Rhonda Casto | Pushed to Death | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[dramatic music] NARRATOR: A fatal fall from a remote mountain trail. A young woman's life erased in an instant.
JEFF CASTO: When I found out, I practically collapsed on the floor right there. NARRATOR: Was it just a tragic accident--
- Steve's account of what had happened was that Rhonda had slipped and fallen because she was
pretending to be Supergirl. NARRATOR: --or could the prosecution-- MAN 1: One, two, three.
NARRATOR: --prove it was murder? DARDIE ROBINSON: If she ran off the edge, she would never have landed that far from the cliff.
[soft piano music] - Everybody needs to have someone in their life that believes in them.
And that was Rhonda. AMBER HAQUE: Rhonda Casto was born in 1985, in Texas, and she was known for being attractive woman.
She had a really outgoing, bubbly personality. Friends and family described Rhonda as just so
easygoing, great to be around. She had this really infectious personality and she was really fiercely loyal about the people
that she loved. - Rhonda was a very loving, caring, non-judgmental person. Really kind of goofy sense of humor like mine.
Very outspoken, super loyal to her friends and family. You know, it's cliche to say it, but it's true,
she's my best friend. You know, we were close. She's the type of person who lights up a room or energy
when she comes into a room. AMBER HAQUE: 20-year-old Rhonda moved to the Portland, Oregon
area with her mom, Julia. The two had a really close relationship. Julia was looking to move house and
she saw an ad online for a man advertising his spare room in his three-bedroom house.
- And that's how she found Steve. - Not long after Julia moved in, she introduced her daughter to Steve.
She thought that the pair would get on really well, and before long, they were an item.
JEFF CASTO: Steve, he had the ability to be very charming. He's well-spoken, physically fit,
and he shared a lot of similar interests. I think that there was genuine attraction there.
AMBER HAQUE: It seems that Steve had all of the attributes that Rhonda was looking for, and
he was willing to really splash the cash on her and impress her. - On the night that she had first went on a date with
Steve, she came home and she had this little-- dainty little tennis bracelet on.
You could tell it was real. It was-- it was nice. I mean, not like $1 million bracelet,
but certainly, you know-- within, you know, low four-figure range. - Rhonda then moved in with Steve,
and eventually the two moved out and got their own apartment. Three years later, Rhonda was pregnant,
and in 2008 they had a baby daughter. JEFF CASTO: She doted on her daughter. It's hard to put into words.
She was meant to be a mom. Her daughter was her world. Our childhood was not the greatest,
and so she wanted for her daughter to have all those things that we didn't have.
You know, the structure, the stability, the parent to dote on them and show them the way
and how to make it in the world. AMBER HAQUE: This is what she'd been waiting for.
And she really grew into that role as a mother. NARRATOR: Before starting a family with Steve,
Rhonda was a rising star on the Portland modeling scene. Rhonda was a beautiful woman, really naturally attractive.
- She actually did get involved with a modeling agency, and she had a portfolio and headshots and all that stuff.
AMBER HAQUE: And she had a really successful career modeling for brands like Nike.
After giving birth, Rhonda was really keen to get back to her modeling jobs. She had a potential job lined up
as a Maria Sharapova lookalike, so she really wanted to get back into shape. Steve was telling his friends that Rhonda
was keen to lose some of her baby weight to bounce back into her job, and so they'd
talked about going hiking. NARRATOR: But Rhonda believed there might be another reason for their hiking trip
into the mountains. JEFF CASTO: I remember Rhonda telling us about it. He's going to propose to me.
And they had literally looked at rings, and so she was legitimately excited about this hike.
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: On March 16, 2009, Rhonda and Steve set off on a hike on the Eagle Creek Trail
in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. It's an area that local investigator Dardie Robinson, who's lived in Oregon for more than 20 years,
knows well. - The Columbia River Gorge is a beautiful historic and natural scenic area.
It's known for rugged terrain, gorgeous views, sudden weather changes, and it's quite desired by hikers, climbers, anyone who
loves to go out and recreate. The Eagle Creek Trail quickly goes from being no elevation up to a couple of hundred feet
at places above the creek. AMBER HAQUE: Eagle Creek Trail is known for having really narrow pathways.
