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The Woman Who Died Twice · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Down here is where the UH hunters had discovered the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: torso of a female in the ditch.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Jack, had you ever run into anything like this?
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: No, ma'am.
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: What day were you out here? And what do you
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: remember from?
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: This?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Was December the second of twenty twenty two. I believe
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: we was hunting that block of woods that particular day.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: We all kind of thought it was a mannequin to
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: start with.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: It didn't look real. And this area right here and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: all around this is where all the trash, the.
• 0:51
  Speaker 6: Bags of clothes, the toe, the knife, thus for all
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: that was.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Found right here, and your big priority was to find
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the rest of this woman and find out who she is.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: That's correct.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: It was getting about dusk. It started walking and got
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to a point where I'm looking up and the sun's
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: going down. It's shining in my eyes, and there's an
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: oak tree and I kind of look behind it and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I see a little disturbed area at a mound.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: All the remains were found.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Fairly close to the edge of the road, and at
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that point, as far as what we knew there was
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the female had dark brown hair.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Put out a sketch.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: GBI had had a forensic artist put out a sketch.
• 1:35
  Speaker 7: According to deputies, hunters found the body in the area
• 1:38
  Speaker 7: of Barrington. Fairy wrote this sketch from the GBI, serving
• 1:41
  Speaker 7: as one of the only glimpses of who the woman
• 1:44
  Speaker 7: could be.
• 1:45
  Speaker 8: I was like, whoa wait a minute, Like that looks
• 1:50
  Speaker 8: like Mindy. That looks like Mindy. And I just froze.
• 1:58
  Speaker 8: I said, I have reason to believe that this person
• 2:02
  Speaker 8: is Mindy. Casotis looks very much like her.
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: I was like, I want to be wrong.
• 2:09
  Speaker 8: I have never wanted to be wrong like this in
• 2:12
  Speaker 8: my whole entire life.
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: A drive through the area shows how dense the wooded
• 2:19
  Speaker 7: area where the woman was found can be.
• 2:21
  Speaker 9: That was on the local news, but I had zero
• 2:25
  Speaker 9: reason to connect it to Mindy.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: So you get this call from the Georgia Bureau of
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Investigation agent and he said, you're not gonna believe what
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I'm about to tell you.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he absolutely said that. I think. The first thing
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: through my mind was.
• 2:44
  Speaker 10: Disbelieve I had been told back in December that she
• 2:49
  Speaker 10: had died in the hospital.
• 2:51
  Speaker 8: That's what all of the immediate friends and family of Mindy's.
• 2:54
  Speaker 11: Had been told.
• 2:55
  Speaker 12: Nobody was looking for a murder victim. They thought she
• 2:58
  Speaker 12: had died of natural causes.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: What did they think it happened to her?
• 3:02
  Speaker 12: She died at the hospital on December first.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: She's not in the woods.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: She was cremated. What do you do? What do you
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: do when you're in a situation and you feel like
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: something is wrong? But also the entire story is so crazy?
• 3:18
  Speaker 11: Who's going to believe you?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Investigator Jack Frost, now at the Liberty County Georgia DA's office,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: was one of the first detectives called to the scene
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: on December two, twenty twenty two.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: The hunters had seen a knife and a tote and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: some wipes back there.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Detectives recovered a razor sharp Milwaukee brand knife, a plastic
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: storage tub with what looked like traces of blood and wipes.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Do you think whoever brought her out here had to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: know this area?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: That would be a safe assumption because it's so desolate.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: It would take five days until investigator Frost found the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: rest of her body. Authorities said it appeared the woman
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: had defensive wounds.
• 4:57
  Speaker 12: There's no one that winds up dismembered in the woods
• 4:59
  Speaker 12: that's not a victim of homicide.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: My name is laur Bayo.
• 5:04
  Speaker 12: I'm an Assistant District Attorney with the Atlantic Judicial Circuit.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released two sketches.
• 5:15
  Speaker 12: There were hundreds and hundreds of calls and leads that
• 5:18
  Speaker 12: came in through the forensic sketches that were published from
• 5:21
  Speaker 12: civilians calling in.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: One call came from a woman five hundred miles away
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: in Virginia. Heather Thomas.
• 5:29
  Speaker 8: I was like, whoa wait a minute, like that looks
• 5:32
  Speaker 8: like Mindy.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Mindy Casodis.
• 5:36
  Speaker 12: Heather Thomas turned out is one of the people that
• 5:39
  Speaker 12: recognized the photograph and said this could be Mindy.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Heather recognized Mindy because Mindy was married to Heather's ex husband,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Nick Casodis, a naval officer, a lawyer in jag the
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. Nick had traveled the globe,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: was the floyd to Iraq. He served in Italy and
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: the Pentagon. He dealt with sensitive cases involving Afghanistan.
