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North Dakota College Student, 18, Found Stabbed To Death in Her Bed · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today. We are taking you
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deep into a story that is, well, it's really edged
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into the history of North Dakota's prairies. Yeah, the unsolved
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murder of Anita Nudson.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. And when you think of Mino, they call it
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the magic city. Usually picture you know, wide open spaces,
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a strong community, feel.
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Speaker 1: Right, a sense of security really, but on June four,
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two thousand and seven, that security was just completely shattered.
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It revealed what kind of darkness the community just wasn't
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prepared for.
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Speaker 2: And our mission today really is to try and navigate
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this complex, almost two decade long search for justice. We've
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gone through a whole stack of sources, reports, interviews, court
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documents detailing Anita's life. The crime scene, which was just
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profoundly confusing right from the start.
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Speaker 1: Totally stalled the investigation.
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Speaker 2: Initially absolutely, and then the agonizing years the case went cold,
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and finally that legal drama that unfolded just recently in
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twenty twenty five with this highly anticipated trial but ultimately
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a very frustrating acquittal.
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Speaker 1: It's such a tragedy and it really is a study
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in like circumstantial evidence, isn't it? And family advocacy and
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maybe the limits of our legal system. Sometimes exactly at
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the center of it all, you have Anita Knutson. She
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was just eighteen years old, a college freshman at Mino
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State University, found brutally stabbed in her off campus apartment.
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You probably heard the headlines, right, arrest made after fifteen
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long years, but then no conviction.
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Speaker 2: Frustrating is an understatement.
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Speaker 1: So we're here to help you understand the crucial details,
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the sort of granular stuff that led to this legally
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unresolved conclusion. It's an eighteen year story of well pain
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and incredible persistence. Okay, let's start right at the point
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of discovery, because the anxiety that build up before they
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even found her. It's critical to understanding the family dynamic here.
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Speaker 2: It really is. Anita was incredibly close to her adoptive parents,
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Gordon and Sharon Knutson back in VELV very close. Yeah,
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and she was in your daily contact, calling, texting, especially
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her dad Gordon. They were tight.
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Speaker 1: So when my communication just stopped abruptly over that weekend
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June second, June third, two thousand and.
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Speaker 2: Seven, Gordon's internal alarm bells just went off immediately, you
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know it wasn't like her at all, not at.
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Speaker 1: All, So that growing worry, it just pushed him. Gordon
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drove the twenty miles or so to me know that
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Monday morning, June fourth, headed straight for her apartment twenty
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four to twenty fourth Street Northwest.
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Speaker 2: And the first thing he sees, the thing that just
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sinks his heart. I imagine her car, her little white
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Pontiac Sunfire, the one she loved. It was parked right.
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Speaker 1: There, right where it should be, which instantly rules out,
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you know, the idea she just took off on a
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trip or went somewhere with friends.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. It meant she was home, or at least she
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had been home recently. She hadn't driven away.
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Speaker 1: He couldn't get her to answer the door. Yeah, and
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the sources, they really described these agonizing steps he took. Next,
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contacting the apartment manager.
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Speaker 2: He's in that spare key.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, getting the key, finally getting inside that two bedroom unit,
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and the Mormon he stepped in the description say it
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was just terrifyingly stillant stillness.
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Speaker 2: Oh that's chilling. And then in the bedroom, the absolute nightmare.
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Anita's body face down on.
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Speaker 1: Her bed, still under pink pajamas on those positioned almost
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deceptively like she was just asleep.
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Speaker 2: But the scene itself was anything but peaceful. The autopsy,
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doctor Mary Anne Sens, conducted it. It painted this horrific
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picture of a sustained, really violent attack.
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Speaker 1: Multiple stab wods, multiple stab.
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Speaker 2: Wounds to the chest, and crucially, two of them are fatal,
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one actually severed her heart. Just awful.
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Speaker 1: But the technical cause of death, this is important.
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Speaker 2: It was exanguination right bleeding out, which suggests even though
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the injuries were devastating, it wasn't instantaneous. It was a
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relatively slow bleedout, which.
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Speaker 1: Means the killer had time afterwards, time at the scene.
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Speaker 2: Time exactly. And that ties into the weapon choice, doesn't
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it It does.
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Speaker 1: It's another really unusual detail here. Yeah, because it wasn't
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some big, imposting kitchen knife like you might expect.