Some of them you can only go one at a time, and there's some sheer drops of up to 150 feet.
JEFF CASTO: It's considered to be advanced because, you know, the drop offs and there's places where there's
not guardrails, but just rope. It's beautiful, but also very dangerous, especially if you're not familiar with it
or not extra careful and know what you're doing. AMBER HAQUE: The weather started out pleasant that day,
but then things took a bit of a turn. It really started to pour down with rain, and the conditions became quite treacherous.
NARRATOR: As the bad weather closed in on the couple's remote hike, at 6:09 PM, a frantic call was made.
- He said that he tried to call 911, but there was no service. So then he'd had to climb back up again to make the call.
AMBER HAQUE: Around 20 minutes after Steve made the 911 call, first responders and police arrived.
They found Rhonda's body, and they pronounced her dead at the scene. On the same evening, Rhonda's family
started to become concerned. Her mom, Julia, was babysitting their daughter, and she hadn't heard from Rhonda for hours.
JEFF CASTO: I thought it was weird that she wasn't answering her phone, so I just figured, oh, they're out of service.
But as afternoon turned into early evening, I started getting really concerned. This is not typical.
Like, she wouldn't want to leave their daughter that long. - Family members were calling.
They were texting Rhonda, and they really started to get alarmed as the hours went on.
Around 8:00 PM, there was a knock at the door. A local chaplain had been sent by the fire service
and he told Julia that her daughter was gone. NARRATOR: Meanwhile, Rhonda's brother,
Jeff, was still awaiting news on his sister's whereabouts. JEFF CASTO: Once it got past dark,
I was starting to feel kind of panicky, and so I called my mom again and my mom's boyfriend answers,
and I was like, did you guys get a hold of her? And he's like, yep, it's done. And I was like, what do you mean?
What's done? He's like, done, dude, she's dead. [tense music] Like, that's literally how he told me.
No exaggeration. And I just collapsed. You know, I didn't pass out, but I just dropped the phone
and was like, oh my god, you know what I mean? I was just stunned. I didn't know what to say or do or whatever.
NARRATOR: Steve also phoned his family with the tragic news about Rhonda. - Steve Nichols called his own father to break the news
about what had happened. He was so overwhelmed with emotion and floods of tears that his dad could barely understand what he was saying.
He was hysterical at this point, saying, Rhonda's dead, she's fallen. She slipped on ice and fell off the edge.
NARRATOR: Reeling from the devastating news about his sister, Jeff headed over to his
and Rhonda's mother's house. - Everybody was there, and she had Rhonda's daughter,
and I was trying to focus on being strategic and staying level-headed because everyone
was super upset. They were just distraught. I mean, they were in disbelief. And so the sheriff's department came
and was telling us a little bit about what had happened. Yeah, that was, uh, how I found out that night.
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: In March 2009, after Rhonda Casto had fallen 150 to her death while hiking with her partner Steve Nichols,
Steve talked to police about what had happened. - Steve's account was that Rhonda had slipped and fallen
because she was running around pretending to be Supergirl with a towel around her neck.
NARRATOR: But other aspects of Steve's story began to arouse suspicion. AMBER HAQUE: His calm demeanor, the way
he was answering questions about what happened on the day and in the build-up just weren't quite adding up.
After Rhonda had fallen, it took Steve an hour and a half to make the call to 911.
Steve said that it took him over an hour to scramble down to where Rhonda's body was,
and then he began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her. - He claimed also that he laid down on top of her
and took a nap. DONNA YOUNGS: Can this be explained by-- by him being in a state of shock?
