Latest / NO FILTER / The Strangest Case You Have Never Heard_ The Murder of Mindi Kassotis _ True Crime Documentary

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The Strangest Case You Have Never Heard_ The Murder of Mindi Kassotis _ True Crime Documentary · NO FILTER

0:01
Speaker 1: Over the period of five days in December twenty twenty two,
0:05
Speaker 1: the body parts of a woman were discovered scattered across
0:08
Speaker 1: a three mile radius within vast logging and hunting grounds
0:12
Speaker 1: in southeast Georgia. It would take law enforcement nearly six
0:17
Speaker 1: months to identify their victim. When they did, investigators began
0:22
Speaker 1: to uncover an elaborate and unbelievable story of threats, money, manipulation,
0:29
Speaker 1: and hidden romance. Hi there, I'm Kevin, and welcome to
0:39
Speaker 1: Just That Lounge. The case we're about to examine is
0:42
Speaker 1: a strange one. The details that follow are as bizarre
0:46
Speaker 1: as they are complex. So let's take a look. The
1:05
Speaker 1: Portal Hunting Club in Riceboro is the oldest in the
1:08
Speaker 1: state of Georgia. Located on the edge of the Bulltown
1:12
Speaker 1: Swamp where Long, Macintosh and Liberty Counties meet, the club
1:16
Speaker 1: covers a vast thirteen thousand acres. At just before five
1:21
Speaker 1: pm on December second, twenty twenty two, two hunters out
1:25
Speaker 1: with their dogs in the woodland near Jones Road made
1:28
Speaker 1: a successful shot at a deer. When the dogs ran
1:31
Speaker 1: towards their kill. However, they did not lead the hunters
1:35
Speaker 1: to an animal carcass. What they found not far from
1:39
Speaker 1: the road was a human torso. It belonged to an
1:43
Speaker 1: adult white female. Law enforcement descended upon the scene and
1:47
Speaker 1: began the laborious process of combing through the mass of
1:50
Speaker 1: woodland in search of any further remains. Over the following days,
1:57
Speaker 1: more body parts were discovered scattered in the world woods
2:00
Speaker 1: near the roads, often used only by logging trucks, hunters
2:04
Speaker 1: and some locals. Two and a half miles from the torso,
2:07
Speaker 1: a right leg was found by another hunter after he
2:10
Speaker 1: spotted a buzzard circling in the sky above. A left
2:14
Speaker 1: leg was sniffed out by a dog shortly after. On
2:18
Speaker 1: December seventh, five days after the torso was first discovered,
2:22
Speaker 1: a searcher spotted an area of disturbed ground near a tree.
2:26
Speaker 1: Its roots appeared to have been damaged. Digging into the soil,
2:30
Speaker 1: searchers pulled to the head of a forty year old
2:33
Speaker 1: woman from the ground. It had been the only part
2:36
Speaker 1: of her body to be buried. The identity of the
2:39
Speaker 1: woman in the woods was unknown, dispersed throughout the roughly
2:44
Speaker 1: three mile radius in which she was found, However, wore
2:48
Speaker 1: clues indicating how she had gotten there. In the area
2:51
Speaker 1: near the Torso recovery site, a large black tote was
2:55
Speaker 1: left upside down on the woodland floor. Feet from this
2:58
Speaker 1: tote was a red handle Milwaukee brand utility knife. There
3:03
Speaker 1: were disinfectant wipes scattered across the area, over a dozen
3:07
Speaker 1: of them. Whoever had left the items behind had wiped
3:10
Speaker 1: them down thoroughly. There was no DNA found on the knife.
3:15
Speaker 1: In the bottom of the black tote was a substance
3:18
Speaker 1: that later tested positive for human blood. The DNA sample
3:22
Speaker 1: returned no matches to individuals known to law enforcement. A
3:27
Speaker 1: second large tote, this one gray in color, was also
3:30
Speaker 1: recovered within the vicinity. This container had been likewise wiped clean,
3:35
Speaker 1: presumably by the same chlorox wipes. After discovering blood residue
3:40
Speaker 1: in this second bin as well, investigators speculated that they
3:43
Speaker 1: had been used to transport the heavier body parts from
3:46
Speaker 1: the road to just inside the tree line, where each
3:49
Speaker 1: piece was eventually found. The remains had not been in
3:55
Speaker 1: the hunting grounds for very long. A forensic entomologist was
3:58
Speaker 1: able to date the time out death to only days
4:01
Speaker 1: before the first group of hunters notified law enforcement on
4:04
Speaker 1: December second. The unidentified woman had likely passed away on
4:09
Speaker 1: or near November twenty seven. Though the dismemberment and subsequent
4:14
Speaker 1: exposure to the elements made it challenging, the medical examiner
4:18
Speaker 1: was nonetheless able to conclude a manner and cause of death.
4:22
Speaker 1: The victim had suffered no less than nine traumatic wounds
4:26
Speaker 1: to the skull, defensive wounds on the arms, as well
4:29
Speaker 1: as abdominal wounds. It was impossible to conclusively state what
4:34
Speaker 1: type of implement had been used to separate her remains,
4:37
Speaker 1: but experts believed that power tools were likely employed. Curiously,
4:42
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee knife left at the scene was neither the
4:44
Speaker 1: murder weapon or a tool used after the fact. They
4:48
Speaker 1: were obviously dealing with a brutal homicide. Investigators attempted to
4:59
Speaker 1: identify them victim through her fingerprints, but failed to return
5:02
Speaker 1: a match. The same was true for her DNA. They
5:05
Speaker 1: attempted to track down the origin of a dental implant,
5:08
Speaker 1: but were unsuccessful. A forensic sketch was produced and circulated
5:13
Speaker 1: to the media. Each tip they received then needed to
5:16
Speaker 1: be tracked down. Weeks and months passed with no identification. Eventually,
5:22
Speaker 1: a genealogical history was developed, which detailed family trees and
5:26
Speaker 1: located potential relatives of the deceased. Through this method. After
5:31
Speaker 1: nearly six months of effort, investigators were finally able to
5:34
Speaker 1: name the victim, forty year old Mindy Mabane Casotis. They
5:40
Speaker 1: confirmed her identity through a DNA sample from her mother.
5:46
Speaker 1: Mindy Mabaine Casotis was the eldest of three children, sister
5:50
Speaker 1: to two younger brothers, Frank four and Matthew. She had
5:54
Speaker 1: been particularly close with her parents, her mother Betsy and
5:58
Speaker 1: her father Frank, the third d Mindy was known to
6:01
Speaker 1: be bright, curious, as well as ambitious. She held a
6:05
Speaker 1: master's degree in public service. After years working as a
6:09
Speaker 1: legal secretary in the corporate sector, she made a move
6:12
Speaker 1: to the world of non profits. Her desire to help
6:15
Speaker 1: others drove her forward. Mindy cherished lifelong friendships and had
6:20
Speaker 1: a loving, close family. Her husband, a man named Nicholas Caussotis,
6:26
Speaker 1: was a Navy veteran who served in the Jag Corps
6:28
Speaker 1: as a prosecuting attorney. He was a decorated naval officer
6:32
Speaker 1: and had two tours in the Iraq War. Nick was
6:35
Speaker 1: also a former employee at the Pentagon. After the two
6:39
Speaker 1: married in the autumn of twenty sixteen, they lived for
6:42
Speaker 1: a time with Mindy's family at her brother Frank's home
6:45
Speaker 1: with his wife and baby daughter. Later they moved into
6:49
Speaker 1: a bungalow and Savannah with Frank the Third and Betsy.