• 6:09
  Speaker 8: He definitely had an air about him of confidence, of
• 6:14
  Speaker 8: you know, reassurance, but never in an egotistical way, because
• 6:20
  Speaker 8: you could sort of pick that out from a mile away.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Heather and Nick got married in two thousand and nine.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Back then she was a brunette. Was he wearing a uniform, Yes.
• 6:33
  Speaker 8: He was in his uniform. I was in I had
• 6:36
  Speaker 8: two different dresses. It's a very big deal.
• 6:39
  Speaker 13: It was.
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: It was a happy day. He had a lot of friends,
• 6:42
  Speaker 8: and he just knew everyone, and he had a very
• 6:46
  Speaker 8: outgoing personality and just was a talker and loved to
• 6:52
  Speaker 8: read and just was. It was very different than kind
• 6:56
  Speaker 8: of how I I was.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Thing started out well, but eventually, after six years their
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: marriage faded.
• 7:06
  Speaker 8: I felt like we had grown apart. I felt like
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: he was my best friend, but at the same time
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: didn't have the romance.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: And in twenty fifteen they divorced. Nukesotis bounced back quickly.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: That same year, he started dating Mindy. She was working
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: as a legal secretary in Washington, DC.
• 7:31
  Speaker 10: Mindy was the consummate romantic for a while there.
• 7:35
  Speaker 11: Right.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Angela Wynn and Morgan Paddock were longtime friends of Mindy.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Angela says Mindy met Nick on a dating app.
• 7:47
  Speaker 10: When she finally did meet him, that was just her
• 7:50
  Speaker 10: fairytale ending coming to fruition.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: Even Heather was happy.
• 7:56
  Speaker 8: He told me all about it. He was so excited
• 7:58
  Speaker 8: that they met, and I was excited for him.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Nick and Mindy married in twenty sixteen. Her friends say
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: the couple soon started looking for a home and planning
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: a family.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: It's one of the things that she wanted. She wanted
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: to have kids.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: And Mindy became a podcaster.
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: We both were on her podcast.
• 8:20
  Speaker 14: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Compelling Women podcast.
• 8:25
  Speaker 9: She just wanted to find the stories of women and
• 8:26
  Speaker 9: elevate them.
• 8:27
  Speaker 14: I'm Mindy, your host, and I'm really excited to share
• 8:32
  Speaker 14: with you another thought provoking interview with a different Compelling Woman.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Mindy and Nick's life seemed good after leaving active duty.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: He was still practicing law.
• 8:46
  Speaker 10: I was so happy that she was so in love
• 8:49
  Speaker 10: and just so enamored and ready to move on to
• 8:52
  Speaker 10: that next phase of her life.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: But her friends say Mindy's life began taking some strange turns.
• 9:01
  Speaker 9: She once told me, Morgan, if you knew everything that
• 9:06
  Speaker 9: was going on like this is something that would be
• 9:10
  Speaker 9: a best selling novel or a best selling movie.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Mindy and Nick started moving around a lot, living in
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: three different states.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: She rarely saw her friends, they say, and.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Was so worried about security. She started communicating through the
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: encrypted signal app.
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: We only ever talked on signal.
• 9:33
  Speaker 9: If we called, it was through the signal app, and
• 9:35
  Speaker 9: if we texted, it was through the signal app.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: And whose idea was to use the signal app?
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Oh? Nick and Mindy said at one point she was
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: being spied upon.
• 9:45
  Speaker 9: I remember her saying I may have had a tail
• 9:49
  Speaker 9: someone following yeah.
• 9:51
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: It ramped up after.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: That, Mindy's life ramped up into a series of stranger
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: and strang er events.
• 10:01
  Speaker 9: She told me they had been hacked by a hacker group.
• 10:05
  Speaker 9: Their bank accounts had been completely frozen.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: They didn't have any money at all, and she told
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: friends that Nick said they were being surveilled and that
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: he told.
• 10:14
  Speaker 10: Her we have a security issue now, and now we're
• 10:17
  Speaker 10: you know, we're a danger.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: She thought her life was in danger.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: M h. It was, according to Mindy, all connected to
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Nick and some classified work that he had been involved
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: in during his time in the Navy.
• 10:34
  Speaker 9: There had to be video surveillance in a van down
• 10:36
  Speaker 9: the street to just keep watch, to make sure the
• 10:40
  Speaker 9: comings and goings of their home were safe.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Nick warned Mindy that an undercovered team disguised as tree
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: surgeons were planting surveillance cameras around their house.