In a state of shock, yes, you're confused, trying to work out what's happening, but you would also be overwhelmed by the need
to get emergency help as quickly as possible. The idea that you might just be stuck
in a state of absolute inertia for an hour and a half when a loved one is desperately needing assistance
makes no sense. - Another detail that jumped out about this 911 call was that Steve seemed more concerned about his own
well-being, that he had deemed Rhonda was already dead, and he was more concerned about the authorities
coming to help him. [intriguing music] DONNA YOUNGS: Police arriving on the scene
were struck by how Steve seemed to be relatively calm, and more concerned with needing a blanket for himself
than what had happened to Rhonda. Here we have someone whose focus is utterly egocentric,
even in this moment of Rhonda's death. He seems to have no sense that he needs even
to pretend to care about other people, let alone genuinely showing any empathy for the situation.
There's an absence of-- of awareness of anyone other than himself. In emergency situations, yes, there's
a self-protective drive that comes to the surface, but more powerful is the drive to protect those that you love.
So this bias he's showing towards his own comfort rather than what has happened to Rhonda is remarkable.
- Another detail that jumped out about this hike that day were the conditions. DARDIE ROBINSON: It was horrendous weather.
That time of year is known in the gorge for being windy, rainy. There was some ice.
Snow can come up suddenly. - Why would this couple go up on a really advanced hike in such treacherous,
dangerous conditions? NARRATOR: Hood River County Police also had questions over the positioning of Rhonda's body.
- When the police arrived, Steve had claimed that Rhonda's body was right next to the river,
but when they found her, she was around 100 feet away, and it was really hard for them to work out
where exactly she had fallen. - He claimed that he gave her CPR. Mr. Nichols couldn't have given her
CPR because she was found face down and in no realm, in no world do you ever give someone CPR face down.
- Also, there were no marks or tracks found near Rhonda's body, and this suggested that her body
hadn't been moved. NARRATOR: Detectives questioned friends and family about Rhonda and Steve, only to discover
that their relationship had been rocky from the very start. - When her and Steve first went out on an official date-date
with, you know, him and his friends and all that, he ignored her the whole time, and his
friends picked up on it, and he ended up making her cry that night. He just was very condescending.
It was the constant undercurrent of manipulation and being cold and distant and flirting with other women,
making her cry on dates, ignoring her, being mean to her. And things only got worse once their daughter was born.
He basically destroyed her identity internally. He broke her down. I'm aware of maybe two or three times where it got physical.
She actually did send me photos of bruises on her back from him tackling her at their condo.
And I remember confronting Steve over it, over the phone, and him basically laughing it away
and saying, oh, well, you know how she gets. - Steve's version of how the relationship was
was very different. He said there was no discontent between the two of them, and actually, he had been planning
to propose to Rhonda that day. And when the police questioned him, well, where's the ring?
He suggested maybe it had fallen in the river. NARRATOR: But according to Jeff, even Rhonda had her doubts about Steve's intentions
on the hike. JEFF CASTO: The hike was planned at least a week or two in advance.
It stuck in my mind that Rhonda had said something to me and my grandma. She said it sort of irreverently,
jokingly-- but she's like, well, you know, Steve's either going to kill me or he's going to propose to me.
[ominous music] NARRATOR: After hearing conflicting reports about the state of Rhonda and Steve's relationship,
detectives hoped Rhonda's autopsy report would provide more information. - Two days after her death, Rhonda's autopsy results
were quite surprising. - Rhonda's pelvis was shattered. This suggests that she had, in fact landed on her feet,
not headfirst. - These autopsy results seemed to support Steve's version of events that Rhonda had fallen
or she jumped. The injuries didn't show any signs of an altercation between the two beforehand,
and no signs of foul play. The autopsy also found traces of marijuana and some prescription medication in Rhonda's body.
And although Steve had suggested she was acting high, there wasn't enough traces of the drugs
in her system to suggest that she'd been out of control. NARRATOR: The coroner classified Rhonda's cause
of death as multiple blunt force injuries, which were consistent with a fall from over 150 feet.