6:53
Speaker 1: This was the house where she lived at the time
6:55
Speaker 1: of her death, along with her husband and parents. It
6:59
Speaker 1: did not seem possible that Mindy could simply disappear without
7:03
Speaker 1: anyone noticing. When Mindy's family was informed of the identification,
7:11
Speaker 1: the news of her death was not surprising. The news
7:15
Speaker 1: that she had been brutally murdered certainly was. According to
7:19
Speaker 1: her parents, Mindy had passed away in early December from
7:22
Speaker 1: a stroke while in hospital being monitored for blood pressure issues.
7:27
Speaker 1: It was a devastating loss, made worse, they said, because
7:31
Speaker 1: Mindy had been eight months pregnant. She was to give
7:34
Speaker 1: birth to her first child in January. Nick Cassotis explained
7:38
Speaker 1: to investigators that on the weekend after Thanksgiving, while his
7:42
Speaker 1: in laws were away, his wife had been taken to
7:44
Speaker 1: a birthing center to be treated. Days later, he received
7:48
Speaker 1: a call to collect her. When he arrived, he instead
7:52
Speaker 1: received the horrible news.
7:56
Speaker 2: Un an address in Savannah. Don't recall.
8:02
Speaker 3: Exactly where it was. I did drive out there that afternoon.
8:10
Speaker 3: It was a a brick building. Somebody was waiting outside
8:17
Speaker 3: and brought me into you know what a you know,
8:20
Speaker 3: like a like an office and said that they passed away.
8:26
Speaker 3: He said that she just passed away very suddenly, and
8:31
Speaker 3: that then, you know, they thought it might have been
8:35
Speaker 3: her heart.
8:37
Speaker 4: But they they weren't, they weren't sure. They don't achieved
8:41
Speaker 4: past away. And what you did mean I didn't yelled
8:47
Speaker 4: and sobbed.
8:49
Speaker 5: I mean I was.
8:53
Speaker 2: As a wreck.
8:55
Speaker 1: Nick explained that an autopsy was meant to take place,
8:59
Speaker 1: but the next time he heard from the facility, it
9:02
Speaker 1: was not with these results, but to inform him that
9:05
Speaker 1: Mindy had been mistakenly cremated.
9:09
Speaker 2: So he contacted me.
9:12
Speaker 3: And said that that they had premitted her body.
9:16
Speaker 2: I was extremely upset. I thought that that was going to,
9:21
Speaker 2: you know, to make a decision where she was sent.
9:24
Speaker 3: He gat that person wood now he said, He said
9:29
Speaker 3: that that the fee was five thousand dollars payble in cash.
9:36
Speaker 2: Did you pay that?
9:37
Speaker 5: I did?
9:38
Speaker 2: I met him in the next day in Montgomery withdrew
9:44
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars in cash. And did you ever inquire
9:47
Speaker 2: a stift? Yeah?
9:50
Speaker 6: I did not.
9:54
Speaker 2: Now I should have.
10:00
Speaker 1: The story that Nick told was on its surface unbelievable,
10:05
Speaker 1: and not only because Mindy had obviously not been cremated.
10:09
Speaker 1: The widower had been unable to provide the name of
10:11
Speaker 1: the facility where Mindy had been treated and died. He
10:14
Speaker 1: could not provide the name of her doctor or any
10:17
Speaker 1: of the other medical staff. The man he met in
10:19
Speaker 1: Alabama to receive what he thought were her ashes was
10:22
Speaker 1: likewise a complete mystery. Though they never saw her body,
10:27
Speaker 1: Mindy's parents had been informed by the son in law
10:30
Speaker 1: that they loved and trusted that she had passed away
10:32
Speaker 1: unexpectantly while they were away for the weekend. A memorial
10:37
Speaker 1: service was expected to be arranged in the new year,
10:40
Speaker 1: but that service never happened. In the days following Mindy's
10:44
Speaker 1: death in December, Frank and Betsy moved from the bungalow
10:48
Speaker 1: and Savannah into a new home. After that, Nick disappeared
10:52
Speaker 1: from their lives entirely In the vast expanse of the
10:57
Speaker 1: woodland where Mindy was found, there are a few builds
11:00
Speaker 1: and even fewer cameras yet situated just down the road
11:05
Speaker 1: from the location where hunters recovered The Torso is a
11:08
Speaker 1: water pump station operated by the City of Riceboro. An
11:12
Speaker 1: external camera on this building captured a twenty twenty two
11:16
Speaker 1: Ford Explorer, the same make and model owned by Nick
11:19
Speaker 1: cassotis driving past the building on November twenty ninth, at
11:23
Speaker 1: around noon. The same vehicle is captured a short time later,
11:27
Speaker 1: driving in the opposite direction. When Nick sat down once
11:34
Speaker 1: again with investigators, he did not deny that he had
11:37
Speaker 1: driven to a location on that day via a route
11:40
Speaker 1: which may have taken him through the woodland and passed
11:43
Speaker 1: the water pump station, But the explanation he gave for
11:47
Speaker 1: his presence there was long and complicated. It all began,
11:51
Speaker 1: he said, five years earlier, in twenty seventeen, when he
11:55
Speaker 1: and Mindy began receiving threats to their lives, experienced vandalism
11:59
Speaker 1: to their property, mysterious withdrawals from their bank accounts, and
12:03
Speaker 1: other harassing behavior. This alleged harassment escalated to a physical
12:08
Speaker 1: attack by men at his home wielding a baseball bat,
12:11
Speaker 1: he claimed. Nick explained that he and Mindy had been
12:15
Speaker 1: living under the radar for years before she passed. They
12:18
Speaker 1: had been moving constantly to try to stay hidden from
12:21
Speaker 1: those that wished to do them harm. The investigation and
12:25
Speaker 1: their security concerns were being managed by someone he had
12:28
Speaker 1: believed to be an FBI agent by the name of
12:31
Speaker 1: Jim McIntyre. Agent McIntyre oversaw a security team that issued
12:36
Speaker 1: Nick and Mindy instructions on how to stay safe.
12:40
Speaker 2: Jim, yes, the last name McIntyre.
12:44
Speaker 6: I'm quite honestly, I feel like he's allowed to me
12:47
Speaker 6: so much that.
12:48
Speaker 2: I yet remade a nurse. I haven't met any usity. Yes,
12:51
Speaker 2: where did you mean? I've read him multiple times.
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Speaker 3: He showed places that where we were, you know, told
13:01
Speaker 3: us to you know, h told us that he thought
13:05
Speaker 3: was san frist to move, you know.
13:07
Speaker 2: To find our place.
13:09
Speaker 3: He was a seeing a while at what do you
13:12
Speaker 3: mean back like like he was Sometimes it was it
13:15
Speaker 3: was a matter of like like telling us, telling us
13:17
Speaker 3: stuff that that I I have, you know recently doubt
13:21
Speaker 3: like you know that that my my parents were not
13:23
Speaker 3: actually my parents.