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Speaker 2: No, not at all. It was described as a small
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pocket knieknife blade maybe only three to four inches long.
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Speaker 1: Tiny really, And it was left right there in plain sight,
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almost conspicuously at the foot of her bed.
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Speaker 2: Why do that? Why leave the murder weapon?
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Speaker 1: And even stranger, it had been wiped clean, or at
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least someone tried to wipe it clean. Forensic still found
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traces of dried blood residue.
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Speaker 2: So what does that suggest to investigators leaving this relatively small,
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cleaned knife right there.
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Speaker 1: Well, it suggests panic, maybe followed by an attempt at staging, right.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Like someone acting in pure rage usually bolts with
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the weapon or tosses it somewhere far away, fast.
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Speaker 1: Wiping it down even if it's done badly, and then
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leaving it behind. That shows an attempt to what control
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the narrative, mess with the evidence.
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Speaker 2: Control interfere Yeah. But the real kicker, the thing that
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made this a puzzle right away, was the conflicting clues,
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the ones designed to frame the attack exactly.
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Speaker 1: This is where it becomes a forensic nightmare for minute one,
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because on one hand, you have evidence clearly suggesting forced entry.
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Speaker 2: The bedroom window screen it had been deliberately slashed, cut
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looks like.
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Speaker 1: A brake in right, seems like an entry point for
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a burglar, a random attacker.
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Speaker 2: But then investigators hit this immediate, profound contradiction. The front
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door locked from the inside.
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Speaker 1: So if an intruder came through the window slashed the screen,
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why is the front door locked from the inside.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't track right if it's an outsider, they'd likely
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leave the door open in their haste, or maybe lock
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it from the outside if they somehow had a key,
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which seems unlikely locking it from the inside. That points elsewhere.
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Speaker 1: It suggests the killer was the last one out, maybe
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locking it behind them with the key they already had,
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or they just locked it to create this illusion of security,
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knowing only someone with a key could get in later.
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Speaker 2: And that illusion of a burglary, it just evaporated the
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moment they looked around the apartment.
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Speaker 1: Nothing valuable was taken. Her keys, her purse, her wallet,
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her phone, all just sitting there.
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Speaker 2: Touch You've got college textbooks scattered around like she'd been studying.
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And that detail, the half eaten bowl of cereal on
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the nightstand, just.
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Speaker 1: A snapshot of a normal life interrupted mid routine. If
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this was supposed to look like a break in gone wrong,
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the killer did a terrible job on the robbery part.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely inept at robbery. And what's fascinating The source material
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confirms this was the immediate takeaway for the investigators.
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Speaker 1: That mix of clues.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the slash screen, the obvious staged break in attempt,
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combined with that internally locked door It just screamed intimacy
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gone wrong, a betrayal. That's the quote often used. It
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told veteran detectives right away, this probably wasn't random violence.
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This felt personal.
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Speaker 1: It felt like someone in Nita knew, someone she trusted,
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someone who got into the apartment willingly and then tried
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this clumsy but very deliberate effort to make it look
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like a random attack, to throw police off the scent
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of an insider.
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Speaker 2: So the stagecraft itself, the attempt to mislead, ironically became
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evidence pointing towards someone close, someone familiar with her, with
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the apartment, with her routine.
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Speaker 1: It's so important before we get deeper into the investigation
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to just take a moment and understand who Anita was.
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The magnitude of this.
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Speaker 2: Loss absolutely, because when a tragedy like this hits, the
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victim can sometimes become just a name, a statistic. But
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Anita was, She was so much more. The sources paint
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this incredibly vibrant picture.
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Speaker 1: Born in nineteen eighty nine, adopted as an infant by
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Gordon and Sharon Nutson. They lived in Butte first, then
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settled in Velvet, North Dakota. Small town life and her
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sister Anna. She called Anita the family's spark. Doesn't that
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just capture it? Since she had sparkling green eyes, this
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infectious laugh.
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Speaker 2: Everyone described her as incredibly empathetic, just kind to everyone,
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a person who genuinely wanted to lift people up, a
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natural caregiver, an optimist.
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Speaker 1: And that drive, that creative spark, it showed up really early.