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: It sounded crazy.
• 10:55
  Speaker 9: It did sound crazy, because that does sound like something
• 10:57
  Speaker 9: you see in a movie or read in a novel.
• 11:00
  Speaker 9: But again, you're talking to Mindy, whose husband is a jag,
• 11:04
  Speaker 9: who has all of this military parents.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: By June twenty twenty two, Nick and Mindy were living
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: in Savannah. Friends say she was afraid to leave the house.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Did she sound scared?
• 11:20
  Speaker 15: She was scared, as Mindy's.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Friends worried about the strange events in her life in Savannah.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Five hundred miles away in Virginia, Heather Thomas had been
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: trying to track down her ex husband, Nikastis for nearly
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: two years.
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: I attracked him going to South Carolina. He had said
• 11:55
  Speaker 8: something about Georgia, and that was always in the back
• 11:57
  Speaker 8: of my mind.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: He owed her money from their divorce, a million and
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: a half dollars. A court had ordered him to pay
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: and issued a warrant for his arrest.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: His law career was now in jeopardy.
• 12:12
  Speaker 8: If he was willing to throw away his license to
• 12:16
  Speaker 8: practice ever, and he was just going to throw all
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: caution to the wind, You're now dealing with a scenario
• 12:22
  Speaker 8: where you can't assume anything, so you have to be prepared.
• 12:27
  Speaker 8: I had to be prepared for anything.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Heather had a friend who was training to be a PI.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Through him, she would discover that Nick had been on
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: the move. She would later find out that he had
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: gone from state to state, living in airbnbs motels. Heather
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: didn't know it, but Nick and Mindy were now hiding
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: out in Savannah, Georgia. That summer, Mindy had told her
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: friend Angela that she was pregnant.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: She's very excited and very happy.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: But months later, just after Thanksgiving twenty twenty two, Angela
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: got an unexpected call from Nick and couldn't believe what
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: he told her.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: He called me, He told me that Mindy was gone.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Mindy, Nick said, had died from a sudden medical problem,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: but his details were sketchy. He told her she had
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: been cremated. There was no funeral, no memorial.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: I'm not hearing anything anybody.
• 13:29
  Speaker 10: And I need to know what the hell is going on,
• 13:31
  Speaker 10: because in my mind, you know, Minnie's not gone until
• 13:34
  Speaker 10: I see that she is gone. And I told him
• 13:37
  Speaker 10: that several times, like I need to see it.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I need to see her. I need to see her.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: She tried to reach Nick again and again.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: He just dropped off the face of the earth. It
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: was a very hard and confusing time.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: At around the same time, Nick's ex wife, Heather, had
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: also gotten a message telling her that Mindy had died
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: in the hospital.
• 14:02
  Speaker 8: I was contacted saying, hey, you know Mindy's dead.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: Well, it was your reaction horror.
• 14:13
  Speaker 8: I was just like, oh my god. I felt terrible because,
• 14:18
  Speaker 8: no matter what our beef was, Nick and mine like
• 14:21
  Speaker 8: to hear that a woman around my age is now dead.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: I was sad, And just weeks after that, sad news
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: was still sinking in. Heather received more surprising news in
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: a text from an acquaintance.
• 14:38
  Speaker 8: This person says Nick is dead.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Nick Asotas had died in a car crash.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: And I said, hmm, so you didn't believe that then.
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: I immediately didn't believe it. I'm like, well, something special here.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: But Heather wasn't the only one who heard that Nick
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: had died. Mindy's parents received an email from the security
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: department at the tech company where Nick told them he
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: was working. It read, I'm very sorry to inform you
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: that Nicholas passed away late Wednesday evening. As Heather tried
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: to get more details googling news sites online, she came
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: across that police sketch, the one that looked so much
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: like Mindy, and called authorities in Georgia that helped police
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: make a positive identification, and once they got a DNA
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: and genetic genealogy confirmation, they finally had proof that the
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: woman found in the swamp was indeed Mindy Casotis once.
• 15:46
  Speaker 12: They figure out who she is, all of these things
• 15:50
  Speaker 12: that they've been learning about, the evidence found at the scene,
• 15:55
  Speaker 12: all ties.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: In investigators could find no evidence of Casota Us dying
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: in a car crash. What they did find was a
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: new driver's license in a new name, Nicholas Killian James Stark.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: They tracked him to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was now
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: living with a third wife, a tech worker and fiction
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: writer Samantha Coley Snick.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: He had told her he was a widower.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Right in May twenty twenty three, detectives brought Consodas back
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: to Georgia for questioning.