The manner of death was listed as undetermined. Police suspected foul play, but without witnesses or
any physical evidence, Rhonda's case stalled and Steve moved away with their young daughter
to live with his family in Bend, Oregon. AMBER HAQUE: When Steve Nichols moved on with his life,
Rhonda's mother, Julia, was still convinced that there had been a reason why her daughter died,
and she was convinced that that was because of money. Julia claimed that Steve had lost a lot of money
in the 2008 financial crash, and that he was trying to claim some of these funds
back by claiming life insurance money from Rhonda's death. NARRATOR: A few months before Rhonda died,
Steve had taken out life insurance policies for him and Rhonda, worth $1 million each.
- Steve claimed that Rhonda was the one pressuring him to take out this life insurance,
but Rhonda's family disputed this. They say it was Steve who put the pressure on.
- I mean, Rhonda wouldn't even have known all the nitty gritty behind terms and, you know, double indemnity,
accidental death clauses and all that. So absolutely, Steve was behind the policy.
- Just 10 days after Rhonda's death, Steve put in a claim for the life insurance money.
The detectives found this suspicious, so they asked for the money to be withheld while the investigation was unfolding.
NARRATOR: But due to the lack of physical evidence, the case ground to a halt. Over the next two years,
Rhonda's mother grew frustrated at the lack of progress, and in a bid to stop Steve from claiming the life insurance
money, opened a civil case. - In 2011, Julia contacted a law firm and she managed to get a really tenacious
investigator known as Dardie Robinson, to take on the case. - The primary impetus for me to get involved in this
was that there was a baby of about a year and a half old who was purportedly in the custody of the man
who had murdered her mother. That deserved a look. NARRATOR: When Dardie began to investigate Steve's past,
she was astounded. - Nichols had been previously married. I learned that he had given up custody of his prior daughter.
I learned that Mr. Nichols had attempted to throw his prior wife off the balcony
of a high rise in China. NARRATOR: Investigators also discovered he had sexually assaulted one of Rhonda's relatives, who
was a minor, and then tried to convince her that she could become his baby's mother.
- If this were true, this would be the kind of behavior you would expect from somebody with a psychopathic
personality, somebody who is prepared to do anything to achieve their own objectives.
NARRATOR: Dardie felt convinced that Rhonda's death was no accident, and that the civil case she was building
against Steve would, in fact, be strong enough to be tried as a criminal case in court.
In 2012, three years after Rhonda's death, Dardie took her findings to the district attorney's office.
CARRIE RASMUSSEN: In 25 years of prosecuting, I had never been brought a case from a civil law firm.
Dardie and her attorney that she was working with at the time presented us with additional materials that he thought
would warrant a second look, and I agreed. - Getting the case reviewed by Carrie
was extremely important because while we couldn't do anything for Rhonda, there was this vulnerable young child who
deserved protection, and she was in the custody of the potential murderer of her mother.
- The circumstances around Mr. Nichols, I believe causing the death of Rhonda Casto,
assaulted my conscience when I would think about him profiting off of the million-dollar
insurance policy. I believed that his daughter needed protection from him and that he was a dangerous person,
and that if I didn't try to at least find some justice, that would hopefully lead to the protection
of Rhonda Casto's daughter, I wouldn't really be able to live with myself. I at least needed to try.
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: After Rhonda Casto had fallen to her death in 2009, the investigation
into whether or not she was pushed by her partner Steve had gone cold. Four years later, the district attorney's office was
still looking into the case. Meanwhile, Steve had moved with his daughter to China.
- Steve soon established a new life in China. He got a job teaching English to businessmen out there.
He met a new partner and they soon got engaged. NARRATOR: Back in Oregon, deputy district attorney
Carrie Rasmussen and her team were slowly building a case against Steve Nichols.
- For a prosecutor, it's always difficult to pick up a cold case. Part of it is you need to take a new look at the old evidence,
and then decide where follow-up work needs to happen. When you have a small county district attorney's office
and small law enforcement offices, the burden is even greater. And so all of us had to put some of our own time
in to figure out what leads needed to be followed, new interviews conducted. So it's really rebuilding the whole case from scratch.
You're going to have to persuade, you know, a jury of 12 people to find beyond a reasonable doubt that a homicide happened.