13:24
Speaker 7: Sometimes it was it was so he told your parents
13:29
Speaker 7: weren't your parents?
13:30
Speaker 2: Yes, he had the that's how what was his source
13:35
Speaker 2: of the or he.
13:37
Speaker 3: Had me take a DNA test and told me that
13:39
Speaker 3: the resolve that that he had he had gotten, you know,
13:43
Speaker 3: a secle from.
13:43
Speaker 2: Them you know.
13:47
Speaker 3: He he would put me on the phone with the
13:49
Speaker 3: people he said, were you know investigators that I you know,
13:53
Speaker 3: got question.
13:54
Speaker 2: Whether they were.
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Speaker 1: For years before Nick grew suspicious of Jim McIntyre, the
14:00
Speaker 1: Navy vet had believed what Jim apparently told him. This
14:03
Speaker 1: included one central lie that Nick's father, Wayne Casotis, was
14:08
Speaker 1: not his biological father and was in fact the person
14:12
Speaker 1: behind the threats, harassment, as well as the physical attack
14:16
Speaker 1: with the baseball bat that Nick had allegedly suffered. Nick's
14:20
Speaker 1: belief that his life was in danger was integral to
14:24
Speaker 1: understanding the steps he took around the time of Mindy's death.
14:28
Speaker 1: The couple were always following instructions from Jim and his
14:31
Speaker 1: security team, whom they trusted unquestionably to protect them.
14:39
Speaker 2: I don't know.
14:42
Speaker 3: You, he would message me daily, respond to his number
14:49
Speaker 3: of change, and then I would just socially.
14:55
Speaker 1: On the morning of November twenty ninth, Nick claimed to
14:58
Speaker 1: have been directed by his security team to pack his
15:01
Speaker 1: ameniti's personal belongings into large plastic totes in preparation for
15:05
Speaker 1: a move from Savannah. It would be one of over
15:08
Speaker 1: fifty moves the couple made over a three year period.
15:11
Speaker 1: Ostensibly for their own safety. Always at the direction of
15:16
Speaker 1: Jim McIntyre, Nick was given GPS coordinates to the location
15:20
Speaker 1: where he was to deliver these containers. The man who
15:23
Speaker 1: received them would ensure they were moved to their next rental.
15:27
Speaker 1: When he reached the designated place, which he said was
15:30
Speaker 1: a house, he was met by an unknown red headed
15:33
Speaker 1: man who collected the toads.
15:36
Speaker 7: I loosed the the things from the.
15:42
Speaker 2: Macuitarer ten.
15:47
Speaker 7: And I don't know, explored, Thanks left, you said, you
15:50
Speaker 7: removed from the car in his house.
15:51
Speaker 8: Where were the.
15:54
Speaker 2: Un Yeah, he said, death.
15:59
Speaker 9: And it wasn't your personal property that was in those
16:01
Speaker 9: containers of the community, Sir, I didn't have to against myself.
16:05
Speaker 9: So laftime your son, if your wife's dismembered body, sir,
16:11
Speaker 9: that's not.
16:12
Speaker 2: Sure, that is true.
16:14
Speaker 1: As he approached the dense woodland with the black and
16:16
Speaker 1: gray bens, he was told to turn off his cell phone,
16:19
Speaker 1: which he did for roughly two hours. The Ford Explorer, however,
16:24
Speaker 1: continued to track his movements. He was in the vicinity
16:28
Speaker 1: of where Mindy's remains would be found for roughly two hours.
16:33
Speaker 7: Your forty minutes that you're there, you're at the exact
16:37
Speaker 7: same spot where your last horsopad. The other stop where
16:43
Speaker 7: he dug Michelle herews and he drews.
16:48
Speaker 2: That's recorded on very same information.
16:53
Speaker 7: The next spot that you stopped, Invager go, he is covered.
17:02
Speaker 7: Even the next part of the lay is gone.
17:06
Speaker 2: Here is very clear.
17:09
Speaker 1: GPS tracking not only placed Nick at key locations across
17:13
Speaker 1: the logging grounds, but also making key purchases. He made
17:18
Speaker 1: two stops before reaching the hunting club, the first to
17:22
Speaker 1: get gas and the second at a home depot where
17:25
Speaker 1: he purchased one red handled Milwaukee utility knife. Earlier in
17:33
Speaker 1: the month, he was captured at a home depot once again.
17:36
Speaker 1: On that occasion, he purchased a shovel. Forensic experts descended
17:45
Speaker 1: upon the short term Airbnb rental in Savannah where Mindy
17:48
Speaker 1: had spent her last days. Luminol testing of the floor
17:52
Speaker 1: lit up an area that appeared to have been cleaned
17:55
Speaker 1: of blood. There were tiny, nearly invisible reactions also made
17:59
Speaker 1: by the chemt on the walls. It was the futon, however,
18:03
Speaker 1: that told a clear story. There was a large stain
18:07
Speaker 1: visible on the fabric even to the naked eye. Initial
18:11
Speaker 1: tests confirmed blood. When the fabric was removed for further testing,
18:16
Speaker 1: it showed the blood had seeped into the mattress. The
18:20
Speaker 1: results on the test sample came back conclusive. Mindy Casotis's
18:24
Speaker 1: DNA was a match based on how the Futon mattress
18:28
Speaker 1: was situated on the frame. The location of the stain
18:31
Speaker 1: suggested that Mindy had been in a seated position when
18:35
Speaker 1: the fatal blows were delivered to her head. After Mindy's death,
18:45
Speaker 1: Nick claimed to have suffered two unfortunate events. First, he
18:50
Speaker 1: witnessed an unknown individual break into his car and take
18:53
Speaker 1: a backpack which contained two laptops and a cell phone.
18:57
Speaker 1: This was a vital electronic evidence that could have been
19:00
Speaker 1: used to support many of his assertions about Jim McIntyre,
19:05
Speaker 1: but it was all lost. Then, in an even more
19:08
Speaker 1: unlucky turn of events, his newly purchased Ford Explorer began
19:13
Speaker 1: emitting smoke from under the hood while he was driving it.
19:16
Speaker 1: Pulling off the road to inspect it, the vehicle suddenly
19:20
Speaker 1: burst into flames. Nick claimed to have suffered minor burns
19:24
Speaker 1: from the incident, and the GPS that he had used
19:27
Speaker 1: to locate the house in the woods to deliver his
19:30
Speaker 1: toats it was burnt to ash, so too, said Nick
19:35
Speaker 1: was a cashier's check for eight hundred thousand dollars. It
19:39
Speaker 1: was intended for the purchase of a new house.
19:43
Speaker 2: One is.
19:49
Speaker 10: For years, for years, So you wanted full asses, he says, sorry,
19:58
Speaker 10: I didn't very much tire.
20:00
Speaker 9: Well, the burns that you got that you struck to
20:02
Speaker 9: the interesting adjuster for your medical records. You described burns
20:06
Speaker 9: going up under your nose in your face. It sounds
20:08
Speaker 9: like a flashburn from fumes. Sounds like a flash bar
20:12
Speaker 9: and fumes were winning some.
20:14
Speaker 5: Sir.