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Get this. In eighth grade she wrote and self published
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a children's book, ohay yeah, called The Adventures of Skippy
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the Squirrel. It's amazing, right, It's not just a fun
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school project. It shows this vivid imagination, sure, but also
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this real empathy for the underdog kind of foreshadows her career.
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Speaker 2: Goals totally, and those traits clearly carried through. By the
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time she graduated from Velve High School in two thousand
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and seven, she had a mission.
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Speaker 1: Her senior quote was live life to the fullest. Really
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sums up her energy, and she was rolled at Minot
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State University MSU, sitting elementary education.
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Speaker 2: She didn't just want a job. She wanted to inspire kids,
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shape young minds.
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Speaker 1: That was her passion, and she jumped right into college
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life embraced that independence in Mana, but she was also
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incredibly driven supporting herself. She held down two jobs, two.
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Speaker 2: Jobs while being a freshman.
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Speaker 1: That's intense, right front desk clerk at a hotel and
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a sales associate at the Vanity store in the Dakota
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Square mall.
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Speaker 2: And apparently she was good at it too, earned Employee
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of the Month at the mall.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, shows your work ethic of personality. Bubbly proactive even
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while juggling classes.
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Speaker 2: I energy that demanding schedule. It's really important context when
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we look at the timeline of her last.
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Speaker 1: Days, definitely, because the last known contact anyone had with
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her was that phone call with her mom, Sharon, on
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Friday night, June first, two thousand and seven, right after
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she finished her.
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Speaker 2: Shift at Vanity, and Sharon remembered she sounded happy, excited,
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you know, talking about classes, planning a surprise visit home soon,
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some normal happy call.
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Speaker 1: That was the last good moment the family had with her.
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And then the gap, the silence.
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Speaker 2: She got back to her apartment around eleven pm that
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Friday night, June first. After that, the police timeline gets
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really fuzzy, really fast.
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Speaker 1: They had witnesses confirming her car, that white Pontiac was
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in the parking lot on Saturday morning, June second, but
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after that nothing, zero signs.
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Speaker 2: Of life, and medically, based on the autopsy and the
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state of body, they estimated her death happened sometime late Saturday,
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June's second, or maybe early Sunday.
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Speaker 1: June third, found in her pajamas. That bowl of cereal
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nearby suggests the attack happened and when she was relaxing,
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maybe getting ready for bed, or perhaps just waking up
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on Saturday or Sunday.
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Speaker 2: Either way, this huge mysterious gap roughly thirty six to
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forty eight hours between that last happy phone call and
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her father finding her on Monday, that became a massive
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hurdle for the investigation.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it allowed the trail to go cold before anyone
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even knew she was missing.
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Speaker 2: Okay, So, with that strong feeling from the crime scene,
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the staging the locked door suggesting an insider, investigators naturally
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immediately focused on the people closest to Anita, people.
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Speaker 1: With access, which brings us straight to the roommate dynamic.
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Speaker 2: Right, Anita was renting that two bedroom apartment with Nicol Thomas.
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She was also a Mino State student, a bit older,
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studying nursing. They knew each other through mutual friends.
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Speaker 1: The sources describe them as kind of an unlikely but
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workable match. You had Anita the bubbly optimist, and.
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Speaker 2: Nicol described as more reserved, pragmatic, maybe even.
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Speaker 1: Intense, and there was tension. There wasn't always smooth sailing.
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A classmate, Michelle Moore, she later testified about it, confirmed
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they argued over the typical petty stuff, as she put it,
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like what chores exactly chores cleaning the chaired bathroom, and
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apparently a big one was the incessant beep of alarm
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clocks in the morning, classic roommate friction.
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Speaker 2: But the sources, especially Anita's mother, suggested it might have
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gone a bit deeper than just annoyance.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Sharon Nelson revealed that Anita had actually confided in
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her saying she was scared of Nicol. Sometimes scared.
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Speaker 2: That's a strong word.
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Speaker 1: Isn't it? That Nichol could get so intense that language
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intense scary. It hints at maybe a level of emotional
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instability or volatile temper that investigators would definitely circle back
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to later. It frames the possibility of the tribe not
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just being a random spat but maybe an explosion of
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built up resentment.
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Speaker 2: So nicol Race, she used her maiden name Thomas back then.
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She was obviously interviewed right away immediately.
