Latest / Crime and Horror / This crime was SOLVED at the DMV - MrBallen

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This crime was SOLVED at the DMV - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On April 29, 2002, in the small town of Pataskala, Ohio,
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Speaker 1: a social worker sat on the.
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Speaker 2: Floor with a two-year-old girl.
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Speaker 1: This little girl's mother had unfortunately been murdered in their
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Speaker 1: kitchen just the night before, and police thought this little
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Speaker 1: girl might have actually witnessed the crime. And so now
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Speaker 1: the social worker was trying to get this little girl
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Speaker 1: to see if she could remember if anybody else was
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Speaker 1: here the night before. And at first, the little girl
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Speaker 1: just clutched her stuffed animal and didn't say anything. But eventually,
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Speaker 1: after a some gentle prodding. The girl nodded, and then
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Speaker 1: she uttered a name that would turn her family's.
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Speaker 2: Lives upside down.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: On the evening of April 28, 2002, 38-year-old Rhonda Boggs
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Speaker 1: sat on the couch of her mother-in-law's house in the
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Speaker 1: quiet city of Pataskala, Ohio, nervously watching the clock. At
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Speaker 1: her feet, her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Amanda, was playing with a
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Speaker 1: stuffed animal. It was 6.30 p.m., and Rhonda's husband, Dave,
1:50
Speaker 1: was supposed to call any minute. Dave was currently being incarcerated.
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Speaker 2: At the county jail.
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Speaker 1: Dave had been sentenced to two weeks behind bars for
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Speaker 1: failing to pay child support to one of his exes.
2:02
Speaker 1: And while Rhonda was obviously not thrilled about this, she
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Speaker 1: also knew she should not be surprised. When Rhonda had
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Speaker 1: first met Dave about 12 years earlier, it was his
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Speaker 1: carefree personality that she had really fallen in love with.
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Speaker 1: He was in a rock band and she had loved
2:15
Speaker 1: going to his shows and dancing in the front row.
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Speaker 1: It all felt glamorous and exciting and like they were
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Speaker 1: going to stay young forever. But now they were both
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Speaker 1: 38 with a toddler to look after and bills to pay.
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Speaker 1: And Dave, he really just kept on partying and playing
2:30
Speaker 1: rock star while all their responsibilities sort of fell to Rhonda.
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Speaker 1: She had barely been to any of his shows since
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Speaker 1: Amanda had been born, you know, in part because it
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Speaker 1: wasn't really the kind of scene you could bring a
2:41
Speaker 1: baby to.
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Speaker 2: A lot of the guys Dave.
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Speaker 1: Hung around with were hard drinkers and drug addicts and ex-cons.
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Speaker 1: And so now, after almost four years of marriage, Rhonda
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Speaker 1: was finally starting to see Dave for what he was,
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Speaker 1: which was not carefree. Dave was really just kind of reckless.
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Speaker 1: The phone rang and Rhonda picked it up. And as expected,
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Speaker 1: it was Dave. And what Rhonda really wanted to say
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Speaker 1: to him was that she was upset and seriously considering divorce.
3:08
Speaker 1: And that in fact, she'd already taken his name off
3:10
Speaker 1: her retirement plan. But at the same time, she saw
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Speaker 1: her mother-in-law standing in the doorway, clearly listening. And so
3:17
Speaker 1: instead of saying what she really wanted to say, she
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Speaker 1: just said, hey Dave, how are you doing?
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Speaker 2: An hour later, back.
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Speaker 1: At her own home, Rhonda put a casserole into the oven,
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Speaker 1: and then she turned on cartoons for Amanda, and then
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Speaker 1: went outside to mow the lawn before it got too dark.
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Speaker 1: Rhonda was used to doing almost everything around the house herself,
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Speaker 1: since Dave was practically never home anyway. But now that
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Speaker 1: he was in jail, she had to literally do everything,
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Speaker 1: including mowing the grass on a Sunday night. So Rhonda
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Speaker 1: wheeled the lawnmower out of the garage and into the yard,
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Speaker 1: and then she pulled the cord to start the engine.