20:14
Speaker 2: I opened the.
20:15
Speaker 7: Car door and that's when that's when of the planes
20:19
Speaker 7: got mine.
20:20
Speaker 2: But what was the working corner they got burned?
20:21
Speaker 6: But I thought my home.
20:23
Speaker 2: Wasn't What else was in there?
20:26
Speaker 8: I don't know.
20:27
Speaker 2: I had had some pain and step in. Then was
20:30
Speaker 2: there a check in there? Yes, there's a checking name.
20:33
Speaker 2: What was a check on the chance to our house?
20:35
Speaker 2: And what was the interesting? You can do about that?
20:39
Speaker 2: That doesn't think the entrance commanded?
20:40
Speaker 6: And they do the chat.
20:41
Speaker 2: Is it a size of the chick? Yes, sir? How
20:44
Speaker 2: much heat has sixty some a thousand topics? It's just gone, yes, sir.
20:51
Speaker 2: Also million dollar dron.
20:54
Speaker 6: In fact that a.
20:55
Speaker 7: Little bit before that and you got to start getting
20:57
Speaker 7: creation to move into a house and getting away from
20:59
Speaker 7: her the the car seriously learned who.
21:02
Speaker 2: Out your money in?
21:05
Speaker 7: Yes, so you won't be able to close on the
21:07
Speaker 7: hats apparently, so it was a time for a new lab, Yes, sir.
21:17
Speaker 1: In September of twenty twenty two, when Mindy was still
21:21
Speaker 1: alive and apparently pregnant with their child, Nick began private
21:25
Speaker 1: messaging an author and independent film producer whose work he admired.
21:30
Speaker 1: That writer, Samantha Colesnick, is the author of a handful
21:33
Speaker 1: of dark fiction novels, including one entitled True Crime. Nick
21:38
Speaker 1: and Samantha bonded over a shared interest in the genre. Indeed,
21:42
Speaker 1: Nick had completed his own short story entitled I Think
21:46
Speaker 1: my Mother in Law is trying to Kill Me, originally
21:49
Speaker 1: published on Reddit. Nick claimed to have sold his work
21:52
Speaker 1: to Sony for film rights worth over three hundred thousand dollars.
21:57
Speaker 11: I found one story today that I was obsessed with,
22:00
Speaker 11: and I went to go message them because on No
22:02
Speaker 11: Sleep you also have to ask for permission to use
22:04
Speaker 11: their stories. And they actually sold the story to Sony
22:09
Speaker 11: and it's being turned into a movie.
22:11
Speaker 6: Wow.
22:11
Speaker 11: So I couldn't even read that one, but they had
22:13
Speaker 11: a bunch of other stories that I was like, Okay,
22:16
Speaker 11: this one is amazing, Like let's let's do this one too.
22:20
Speaker 1: Within months of Mindy's sudden death, Nick legally changed his
22:24
Speaker 1: name to Nicholas Killian James Stark, married Samantha, the fellow
22:29
Speaker 1: dark fiction writer, and moved to Pennsylvania. He told Samantha
22:33
Speaker 1: that Mindy had died years before in twenty twenty. He
22:37
Speaker 1: also lied to her by omission when he failed to
22:40
Speaker 1: tell her that Mindy was not his first wife.
22:45
Speaker 2: What did you say on that? I said that married once?
22:50
Speaker 2: I said that, Okay told me so. He told you
22:57
Speaker 2: that you see Jarny.
22:59
Speaker 12: Live that ye.
23:01
Speaker 1: Jim Nick's first marriage to a woman named Heather lasted
23:09
Speaker 1: for roughly six years between two thousand and nine and
23:12
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. When the two failed to conceive, the relationship
23:16
Speaker 1: soured and they sought a divorce. Investigators believed that Nick's
23:22
Speaker 1: first marriage to Heather and their subsequent divorce explained the
23:26
Speaker 1: bizarre behavior from Nick and Mindy in the years that followed.
23:30
Speaker 1: Nick had been ordered to pay Heather one point five
23:33
Speaker 1: million dollars in their divorce settlement. Inexplicably, the navy veteran
23:38
Speaker 1: told a judge that he could afford this payment because
23:42
Speaker 1: he was actually worth thirty two million dollars, a fortune
23:46
Speaker 1: that he had earned working on top secret software projects
23:49
Speaker 1: for a company called APIs Limited under the direction of
23:54
Speaker 1: Jim McIntyre for his safety and security. He had never
23:58
Speaker 1: received a salary for this work, but had rather been
24:01
Speaker 1: paid in generous stock options, which had been transferred into
24:05
Speaker 1: a trust managed by Jim. Despite his apparent wealth, Nick
24:09
Speaker 1: never paid the money he owed to Heather. By moving
24:13
Speaker 1: home constantly, no longer holding formal employment, and severing ties
24:17
Speaker 1: with his family, Nick avoided the court order that would
24:20
Speaker 1: force him to make the payment. He also avoided being
24:23
Speaker 1: arrested for non payment.
24:27
Speaker 2: I mean the things of the different years, the places
24:32
Speaker 2: we went.
24:32
Speaker 7: We he did get away from the judgment from Hayler.
24:37
Speaker 2: No, sir, so he did that. You were all and
24:42
Speaker 2: I run from.
24:43
Speaker 6: Heador and the.
24:44
Speaker 2: Judgment to sit judgment. How did Jim take care that?
24:49
Speaker 7: I don't know, sir, when you testified that you had
24:52
Speaker 7: thirty two million dollars, Yes, sir, that was true.
24:55
Speaker 2: I believe it is true. We believe it's true. I
24:58
Speaker 2: believe it is true.
25:00
Speaker 12: I don't know.
25:02
Speaker 2: Why did you believe that was true?
25:04
Speaker 12: It is.
25:04
Speaker 2: I had documents that it provides name that I had,
25:07
Speaker 2: that I had thirty million dollars that she did are no,
25:12
Speaker 2: I had worked around the flock in this project. He
25:17
Speaker 2: thought it was from your projects. Yes, and he had
25:20
Speaker 2: thirty two million dollars he did, yes, sir.
25:25
Speaker 1: Investigators believed that Nick's first marriage left one other lasting impact.
25:30
Speaker 1: His desperate desire to have children after a devastating miscarriage
25:36
Speaker 1: signaled the beginning of the end for Nick and Heather.
25:38
Speaker 1: It was speculated that Mindy feared her marriage would also
25:42
Speaker 1: fall apart if they could not conceive. When Mindy's autopsy
25:46
Speaker 1: was complete, it showed that she had not, in fact
25:49
Speaker 1: been eight months pregnant. She was not expecting, though she
25:53
Speaker 1: had openly told friends, family, and her husband that this
25:58
Speaker 1: was the case. Although this news came as a shock
26:02
Speaker 1: to Mindy's family, who believed she was about to be
26:05
Speaker 1: a mother, investigators did not believe that this information was
26:09
Speaker 1: a surprise to her husband. On the contrary, discovering this
26:13
Speaker 1: truth may well have been his motive to kill her.
26:18
Speaker 7: And the big question is why, Sir, I would never
26:21
Speaker 7: killed and I woke up in the morning at she error.