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Speaker 1: And she gave an alibi, claimed she wasn't even there
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that weekend, spent the entire time Friday through Sunday at
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her boyfriend's place.
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Speaker 2: So she came back Monday morning, found the apartment locked,
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saw Anita's bedroom door was closed, and just assumed she
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was sleeping in.
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Speaker 1: Late seemed plausible on the surface, and she cooperated, fully,
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participated in multiple interviews.
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Speaker 2: And reportedly passed a polygraph test.
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Speaker 1: Ah the polygraph, Yeah, let's pause on that for a second.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to because sources are always clear. Polygraphs
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aren't legally admissible in court for a reason. They measure
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stress physiological responses, not truthfulness.
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Speaker 1: So the fact that early investigators seemed to accept this
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pass and maybe shifted their focus away from her, does
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that suggest a potential flaw right there in that initial phase.
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Speaker 2: You have to wonder, did relying on that unreliable test
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prematurely close the door on the most obvious person of interest?
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Did it contribute significantly to the case going cold for
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so long?
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Speaker 1: It's a really powerful point because with Rice apparently cleared
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at least temporarily, the police had to chase down the
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other leads, and those leads they ultimately went nowhere.
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Speaker 2: Like the maintenance man Dwight decree he had master keys
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to all the apartments, plus a history of peeping complaints
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in that same complex definitely raises red flags.
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Speaker 1: Huge red flags. But the sources confirm he had a verified,
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rock solid alibi for that critical window Saturday and Sunday
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he was accounted for, okay.
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Speaker 2: So not him. Then they looked into like obsessive types.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a jilted high school suitor who had
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sent some disturbing post breakup letters to Anita, and also
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this neighbor who was apparently infatuated with her who bizarrely
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sent flowers after she died.
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Speaker 2: Creepy, both very unsettling behaviors.
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Speaker 1: Deeply unsettling. But again police thoroughly vetted both of them
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and ruled them out. Their timelines or circumstances didn't fit.
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Speaker 2: And then there was that other lead, the runner tip.
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This one pops up again later.
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Speaker 1: It does a witness claim they saw someone fleeing the
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area around the potential time frame and this person appeared
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to have blood on his shirt. Sounds promising, right, Well,
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it was tantalizing but frustrating because years later, during the
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tile the defense team tried really hard to connect this
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sighting to a specific individual, a Montana drifter named Robert Ivers.
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They wanted to create this alternate theory of random.
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Speaker 2: Violence, but it never quite stuck.
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Speaker 1: No, the crucial timeline elements, locational factors, they just never
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lined up cleanly to place Ivers at the scene at
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the right time.
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Speaker 2: It remained speculative, and underneath all these dead end leaves,
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you had the fundamental problem with the physical evidence itself. Specifically,
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the DNA on that.
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Speaker 1: Knife, right, Forensic analysis showed a mixed DNA profile.
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Speaker 2: On the handle, meaning DNA from more than one person.
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Speaker 1: Exactly multiple sources. Now, they did find traces of Anita's
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own blood on the blade, which makes sense, but the
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DNA on the handle where the killer would have held it,
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it was mixed, it was degraded. Attribution was basically impossible
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back in two thousand and seven with the technology then.
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Speaker 2: So for you listening, this means investigators could confirm, Okay,
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the victim's blood is here, but they couldn't definitively say
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whose hand or hands were holding that knife, which.
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Speaker 1: Left room for doubt about any suspect who couldn't be
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definitively included or excluded by that messy, mixed profile, a
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huge roadblock.
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Speaker 2: So you've got this confusing crime scene, an initially cleared
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roommate based partly on a questionable polygraph, inconclusive DNA, and
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a string of dead end leads. What happens next?
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Speaker 1: The investigation stalls, despite that initial flurry of activity, despite
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the community rallying. People were forming prayer circles, tying pink
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ribbons everywhere. The reward fund swelled up to over twenty
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five hundred dollars. The trail just cooled rapidly.
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Speaker 2: A year started to pass, just dragging by. The case
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became this constant, heavy presence for the Manel Police Department,
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a file that wouldn't close.
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Speaker 1: By twenty fifteen, it was officially designated a cold case.
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Police Chief John Klugg. He called the file a constant
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daily reminder, a reminder of their failure really to bring
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justice to the nuts and fast and for the family.
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Speaker 2: The weight of this unsolved horror was just crushing. It
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led to more tragedy compounding the grief.
