindy Accosotas. Once they figure out who she is, all of these things that they've been
learning about the evidence found at the scene all ties in. Investigators could find no evidence of
Accosotas dying in a car crash. What they did find was a new driver's license in a new name, Nicholas Killian James
Stark. They tracked him to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he was now living with a third wife, a tech worker and
fiction writer, Samantha Coleyasnic. He had told her he was a widower. But then she writes,
He means Hey, sir. Can you read that here for me? In May 2023, detectives brought Accosotas back to Georgia for
questioning. He told them a detailed story similar to what Mindy's family and friends had heard about being pursued
and harassed by unknown individuals connected to government work he had done. There was different a couple
different stories. It was that there was um some fallout from some stuff that Nick
had done at the Pentagon. He was a potential target for a terrorist group. It was real top secret stuff and that it
was really super sensitive and almost like a, you know, secret agent type of life where they
just hidden in plain sight but had to kind of be careful. The once buttoned-down,
straight-laced attorney and former naval JAG officer now looked scruffy. Accosotas claimed that he reported the
conspiracy to the FBI. And that's when he says a federal agent came to their home offering to protect them. His name,
Jim McIntyre. I came home one day um and Mindy said that a that a FBI agent had come to the house
and uh you know, he was serious about what was going on and you know, wanted to meet with us both
and talk about it. And that was Jim? That was Jim. Um did he show you any credentials or
anything? I don't recall. According to Nick, for 4 years, Jim McIntyre took control of everything in
the couple's lives, telling them when to move and where. Jim told you to jump off
a cliff, you were going to go jump off a cliff? >> Yes, sir. For for years for years we did
exactly what Jim told us. So, you He wanted full access to our lives. He said he was keeping us safe. I think you're
living a web of lies. You talk in parallel realities. That's what you're doing here.
No, sir. Nick Accosotas had spun such an elaborate story for detectives, they had
a hard time believing anything he said. They began to suspect that he made up everything, [music]
that he was the author of the email sent to Mindy's parents announcing his death,
>> [music] >> complete with a company he didn't work for. It's kind of like, yeah, we we can
see through all the lies now. This is such a nightmare. Why is this happening? Detectives began asking him about
Mindy's last days. Right around Thanksgiving of 2022, while Accosotas was out of town, he said,
Mindy texted [music] him saying she had taken a fall and had checked herself into a clinic.
He was vague on details. Tell me about the day that you got called to the doctor's office. I got a phone call.
I forget from who. I don't know if it was somebody I knew or not asking if I could
I don't think it was somebody I knew asking if if I could come and pick her up that afternoon.
When Nick arrived, he told investigators, the doctor gave him bad news. I I sat down and and he he said
that that he uh was very sorry to tell me that Mindy passed away suddenly. So, he said Mindy had passed away
suddenly. Then what happened? He he I was I was extremely upset. I was Yeah, I like I I thought I was I was
coming there just to just to pick her up and bring her back. Um he said he said he he wasn't sure what
had happened. You go to this doctor's office, they tell you wife died, you don't ask to see
her. You immediately >> I did ask to see her. You don't get to see her. Cousot couldn't tell investigators where
the facility was or the names of anyone he spoke to. You don't force the go any further to see her. You just take them
at their word. You don't know their names, you don't know their addresses, don't know how to return there
whatsoever. You just leave. But if Mindy had died at a Savannah clinic, how did her remains end up in a swamp? Nick told
detectives he had no idea, but insisted he didn't do it. What Nick didn't know at the time was
that detectives were already building a case against him. I think it's easy for people to think about doing something,
but I think the act of doing it and then trying to cover up all the loose ends after you've started it's almost
impossible. For starters, when detectives ran a background check on Nick, they discovered he owned a green Ford
Explorer. A green Ford Explorer that looked just like the vehicle investigators had
spotted on a surveillance video from a remote pumping station near the crime scene. And why was that camera so
significant in this case? >> Because it captured Nicholas Cousot's Explorer driving past it going in and
out of that area. And that wasn't all. On a hunch, days after Frost had processed the crime
scene, he checked with Home Depot stores which sold that Milwaukee brand of knife. Agent Frost had contacted Home
Depot because he had worked another case and was familiar with the brand. One of
those knives had been purchased from a store just 50 minutes from the hunting club with a debit card belonging to Nick
Cousot. Here's a surveillance photo of Nicholas Cousot right after he paid for that
knife. There he is and you can see the knife right under his arm. And there were more knives. When Frost
had checked out a Bass Pro Shop in Savannah, he discovered that Cousot had also used his debit card there
and bought a knife kit designed for hunters. This is a seven-piece pursuit field dressing kit for animals. This is
like the same kit that was purchased by Cousot and there is an assortment of knives.