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Speaker 1: But like everything else in their little house, The lawnmower
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Speaker 1: was on the verge of breaking down, and it kept
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Speaker 1: shutting off. While Rhonda struggled, she noticed her neighbor coming
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Speaker 1: out of the house across the street. And he waved
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Speaker 1: to Rhonda as he came down his own driveway, sort
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Speaker 1: of telling her, like, hey, you know, turn off that lawnmower.
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Speaker 1: And once she did, and once it was quiet enough
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Speaker 1: to actually hear each other, he shouted from across the
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Speaker 1: street and asked if she wanted to borrow his lawnmower
4:14
Speaker 1: that did work. Rhonda found herself looking around the yard
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Speaker 1: at all the tall grass and saw how dark it
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Speaker 1: was already getting... And then she checked her watch and
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Speaker 1: saw that, you know, her casserole was going to be
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Speaker 1: done in just a minute here. And so she said
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Speaker 1: to her neighbor that she really appreciated the offer, but
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Speaker 1: it didn't really matter because you know what?
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Speaker 2: She doesn't have time to do this anyways. She has
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Speaker 2: to go back inside.
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Speaker 1: So Rhonda said bye to her neighbor and then pushed
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Speaker 1: her defective lawnmower back inside the garage. And then she
4:39
Speaker 1: made a mental note to call Dave's cousin, Nick, the
4:41
Speaker 1: following day to see if maybe he could come by
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Speaker 1: and fix her lawnmower. Nick worked as a maintenance man
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Speaker 1: at a big apartment complex and And even though he
4:50
Speaker 1: lived 45 minutes away, he'd been helping Rhonda around the
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Speaker 1: house while Dave was behind bars. Just last week, he'd
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Speaker 1: fixed up her washing machine and he called all the
4:58
Speaker 1: time just to check in. And so now Rhonda went
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Speaker 1: back inside the house into the kitchen and took the
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Speaker 1: casserole out of the oven just before the timer rang.
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Speaker 1: She cut the casserole into two pieces and brought those
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Speaker 1: pieces into the dining room and set them on the table.
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Speaker 1: Then she walked over and turned off the TV, scooped
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Speaker 1: up her daughter and brought her over to the table.
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Speaker 1: It was getting late, and all Rhonda really wanted to
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Speaker 1: do here was just eat quickly and go to bed.
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Speaker 1: But for every bite that made it into Amanda's mouth,
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Speaker 1: another wound up on the floor. And so Rhonda knew that,
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Speaker 1: you know, at the end of dinner, she would have
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Speaker 1: to do another round of cleanup before she could finally
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Speaker 1: go to sleep. But Rhonda knew, you know, Amanda couldn't
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Speaker 1: help it.
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Speaker 2: She was a little kid.
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Speaker 1: And so she reached over and took her daughter's fork
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Speaker 1: and began helping her eat, you know, to not only
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Speaker 1: minimize the mess, but also to help her kid out.