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Speaker 1: Anita's father, Gordon, the man who found her, he passed
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away in twenty fifteen. Sources to say he was just
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haunted by that image, by the lack of answers until
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the very end.
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Speaker 2: And then perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this whole story,
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Anita's brother Daniel, Oh, Daniel.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, The sources paint such a stark picture. He was
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tormented by the grief, the pain, the lack of resolution
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surrounding his sister's murder, and in twenty twelve, Daniel Nutson
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tragically died by suicide gunshot.
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Speaker 2: Unimaginable. Sharon nuts and their mother recalled talking to Daniel
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just the day before he was planning to visit and
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then he was gone too.
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Speaker 1: It just shows how violence like this, it doesn't just
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claim one victim, It sends ripples, shockwaves that can devastate
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an entire family structure.
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Speaker 2: Face with this just unimaginable double loss, the remaining family,
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especially Anita's sister Anna, they refused to just let the
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case fade away. They couldn't.
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Speaker 1: No, they channeled that profound sorrow into this relentless organized advocacy.
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They effectively forced the case back into the spotlight.
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Speaker 2: How did they do that? What specific actions did they Well,
17:00
they kept up.
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Speaker 1: The pressure on what would have been Anita's twenty seventh
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birthday in twenty fifteen, they organized and delivered a petition
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to the Mono PDE. It had over umbalmed thousand signatures. Yeah,
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a very public demand for renewed effort, for resources, for attention.
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You saw pink ribbons multiplying again across the heartland. That
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kind of organized community support, that consistent pressure. It really
17:23
forced the department to dedicate specific officers to the file again,
17:27
made sure it didn't just stay buried in some cabinet.
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Speaker 2: That's incredible resolve.
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Speaker 1: And their focus wasn't just on finding the killer, not
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solely on vengeance. Anna did something really powerful. She established
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the Anita and Daniel Knutson Memorial Scholarship Fund, honoring both
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of them, exactly partnered with Velvet Dollars for scholars and
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since twenty thirteen, this fund has awarded thousands and thousands
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of dollars to students who want to become teachers, honoring
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Anita's dream and also Daniel's memory.
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Speaker 2: That's a powerful way to create a positive legacy out
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of such darkness. Turning grief into inspiration.
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Speaker 1: It really is a statement that their legacy is about creation,
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about helping others, not just about the loss they suffered.
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Speaker 2: So that slow grind of family pressure, combined with presumably
18:11
advances in forensic technology and just fresh eyes on the case,
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things started moving again.
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Speaker 1: They did. Between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one. The
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case got a serious second look. Detectives Carmen Actionam and
18:23
Macaulay Talbot took over the Gold case file. They went
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back through everything, thousands of pages of old reports, interviews,
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evidence logs, a completely fresh perspective, unclouded by those initial
18:34
assumptions from two thousand and seven.
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Speaker 2: And then came the TV cameras.
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Speaker 1: Right here's where true crime media intersected with the investigation
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in a way that created real momentum. In twenty twenty one,
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the Oxygen series Cold Justice came to Mino.
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Speaker 2: With Kelly Siegler and Steve Spingola. They have a reputation
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for cracking cold cases.
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Speaker 1: They do now. It's important note their involvement didn't magically
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uncover new physical evidence, but what they brought was dedicated resources,
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the ability to reinterview witnesses without the pressure of an
19:02
immediate active investigation and a very specific focus back on
19:06
the initial suspects, particularly Nickel Rice.
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Speaker 2: And that new scrutiny focusing squarely back on Rice, what
19:12
did it reveal?
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Speaker 1: It revealed critical inconsistencies in her original two thousand and
19:16
seven alibi, details that maybe seemed minor or missed back then,
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but with fresh eyes, they raised big questions. The focus
19:25
shifted entirely back to that insider theory.
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Speaker 2: But the real bombshell wasn't forensic, was it? It was
19:30
testimonial exactly.
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Speaker 1: The most dramatic breakthrough came from two key witnesses who
19:36
emerged years later recalling alleged confessions made by Nickel Rice.
19:41
These alleged statements happened years after the murder, but they
19:44
formed the absolute backbone of the prosecution's case when they
19:48
finally made the arrest.