And that's very difficult in a circumstantial evidence case with no witnesses. So what you're really looking at
are multiple circumstances that add up to a finding that he was responsible. NARRATOR: Collecting testimony that
supported Steve's history of questionable behavior, known as bad acts, was critical to the success of the case.
CARRIE RASMUSSEN: Detectives needed to contact various partners and an ex-wife and the family of Ms. Casto about what they experienced
at the hands of Mr. Nichols. They had important information to give us to consider whether or not we
could provide enough evidence to the grand jury to consider. NARRATOR: But as the new case began to gain momentum,
Carrie and Dardie came up against a surprising setback. - What materialized is that the lead detective on Rhonda's case
had intentionally wiped his hard drive. This resulted in the loss of key evidence
like crime scene photos and autopsy photos. NARRATOR: The reasons the hard drive was wiped
have always remained unclear. But what was very clear was that it was going to have a huge impact on Rhonda's case.
- The destruction of evidence by the first detective from 2009 was a devastating blow.
That's almost impossible to surmount four a prosecutor. But I was willing to try.
They took the hard drive and they were able to resurrect some-- not all, but some of the evidence.
Most importantly, pictures of the crime scene. And we believed that given evidence of motive and intent
and the evidence that we were able to resurrect from the deleted hard drive, that we had enough to let
a grand jury consider it. NARRATOR: Carrie presented the case to a grand jury, who would decide
if there was enough evidence to indict Steve for the murder of Rhonda Casto. Proceedings were held in secret to avoid
alerting Steve to the investigation and risk him never returning to the US. On April 18, 2014, the jury made their decision and
Steve Nichols was indicted. - It was a total shock when I heard he was indicted.
I never thought that the case would be revived. I had already given up on any kind of hope
for that to happen. NARRATOR: All the prosecutors had to do was wait for Steve Nichols
to return from China so he could be arrested. - Towards the end of February 2015,
Mr. Nichols flew back to the United States to California in order to renew his child's passport.
Steve and the child landed at San Francisco airport. He was immediately arrested the minute they saw his passport.
It triggered the secret indictment. The child was taken into protective custody,
and he was taken to the San Mateo County Jail charged with first-degree murder. NARRATOR: Steve Nichols was arrested on February 2,
2015, almost six years after Rhonda fell to her death in 2009. He was interviewed by detectives
and detained at Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility, awaiting a date to face charges in court.
JEFF CASTO: When I heard that Steve had been arrested, I was stunned and I was grateful that their daughter
was away from him. It was a big mix of emotions. I felt Steve facing trial for murder was justified.
I was cautiously optimistic, but really kind of skeptical that he would be punished for it.
NARRATOR: In May 2015, three months after Steve's arrest, he appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty
to the charge of murder. Bail was set at $2 million and he was detained to await trial.
Meanwhile, prosecutors continued to build on their theory that he had pushed Rhonda to her death.
But the lack of physical evidence meant it wasn't going to be easy. CARRIE RASMUSSEN: I was preparing
to deliver a murder case based on circumstantial evidence. They're very tough. It is not a slam dunk case.
There was no direct witness to him causing her death. There's no physical evidence of him placing his hands
on her, for instance. There's nobody hearing an argument. So there are all sorts of circumstances
around that show motive, intent, maybe even planning. The key elements were the circumstances
surrounding the death itself, statements that Mr. Nichols had made at the scene, which were concerning,
statements that he made after the scene, his behaviors towards others that pointed to his motivation
in the case. Circumstances around the million-dollar insurance policy taken out two months earlier on his girlfriend's life.
Circumstances involving his attempted assault, if not homicide, allegedly in Shanghai.
And when you put the whole picture together, that points to only one person who caused her death.
NARRATOR: To strengthen their case, Carrie and the investigators decided to reenact the fatal fall at Eagle Creek
in the hope of providing further evidence that Rhonda was pushed. DARDIE ROBINSON: We conducted the reenactment
in March of 2015. A reenactment with experts is something that I routinely do in my cases to see in real-world terms what
happens, what is going to happen, what can be seen, where something will land. And in this case, you had somebody who's claiming
that there was just a fall. I got two dummies, Laverne and Shirley, that were the exact same weight as Rhonda was at the time,
and dressed them in exactly the same clothing so that we would have the same types of drag.