26:25
Speaker 2: I rubbed her back, I rubbed her. She wasn't right.
26:29
Speaker 2: She so she was doing January. She was not great.
26:35
Speaker 2: She was pregnant. Even at the times did every y'all
26:39
Speaker 2: were saying that she was pregnant. She was not great.
26:43
Speaker 2: She was not prayingnant at the time for a day,
26:45
Speaker 2: so she was she was not. She has adatical certainty
26:50
Speaker 2: she was not pregnant. So this is your opportunity here
26:54
Speaker 2: now to say what happened in that work.
26:58
Speaker 6: In that house.
27:00
Speaker 2: We are sorry, yes answer you really don't love.
27:10
Speaker 6: Sir.
27:11
Speaker 2: I never heard I love you, sir.
27:21
Speaker 1: Nick Casotis or rather, by this time, Nicholas Stark maintained
27:26
Speaker 1: his story, pleaded not guilty to twelve charges, including murder,
27:30
Speaker 1: and stood trial in August twenty twenty five in a
27:33
Speaker 1: Georgia courtroom. Arguments from both the state and defense centered
27:38
Speaker 1: around dissecting the former prosecutor's intricate narrative about a man
27:42
Speaker 1: he called Jim McIntyre, decorated.
27:51
Speaker 13: Military veteran prosecutor, judge advocate general with the Navy Navy Boston,
28:03
Speaker 13: two law degrees. It's not just her family that believed
28:07
Speaker 13: him everybody believed him. On paper, he looked like Prince Charming.
28:19
Speaker 13: I submit to you, that's what the evidence will show.
28:22
Speaker 14: My client, Nick Kosodis, is not just an accomplished attorney
28:28
Speaker 14: and decorated JAG officer who serves his country in Iraq
28:34
Speaker 14: and in the Pentagon. He is also a man who
28:39
Speaker 14: lived in fear, relentless, all consuming fear. His wife, Mindy,
28:48
Speaker 14: also lived in fear. Mister and Missus Casotis were told
28:56
Speaker 14: that they were targets. You'll hear testimony that a man
29:03
Speaker 14: calling himself Jim.
29:05
Speaker 5: McIntyre who knows if that is his real.
29:08
Speaker 14: Name, claiming to be with the FBI, told them that
29:13
Speaker 14: their lives were in danger, that they had to disappear,
29:18
Speaker 14: follow orders without question, and trust no one. Mister Casodis
29:27
Speaker 14: lied to his friends, He lied to his family, He
29:32
Speaker 14: lied to Mindy's loved ones. He lied for years, not
29:38
Speaker 14: because he wanted to deceive them, but because he believed
29:44
Speaker 14: that their lives depended on it.
29:48
Speaker 1: Mindy's mother, Betsy, took the stand to explain how her
29:52
Speaker 1: daughter had lived in fear for years following her marriage.
29:56
Speaker 1: The belief that their lives were in danger was real,
30:00
Speaker 1: even if the threat never was okay.
30:03
Speaker 15: Was Mindy working at the time, No, she was not okay.
30:07
Speaker 16: Do you know why she was not working? Well, one
30:13
Speaker 16: basic reason was she was scared to death to leave
30:17
Speaker 16: the house.
30:17
Speaker 6: So tell us what you mean by that.
30:21
Speaker 16: Well, they were supposed to There was supposed to be
30:24
Speaker 16: people after them. They supposedly had security, and so she
30:34
Speaker 16: was truly fearful for her life.
30:36
Speaker 15: Did you believe that?
30:38
Speaker 6: Yes?
30:40
Speaker 15: Would you have considered her gullible? No, So when she
30:45
Speaker 15: told you she was afraid, did you believe her?
30:47
Speaker 16: Absolutely?
30:48
Speaker 8: Okay?
30:49
Speaker 15: And did her behavior seem to be consistent.
30:51
Speaker 16: With that, yes, very much, so okay.
30:57
Speaker 1: Betsy also explained how Dick had told them that the
31:00
Speaker 1: loss of their daughter. Frank the third had undergone hip
31:03
Speaker 1: surgery on November thirtieth. Upon his return from the hospital,
31:07
Speaker 1: Nick had greeted them at the bungalow, helped Frank inside,
31:10
Speaker 1: and cared for him. After getting his father in law settled,
31:13
Speaker 1: Nick said he was going to the hospital to check
31:16
Speaker 1: in on Mindy. When he returned from that visit, he
31:19
Speaker 1: delivered the heartbreaking news.
31:22
Speaker 16: And he was he just started bawling, crying hysterically and
31:29
Speaker 16: talking and I really couldn't even understand much of what
31:32
Speaker 16: he said. So I said, please come out, and said said,
31:37
Speaker 16: then in the living room, the din or whatever, and
31:41
Speaker 16: tell us what's wrong. And so that's when, I mean
31:45
Speaker 16: we all I could really understand was she's not coming home.
31:49
Speaker 16: So is that he met Mendy? Is that when he
31:54
Speaker 16: told you?
31:55
Speaker 12: Yes?
31:57
Speaker 15: And when he said she's not coming home? Did you
31:59
Speaker 15: want understand what he meant when he first said it?
32:05
Speaker 16: No, not really. I mean the way he was crying,
32:09
Speaker 16: I figured it was not good.
32:13
Speaker 15: So did he eventually tell you she died?
32:16
Speaker 3: Yes?
32:17
Speaker 16: And he did not know what He didn't know exactly
32:21
Speaker 16: what had happened. He said he'd been texting her all
32:23
Speaker 16: morning and she didn't answer, so he thought she was sleeping.
32:27
Speaker 1: After moving them to a home in Hilton Head, Nick
32:30
Speaker 1: parted ways with his in laws. What happened next explains
32:34
Speaker 1: why when Nick disappeared from their lives so soon after
32:37
Speaker 1: Mindy's death, Mindy's parents never looked for him. The security
32:42
Speaker 1: team at APIs Limited sent Betsy and Frank an email.
32:47
Speaker 14: When he left Hilton Head.
32:49
Speaker 15: Did you expect to see him again?
32:52
Speaker 2: Yes?
32:53
Speaker 8: We did?
32:54
Speaker 5: Did you ever?
32:56
Speaker 2: No?
32:59
Speaker 17: Got an email notification from the security team that he
33:02
Speaker 17: had been in a terrible car accident.
33:04
Speaker 16: Yes.
33:05
Speaker 17: Was there any follow up communication from the security team
33:07
Speaker 17: concerning his condition.
33:09
Speaker 16: Yes, I believe it was. Several weeks later we were
33:12
Speaker 16: told that unfortunately he had died. We were already gravy
33:17
Speaker 16: for Mindy, and then we were gravy for him.
33:26
Speaker 1: Nick's first wife, Heather, explained to the jury that she
33:29
Speaker 1: went to great lengths to obtain the one point five
33:31
Speaker 1: million dollar settlement from Rex's husband after he testified that
33:36
Speaker 1: he was worth millions. However, in that testimony at their
33:40
Speaker 1: divorce hearing, he did not explain that covert FBI agent
33:44
Speaker 1: McIntyre was in control of his millions in a hidden trust. Instead,
33:49
Speaker 1: he stated that it was Mindy that was withholding the money.