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's break down these alleged confessions because their nature
19:52
their context seems really crucial to understanding why the trial
19:55
ended the way it did.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely crucial. The first alleged confession was suposedly made to
20:00
an ex boyfriend. This is sometime between two thousand and
20:03
eight and two thousand and nine, so a year or
20:04
two after the murder. Okay, Apparently, after drinking heavily one night,
20:08
Rice allegedly turned to him and said something like I
20:11
did it, but no one's going to believe you.
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Speaker 2: Hmmm. Vague and conditional.
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Speaker 1: Very The second alleged confession came from a former coworker,
20:19
again after a night out involving alcohol. Similar circumstances.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so two separate alleged incidents, both involving alcohol, both
20:27
years after the fact.
20:29
Speaker 1: What's critical here two things, mainly, First, the vagueness. Neither
20:33
alleged confession contained specific, non public details about the crime
20:37
that only the killer would know, you know, the kind
20:40
of details that lend real credibility, right.
20:42
Speaker 2: No mention of the pocket knife, the slash screen, the
20:45
specific wounds, nothing concrete exactly.
20:48
Speaker 1: Second, both confessions were relayed by witnesses who admitted they
20:52
and allegedly Rice, were intoxicated at the time. This makes
20:56
the testimony highly vulnerable to defense attacks, unreliable memory, potential bias,
21:01
influence of alcohol.
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Speaker 2: Huge credibility issues for a juried away massive.
21:05
Speaker 1: But this new testimonial evidence, however flawed, provided the probable
21:09
cause investigators needed, especially when they combined it with a
21:12
reevaluation of the old DNA evidence.
21:14
Speaker 2: What changed with the DNA not a whole lot.
21:17
Speaker 1: Fundamentally, the profile on the knife handle was still mixed,
21:20
still degraded. But the renewed analysis, using perhaps slightly better
21:24
techniques or interpretive standards, reportedly confirmed that the profiles excluded
21:28
the other early suspects, like the maintenance man the ex sudor.
21:31
Speaker 2: So it didn't include Rice definitively, but it helped exclude others,
21:35
narrowing the field back towards her.
21:37
Speaker 1: That seems to be how the prosecution framed it. It
21:40
strengthened the circumstantial case against her by eliminating other possibilities,
21:44
even if it didn't provide a direct DNA.
21:46
Speaker 2: Link, and that was enough. On March sixteenth, twenty twenty two,
21:50
almost fifteen years after Anita's death, the arrest finally happened.
21:55
Speaker 1: Nickel Rice, now thirty four, married since twenty twenty one
21:58
to Dallas. Rice was arrested at her job. I'm a
22:00
no Air Force base, charged with Class AA felony murder,
22:04
the highest charge.
22:05
Speaker 2: I remember seeing the press conference. Chief Klug was emotional.
22:08
Speaker 1: He was tears in his eyes, reflected the relief I
22:11
think of the department and definitely the hope of the family.
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He publicly declared, we have the person responsible in custody.
22:17
A huge moment, But.
22:18
Speaker 2: Getting from arrest to trial took a long time.
22:20
Speaker 1: It did. The path of the courtroom was slow, nearly
22:24
three more years, plagued by DeLay's motions to dismiss filed
22:28
by the defense attorney, changes, and then the big issue
22:31
of pre trial publicity.
22:33
Speaker 2: Understandable especially after the Coal Justice episode in the arrest itself.
22:37
I know it's not a huge place exactly.
22:39
Speaker 1: The defense argued successfully that Rice couldn't get a fair
22:42
trial in Ward County because of all the media attention.
22:45
So the venue was changed, moved far away from Minau,
22:48
all the way to Grand Forks. The trial finally got
22:51
under way in January twenty twenty five.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so March twenty twenty five the trial begins. What
22:56
were the core arguments prosecution.
22:58
Speaker 1: First insecution, led by the state's attorney, really built a
23:02
psychological case. They painted Nickel Rice as a ticking bomb
23:06
based on what based on that alleged resentment, the simmering
23:09
rage over those petty roommates, spats, the chores, the cleaning,
23:12
and especially those incessantly beeping alarm clocks. They argued, it
23:16
wasn't just annoyance, it built up into something.
23:18
Speaker 2: Explosive, so motive was key for them. Resentment turning deadly exactly.