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Speaker 1: And in reality, Amanda was actually the thing preventing Rhonda
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Speaker 1: from just pulling the trigger on a divorce. She didn't
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Speaker 1: know if she could handle being a single mother. It
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Speaker 1: was hard enough having Dave gone for a few weeks,
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Speaker 1: you know, that she couldn't even imagine doing this all
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Speaker 1: alone by herself forever. And since she already knew Dave
6:02
Speaker 1: was bad at paying child support, as that is the
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Speaker 1: reason he was in jail right now, she figured if
6:07
Speaker 1: she was a single mom, you know, even if he
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Speaker 1: was ordered to pay her, she would likely have to
6:12
Speaker 1: rely on paying the bills herself. She would need to
6:14
Speaker 1: get a job and make money. Now, Rhonda did have
6:17
Speaker 1: a job now as an office assistant, but she wasn't
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Speaker 1: sure if that would be enough to fully support herself
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Speaker 1: and her daughter without any additional financial help. But just then,
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Speaker 1: as Rhonda was scooping up another bite of casserole for
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Speaker 1: her daughter, she heard a noise outside that almost sounded
6:33
Speaker 1: like heavy footsteps. She turned around and through the curtains,
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Speaker 1: she could see the silhouette of a person clearly coming
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Speaker 1: up her driveway. The next morning, Monday, April 29th, Rhonda's co-worker,
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Speaker 1: Gary Palowski, noticed that Rhonda was running late for her
6:52
Speaker 1: shift in the office at Hamilton Home Products, which was
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Speaker 1: a heating equipment company. And this was strange because Rhonda
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Speaker 1: had actually never been late before in the entire time
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Speaker 1: that she had worked there. So Gary began asking around
7:05
Speaker 1: to see if anybody knew where Rhonda was or if
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Speaker 1: maybe she'd called in or something. But his co-workers all
7:10
Speaker 1: shrugged and said they hadn't heard from her since she
7:13
Speaker 1: left the office on Friday night. And so eventually, Gary
7:16
Speaker 1: tried calling Rhonda's landline at her house to see if
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Speaker 1: she was home. But after calling several times, Rhonda never
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Speaker 1: picked up. He waited for a while to see if
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Speaker 1: maybe she would call back. But when he still hadn't
7:26
Speaker 1: heard from her after an hour, he started to worry that,
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Speaker 1: you know, she might have run into car trouble. Like
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Speaker 1: maybe she was stranded somewhere with her car. He knew
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Speaker 1: it was about a 15-mile drive from her house in
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Speaker 1: Pataskala to the office here, just outside of Columbus. And
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Speaker 1: back in 2002, not everyone had a cell phone, and
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Speaker 1: he didn't know if she did.
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Speaker 2: So if her car had.
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Speaker 1: Broken down, you know, she might be stranded without a
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Speaker 1: way to call for help. And so Gary decided he
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Speaker 1: would just get in his own car and drive the
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Speaker 1: route from the office back to her house to literally
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Speaker 1: see if he could find Rhonda on.
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Speaker 2: The side of the road.
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Speaker 1: Gary drove all the way out to Pataskala, keeping his
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Speaker 1: eyes peeled for Rhonda's car on the side of the road,
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Speaker 1: but there was no sign of it. It was not
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Speaker 1: until he finally turned the corner onto Rhonda's street that
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Speaker 1: he saw her car, And her car was parked in
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Speaker 1: the driveway of her white paneled one story house.
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Speaker 2: And at this, Gary's.
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Speaker 1: Stomach kind of balled up into a knot because he
8:22
Speaker 1: realized that, you know, Rhonda had clearly not left for
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Speaker 1: work at all. And he knew that if she had
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Speaker 1: just stayed home this whole time without calling in or
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Speaker 1: calling anybody back, that something bad had to have happened.
8:34
Speaker 1: And so Gary pulled up to her house and he
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Speaker 1: got out of his car and walked up to the
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Speaker 1: front door and he knocked.
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Speaker 2: But there was no answer.
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Speaker 1: So after a minute, he went around and knocked on
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Speaker 1: the back door and there was still no answer back
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Speaker 1: there either. So he walked back around to the front
8:48
Speaker 1: of the house and he was about to leave when
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Speaker 1: he saw the drapes rustling in one of the front windows.
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Speaker 1: He squinted at the window and he saw, you know,
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Speaker 1: what was causing the movement of the drapes was Rhonda's
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Speaker 1: toddler daughter, Amanda, looking out the window. And her face
9:04
Speaker 1: was red like she'd been crying for a long time.
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Speaker 1: And so now Gary started to panic. but he tried
9:10
Speaker 1: to keep his voice calm as he ran over and
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Speaker 1: shouted through the window and told Amanda he was a
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Speaker 1: friend of her mother's and convinced her to open the
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Speaker 1: door so he could help her. It took a minute
9:19
Speaker 1: for Amanda to figure out what Gary was asking, but
9:22
Speaker 1: eventually she got it and she disappeared from the window.