33:54
Speaker 18: The judge was very upset after he heard Nick tested
33:59
Speaker 18: by Andrew that he not only had the money, he
34:02
Speaker 18: had more than enough of the money, and that he
34:05
Speaker 18: just was refusing to pay it. So the judge was
34:09
Speaker 18: not very kind.
34:10
Speaker 5: He admitted having how much.
34:12
Speaker 18: Money thirty two million dollars.
34:17
Speaker 5: And did he tell the court he was having difficulty
34:20
Speaker 5: accessing that money?
34:21
Speaker 12: Yes?
34:22
Speaker 5: What did he tell the court?
34:23
Speaker 18: He told the court that his wife, his current wife,
34:26
Speaker 18: Mindy was holding his funds and that he thought that
34:31
Speaker 18: she had a claim to it because it was earned
34:34
Speaker 18: during his marriage with her.
34:36
Speaker 5: Okay, And so that one point five million dollars that
34:40
Speaker 5: he had agreed to pay you, he he agreed to that,
34:44
Speaker 5: he agreed to the one point five million in the
34:46
Speaker 5: course of the negotiation. Correct. And had you seen any
34:53
Speaker 5: evidence that Nick had one point five million dollars?
34:58
Speaker 6: No?
34:59
Speaker 5: Have you seen or at the time or at any time,
35:02
Speaker 5: did you see any evidence that Nick Kesodas had the
35:06
Speaker 5: thirty two million dollars that he said.
35:08
Speaker 18: He had when he testified under oath?
35:10
Speaker 5: I understand that. Did you see any Okay, did you
35:12
Speaker 5: see any documentation of the thirty two million dollars bank statements?
35:17
Speaker 19: Oh?
35:18
Speaker 5: Yes, they showed thirty two million dollars.
35:20
Speaker 18: They were baked, but yes.
35:22
Speaker 5: And when you followed up on that, do you remember
35:25
Speaker 5: the bank Bank of America? Okay? Did you do anything
35:29
Speaker 5: with Bank of America to see if there was thirty
35:30
Speaker 5: two million dollars in there?
35:31
Speaker 18: I tried filing the judgment in every single banking institution
35:34
Speaker 18: in the Virginia areas.
35:36
Speaker 5: And were you successful at getting the one point five
35:38
Speaker 5: million dollars from any of those banks. What did they
35:42
Speaker 5: say about the thirty two million dollars when you presented
35:45
Speaker 5: Bank of America with those statements.
35:47
Speaker 18: I did never hear them.
35:53
Speaker 1: Nick's third wife, Samantha, testified that Nick manipulated and lied
35:57
Speaker 1: to her.
35:59
Speaker 6: Did you know Miss.
36:00
Speaker 15: Stark's marital status.
36:04
Speaker 19: I believed I had. He told me that he was
36:08
Speaker 19: a widower, and that he had lost his wife and
36:13
Speaker 19: his unborn child about two years prior, and that they
36:19
Speaker 19: they had both died in a hospital.
36:22
Speaker 15: He told you that in October of twenty twenty two yes.
36:27
Speaker 19: On Twitter in the direct messages.
36:29
Speaker 17: She subsequently determined that that was not correct, meaning did
36:34
Speaker 17: you find out from law enforcement that that was not
36:36
Speaker 17: the case?
36:38
Speaker 19: As I found out from law enforcement that that was
36:40
Speaker 19: not the case on the date of his arrest, and
36:44
Speaker 19: that was not until May twenty twenty three.
36:48
Speaker 1: As they had started corresponding via Twitter messages, she had
36:51
Speaker 1: asked for documents to verify his identity. He sent her
36:55
Speaker 1: a Georgia driver's license, later determined to be photoshopped with
36:59
Speaker 1: his desire to last name Stark, which he hadn't yet changed.
37:04
Speaker 1: He also sent her an employment letter from the fake
37:06
Speaker 1: entity APIs Limited. The couple became engaged in February and
37:12
Speaker 1: married in April, just months after Mindy's actual death. In
37:17
Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty three, Nick's Ford Explorer burst into
37:20
Speaker 1: flames containing the check for their new home, which Samantha
37:24
Speaker 1: believed he had the funds to pay for. She told
37:27
Speaker 1: the jury that Nick wanted to try for children right away.
37:32
Speaker 1: After learning of her husband's past, Samantha had the marriage annulled.
37:40
Speaker 1: Nicholas Causotis took the stand in his own defense. He
37:43
Speaker 1: testified for hours about his past, his marriages, and his
37:47
Speaker 1: interactions with Jim McIntyre. Nick told the jury that despite
37:52
Speaker 1: what his first wife said, they had never tried to
37:54
Speaker 1: have children. She ultimately decided that she did not want
37:57
Speaker 1: to have any with him.
38:00
Speaker 5: Did you ever have children with miss Bassett?
38:02
Speaker 2: I did not know.
38:03
Speaker 6: We discussed it many times. At one point we both
38:06
Speaker 6: got tested to see, if you know, everything was in
38:08
Speaker 6: working order, but she chose not to take the She
38:11
Speaker 6: chose not to take the medication, and therefore we never
38:16
Speaker 6: had children. I don't believe there was never a pregnancy
38:20
Speaker 6: or the attempt.
38:21
Speaker 5: Of a pregnancy.
38:22
Speaker 1: The mysterious Jim McIntyre entered Nick and Mindy's lives. Following
38:27
Speaker 1: their first wave of vandalism, threats and strange bank account activity.
38:31
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, Nick testified that the man who claimed
38:35
Speaker 1: to be an FBI agent came to their home and
38:38
Speaker 1: offered to look into their case.
38:42
Speaker 5: So some random individual shows up at your house, says
38:45
Speaker 5: he's with the FBI and claims to be a man
38:47
Speaker 5: named Jim McIntyre. What did you do to verify that information?
38:51
Speaker 6: I didn't verify it. Mindy believed that she had that
38:55
Speaker 6: she had seen a badge, or she told me at
38:56
Speaker 6: the time that she'd seen a badge. I had no
38:58
Speaker 6: reason to doubt that he was who he said he was.
39:00
Speaker 6: It didn't cross my mind that somebody else could have
39:02
Speaker 6: shown up at my house at that time.
39:04
Speaker 1: After lengthy investigations and the consideration of many leads, Jim
39:09
Speaker 1: concluded that Nick was being targeted by individuals claiming to
39:13
Speaker 1: be his family members. Throughout this period, he and Mindy
39:17
Speaker 1: continuously moved, assisted by Jim and what he called their
39:21
Speaker 1: security team. However, after roughly two years, Nick began to
39:26
Speaker 1: question where Jim was sourcing the funds for their rentals
39:29
Speaker 1: and living costs. He had only just learned he claimed
39:33
Speaker 1: that a good friend's credit card had been charged roughly
39:36
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars over this time.
39:41
Speaker 6: I had a conversation with him as to why this was,
39:44
Speaker 6: you know, why he was charging a friend of mine's card.
39:47
Speaker 6: You know, why wasn't there you know, either coming from
39:50
Speaker 6: our own money or some sort of official fund, you
39:53
Speaker 6: know why this was happening. And I made some reference
39:57
Speaker 6: to wanting to speak to his superior and he he said,
40:00
Speaker 6: you know, Nick, I'm not an FBI agent. Why would
40:03
Speaker 6: you think of that?