MAN 1: OK, ready? One, two, three. [grunts] DARDIE ROBINSON: We did several test runs,
replicating the weather, the season, the foliage, the time of day, the trail conditions,
the force that it required to launch a 140-pound person so that they would land in that area.
We had the Hood River County Sheriff. We had sheriff's deputies, search and rescue.
We had FBI, people there filming, you know, to documenting this whole thing. MAN 2: Will help stand her up.
And then we're going to give her a deed. DARDIE ROBINSON: Well, the overall findings
were if she jumped or if she ran off the edge, she would never have landed that far from the cliff.
Number one. Number two, it required a forceful shove to get her out that far. Number three, when she was out that far,
her leg broke open in the same way that Rhonda's leg broke open. It was just heartbreaking because by the time
we were done, you knew what happened. [ominous music] CARRIE RASMUSSEN: Whether it qualified
as appropriate demonstrative or scientific evidence, that was going to be yet another battle
about whether we could even assert that to a jury. That was another uncertainty in the case.
NARRATOR: In August 2015, Steve Nichols appeared in court again for a bail hearing.
CARRIE RASMUSSEN: Every defendant has the right to contest their bail, and the judge reviewed the state of the evidence
as it was at that point in time. The biggest dispute is always going to be a circumstantial evidence case, and
the weight of those circumstances, or how much weight should be given to those circumstances.
NARRATOR: Steve Nichols' defense called into question the scientific rigor of the prosecution's
crash test dummy experiment, claiming the tests were inaccurate. - The evidence in the state's case was weaker,
and the judge, weighing everything in its totality, agreed to lower his bail to an amount that he could post.
NARRATOR: The judge lowered Steve Nichols bail to $250,000. And after a 10% payment of $25,000 made by his attorney,
Steve was released from prison with an ankle monitor. Steve continued to await his day
in court while pretrial disputes rumbled on. - Over the course of the next few months,
they went back and forth, arguing between the defense and the prosecution about what evidence should
be included in this trial. Carrie wanted evidence about Steve's past to be included in the trial.
These are called prior bad acts, and they helped paint a picture of someone's character.
These prior bad acts included an allegation that he tried to throw his ex-wife off a balcony in China, which was allegedly
witnessed by a nanny. CARRIE RASMUSSEN: I hoped to present evidence of the nanny in Shanghai.
We had a transcript of her interview by police in China. I had hoped to bring her here from China
to explain to the jury what she saw and experienced. His first wife was willing to come forward
and testify to that event. AMBER HAQUE: These prior bad acts, they also included allegations of domestic abuse
and sexual assault against a minor. - I believe Steve Nichols exhibited behavior
towards other domestic partners that was critical to understanding why he was responsible for the death of Rhonda Casto.
NARRATOR: In February 2016, seven years since Rhonda's death, the judge ruled which bad acts
could be admitted at trial. - After a prior bad acts hearing, the judge decided that it would be
too prejudicial for a jury to hear about the incident in Shanghai. That was a huge blow in the case,
so a jury would never hear about his first wife. So I lost all of that evidence of intent
towards domestic partners, his resorting to a plan of violence that involved shoving off of a high ledge.
So that severely weakened the case. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: But another key ruling
was about to make a big impact on the case, regarding Steve's three hour interview by San Mateo Police
following his arrest in 2015. DARDIE ROBINSON: Those transcripts record all of his inconsistent statements,
all of his first one story, then another story. He says, no, we didn't fight. And then he later says, we fought.
The fact that he says, no, I didn't have my cell phone. Oh, but you sent a text from the trail.
CARRIE RASMUSSEN: And it wasn't just what he said, but it was his demeanor towards the victim.