23:23
Speaker 1: They argue this was a deeply personal act of betrayal,
23:27
not random violence. They emphasized the locked door as proof
23:30
of insider access someone Anita let in or who lived there.
23:34
And they hammered, absolutely hammered those two alleged intoxicated confessions
23:39
as Rice finally cracking under the heel.
23:41
Speaker 2: Okay, that's the prosecution's narrative. How did the defense, led
23:44
by attorney Philip Betcher counter that aggressively?
23:47
Speaker 1: Butcher basically called the whole thing a witch.
23:50
Speaker 2: Hunt, strong language, very.
23:52
Speaker 1: Claimed was fueled by the drama of the TV show,
23:55
by the police department's desperation to finally close this high
23:58
profile cold case. His core argument was.
24:01
Speaker 2: Tunnel vision, saying the police locked onto Rice early and
24:04
ignored other possibilities.
24:06
Speaker 1: Precisely, They brought in their own expert witness, a former
24:09
FBI profiler who sharply criticized the original MINOPD investigation, argue
24:14
they did ignore potentially viable leads like dwight decree the
24:17
maintenance man despite his alibi, or that mysterious runner Robert Ivers.
24:21
Speaker 2: So they were trying to create reasonable doubt by pointing
24:23
fingers elsewhere yes.
24:25
Speaker 1: And also by systematically dismantling the prosecution's evidence against Rice herself.
24:30
They argued the DNA, after nearly two decades, was far
24:34
too degraded and mixed to be reliable for any conclusion
24:38
worthless essentially, and the confessions rip them apart as unreliable.
24:42
Intoxicated hearsay Beecher kept asking the jury, why would a
24:46
guilty person confess years later in vague terms to casual
24:51
acquaintances while drunk. Wouldn't they either keep silent or confess specific,
24:55
verifiable details to someone closer sooner. He really hammered the
24:59
unrely liability factor.
25:01
Speaker 2: So they're attacking the motives, the physical evidence, and the
25:03
testimonial evidence. What about the staging the slash screen versus
25:07
the locked door.
25:08
Speaker 1: The defense actually tried to flip that. They argued the
25:10
slashed window screen wasn't staging by an insider. They claimed
25:14
that was the real signature of the crime, evidence of
25:16
a random, violent intrusion by someone like the drifter Ivers
25:20
they portrayed the police focus on the locked door as
25:22
part of that tunnel vision, ignoring the obvious sign of
25:25
a break in.
25:26
Speaker 2: Interesting strategy. So the jury was left with two computing narratives,
25:30
the prosecution's insider rage explosion versus the defense's theory of
25:34
a random attack investigated poorly by police suffering from tunnel vision.
25:37
Speaker 1: That's exactly the choice they faced. Intense deliberations followed, lasted
25:41
over five hours, and then on March twenty six, twenty
25:45
twenty five, the verdict came back not guilty, not guilty.
25:48
One juror, Ryan Chandler, spoke to the media afterwards and
25:52
basically summed it up. The evidence wasn't enough, no smoking gun.
25:56
Speaker 2: It really highlights that huge gap between suspicion, strong suspicion
26:01
and the legal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
26:04
especially in a cold case.
26:05
Speaker 1: Absolutely, the physical evidence was weak or ambiguous, the confessions
26:09
were shaky, the motive was circumstantial. Even with proximity and
26:13
years of investigation. The state simply failed to.
26:16
Speaker 2: Meet its burden, and the family's reaction.
26:18
Speaker 1: Devastation, pure devastation. They had waited nearly eighteen years for
26:22
this day for what they hoped it would be justice,
26:25
and a nuts and toaddater posted on social media shortly
26:27
after just heartbreaking words devastated. No justice today.
26:32
Speaker 2: So the trial ends not with closure but with acquittal,
26:36
which means legally the case goes back to being unsolved exactly.
26:40
Speaker 1: The verdict didn't solve the crime, It just determined the
26:43
state hadn't proven its case against that specific defendant. The grief,
26:48
the uncertainty, it all remains palpably.
26:52
Speaker 2: Sharon Nutson, Anita's mother. She's ninety two now, still living
26:55
in Velva, and the sources say Anita's childhood room there.
26:59
It's untouched, preserved like a shrine, filled with yearbooks, pressed wildflowers,
27:05
a constant, quiet memorial.