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: He told them a detailed.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Story similar to what Mindy's family and friends had heard
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: about being pursued and harassed by unknown individuals connected to
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: government work he had done.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: It was different, a couple of different stories, and was
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: that there was some fallout from some stuff that Nick
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: had done at the Pentagon. He was potential target for
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: terrorist group. It was real top secret stuff in that
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: it was really super sensitive and almost like a you know,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: secret agent type of life where they just hidden plain
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: sight but had to kind of be careful.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: The once buttoned down, straight laced attorney and former Naval
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: JAG officer now looked scruffy because SODA's claimed that he
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: reported the conspiracy to the FBI, and that's when he
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: says a federal agent came to their home offering to
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: protect them.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: His name Jim McIntyre.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: I came home one.
• 17:33
  Speaker 16: Day and he said that the guy agent had come
• 17:37
  Speaker 16: to the house that you know, he was curious about
• 17:40
  Speaker 16: what was going on and you know, wanted to meet
• 17:43
  Speaker 16: with us both and talk about it.
• 17:45
  Speaker 17: And that was Jim.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: That was Jim.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: They show you any conventions or anything, I don't recall.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: According to Nick, for four years, Jim McIntyre took control
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: of everything in the car Bo's lives, telling them when
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: to move and where.
• 18:04
  Speaker 11: Jim told you to jump off with Clia.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Few were going to jump off with Clia, sir.
• 18:08
  Speaker 16: For years, for years, we did exactly what Jim told
• 18:11
  Speaker 16: so you wanted full.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: Access to our lives, He said, you can't save I.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Think you're living a web of lives. You're talking parallel realities,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: that's what you're doing here.
• 18:20
  Speaker 11: Yes, Sir.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Nikosotis had spun such an elaborate story for detectives they
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: had a hard time believing anything he said. They began
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: to suspect that he made up everything, that he was
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: the author of the email sent to Mindy's parents announcing
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: his death, complete with a company he didn't work for.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like, yeah, we can see through all
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the lives now, then why is this happening?
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Detectives began asking him about Mindy's last days. Right around
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Thanksgiving of twenty twenty two, while because Sodis was out
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: of town. He said, Mindy texted him saying she had
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: taken a fall and it checked herself into a clinic.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: He was vague on details.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: Tell me about the days you got called to the
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: daughter's office.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: I got a phone call.
• 19:28
  Speaker 16: Afreae from who, I don't know if it was some
• 19:30
  Speaker 16: Daniel or not, asking if I could I don't think
• 19:33
  Speaker 16: it was somebody I knew, asking if I could come
• 19:36
  Speaker 16: and pick her up. That afternoon.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: When Nick arrived, He told investigators the doctor gave him
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: bad news.
• 19:45
  Speaker 16: I sat down, and he said that he was very
• 19:49
  Speaker 16: sorry to tell me that Mindy had passed away suddenly.
• 19:51
  Speaker 16: So he said, Mandy had passed away. Certainly then what happened?
• 19:57
  Speaker 16: He's I was extremely upset. I was, yeah, like I
• 20:04
  Speaker 16: thought I was. I was coming there just to just
• 20:07
  Speaker 16: to pick her up and bring her back, he said.
• 20:13
  Speaker 16: He said he wasn't sure what had happened.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: You go to this doctor's office, they tell you wife died.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: You don't ask to see her. You immediately you did
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: ask to see her. You don't get to see.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Her causodas couldn't tell investigators where the facility was or
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: the names of anyone he spoke to.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You don't forced to speak any further to see her.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: You just take them at the work.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: You don't let her names, you.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Don't let her addresses, don't know how to return there, whatever.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: You just leave.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: But if Mindy had died at a Savannah clinic, how
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: did her remains end up in a swamp? Nick told
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: detectives he had no idea, but insisted he didn't do it.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: What Nick didn't know at the time was that detectives
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: were already building a case against him.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I think it's easy for people to think about doing something,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: but I think the act of doing it and then
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: trying to cover up all the loose ends after you've started,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: it's almost.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Impossible for starters.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: When detectives ran a background check on Nick, they discovered
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: he owned a green Ford Explorer, a green Ford Explorer
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: that looked just like the vehicle investigators had spotted on
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: a surveillance video from a remote pumping station near the
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: crime scene. And why was that camera so significant in
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: this case because it.
• 21:46
  Speaker 12: Captured Nicholas Casotis's Explorer driving past it, going in and
• 21:50
  Speaker 12: out of that area.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: And that wasn't all on a hunch.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Days after Frost had processed the crime scene, he checked
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: with Home Deep stores, which sold that Milwaukee brand of knife.