Oh my god. I'm not touching this. These are very sharp. >> Very sharp. And then there is also a
bone saw. Now, with Cousot apparently tied to the knives and the Ford Explorer, they
subpoenaed records from his phone and the Ford's GPS system. The car records showing his vehicle and phone traveling
down to exactly where her body is. He has no reason whatsoever to be there other than that his dismembered wife
happens to be found there when he told everyone else she was cremated. That was that facility.
>> Back in the interrogation room, detectives [music] confronted Cousot with their discoveries.
I mean, who else has the luck of going on a 25,000 acre property and getting captured on video?
It just so happens your phone, even your car, shows clearly where you were at down this long dirt road that just
happened to pass a camera and tracks your every movement. We put you and your cellular device and your
vehicle out there in these places where your wife's body is found dismembered with the knife that you just bought.
Why did you kill Mindy? >> Sir, I didn't kill Mindy. You killed Mindy. I did not. All the evidence shows
that you killed Mindy and it will continue to show. It's like a thousand piece puzzle.
You burned some of the pieces, but we've got enough to see a very clear picture.
But Cousot insisted he was innocent and pointed the finger at the man he says had been controlling their lives, Jim
McIntyre. Are you alleging that Jim killed your wife? I don't know, but I think it's possible.
She should never been in this situation. We should have never listened to Jim. In February 2024, a little over a year
after Mindy's death, Nick Cousot was indicted for the murder of Mindy Cousot. It's very difficult for me to believe
that Nick Cousot could murder anyone. Philip McCuller had walked these grounds of the Portal Hunting Club for years.
Before the December day in 2022 when he made that gruesome discovery. Kind of thought it was a mannequin to
start with. It didn't look real. Strewn along the swamp, the remains of the once vibrant 40-year-old Mindy
Cousot. More than two and a half years later, her husband Nick Cousot charged with her
murder was in a Hinesville, Georgia courtroom. We'll begin the trial at this time with the opening statements. This
trial would prove to be unlike any other from the get-go. >> My name is Doug Weinstein and I am
representing Mr. Cousot. In an unusual move, the prosecution forced defense attorney Weinstein to open his case
first. I honestly think it was purely a tactic to try to get into my head a little bit
and make me off balance. Mr. and Mrs. Cousot were told that they were targets. Weinstein immediately set the scene for
the defense. The alleged killer he says was actually another victim. Nick Cousot
is a man who lived in fear. Relentless, all consuming fear. Running for his life. It's hard
for me to ever believe that Nick killed Mindy. Instead, Weinstein told the jury Cousot
had been duped [music] and deluded by the mysterious figure Jim McIntyre. You'll hear testimony
that a man called calling himself Jim McIntyre claiming to be with the FBI told them that their lives were in
danger. Cousot is not a killer, he says, more like a frightened, desperate hero. A
decorated military veteran. He served in Iraq. He was in the Pentagon. But prosecutor Lori Beall says the real
Nick Cousot is revealed by the gruesome evidence left behind. And unfortunately,
you're going to hear about the dismemberment. Beall showed the weapon found near
Mindy's mangled body. A Milwaukee orange handled, black sheathed knife. Cousot's DNA was not found at the crime
scene, but that knife is the same brand investigators say as the one seen under his arm. That's him
>> [music] >> on surveillance from Home Depot. On the same day that authorities say Mindy may
have been murdered. The state calls Samantha Kolyesnik to the stand. Along with the facts and
forensics, the jury heard tales of betrayal. Do you swear including one by Cousot's third wife, Samantha Kolyesnik.