9:25
Speaker 1: And a moment later, the front door opened. And so
9:28
Speaker 1: Gary walked over and he stepped through the front door.
9:30
Speaker 1: And the first thing he saw were bloody footprints on
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Speaker 1: the living room carpet. Gary instinctively scooped Amanda up in
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Speaker 1: his arms and he ran across the street, banged on
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Speaker 1: the neighbor's door, and told them to call the police.
9:55
Speaker 1: Not long after, Pataskala police would arrive at Rhonda's house
9:59
Speaker 1: and they would search the inside. and they would find Rhonda.
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Speaker 1: And she was found stabbed to death in her own kitchen.
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Speaker 1: This was the first homicide in Pataskala in six years.
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Speaker 1: And there were only 17 officers in the whole police department.
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Speaker 1: And the crime scene unit was run out of a
10:14
Speaker 1: refurbished ambulance. So police chief Chris Forshee didn't have a
10:19
Speaker 1: ton of resources to throw at this case. But he
10:22
Speaker 1: called in all available officers and sent them to the
10:24
Speaker 1: crime scene. and then he headed out there himself to
10:27
Speaker 1: make sure they did the job right. By the time
10:29
Speaker 1: Forshee pulled up to the house, his officers had already
10:32
Speaker 1: sealed off the perimeter. He ducked under the crime scene tape,
10:36
Speaker 1: walked inside the house, and followed the sound of footsteps
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Speaker 1: and clicking cameras into the kitchen, where a woman was
10:42
Speaker 1: lying in a pool of blood on the tile floor.
10:45
Speaker 1: An officer told Forshee that the victim had been identified
10:48
Speaker 1: as Rhonda Boggs, and it was her co-worker who had
10:51
Speaker 1: come to check on her when she hadn't shown up
10:52
Speaker 1: for work that morning, It ultimately prompted a 911 call
10:56
Speaker 1: that led to.
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Speaker 2: The discovery of the body.
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Speaker 1: The officer also told Forshee that Rhonda's toddler daughter had
11:02
Speaker 1: been found uninjured in the house with her body. And
11:06
Speaker 1: so Forshee knelt down to examine the body. And right
11:09
Speaker 1: away he saw at least, you know, more than a
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Speaker 1: dozen stab wounds on Rhonda's head, her neck, her chest,
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Speaker 1: and her shoulders. The sheer number of wounds and the
11:17
Speaker 1: blood all over the kitchen suggested there had to have
11:20
Speaker 1: been a struggle. and that from the looks of it,
11:23
Speaker 1: Rhonda had fought very hard with her attacker. The remnants
11:26
Speaker 1: of what appeared to be a casserole were sitting on
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Speaker 1: the stove, and Rhonda was fully dressed. So Forshee figured
11:33
Speaker 1: the crime must have happened sometime before she went to bed,
11:36
Speaker 1: so between dinner and bedtime. And then Forshee wondered if,
11:39
Speaker 1: you know, her poor daughter had been awake, or maybe
11:42
Speaker 1: even in the room, when this happened. After the scene
11:45
Speaker 1: had been photographed, Forshee gave the green light for the
11:49
Speaker 1: coroner to actually physically lift Rhonda's body up off the
11:52
Speaker 1: ground onto a stretcher. And when the coroner's staff hoisted
11:56
Speaker 1: her up, Forshee noticed something lying underneath her body.
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Speaker 2: It was a steak knife with blood all over the blade.
12:03
Speaker 1: Forshee looked around the kitchen and realized the black handle
12:06
Speaker 1: on that knife matched the set of knives on the countertop.