• 22:03
  Speaker 12: Agent Frost had contacted Home Depot because he had worked
• 22:07
  Speaker 12: another case and was familiar with the brand.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: One of those knives had been purchased from a store
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: just fifty minutes from the hunting club with a debit
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: card belonging to Nick Casodis. Here's a surveillance photo of
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Nicholas Cassotis right after he paid for that knife. There
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: he is and you can see the knife right under
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: his arm. And there were more knives. When Frost had
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: checked out a bass Pro shop in Savannah, he discovered
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: that Casodas had also used his debit card there and
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: bought a knife kit designed for hunters.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: This is a seven piece pursuit field dressing kit for animals.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: This is like the same kit that was purchased by Castis.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: And there is an assortment of knives.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, I'm not touching it. These are very sharp,
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: very sharp.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: And then there is also a bone saw.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Now with Casodas apparently tied to the knives and the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Ford Explorer, they subpoenut records from his phone and the
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Ford's GPS system.
• 23:18
  Speaker 12: The car records showing his vehicle and phone traveling down
• 23:24
  Speaker 12: to exactly where her body is. He has no reason
• 23:29
  Speaker 12: whatsoever to be there other than that his dismembered wife
• 23:34
  Speaker 12: happens to be found there when he told everyone else
• 23:36
  Speaker 12: she was cremated.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Back in the interrogation room, detectives confronted Casodas with their discoveries.
• 23:45
  Speaker 11: I mean, who.
• 23:46
  Speaker 17: Else has a look of doing only twenty five.
• 23:48
  Speaker 16: Thousand acre property and getting captured on media.
• 23:52
  Speaker 11: It just so happens.
• 23:53
  Speaker 16: Your phone, even your car shows clearly where you were
• 23:58
  Speaker 16: at down this long dirt road that just happened to pass.
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: A camera.
• 24:05
  Speaker 11: In tracts your every movement.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: We put you and your cell, your device in your
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: vehicle out there in these places where your wife's body
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: is found, this member with the Knight that you just bought.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Why did you kill Nandy, Sir, I didn't kill Mindy.
• 24:22
  Speaker 16: You kill Nandy.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I did not.
• 24:24
  Speaker 16: All shows that you killed Minie and will continue to show.
• 24:27
  Speaker 17: It's cow of a.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Thousand piece puzzle.
• 24:31
  Speaker 16: You've burned some of the pieces, but we've got enough
• 24:34
  Speaker 16: to see a very clear picture.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: But because SODA's insisted he was innocent and pointed the
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: finger at the man he says had been controlling their lives,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Jim McIntyre.
• 24:48
  Speaker 17: Are you a legend that.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Jim killed your wife?
• 24:50
  Speaker 11: I don't know, but I think it's possible.
• 24:54
  Speaker 16: She should have never been in the situation.
• 24:56
  Speaker 11: You should never.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Listen to Jim.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: In February twenty twenty four, a little over a year
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: after Mindy's death, Nick Casotis was indicted for the murder
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: of Mindy Casodas.
• 25:08
  Speaker 18: It's very difficult for me to believe that Nick Casotas
• 25:11
  Speaker 18: could murder anyone.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Philip McKellar had walked these grounds of the Portal Hunting
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Club for years.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: I was laying in the ditch.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Before the December day in twenty twenty two when he
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: made that gruesome discovery.
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: Kind of thought it was a mannequin start with, Hey
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: didn't look real.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Strewn along the swamp the remains of the once vibrant
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: forty year old Mindy Casdis.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: More than two and.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: A half years later, her husband, Nic Casotis, charged with
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: her murder, was in a Hinesville, Georgia.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: We'll begin the trial at this time with the opening statements.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: This trial would prove to be unlike any other from
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: the get go.
• 26:07
  Speaker 18: My name is Doug Weinstein, and I am representing mister Cassodis.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: In an unusual move, the prosecution forced defense attorney Weinstein
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: to open his case first.
• 26:20
  Speaker 18: I honestly think it was purely a tactic to try
• 26:24
  Speaker 18: to get into my head a little bit and make
• 26:27
  Speaker 18: me off balance.
• 26:28
  Speaker 19: Mister and missus Cassodis were told that they were targets.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Weinstein immediately set the scene for the defense. The alleged
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: killer he says, was actually another victim.
• 26:41
  Speaker 19: Nick Casdis is a man who lived in fear, relentless,
• 26:48
  Speaker 19: all consuming.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: Fear, running for his life.
• 26:52
  Speaker 18: It's hard for me to ever believe that Nick killed Mindy.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Instead, Weinstein told the jury casodas have been duped and
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: deluded by the mysterious figure Jim McIntyre.