Yes. She believed she had married a loving widower, but later learned that Mindy was still alive when Nick first
started messaging her. She had no idea that that he was leading this double life. I don't think words will ever
capture how I felt, but I felt if I had to choose some words, I'd say horrified,
shocked, traumatized, violated, deceived. Samantha also told jurors Nick wanted to
quickly start a family. I went to a a preconception appointment. >> Right around the date of our marriage,
yep. Nick and I met at Naval Justice School in 2008 when he Retired Commander Cameron Nelson described the Nick that
she and others had once believed was an honorable, proud patriot. And I was scheduled to deploy aboard the USNS
Comfort which >> When she received a serious cancer diagnosis, unfortunately, I wasn't able
to go on that deployment. >> Cousot, she told the jury, stepped up and stepped in. Nick immediately
volunteered to take that deployment so that I could focus on treatment. But that same Nick Cousot, she says, also
betrayed her trust. When he told her that his financial accounts had been hacked, she lent him money and even gave
him a credit card. How much did the defendant charge to that credit card? Approximately $198,000.
Has he ever paid a penny towards that debt? Not a penny. The man Cameron thought was a patriot
now seemed like a calculating And we decided that it was just not sustainable to continue to allow him to
borrow money. Please raise your right hand and take the oath. First wife Heather Thomas testified
about her own betrayal. With its court order for Kosodas to pay up on their divorce agreement. Did the defendant
cooperate with the divorce obligations? No. Did that cause any kind of hardship to you? Of course. It
put me through a lot of emotional stress. Did he ever comply with that court order for the $1.5 million and the
attorney interest and the attorney fees? No. The jury watched that video of Kosodas'
green Ford Explorer [music] less than a mile from where Mindy's remains were found. And that camera captured that
vehicle. Is that correct? The water pumping station camera. Thank you. Special agent Tracy Sands said he
wasn't just sifting through physical evidence. He had been on a hunt for a star witness. Did you ever make an
effort to locate Jim McIntyre? Uh yes, ma'am, I did. There was only one in this area. I'm in the Savannah area.
And this McIntyre was definitely not an FBI agent. An older gentleman. He managed the company that sold dental
implants. Could you identify any connection between that Jim McIntyre to this case? I could not.
It's a powerful circumstantial case against Nikosodas that only one man can rebut. The defense
calls Nicholas Kosodas to the stand. Please raise your right hand and take the oath. For more than 3 hours, Kosodas
repeated to the jury his story about the mystery man who he insists controlled every detail of Mindy's life and his. I
gave Jim McIntyre access to literally everything. He had access to our home. He had all of our bank accounts. Why
would an accomplished attorney listen to some guy who just shows up and do whatever he says?
>> Well, isn't that's the million-dollar question, right? Why would he do that? Um
all I can think is panic. The defense offered no pictures of McIntyre, no records, just Kosodas'
testimony. I had no reason to doubt that he was who he said he was. And Kosodas claimed he was only in the area where
his wife's remains were found because the manipulative McIntyre had told him to go there. Did you kill your wife,
Mindy Kosodas? I absolutely did not. I would never have hurt Mindy. Did you dismember her body? No, absolutely not.
Then what about that knife cradled under his arm? Kosodas said it wasn't about murder. It was for home improvement, a
broken screen. I was having a very hard time getting the netting on it and keeping it secured up there. So I was
looking for something that kind of long and thin. What is Nick's strongest defense?
His strongest defense is it's entirely circumstantial. There was zero evidence presented at
trial of how Mindy was killed. And frankly, how, where Mindy was killed. They don't know.
>> [music] >> Attorney Weinstine closed his defense with this reminder to the jurors. The
state has an incredibly high burden to meet cuz they have got to show guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And
they haven't done that. They just They just haven't done that. As the trial wrapped up, the mystery man Jim McIntyre
Can't find a person that doesn't exist. never appeared in this Georgia courtroom. I submit to you there is no
Jim. He killed her. He took her from everyone. Bright, light, kind, good-natured. I submit to you
Mindy, she deserves your attention. This case is about her. Look at the evidence and come back with
what is the only appropriate outcome. Guilty of all charges. Nick Kosodas and his attorney had hoped
to convince a jury that he wasn't capable of killing his wife, Mindy, but somebody else was. It is not my job to
figure out who killed Mindy Kosodas. That is the state's job. It's a huge job. It's an important job and it's a
high burden. What's the motive for someone else to kill her? Well, again, we go back to Jim McIntyre.
That's the only person that could possibly That's the only person. The mysterious Jim McIntyre.