His, I'll dare say, dismissiveness, his lack of empathy, his attitude towards the victim,
a lack of care, a lack of emotion. - When you have a witness who's made multiple different stories, that
should come before the jury. CARRIE RASMUSSEN: The interview as a whole was important for a jury to see his demeanor towards the event
and towards the victim herself. - After a long legal battle, after an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court, the prosecution
lost the ability to use evidence from Steve's police interview. - The judge determined that the rules weren't followed and
said basically that the state couldn't use any of that interview. At this point, I was pretty concerned about getting
any sort of a conviction, given the losses in court of various critical pieces of evidence.
NARRATOR: And the state's case against Steve was about to be struck another blow.
- The first person who talked to Mr. Nichols at Eagle Creek, that detective, was himself
indicted for sex abuse crimes. I had one detective destroying evidence. And then the jury was going to hear, likely,
that the first detective on the scene interviewing Mr. Nichols was now he himself charged with felony sex abuse.
And so things just didn't get better for the state's case. I think it was a difficult case at the outset.
It became much more difficult with rulings that went against the state eliminated
evidence that I could use. There is a cliche of death by 1,000 cuts, and the criminal case suffered quite a few of those cuts.
NARRATOR: With challenges to the state's case mounting, Carrie and her team faced an uphill battle
to secure a murder conviction against Nichols. After a number of significant pretrial setbacks
in the state's case against Steve Nichols for the murder of Rhonda Casto, Carrie and her team
knew their chances of getting a murder conviction were growing increasingly slim.
In early 2017, two years since Steve's arrest, they reluctantly decided to negotiate
with Steve's defense team to see if they could reach a settlement. - In all of the settlement conferences
I've ever engaged in, no one is happy. The prosecution is not happy with the limited justice
that they obtain. The defense is not happy because they want a not-guilty verdict.
After a settlement conference that was mediated by a judge in the spring of 2017,
we came to a resolution of the case. NARRATOR: Steve pleaded guilty to criminally negligent
homicide and coercion and was sentenced to 19 months, plus three years on probation.
- Criminally negligent homicide means Steve was guilty of causing Rhonda's death, in this case,
taking her on that dangerous hike in dangerous conditions and failing to protect her safety.
Coercion indicates that he may have illegally pressured or coerced Rhonda, and may or may not
have tricked her into going on that fatal hike that day. While there was plenty of suspicion and circumstantial
evidence, the state failed to reach the high burden of proof needed for murder in this case.
Steve also pleaded guilty to sex abuse in the third degree for sleeping with Rhonda's underage relation.
He was then placed on a sex offenders register. NARRATOR: Following his sentencing,
Steve received credit for the 19 months he'd already spent behind bars. With no time left to serve, he was released.
- One of my great disappointments is that Mr. Nichols did not receive additional prison time.
But some justice is better than no justice. And so the energy that I put into the case,
while it wasn't the end result that I-- the outset was hoping for, I'm very gratified that we got some justice for Rhonda Casto and
her family. - My family's reaction to the sentencing was anger and frustration, you know,
and just a sense of helplessness and almost like being retraumatized all over again, honestly.
I was angry and I felt offended, and I felt like it was just another slap in the face to the whole family and Rhonda's memory.
And I just felt like the whole thing was foul, and not because he didn't get punished,
but because it was being framed as an accident. [intriguing music] AMBER HAQUE: In March 2018, a judge
terminated Steve's custody over his daughter. She has since been adopted by a loving family.
Her mother's insurance money remains in a trust to provide for her future. - So when the adoption was finalized for their daughter,
I was there the day they had the court hearing, you know, and the full foster family was there, and it was celebratory
and all that. I'm coming up the sidewalk and I'm at the corner of the courthouse.
And who do I see standing at the entrance, maybe 50 feet away from me? Steve. There he is.
I could charge at him and, you know what I mean? It would have been over for both of us.
We're both going to jail or prison, hospital, whatever. But I didn't do anything.
I didn't even speak to him, but we made eye contact, and, you know, um, it still was surreal to me
even just being able to see him much less him walking free. The only bright spot is that her daughter
is safe and, you know, has been with decent people. - This case has eaten 15 years of my life.