40:06
Speaker 5: Did you inquire Jim McIntyre why he was doing all
40:09
Speaker 5: of this work for you if he was not with
40:12
Speaker 5: the FBI?
40:12
Speaker 6: Absolutely, what did you learn? I learned that he was
40:16
Speaker 6: the majority investor in this company that I was working for.
40:23
Speaker 6: He also said that he had worked extensively with the FBI.
40:26
Speaker 6: And you know, I had many phone calls with people
40:28
Speaker 6: I believed to be you know, even following that FBI.
40:31
Speaker 1: Agent's According to her husband, on December first, twenty twenty two,
40:37
Speaker 1: Mindy Cassotis died from an unexpected and ill defined complication
40:42
Speaker 1: or condition in an unnamed hospital facility located somewhere in Savannah, but.
40:48
Speaker 6: That evening Thursday, December first, I was told that she
40:53
Speaker 6: had died.
40:55
Speaker 5: Who told you that she had died?
40:57
Speaker 6: A man at a medical clinic of some.
41:00
Speaker 5: Sort that I went to. Where was the medical clinic
41:04
Speaker 5: you went to?
41:04
Speaker 6: I believe somewhere in Savannah or the greater Savannah area.
41:09
Speaker 6: I don't know Savannah very well.
41:10
Speaker 5: So what was the name of the man that told
41:12
Speaker 5: you that?
41:12
Speaker 6: I do not recall. And he sat me down and said,
41:16
Speaker 6: you know, I'm very sorry to tell you that that
41:17
Speaker 6: Mindy passed away very suddenly today.
41:21
Speaker 5: Did you ask to see her?
41:23
Speaker 2: I did.
41:24
Speaker 5: What was the result of that?
41:26
Speaker 6: He said, I could not at that time. My understanding
41:30
Speaker 6: leaving I don't recall his exact words, I was I
41:32
Speaker 6: was an absolute wreck. But my understanding was that there
41:37
Speaker 6: was going to be an autopsy, so I assumed that
41:39
Speaker 6: she was being prepped for that, or she had already
41:41
Speaker 6: been transported somewhere for that.
41:42
Speaker 1: After collecting Mindy's ashes from another mystery man on the
41:46
Speaker 1: side of a road in Montgomery, Nick said he took
41:49
Speaker 1: them to Chesapeake Bay, where he spread them in a
41:51
Speaker 1: solemn ceremony alone. In response to the mounting evidence of
41:59
Speaker 1: his guilt, the former jag officer had an explanation for
42:02
Speaker 1: almost everything except the blood found in his Airbnb rental
42:07
Speaker 1: in Savannah. He said he had no idea where that
42:11
Speaker 1: came from. Most of his explanations were based on instructions
42:15
Speaker 1: handed down by Jim McIntyre. Nick said that the Milwaukee
42:19
Speaker 1: knife he purchased at home Depot was not the one
42:22
Speaker 1: found next to one of the toats at the scene.
42:25
Speaker 1: His had been bought to repair a screen at their
42:28
Speaker 1: airbnb and had likely burnt up in the unfortunate vehicle fire.
42:33
Speaker 1: Another set of knives that he was found to have
42:35
Speaker 1: purchased was never located. This was a seven piece deer
42:39
Speaker 1: processing kit bought from a bass Pro shop. One exactly
42:43
Speaker 1: like it was sourced by investigators and a forensic expert
42:47
Speaker 1: found that it could not be eliminated as one of
42:50
Speaker 1: the tools used on Mindy's remains.
42:55
Speaker 5: Are you a hunter?
42:56
Speaker 6: I am not.
42:57
Speaker 5: Why would you buy a deer processing kit at best
43:00
Speaker 5: both shops.
43:00
Speaker 6: I received a message from who I believed it was
43:03
Speaker 6: Mindy on Monday, the twenty eighth of November and said
43:08
Speaker 6: said that she'd been thinking about Christmas gifts for her
43:10
Speaker 6: brother Matthew, who is a hunter. At this point, you
43:13
Speaker 6: know that seemed to be everything he did on weekends
43:16
Speaker 6: and directed me to go to bass Pro shops and
43:19
Speaker 6: to buy it.
43:20
Speaker 5: So I did did you kill your wife, Mindy Custis?
43:25
Speaker 6: I absolutely did not. I've never put my hands on
43:30
Speaker 6: a woman. I've never heard a woman. I would never
43:33
Speaker 6: have hurt Mindy.
43:36
Speaker 5: Did you strike her on the head nine up to
43:38
Speaker 5: nine times?
43:38
Speaker 8: Never?
43:39
Speaker 6: Never, not once?
43:43
Speaker 2: Did you.
43:46
Speaker 5: Dispose of her body?
43:48
Speaker 2: No?
43:48
Speaker 8: Never.
43:50
Speaker 5: Did you dismember her body?
43:51
Speaker 6: No? Absolutely not. Frankly, I'm not great with blood, so
43:57
Speaker 6: is anyone who's ever given me a doctor's exam. I
44:00
Speaker 6: can tell you that is not something that is even
44:04
Speaker 6: remotely possible for me.
44:07
Speaker 1: During cross examination, Prosecutor Lorie Beyo hammered Nick Ksotis Stark
44:12
Speaker 1: over his failure to verify or support a single detail
44:16
Speaker 1: in his account of Mindy's death. As a former JAG
44:19
Speaker 1: officer and counsel to senior officials at the Pentagon, he
44:23
Speaker 1: should have been well versed in legal documentation, yet he
44:27
Speaker 1: wanted the jury to believe that. He never verified agent
44:30
Speaker 1: Mcatyre was working for the FBI, nor ever sought a
44:33
Speaker 1: death certificate for his wife, never got.
44:37
Speaker 15: A single document, No ma'am.
44:39
Speaker 6: I didn't didn't have any reason to have a document,
44:41
Speaker 6: and so I failed to follow up on it.
44:43
Speaker 13: You were on trial for murder, correct, I was not
44:49
Speaker 13: in anticipation of today.
44:50
Speaker 15: In your testimony, you knew you were on trial.
44:53
Speaker 6: For murder, correct, yes, ma'am.
44:55
Speaker 15: And you didn't bring a single court document with you.
44:59
Speaker 6: Well, ma'am, I I believe the testimony is fairly clear
45:02
Speaker 6: that I was lied to about Mindy's death and that
45:06
Speaker 6: I did not have a document because there were no documents.
45:08
Speaker 15: You worked for APIST Security, correct.
45:10
Speaker 6: I believe so, ma'am.
45:13
Speaker 5: And the records for APIs limited.
45:16
Speaker 15: You subpoena those records in anticipation of court? Correct, No, ma'am,
45:20
Speaker 15: you know what a subpoena is, as an attorney writ sir,
45:22
Speaker 15: I do, ma'am.
45:25
Speaker 5: And you knew that mister.
45:26
Speaker 15: McIntyre was a majority investor. I think is the phrasing that.
45:30
Speaker 5: You used, right?
45:32
Speaker 6: That was what I believed, ma'am.