Prosecutors say there is no Jim McIntyre, that he doesn't exist. Do you have any evidence he does? I I have no
evidence that Jim McIntyre exists. >> have a picture of him? I have no picture. Any kind of documentation that
showed that he worked for a federal agency? All that we have on Jim McIntyre is what Nick has told Mindy. If I had
any way to prove that Jim McIntyre existed, you would have seen it at the trial.
Why should anyone believe Nick Kosodas' story when he's a liar? He lies a lot. He told some big lies, but nothing like
murdering your wife. I just refuse to take the leap of because you lie about certain things,
you're a murderer. I just It's just too far for me to go. Even prosecutor Lori Beo admitted that
despite Kosodas' inconsistencies, jurors might have doubts about his guilt. If you look at him on paper, he
looks like Prince [music] Charming. My mom and dad would have said, "Oh my gosh, he's a wonderful catch. He looks
fantastic. So why wouldn't you believe him?" But Beo says Kosodas has been fooling
people for years. He gaslighted everybody. Not stupid people, not people that are
unaware. And they all bought it. Including Mindy. She believed [music] him. I mean, there's no one disputes
that Mindy never left the house. That she was terrified and that she stayed home every moment of her life
afraid that if she left that she'd be [music] killed. The real story, says Beo, was much more
mundane. Kosodas was hiding, she says, because he didn't want to pay his ex-wife. Was Nick Kosodas gaslighting
his wife and making her believe that their lives were in danger when in fact he's just running from a debt?
You know, that's possible. >> I mean, he's a prosecutor. He's a lawyer. He might be able to convince her
of that. He also knows how to handle the legal system. So there's a million and a
half-dollar judgment against him. There's all kinds of ways to get rid of this debt. You don't need to live a
miserable life for 5 years because of a judgment that you can't pay. But why kill Mindy? Why do you believe
Nick Kosodas killed his wife? What What's the motive for it? That was the hardest question to answer.
But juries want to know. It was my argument to the jury that everybody said Nick wanted a family.
He wanted kids. He really wanted to have kids. But so why kill her? I think he found out she wasn't
pregnant. In fact, Mindy's death certificate [music] said she was not pregnant. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated.
Jurors [music] took just a little over an hour to reach a verdict. It's my understanding that
the jury has reached a verdict. Count one, malice murder, guilty. Count two, felony murder,
guilty. Guilty [music] on all charges. I don't believe for a minute Nick ever expected a guilty verdict to come back.
Before sentencing, Mindy's friend Morgan Paddock spoke directly to Kosodas. [music]
She loved you and trusted you to tell her the truth, to protect her, to live out your marriage vows.
And yet you were the one [clears throat] that she needed protection from. He is remanded to custody.
>> The judge sentenced Kosodas to life [music] without parole. Why did so many people
believe Nick Tsougas. You know I All I have are questions from this case, right? Just I don't have answers. So
many people, college grads, professionals, career Navy officers believed everything that Nick and Mindy
told them about why they were living the life. And I think it's because when Nick
would tell them something they they believed him. The people in his life are still
struggling with a betrayal. Is that hard for you then >> [music] >> to think that you were married to this
man who then killed his wife? The thing that I struggle with I think even now [music] is the fact that
survivor's guilt is very real. Out of the two of us I probably had he probably had more
reasons to perhaps maybe >> [music] >> come after me. I trusted him with my literal life
and I believed him. Mindy's friends now accept that they were all betrayed by Nick, but they hope
Mindy will be remembered not as a victim but a woman who saw the light in other women and tried to capture that in a
podcast. And it was beautiful and it was special and it was talking to a friend and
knowing that she had a platform and she wanted to use it for good. The Compelling Women podcast is written
and hosted [music] by me, Mindy Tsougas. Thank you so much for listening to the first season and I promise to be [music]
back with another season as soon as I can. >> [music] [music] >> Hello, I'm Anne Marie Green and welcome
back to Post Mortem. This week we're discussing the case of Mindy Meven Tsougas whose dismembered remains were
found in the woods near Savannah, Georgia on December 2nd, 2022. Now it took 5 months to identify her remains
and when her family and friends found out they were shocked by the discovery because Mindy's husband, Nick Tsougas,
had told them that Mindy died in the hospital in December and that her body had been cremated. When investigators
zeroed in on Nick Tsougas, he denied any involvement in Mindy's murder but told them a real sort of detailed story about
how he and Mindy had been targeted and harassed by shadowy figures for years. So joining me today to give us some