That's how long I've been involved with this. Rhonda didn't get justice. What we were trying to do, ultimately, was to protect
her child, her legacy. This has been a mission. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears
into trying to see that this young girl had a life. We can't give her back her mom, but I hope that she
goes on to have a good life. - The victim's daughter is now in a safe home and is growing up with a much different family
than she would have. That's important to me. So that alone makes it worth it. Do I think that Rhonda got perfect justice?
Absolutely not. I think she got the justice she would have wanted for her daughter, that her daughter was not
raised by the man responsible for her death, and also that it should only be her daughter that
benefits from the insurance money due to her death, not anybody else. And I'm hopeful that her loved ones saw that that result
was important. - Dardie and Carrie Rasmussen deserve a ton of credit. They are the ones that blocked Steve
from getting his hands on the money and got the grand jury hearing, and him indicted and all that.
So yes, I am grateful to them for sure. They really put a lot of effort into all this
and really wanted to see justice for Rhonda and her daughter, even though things
didn't turn out ideally. AMBER HAQUE: After Steve was sentenced, he continued to do lots and lots of TV appearances,
sit down at interviews, and his story just continued to change. - The TV appearances suggest a lack of-- of any kind
of remorse at all, or even understanding of the suffering of Rhonda, of her family, of his daughter.
It illustrates somebody who is utterly egocentric, somebody who really sees things purely
from his own perspective, who is prepared to turn any circumstances to his own advantage.
Even a criminal conviction he's using as a platform to-- to become a celebrity. It's like he's living his own big adventure.
And what happened to Rhonda was-- is a footnote in-- in his big life story. NARRATOR: Today, 16 years on from Rhonda's tragic death,
Jeff's memories of his sister still shine bright. - It's hard to put into words what
a phenomenal individual that she was and what an impact it's had her being gone.
[emotional music] The last time I spoke to Rhonda, she was at my house with her daughter being silly, goofy humor
and playing with the kids. Rhonda was a great person. We all loved her and she really was the glue in our family.
What's important going forward right now is that people know the truth, that Steve Nichols
is a dangerous person, and that Rhonda's daughter knows the full truth about what happened.
But I feel almost more importantly to know how much Rhonda loved her and was dedicated to her.
Rhonda loved her with everything she had. It was her life. It was her anchor. It was her newfound purpose in life.
Ultimately, that's probably the most valuable thing that I could do to honor Rhonda's memory,
is to be as active in her daughter's life as I can. I am by no means a religious person,
but, you know, when you see something glimmer for a second or like a light bounce off something or whatever,
or like you see a shiny object and just for that split second, you see that little, sort of sharp edge of light
or glimmer or whatever. And I like to tell myself sometimes that that's where she's at.
She's just right there for a second. Sometimes I let myself go there and be sad about it.
But I also feel like, you know, she's with me. And so part of how I deal with it is I just
try to honor Rhonda's memory. [theme music]

The tragic case of aspiring model Rhonda Casto, who falls to her death while on a hike with her boyfriend.

Pushed to Death tells the stories of people who tragically passed away after appearing to suffer a fatal fall in suspicious circumstances.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@FilmRiseTelevision⁩ FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

Rhonda Casto died during a hike; her partner Steve was indicted for murder but pleaded guilty to lesser charges after a lengthy legal battle.

Key points

A Fatal Fall. A young woman's life erased in an instant after a fall from a mountain trail.
Rhonda's Vibrant Life. Friends and family remember Rhonda as a loving and loyal person with a bubbly personality.
Suspicion Arises. Steve's calm demeanor and conflicting accounts raise questions about Rhonda's death.
Life Insurance Controversy. Rhonda's mother believes Steve's motives were tied to a life insurance policy.
Investigation Renewed. Years later, a new investigation into Rhonda's death begins to take shape.
Steve Nichols Indicted. On April 18, 2014, Steve Nichols was indicted for the murder of Rhonda Casto, shocking many who had given up hope.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You know, it's cliche to say it, but it's true, she's my best friend.

A friend reflects on Rhonda's impact on their life.

1:45WatchJan 20, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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