• 27:06
  Speaker 19: You'll hear testimony that a man calling himself Jim McIntyre,
• 27:13
  Speaker 19: claiming to be with the FBI, told them that their lives.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Were in danger.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Casdis is not a killer, he says, more like a frightened,
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: desperate hero.
• 27:25
  Speaker 19: The decorated military veteran. He served in Iraq.
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: He was in the Pentagon.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: But Prosecutor Lorie BeO says, the real Nick Casotis is
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: revealed by the gruesome evidence left behind.
• 27:39
  Speaker 12: And unfortunately you're going to hear about the dismemberment.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: BeO showed the weapon found near Mindy's mangled body.
• 27:46
  Speaker 12: A Milwaukee range handled black sheathed knife.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Castis's DNA was not found at the crime scene, but
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: that knife is the same brand invested gators say as
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: the one seen under his arm.
• 28:03
  Speaker 13: That's him.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: How surveillance from Home Depot on this same day that
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: authorities say Mindy may have been murdered.
• 28:12
  Speaker 12: The state calls Samantha Koljesnik to the stand.
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: Along with the facts and forensics.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: The jury heard tales of betrayal, including one by Casotis'
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: third wife, Samantha coleies Nick.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: She believed she had married a.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Loving widower, but later learned that Mindy was still alive.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: When Nick first started messaging her, she.
• 28:37
  Speaker 12: Had no idea that he was leading this double life.
• 28:40
  Speaker 13: I don't think words will ever capture how I felt,
• 28:44
  Speaker 13: but I felt if I had to choose some words,
• 28:46
  Speaker 13: I'd say horrified, shocked, traumatized, violated, deceived.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Samantha also told Jers Nick wanted to quickly start a
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: family to.
• 29:01
  Speaker 13: A preconception appointment right around the date of our marriage.
• 29:03
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 29:04
  Speaker 17: Nick and I met at Naval Justice School in two
• 29:06
  Speaker 17: thousand and eight.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: When retired Commander Cameron Nelson described the Nick that she
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and others had once believed was an honorable, proud patriot.
• 29:17
  Speaker 17: When I was scheduled to deploy aboard the USNS Comfort.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Which when she received a serious cancer diagnosis.
• 29:23
  Speaker 17: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go on that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Deployment Casodas she told the jury stepped up and stepped in.
• 29:30
  Speaker 17: Nick immediately volunteered to take that deployment so that I
• 29:33
  Speaker 17: could focus on treatment.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: But that same nic Ofsodas, she says, also betrayed her
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: trust when he told her that his financial accounts had
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: been hacked.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: She lent him money and even gave him a credit card.
• 29:46
  Speaker 18: How much did the definite charge to that credit card?
• 29:49
  Speaker 17: Approximately one hundred ninety eight thousand dollars.
• 29:53
  Speaker 18: Has he ever paid a penny towards that debt?
• 29:56
  Speaker 17: Not a penny?
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: The man Cameron thought was a patriot, it now seemed
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: like a calculating con man.
• 30:04
  Speaker 17: And we decided that it was just not sustainable to
• 30:06
  Speaker 17: continue to allow him to borrow money. Please raise your
• 30:08
  Speaker 17: right hand and take the oath.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: First wife, Heather Thomas, testified about her own betrayal with
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: its court order for Casodas to pay up on their
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: divorce agreement.
• 30:20
  Speaker 19: Did the defendant cooperate with the divorce obligations?
• 30:24
  Speaker 18: Did that cause any kind of hardship to you?
• 30:26
  Speaker 13: Of course, it put me through a lot of emotional stress.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Did he ever comply with that court word?
• 30:33
  Speaker 13: For one point five hundred dollars interest in the attorney's.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: The jury watched that video of ca Sodis's green Ford
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Explorer less than a mile from where Mindy's remains were found.
• 30:48
  Speaker 17: And that camera captured that vehicle. Was that correct the
• 30:54
  Speaker 17: water pumping station camera?
• 30:56
  Speaker 11: Thank you?
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Special Agent Tracy sand said he was and just sifting
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: through physical evidence.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: He had been on a hunt for a star witness.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: Did you ever make an effort to locate Jim McIntyre.
• 31:10
  Speaker 17: Yes, ma'am, I did. There was only one in this area,
• 31:13
  Speaker 17: I mean.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: The Savannah area.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: And this McIntyre was definitely not an FBI agent.
• 31:20
  Speaker 17: An older gentleman.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: He managed a company that sold dental implants.
• 31:24
  Speaker 12: Could you identify any connection between that Jim McIntyre to
• 31:28
  Speaker 12: this case.
• 31:29
  Speaker 18: I cannot.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: It's a powerful, circumstantial case against Nick Casodis that only
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: one man can Rebut.