insight into this case, this very unusual case, is 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty. Thank you for joining us,
Erin. Well, it's a thrill to be here, Anne Marie, and I have to agree with you. We've never really had a case like
this where there really were two realities. So if you look at the evidence the cops
did, it's an ordinary, well, ordinary premeditated murder. But if you listen to Nick Tsougas, he's a former naval
officer and lawyer, he tells a very different story. So the bottom line was who do you believe? So true and so many
people believed him for years. Before we get into it, a quick reminder, if you haven't watched or listened to
the 48 Hours episode The Woman Who Died Twice check it out and then come on back and
join us for this conversation. So let's dig into these two realities as you put it. Um Mindy and Nick Tsougas
started dating back in 2015. They got married in 2016 and at first it really seemed like a fairy tale marriage but at
some point in 2018 Tsougas started telling Mindy that they were being surveilled and harassed by shadowy and
they went on the run. They basically went into hiding. Erin, can you break down just what was happening in the
couple's lives in those months leading up to Mindy's murder? Okay, so by June of 2022
they were living in an Airbnb in Savannah, Georgia and they were living with Mindy's parents who also believed
Tsougas' story that they were being surveilled, harassed. Mindy had told some of her friends about
the harassment and she told them it was all connected to her husband and some of
the classified work that he had done when he was in the Navy. And according to her friends, there was no question
Mindy believed it and was truly scared for her life. And here's the evidence we found of that. This was something we did
not put in the show but that Airbnb was just blocks from where Mindy's best friend from high school, Morgan Paddock,
lived. But Mindy apparently was so afraid to leave the house she never even told Morgan that. She never reached out
to her and Morgan had no idea she was there because they had stopped communicating at this point. And that
really gives you an idea of just how scared Mindy seemed to be. Right, clearly she believed what her husband
was telling her about these shadowy figures and in a way I can understand it especially if he's cutting off, you
know, her connections to other people, right? We've seen that before, Erin, where people, you know, their world
becomes so small that they become almost completely dependent on this one person
that's misleading them. But what I don't get is that even Mindy's friends and, you know, members
of her family, they didn't question this outlandish story. So that's the question
I ask people. I would ask her friends "Why didn't you ask more questions?" And they said that they did think the story
was crazy but because her husband had such an impressive background they believed him and they didn't ask a lot
of questions. Keep in mind, Anne Marie, Tsougas had been a lawyer in JAG, the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps,
which is basically the Navy's legal arm. I don't know if I ever mentioned to you
that before I went to law school I thought about being a JAG because they pay for your way into law school and it
is considered to be one of the best ways, it's a military lawyer. And so he was highly respected, he was a naval
officer and he had served all over the world. So not only Mindy believed him, all her friends did, too. It also
occurred to me that because of the internet and there are so much talk about conspiracies, I think people are
more open to this kind of story that he was telling. That is such an interesting
observation. I I think you're probably right. Um but then we sort of go a step further,
right? Because in December of 2022 Tsougas told Mindy's friends and family that she died from a sudden medical
issue and that, you know, there's no body because she had been cremated. I can maybe understand Mindy's friends
accepting that story because they weren't around her but her own parents didn't question
this. You know, this is still kind of a mystery to me, Anne Marie. Um her parents did not speak to us but the
investigators told us they did love their daughter. Still, we know that when Tsougas told
Mindy's parents that their daughter had died and that he didn't get her body and
couldn't tell them where it was and oddly they seemed to accept that. You know, you would think they would
maybe call the cops. They did not. I should also point out they were all living in the same house.
Um but they went away to visit her brother, their son, during Thanksgiving and when they got back that's when
Tsougas said that he had taken Mindy to the hospital and that she had died. And then here's the weird part of the story.
Right after >> this is the weird part of the story? Yeah, well, all right, it's getting
weirder. Right. >> So right after Tsougas told them that Mindy died but he, you know, couldn't show them the
body or anything, then he disappeared. He disappeared and again they still did not call the cops.