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Speaker 1: It appeared that Rhonda had been killed with a knife
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Speaker 1: from her own kitchen, which meant her killer did not
12:15
Speaker 1: show up to the house with their murder weapon. This
12:18
Speaker 1: suggested that this murder was likely a heat-of-the-moment crime rather
12:22
Speaker 1: than something that had been planned out. While Forshee's officers
12:25
Speaker 1: finished collecting forensic evidence in the kitchen, Forshee himself walked
12:29
Speaker 1: through the rest of the house. It looked like it
12:31
Speaker 1: had been completely ransacked. The jewelry box in the bedroom
12:34
Speaker 1: was empty, and the dresser drawers were open, and piles
12:37
Speaker 1: of Rhonda's clothes were strewn all over the floor. And
12:40
Speaker 1: then in the dining room, they found a purse that
12:42
Speaker 1: had been overturned with all of its contents spilled out,
12:46
Speaker 1: and clearly it looked like somebody had been sifting through it.
12:48
Speaker 1: And so Forshee thought that, you know, between the sort
12:51
Speaker 1: of ransacked appearance of the house and also the weapon
12:55
Speaker 1: of opportunity, that it seemed like this could have been
12:58
Speaker 1: a robbery gone wrong. However, there was one factor that
13:02
Speaker 1: did seem to complicate things or at least make it
13:04
Speaker 1: seem like this could have been something else. And that
13:07
Speaker 1: was that there was no sign of forced entry. Just then,
13:11
Speaker 1: Forshee heard a commotion near the front door. And so
13:13
Speaker 1: he walked over and he saw there was a woman
13:15
Speaker 1: trying to push her way into the house. and her
13:18
Speaker 1: face was all red, and she was crying, and she
13:20
Speaker 1: was shouting at the officers.
13:21
Speaker 2: Demanding to know what happened.
13:23
Speaker 1: Forshee took this woman outside and tried to calm her down,
13:26
Speaker 1: and she would eventually tell him that her name was
13:28
Speaker 1: Kim Davis, and she was Rhonda's sister.
13:31
Speaker 2: Once she'd caught her breath.
13:32
Speaker 1: Forshee explained to her what he already knew, which was
13:35
Speaker 1: that unfortunately, her sister Rhonda had been found stabbed to
13:39
Speaker 1: death inside of her home, and the running theory at
13:41
Speaker 1: this point, at least his theory, was this was a
13:44
Speaker 1: robbery gone wrong. And potentially, because there was no sign
13:48
Speaker 1: of forced entry, it could indicate that it was somebody that,
13:51
Speaker 1: you know, Rhonda potentially knew and who she would have,
13:53
Speaker 1: you know, let into the house if she saw them. Now,
13:56
Speaker 1: Kim was obviously extremely upset by this. And so for
13:59
Speaker 1: a minute, Forshee just consoled her, but he really needed
14:02
Speaker 1: to kind of press this investigation. And so once she
14:06
Speaker 1: had kind of calmed down a little bit, he asked
14:08
Speaker 1: her if she knew of anybody who might have wanted
14:10
Speaker 1: to hurt Rhonda. And Kim immediately said no. She couldn't
14:14
Speaker 1: imagine her sister having any enemies. But after sitting with
14:18
Speaker 1: that question for a moment, Kim said that actually there
14:22
Speaker 1: was one person who might have had a problem with Rhonda.
14:25
Speaker 1: And that was her husband, Dave. Kim said that Rhonda
14:29
Speaker 1: and Dave's marriage had been on the rocks for a while.
14:32
Speaker 1: And in fact, Rhonda had told her recently that she
14:34
Speaker 1: was thinking about getting a divorce. But Kim said, you know,
14:38
Speaker 1: Dave actually is currently in jail. So I don't see
14:42
Speaker 1: how he could have done this. He was literally in
14:44
Speaker 1: jail at the time this happened. Still, though, she thought
14:47
Speaker 1: it was possible that, you know, Dave could have been
14:50
Speaker 1: involved one way or another. You know, he might have
14:52
Speaker 1: paid somebody to come here and do this or maybe
14:55
Speaker 1: put one of his friends up to it. For she
14:57
Speaker 1: promised Kim he would look into this, but he was
15:00
Speaker 1: already feeling pretty skeptical. I mean, if Dave couldn't even
15:02
Speaker 1: pay child support, you know, what was the likelihood that
15:05
Speaker 1: he was.