45:37
Speaker 15: You hired a private investigator to find him?
45:40
Speaker 6: No, ma'am, I hope the state would do that, but
45:43
Speaker 6: y'all didn't really care that much.
45:46
Speaker 1: The prosecution argued that Nick Casotis simply liked making up stories,
45:51
Speaker 1: and because of his background in the Navy and government service,
45:55
Speaker 1: everyone believed him, including Mindy. The defense countered that both
46:01
Speaker 1: Nick and Mindy's behavior in the years before her death
46:04
Speaker 1: were proof that they were living the reality of the story.
46:08
Speaker 1: Nick told, you're a fiction.
46:11
Speaker 20: Writer, Yes, sir, you make up stories when I write. Yes, sir,
46:20
Speaker 20: how do we know this story is that you're telling today.
46:23
Speaker 5: It's not fiction. You have not made this up, Yes, sir.
46:27
Speaker 6: Absolutely, everything we did for five years makes absolutely no
46:32
Speaker 6: sense absent somebody telling us to do it. From the
46:36
Speaker 6: very large settlement, I was willing. I was willing to
46:40
Speaker 6: voluntarily give Heather, which would make no sense if I
46:43
Speaker 6: didn't believe I had thirty two million dollars coming in.
46:45
Speaker 6: To staying in the house at a time where the
46:49
Speaker 6: state says that I knew that I was on the run,
46:53
Speaker 6: I had absolutely no idea. I lived in that house
46:55
Speaker 6: for another nine months.
46:57
Speaker 5: As you said here today, do you think that there
47:02
Speaker 5: was a person named Jim McIntyre.
47:04
Speaker 6: I do not believe that was his name.
47:06
Speaker 5: Now, how does that make you feel?
47:15
Speaker 6: Angry?
47:15
Speaker 14: Betrayed?
47:16
Speaker 6: Frankly dumb?
47:20
Speaker 5: Do you know who killed your wife Mandy cassotas I
47:22
Speaker 5: do not.
47:27
Speaker 21: He lived that Jim McIntyre story.
47:31
Speaker 6: He lived it.
47:32
Speaker 14: This isn't a fiction that the writer n Casodas makes
47:39
Speaker 14: up upon arrest.
47:42
Speaker 5: I mean he's good. He sold a story to Sony,
47:46
Speaker 5: but he's not that good.
47:48
Speaker 21: He's not that good that he could make up a
47:51
Speaker 21: story and then retroactively have lived it. He lived the
47:57
Speaker 21: Jim McIntyre story for years before the arrest, for years
48:03
Speaker 21: before Mindy Casotas's murder.
48:06
Speaker 2: They actually lived like that.
48:09
Speaker 15: He wanted kids and he found out Mindy wasn't pregnant.
48:13
Speaker 15: Because if Mindy was pregnant.
48:15
Speaker 2: You know what he doesn't do.
48:16
Speaker 15: He doesn't kill her because he wanted kids. He found
48:21
Speaker 15: out she wasn't. Then there's the abdominal wounds. This goes
48:26
Speaker 15: back to Mindy not being pregnant, and you're man, she
48:31
Speaker 15: told you she was pregnant.
48:36
Speaker 6: You're mad.
48:38
Speaker 15: That's why you bury ahead, That's why you staber in
48:41
Speaker 15: the belly. That's murder, mister Mistis.
48:48
Speaker 17: Mandy loved mister Castas and she didn't want to lose him.
48:55
Speaker 17: I submit to you she wasn't pregnant. Mister Casodas told you.
49:03
Speaker 15: That he and Heather divorced because she told him she
49:09
Speaker 15: wanted kids, but didn't really That's what he told you.
49:13
Speaker 15: On the stand, Mindy knew.
49:16
Speaker 2: I submit to you.
49:18
Speaker 15: That if you found out that she wasn't pregnant, she listened.
49:27
Speaker 1: The jury returned with their verdict in just over one hour,
49:34
Speaker 1: Count one.
49:36
Speaker 22: Mouth murder guilty, count do flamy murder guilty, Count three aggravated.
49:54
Speaker 1: At the sentencing, Nick's parents stood up on his behalf,
49:58
Speaker 1: despite years of a strange and the blame that had
50:01
Speaker 1: been placed on them as the alleged perpetrators of years
50:04
Speaker 1: of harassment, they told the judge that their son was innocent.
50:10
Speaker 8: He is truly a wonderful, kind person and from the
50:19
Speaker 8: beginning when this all broke, we.
50:23
Speaker 23: Never believed that this was possible, and we still did
50:26
Speaker 23: not believe that this is possible. We know the person
50:30
Speaker 23: sitting there, our son, as a kind of gentle person
50:36
Speaker 23: that would not do this, and there is really no
50:40
Speaker 23: evidence that showed that he did.
50:43
Speaker 12: He is a good and kind and gentle person. The
50:47
Speaker 12: thought that he could take someone else's life is just unbelievable. Honestly,
50:55
Speaker 12: I respect the jury's work that they did, but they
51:00
Speaker 12: got this one wrong.
51:01
Speaker 6: I'm sorry.
51:03
Speaker 1: The state requested a sentence of life without the possibility
51:07
Speaker 1: of parole. Morgan Paddock, one of Mindy's closest friends, spoke
51:14
Speaker 1: of the pain of processing both Mindy's loss and the
51:17
Speaker 1: manipulation that her friend must have suffered during her marriage
51:22
Speaker 1: to Nick Casotis. Mindy was more than the woman found
51:26
Speaker 1: in the woods, and she was much more than a
51:29
Speaker 1: character in her husband's twisted story.
51:33
Speaker 24: But Mindy was so much more than what happened to her.
51:36
Speaker 24: She was a bright light, vibrant, generous, funny, caring, a
51:42
Speaker 24: defender of others, passionate, trustworthy, and so much more. If
51:48
Speaker 24: anyone in her life would have been in her position,
51:50
Speaker 24: she would be standing right here today speaking for them. Nick,
51:55
Speaker 24: you slowly and strategically tried to dampen her light, her
52:00
Speaker 24: from the people she deeply loved, robbing her of time, laughter,
52:06
Speaker 24: creating memories, and peace, always living in fear and isolation.
52:12
Speaker 24: She loved you and trusted you to tell her the truth,
52:17
Speaker 24: to protect her, to live out your marriage valves, and
52:21
Speaker 24: yet you were the one that she needed protection from.
52:26
Speaker 1: In August twenty twenty five, Nicholas Casotis Stark was sentenced
52:31
Speaker 1: to life without the possibility of parole plus twenty five years,
52:43
Speaker 1: and that was the tragic case of Mindy Mabane Casotis.
52:47
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me and a special show out
52:50
Speaker 1: this week to Destiny Dmelo for joining our Sherlock Holmes membership.
52:54
Speaker 1: Welcome to the JTL Members Lounge. I'm Kevin. This is
52:58
Speaker 1: just Thought Lounge and I'll see in that next one.
53:01
Speaker 5: Found Out the louches watching.
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Speaker 7: Really big Thing.
53:06
Speaker 14: Found out the louches watch your thought.
53:09
Speaker 5: Gay found out the louches watch your thought the really
53:14
Speaker 5: Big Thing.
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Speaker 2: James