And 2 months later, in February of 2023, Mindy's parents got an email ostensibly
from the company that Tsougas claimed he worked for saying that he had been in a
car accident. We know that they wanted to go see him but then they get another email saying that he had died. Mm. Even
then even then Mindy's parents don't seem to realize that they were being bamboozled. So when Mindy's
dismembered body was found in the woods investigators were unable to identify her at first and they released two
sketches of her face. Tsougas' first wife, Heather Thomas, discovered that sketch and then made an anonymous call
to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation saying that it looked an awful lot like her ex-husband's new wife, Mindy
Tsougas. What's interesting about Heather is that when she spoke to you about Tsougas, she
said at one point that, you know, they were best friends, that they remained friendly after the divorce. When did
things sort of break down between them? Well, initially it was amicable. Um she said they had become roommates not
husband and wife and that's why they broke up. Also, Heather and Kusoldas had shared two dogs. So, they stayed in each
other's lives and she says they were friendly during that that time. But, there was one really big issue between
them. Apparently, Kusoldas owed Heather money from the divorce and he was supposed to pay off It's a lot of money.
Yeah. $1.5 million for the mortgage on the house. He also owed her lawyer's fees and interest and
compounding. And the only reason why Heather really was upset about it, why she became upset
about it was she also worked for the government and had a security clearance and she was worried it would be denied
if she had large debts. What's interesting is that Mindy, who is now married to Kusoldas, knew nothing about
any of this debt. Her friends say that Mindy heard a totally different story from her husband.
He told her that Heather was crazy and was trying to steal from him. Wow. I mean, people believe Kusoldas except for
luckily investigators. Um they didn't buy his story at all. When they brought him in for questioning, he told them uh
the same tale about being pursued and harassed by unknown individuals and also said that uh for his family's
protection, he gave complete control to a mysterious FBI agent. He said his name
was Jim McIntyre. Of course, he said that he didn't kill Mindy and that uh he didn't know who did, but he thought
maybe Jim was responsible. Uh let's just listen to a clip from the hour of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's agent
Tracy Sands asking Kusoldas about Jim McIntyre. If Jim told you to jump off a cliff, would you have gone and jumped
off a cliff? >> Yes, sir. For For years For years we did exactly what Jim told us to do. So, you
He wanted full access to our lives. He said he was keeping us safe. Unfortunately, we did not get to sit
down with Tracy Sands um during the hour um even though he was so important to this investigation,
the DA Billy Joe Nelson told us, and I'm quoting, that we might not be sitting here today without Tracy Sands. That's
how important he was. We could have had an unsolved death on our hands without Tracy Sands. In fact, Sands led both
interviews with Kusoldas after Kusoldas's arrest and he worked with the FBI to try to find the mysterious Jim
McIntyre. But sadly, this was Tracy's last case. He did agree to sit down with us. He
would have been in our hour for an interview, but he died unexpectedly right after the trial. But this is why
Tracy Sands and investigators didn't believe Kusoldas the way all of Kusoldas's friends and family did
because they had been investigating him for weeks as soon as they were able to identify that woman found in the swamp
as Mindy. And investigators told us they couldn't find any evidence to back up Kusoldas's
story and they tried hard, they say. They even wanted to find the mysterious Jim McIntyre. Um and they did. They
found a Jim McIntyre. He was an older man who managed a company that sold dental implants. He was not a federal
agent. Uh what they did find though was surveillance footage of Kusoldas's car and it was very close to the hunting
grounds where Mindy's body was found. And they were able even to find the evidence that Kusoldas had bought the
same kind of knife that was found at the crime scene. So, in February of 2024, just a little over a year after Mindy's
death, Kusoldas was indicted for his wife's murder. So, let's talk about the trial. More
than 2 and 1/2 years after Mindy Kusoldas's murder, her husband Nick Kusoldas is charged with her murder and
appears in a Georgia courtroom. I could not help but to notice just how different he looked from his police
interview. He looks like a completely different person. I It really made me question like who is
this guy? I mean, that was the big question I had all the way through this. Um Sadly, we don't know a lot about
Kusoldas's upbringing or even his background before he went to law school and got all his legal training.