15:05
Speaker 2: Able to afford a hitman?
15:07
Speaker 1: And also, the murder weapon appeared to come from Rhonda's kitchen,
15:11
Speaker 1: and so that didn't really suggest that the suspect had
15:14
Speaker 1: been planning to kill her when they got there. So again,
15:17
Speaker 1: sort of takes away from the idea that a hitman
15:19
Speaker 1: was used in this murder. But at this point, Forsyth
15:23
Speaker 1: thought their best chance to figure out what actually happened
15:26
Speaker 1: here was actually to speak to the only other person
15:30
Speaker 1: who was at the scene of the crime that they
15:31
Speaker 1: knew about. And that was Rhonda's own two-year-old daughter, Amanda.
15:41
Speaker 1: Later that day, a social worker from child services pulled
15:44
Speaker 1: up outside the house and for she walked out to
15:47
Speaker 1: greet her. And he said to her that before she
15:49
Speaker 1: took custody of Amanda, he was hoping that, you know,
15:52
Speaker 1: she could help him talk to this girl and see
15:55
Speaker 1: what she knew about the murder because she was here,
15:58
Speaker 1: you know, when it happened. And there was nobody else
16:00
Speaker 1: who witnessed it but her. The social worker nodded. And
16:03
Speaker 1: so for she took her across the street to the
16:05
Speaker 1: neighbor's house where Amanda had been staying all morning. Now,
16:08
Speaker 1: Forshee didn't know if this little girl would be able
16:10
Speaker 1: to tell them anything at all. I mean, of course,
16:13
Speaker 1: she could be in complete shock. She's also two. And
16:16
Speaker 1: he also knew that even if she did tell them stuff,
16:19
Speaker 1: it wouldn't necessarily be reliable because, again, she's two years
16:22
Speaker 1: old and she very likely is in shock. But regardless,
16:26
Speaker 1: Forshee knew he had to try. So he stood in
16:28
Speaker 1: the corner of the living room while the social worker
16:31
Speaker 1: sat down on the floor with Amanda and asked her
16:34
Speaker 1: what she had seen the night before. And to Forshee's surprise...
16:37
Speaker 1: The little girl looked up at the social worker and
16:40
Speaker 1: she jerked her little hand toward her neck in what
16:43
Speaker 1: looked very much like a stabbing motion. And then in
16:46
Speaker 1: a quiet voice, she said her mother had fallen down
16:50
Speaker 1: and gone to sleep. Then the social worker asked her
16:53
Speaker 1: if anybody else had been there. And for she felt
16:56
Speaker 1: himself holding his breath, waiting for Amanda to answer. And
16:59
Speaker 1: there was a moment of silence before Amanda said, Uncle Nick.
17:04
Speaker 1: A few hours later, Chief Forshee was still at the
17:07
Speaker 1: crime scene when two officers pulled up in a cruiser
17:10
Speaker 1: and took this grungy-looking man out of the back seat
17:13
Speaker 1: and escorted him into the house. This was not the
17:16
Speaker 1: Uncle Nick that Amanda had named. It was Amanda's own father,
17:20
Speaker 1: Dave Box, who had been in jail when his wife
17:22
Speaker 1: was murdered. Now, Forshee was absolutely planning to speak to
17:26
Speaker 1: this Uncle Nick, but first he wanted to gather as
17:29
Speaker 1: much information as possible about him. During Amanda's conversation with
17:33
Speaker 1: the social worker... she had said repeatedly that Uncle Nick
17:36
Speaker 1: had hurt Mommy. But even though this two-year-old girl seemed
17:40
Speaker 1: very definitive about this, Forshee needed an adult perspective before
17:44
Speaker 1: he acted. A judge had let Dave Boggs out of
17:47
Speaker 1: jail early because of his wife's murder, and Forshee had
17:50
Speaker 1: ensured that Dave was escorted to the crime scene so
17:54
Speaker 1: Forshee could speak to him before Dave got a chance
17:57
Speaker 1: to speak to anybody else. And so now Forshee met
18:00
Speaker 1: Dave and the officers at the door, and then guided
18:03
Speaker 1: them into the living room where they sat Dave down
18:06
Speaker 1: on the couch. They filled him in on what had
18:08
Speaker 1: happened to his wife, but really before he could react
18:11
Speaker 1: to that, they also told him that they needed him
18:14
Speaker 1: to do a walkthrough of the house with them to
18:16
Speaker 1: try to identify what might have been stolen, which could
18:19
Speaker 1: help them figure out who did this. But first, Forshee
18:22
Speaker 1: said he had a very important question. He asked Dave,
18:26
Speaker 1: who is Uncle Nick? And at this, Dave, who to
18:30
Speaker 1: this point had just looked completely shocked by what he
18:33
Speaker 1: was being told, began to look more confused. And he
18:36
Speaker 1: told Forshee that Uncle Nick was what his daughter called
18:39
Speaker 1: his second cousin. He said his real name was Richard
18:42
Speaker 1: Nicholas Robinson, and he had been helping Rhonda out while
18:45
Speaker 1: Dave was in jail. Dave said Nick had probably been
18:48
Speaker 1: at the house almost every day fixing one thing or another.