• 31:38
  Speaker 19: The defense calls Nicholas Cassodas to the sand please raise
• 31:42
  Speaker 19: your right hand and take the olds.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: For more than three hours, Casodis repeated to the jury
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: his story about the mystery man, who he insists controlled
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: every detail of Mendy's life and.
• 31:56
  Speaker 16: His I give Jim McIntyre access to literally everything.
• 31:59
  Speaker 17: He had access to home, He had all of our
• 32:01
  Speaker 17: bank accounts.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Why would an accomplish attorney listen to some guy who
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: just shows up and do whatever he says?
• 32:11
  Speaker 18: Well, that's the million dollar question, right, why would he
• 32:15
  Speaker 18: do that? All I can think is panic.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: The defense offered no pictures of McIntyre, no records, just
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: ca Soda is his testimony.
• 32:27
  Speaker 17: I had no reason to doubt that he was who
• 32:29
  Speaker 17: he said.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: He was, and Casoda's claimed he was only in the
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: area where his wife's remains were found because the manipulative
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: McIntyre had told him to go there.
• 32:40
  Speaker 18: Did you kill your wife, Mindy Castas?
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: I absolutely did not. I would never have hurt Mindy.
• 32:46
  Speaker 18: Did you dismember her body?
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: No?
• 32:48
  Speaker 16: Absolutely not.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Then what about that knife cradled under his arm? Casodas
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: said it wasn't about murder, it was for home movement.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: A broken screen.
• 33:02
  Speaker 16: I was having a very hard time keeping the netting
• 33:05
  Speaker 16: on it and keeping it secured up there, so I
• 33:08
  Speaker 16: was looking for something that kind of long and thin.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: What is nexts strongest defense?
• 33:16
  Speaker 18: His strongest defense is it's entirely circumstantial. There was zero
• 33:21
  Speaker 18: evidence presented at trial of how Mindy was killed and frankly,
• 33:28
  Speaker 18: how where Mindy was killed. They don't know.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Attorney Weinstein closed his defense with this reminder to the jurors.
• 33:37
  Speaker 18: The state has an incredibly high burden to meet because
• 33:42
  Speaker 18: they have got to show guilt beyond a reasonable death.
• 33:47
  Speaker 19: They haven't done that.
• 33:48
  Speaker 18: They just they just haven't done that.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: As a trial wrapped up, the mystery man Jim McIntyre.
• 33:56
  Speaker 12: Can't find a person that doesn't exist.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: Never appear in this Georgia courtroom.
• 34:02
  Speaker 17: I submit to you, there is no ject.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: He killed her.
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: He took her from everyone, a bright light, kind, good
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: natured I.
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: Submit to you.
• 34:20
  Speaker 12: Mindy, she deserves your attention.
• 34:27
  Speaker 13: This case is about her.
• 34:29
  Speaker 17: Look at the.
• 34:30
  Speaker 12: Evidence and come back with what is the only appropriate outcome.
• 34:34
  Speaker 17: Guilty of all charges.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Nickosotis and his attorney had hoped to convince a jury
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: that he was incapable of killing his wife, Mindy, but
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: somebody else was.
• 35:01
  Speaker 18: It is not my job to figure out who killed
• 35:04
  Speaker 18: Mindy Casotas. That is the state's job. It's a huge job,
• 35:08
  Speaker 18: it's an important job, and it's a high burden.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: What's the motive for someone else.
• 35:14
  Speaker 11: To kill her?
• 35:15
  Speaker 18: Well, again, we go back to Jim McIntyre. That's the
• 35:20
  Speaker 18: only person that could possible that's the only person.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: The mysterious Jim McIntyre. Prosecutors say there is no Jim McIntyre,
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: that he doesn't exist.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: Do you have any evidence he does.
• 35:33
  Speaker 18: I have no evidence that Jim McIntyre exists.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: Do you have a picture of him?
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I have no picture, any kind of documentation that showed
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: that he worked for a federal agency.
• 35:45
  Speaker 18: All that we have on Jim McIntyre is what Nick
• 35:48
  Speaker 18: has told Mindy. If I had any way to prove
• 35:51
  Speaker 18: that Jim McIntyre existed, you would have seen it at
• 35:54
  Speaker 18: the trial.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Why should anyone believe Nick Kesotas' story when he's a liar.
• 36:02
  Speaker 18: He lies a lot. He told some big lies, but
• 36:05
  Speaker 18: nothing like murdering your wife. I just refuse to take
• 36:09
  Speaker 18: the leap of because you lie about certain things, you're
• 36:12
  Speaker 18: a murderer. It's just too far from me to go.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Even prosecutor Lorie BeO admitted that despite Casdis's inconsistencies, Jers
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: might have doubts about his guilt.