His parents decided not to talk to us, but we did see them in the courtroom to support him. Um and here's something
that we didn't tell you in the hour, which I think is so interesting, is that at some point, Kusoldas said, and I
don't think this should surprise anyone who's listening, he began to write fiction. He had
actually published a short story on Reddit. I should tell you what the name was. It was called My Mother-in-law was
poisoning me and then I found out why. Oh my gosh. >> this, Sony Pictures paid him $400,000
for the story rights. >> You're kidding me. And then here's a weird thing that we did tell you in the
hour, but after Mindy died, which did not make Kusoldas look so good, he ended up getting married quickly to another
fiction writer that he had met online. He lied to that wife also. He told her he was a widower and that was at a time
when Mindy was still alive. Mhm. Oh my gosh. Just saying. I mean, this is really an unusual case,
but another reason why it was unusual is Nick Kusoldas testified in his own defense. That doesn't happen frequently
even though I know if you watch 48 Hours, you see it frequently enough, but in general, it doesn't happen. Um he
testified for more than 3 hours and he repeated to the jury this story about Jim McIntyre insisting that McIntyre had
offered him and Mindy protection and controlled every detail of their lives. Uh so, you spoke to Kusoldas's defense
lawyer, Doug Weinstein. What was his reasoning for putting his client on the stand? I I was curious about the same
thing. Weinstein is a very good trial lawyer. He says, and I think he's right, his strongest defense was that
this case was entirely circumstantial. Nobody saw Kusoldas kill his wife. Yeah. There was zero evidence of how or where
Mindy was killed and investigators never found any of Kusoldas's DNA near Mindy's
body. But Doug Weinstein told us that in fact, he had never ever put a client on
the stand before and would never want to, but he did because remember, his client was a lawyer and that lawyer
insisted he wanted to testify. Mhm. It was all Kusoldas. He decided he wanted to to testify and I think what's
interesting about that is, and this is just my feeling, so many people have believed Kusoldas, I
think he thought the jury would too. Right. I was in the courtroom I when Kusoldas
testified. I did not want to miss it. He was calm, unemotional and when I thought
about it, this was his wife and her death. If he's insinuating that someone else did it, you would think that he
would be more emotional. I was also surprised when the prosecutor did not go harder on Kusoldas in cross-examination
because I thought she would. I think everybody in the courtroom thought she would. But later, that prosecutor, Lori
Beall, told me that she thought he had sunk himself and she thought it was better just to let the jury see that.
The prosecution did present a really strong circumstantial case uh including the surveillance footage of Kusoldas's
car near the hunting grounds, the evidence that Kusoldas had bought the kind of knife that they found at the
crime scene, and then records from his cell phone and the car GPS showing both traveled to the exact location in the
woods where Mindy's body was found. It's hard stuff to refute, but what they were
not able to do, and they don't have to, but it helps, is they didn't really present a clear motive. They could not
tell us why he would kill his wife. Lori Beall, the prosecutor, felt that she needed to answer that for the jury. Mhm.
But she says that to this day, it's the hardest question to answer. Um her theory is that Kusoldas really wanted a
family. We know that Mindy and Kusoldas had told Mindy's family and her friends that she was pregnant.
But after her remains were found, the death certificate revealed that she hadn't been and wasn't pregnant within
the past year before she was killed. So, did she lie about it? Did she lie to her
husband about it? The prosecutor thinks that Kusoldas might have killed her when
he found out that she wasn't pregnant and maybe lying about it. Mindy was stabbed in the abdomen. Mhm. Um and that
is really why Lori Beall thinks that. Um there's more evidence to show that he really did want to have children. At
least the story that Heather told us is that when Heather had been married to Kusoldas, she had really tried to get
pregnant and he wanted her to. Uh they didn't have children. And then when she remarried, she had a child
really quickly afterwards and she says that Kusoldas saw her pregnant and that she thought he looked really freaking
and uncomfortable. So, that kind of supports that theory too. Mhm. Um when you spoke to
the district attorney Billy Joe Nelson, he had another theory about Nick Kessodis' motive. Um I want to play a
clip from the interview that was not in the hour. I believe if you look at the evidence in
this case, ultimately the defendant Mr. Kessodis in this case was looking for a way out of
his current situation. Why that had to end with the death of Mindy Meven, we'll never know
unless he decides to tell you why he did it. Um but at the end of the day, if you look at the evidence, I think he
was planning an escape out of the life he was living. That is the theory I kind of go with
Emery. I really do. Can you imagine how many people he had told this story to? It must have been really hard to keep it
up and keep all the details. Um he had already met the woman who would become his third wife a couple of months before