27:07
Speaker 1: But the families resolve it hasn't broken. Anna especially continues
27:11
to pour her energy into that memorial scholarship fund for
27:14
Anita and Daniel.
27:15
Speaker 2: Ensuring thousands of dollars go out every year to help
27:17
aspiring teachers, transforming that grief into something tangible, something positive
27:22
that reflects Anita's own goals.
27:23
Speaker 1: It's an incredible testament to their strength and the community.
27:26
They haven't forgotten either, friends like Amber Nick's and Lauren
27:28
Lassig they make sure of it. Every June fourth, the
27:30
anniversary of the discovery, they tie fresh pink ribbons around
27:34
Mineau and Velva.
27:35
Speaker 2: A silent visual keeping her memory alive.
27:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the case clearly resonated nationally to that Dateline
27:42
Special Murder and Minoa, it aired shortly after the acquittal
27:46
May twenty twenty five, drew millions of yours.
27:49
Speaker 2: Why do you think this particular case struck such a chord?
27:52
Speaker 1: I think Dateline hit on it. They noted the intense
27:55
relatability a young woman, first apartment, trusting a roommate, parents fear.
28:01
It taps into that deep anxiety about safety, independence, and vulnerability.
28:05
Speaker 2: So where does that leave the official case status?
28:08
Speaker 1: Now back in the hands of an OPD chief Clug
28:11
reiterated his original vow the file remains open. Cold doesn't
28:16
mean closed, he said again after the trial.
28:18
Speaker 2: But realistically, what are the chances of it being solved
28:20
now without new evidence?
28:22
Speaker 1: It's tough. Speculation continues, of course, online forums dissect every detail,
28:27
the runner tip, the maintenance man, the initial handling of
28:29
the evidence. But speculation isn't proof unless some truly new,
28:32
compelling physical evidence emerges, or perhaps a verifiable detailed confession.
28:37
The murder of Anita Knutson likely remains legally unresolved.
28:40
Speaker 2: So Anita's legacy, as her sister Anna put it, isn't
28:42
found in vengeance or even necessarily in legal closure at
28:45
this point.
28:46
Speaker 1: No, it's found in that unyielding light of her memory.
28:49
As Anna posted after the trial, We'll keep fighting for
28:53
answers for Anita. She deserves that. Her legacy is that
28:56
scholarship fund, the kindness she represented, and the absolute ros
29:00
fusal of her family to let her be forgotten, to
29:02
let the silence win hashtag hagtag outro. So today in
29:07
our deep dive, we really tried to unpack them and
29:09
not tragedy, pulling out those crucial elements that help explain
29:13
why this case remains so frustratingly unresolved after all this time.
29:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, we saw how that crime scene, the staging, the
29:20
locked door, it really suggested intimacy betrayal right from the
29:24
get go.
29:24
Speaker 1: We saw the incredible power of the nuts and family's advocacy,
29:27
how their's sheer persistence forced the system to reinvestigate a
29:31
case that had gone cold.
29:32
Speaker 2: For years, And ultimately we saw how high that legal
29:35
bar for proof really is, especially in a cold case
29:37
relying on old circumstantial evidence, questionable DNA and really shaky
29:41
hearsay like those alleged intoxicated confessions. It just wasn't enough
29:45
to overcome reasonable doubt in court. It really wasn't, and
29:48
the Anita nuts in case. It leaves us with a
29:50
really poignant lesson I think about legal philosophy. It starkly
29:55
underscores that critical difference between widespread community suspicion may be
30:00
fueled by media, by true crime shows, by just gut feelings,
30:04
and the actual hard proof required by law.
30:07
Speaker 1: For a conviction a huge difference.
30:09
Speaker 2: It forces us, you the listener, to ask a pretty
30:12
provocative question, how does a community, how does a family
30:16
find peace or healing when a violent crime like this
30:20
defies definitive closure, even after someone has been tried and
30:23
then acquitted. What responsibility remains for the community for law
30:27
enforcement when the book of remembrance, as they say, keeps
30:30
writing on long after the legal system has seemingly closed
30:33
the book on the primary suspect.
30:35
Speaker 1: That search for truth it really doesn't end when the
30:37
court proceedings do, does it. Thank you for joining us
30:40
for this deep dive into the enduring story, the unanswered questions,
30:44
and the lasting legacy of Anita Knutson