• 36:25
  Speaker 12: If you look at him on paper, he looks like
• 36:28
  Speaker 12: Prince Charming. My mom and dad would have said, oh
• 36:31
  Speaker 12: my gosh, he's a wonderful catch. He looks fantastic.
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: So Why wouldn't you believe him?
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: But BeO says, cause Sodas has been fooling people for years.
• 36:43
  Speaker 12: He gaslighted everybody, not stupid people, not people that are unaware,
• 36:49
  Speaker 12: and they all want it, including Mindy.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: She believed him.
• 36:54
  Speaker 12: I mean, there's no one disputes that Mindy never left
• 36:57
  Speaker 12: the house, that she was terrible, and that she stayed
• 37:01
  Speaker 12: home every moment of her life, afraid that if she
• 37:04
  Speaker 12: left that she'd be killed.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: The real story, says BeO, was much more mundane, cause
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Sodis was hiding, she says, because he didn't want to
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: pay his ex wife. Was Nickosotis gaslighting his wife and
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: making her believe that their lives were in danger when.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: In fact he's just running from a debt.
• 37:27
  Speaker 18: You know that's possible.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's a prosecutor, he's a lawyer. He might
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: be able to convince her of that.
• 37:35
  Speaker 18: He also knows how to handle the legal system. So
• 37:38
  Speaker 18: there's a million and a half dollar judgment against him.
• 37:40
  Speaker 18: There's all kinds of ways to get rid of this debt.
• 37:43
  Speaker 18: You don't need to live a miserable life for five
• 37:46
  Speaker 18: years because of a judgment that you can't pay.
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: But why kill Mindy.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Why do you believe Nickosotis killed his wife? What's the
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: motive for it?
• 38:00
  Speaker 12: That was the hardest question to answer, but jurys want
• 38:04
  Speaker 12: to know. It was my argument to the jury that
• 38:09
  Speaker 12: everybody said Nick wanted a family, he wanted kids, He
• 38:13
  Speaker 12: really wanted to have kids.
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: But so why killer?
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: I think you found out she wasn't pregnant.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: In fact, Mindy's death certificates said she was not pregnant.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen please be seated.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Jurors took just a little over an hour to reach
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: a verdict.
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: It's my understanding that the jury has reached a verdict.
• 38:41
  Speaker 9: Count one malice murder guilty, Count two bility murdered.
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: Guilty guilty on all charges.
• 38:55
  Speaker 18: I don't believe for a minute Nick ever expected a
• 38:59
  Speaker 18: guilty verdict come back.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Before sentencing, Mindy's friend Morgan Paddock spoke directly to Casodas.
• 39:09
  Speaker 9: She loved you and trusted you to tell her the truth,
• 39:13
  Speaker 9: to protect her, to live out your marriage valves. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 9: yet you were the one that she needed protection from.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: The judge sentenced Casodas to life without parole. Why did
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: so many people believe Nick Casodas?
• 39:32
  Speaker 18: You know all I have her questions from this case, right,
• 39:37
  Speaker 18: just I don't have answers. So many people, college grads, professionals,
• 39:44
  Speaker 18: career Navy officers believed everything that Nick and Mindy told
• 39:50
  Speaker 18: them about why they were living the life. And I
• 39:53
  Speaker 18: think it's because when Nick would tell them something, they
• 39:57
  Speaker 18: believed him.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: The people in his life are still struggling with a betrayal.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Is that hard for you than to think that you
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: were married to this man who then.
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: Killed his wife.
• 40:16
  Speaker 8: The thing that I struggle with, I think even now,
• 40:20
  Speaker 8: is the fact that survivor's guilt is very real.
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: Out of the two of us.
• 40:28
  Speaker 8: I probably had, he probably had more reasons to perhaps
• 40:31
  Speaker 8: maybe come after me. I trust him with my literal life,
• 40:38
  Speaker 8: and I believed him.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Mindy's friends now except that they were all betrayed by Nick.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: But they hope Mindy will be remembered not as a victim,
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: but a woman who saw the light in other women
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: and tried to capture that in a podcast.
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: And it was beautiful and it was special.
• 41:01
  Speaker 9: And I was talking to a friend and knowing that
• 41:04
  Speaker 9: she had a platform and she wanted to use it
• 41:06
  Speaker 9: for good.
• 41:07
  Speaker 14: The Compelling Women podcast has written and hosted by me
• 41:11
  Speaker 14: Mindy Casotis, thank you so much for listening to the
• 41:14
  Speaker 14: first season, and I promise to be back with another
• 41:16
  Speaker 14: season as soon as I can.