he killed Mindy. So it's possible that getting rid of Mindy would let him run away from his past life and have a new
wife. It's also possible, we don't know because we can't ask Mindy, maybe she was beginning to question those stories
toward the end. But these are all just theories and as the prosecutor said, unless Kessodis decides to tell us,
we'll never know for certain. We'll never know. The jury deliberated for just a little
over an hour before finding Kessodis guilty of all charges. Clearly there wasn't a lot of debate in
the in the jury room there. But when you think about it, he really came very close to getting away with a perfect
murder. If Mindy's body had not been found, could Kessodis have actually gotten away with this? I actually think
he he could have. If he had not left Mindy at that hunting ground, because he didn't realize how often
people were there, we might never have heard about this case. If you think about it, all her friends
thought she had died in the hospital. Her own parents thought she had died in that hospital. None of them were
questioning it. If he had left her someplace where there weren't people all the time, he really
could have gotten away with it. The other problem, of course, was driving a car that was a cell phone and getting
caught on video. So his car was identified very close to where her body was. That those were the two big
mistakes he made. You know, often when you discover that someone you trust and like has lied to
you, it rocks you a little. Like you start to reassess just how you view the world. You start to reassess the other
people that you have believed and trusted. I'm just curious how the people who he lied to are how are they
grappling with all of this? Everybody feels so betrayed. Kessodis' first wife Heather specially. She has what she's
been calling survivor's guilt cuz she said to us, "Look, there were more reason to kill me. You know, he owed me
so much money, but I survived and Mindy didn't." And Mindy's friends say even though they're really
devastated by what happened, they're happy to know what really happened to Mindy and that there is some sense of
justice. I I just want to let you listen to something that Angela Wynn, one of Mindy's closest friends, said to us. I
was very upset. I was very distraught. But I also felt like I'm finally going to get the closure that I needed because
after that December, I I didn't I wasn't even able to to see her, to say goodbye to her. And so
for me it was I cannot believe this has happened, but then on the other side of that, I'm so glad that we now know and
that he can be held accountable for it. I had been lied to for years. We had all
been lied to for years, right? Her parents, her friends, his friends, his family. I mean, he spun a web of lies, a
web of lies that touched every single person that he knew. Isn't that moving? He gaslit everyone.
Yeah. How many people were damaged by this man's lies? The other thing that kind of I keep thinking about is we have
done stories on people who were scammers or liars or and and usually they're kind of failing
through life. But here's a guy who is actually quite successful and if he just kind of continued along that path, he
would have the life that he always wanted. He didn't need to do any of this. I also wonder whether when he left
the Navy, maybe things didn't come as easy for him. And so maybe he had to create this interesting life because he
never had a great job after he left the Navy. So I wonder if that's part of it, too, that he became kind of a legal
Walter Mitty. That that's actually a great observation. I don't know if we'll ever really know who Nick Kessodis
really is. Um but this was a fascinating hour. Aaron, thank you so much for talking to
us today. Thank you, Emery. Always. And thank you all for listening. If you like this
episode, please rate and review on [music] Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Watch "The Woman Who Died Twice" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondents Erin Moriarty and Anne-Marie Green as they discuss the murder of Mindi Kassotis on "Post Mortem." Kassotis' dismembered remains were discovered in the woods in 2022, but her husband, Nick Kassotis, told family and friends that Mindi had died in a hospital.

00:00 The Woman Who Died Twice 42:03 Watch the "Post Mortem" podcast

True crime. Real justice. "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

Mindy Cassodus was murdered by her husband Nick, who misled friends and family about her death.

Key points

Mindy's Identification. A forensic sketch leads to the identification of Mindy Cassodus, raising alarming questions.
Strange Events in Savannah. Mindy's life takes a bizarre turn as she fears for her safety, leading to paranoia.
Mindy's Sudden Death. Nick claims Mindy died suddenly from a medical issue, but details remain sketchy.
Nick's Mysterious Disappearance. Nick Accosotas is reported dead in a car crash, but doubts arise about the truth.
Nick Cousot Indicted for Murder. In February 2024, Nick Cousot was indicted for the murder of his wife Mindy.
Testimony of Betrayal. Samantha Kolyesnik testifies about her relationship with Nick and his deception.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What do you do when you feel like something is wrong?

A reflection on disbelief and confusion in a troubling situation.

3:20WatchApr 5, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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