18:51
Speaker 1: But he said he didn't understand why Forshee was asking
18:54
Speaker 1: about him because, you know, there's no way he would
18:56
Speaker 1: have hurt Rhonda. I mean, he really looked out for
18:58
Speaker 1: her and also for Amanda. But for now, Forshee was
19:02
Speaker 1: not going to answer that question. Dave's information was enough
19:05
Speaker 1: for him to go outside, get on his radio, and
19:08
Speaker 1: broadcast a bulletin asking all police departments in the area
19:11
Speaker 1: to be on the lookout for Nick Robinson. Less than
19:17
Speaker 1: an hour later, A police cruiser found Nick Robbins' SUV
19:21
Speaker 1: on State Route 37, just outside of Pataskala, and they
19:24
Speaker 1: pulled him over, and they ordered him out of the vehicle,
19:27
Speaker 1: and as soon as he was out, they pushed him
19:28
Speaker 1: to the ground with a gun to the back of
19:30
Speaker 1: his head and cuffed him.
19:32
Speaker 2: And as they did this, they noticed.
19:34
Speaker 1: A dark spot on Nick's baseball cap that looked a
19:36
Speaker 1: lot like blood. As they put Nick in the back
19:39
Speaker 1: of the cruiser, he kept asking them what was going on,
19:42
Speaker 1: but they didn't tell him. Instead, they searched his SUV.
19:47
Speaker 1: And there was cardboard laid out in the back with reddish.
19:50
Speaker 1: smears all over it, which also appeared to be blood.
19:53
Speaker 1: And then when the officers got back into their cruiser,
19:56
Speaker 1: Nick asked them, is this about Rhonda? By the time
20:01
Speaker 1: this arrest happened, Chief Forshee was at Nick Robinson's house
20:04
Speaker 1: questioning his wife, Debbie. So while he did that, he
20:08
Speaker 1: dispatched one of his best friends, and only detectives, Bruce Brooks,
20:13
Speaker 1: to go down to police headquarters to handle Nick's interrogation.
20:16
Speaker 1: When Detective Brooks walked into the interview room, immediately he
20:19
Speaker 1: could see that Nick, who was resting his head in
20:22
Speaker 1: his hands, looked very pale and nauseous. When he asked
20:25
Speaker 1: him if he was okay, Nick said he was just
20:28
Speaker 1: hungover from a long night of drinking. He said he
20:30
Speaker 1: had been at a bar in Columbus until around 10.30pm,
20:34
Speaker 1: and then he had gone to another bar in Lancaster,
20:36
Speaker 1: which was a town nearby where he lived. And then
20:38
Speaker 1: he had finally come home around 1.30 a.m.
20:41
Speaker 2: And passed out on his couch.
20:43
Speaker 1: Nick swore he didn't know anything about what happened to
20:45
Speaker 1: Rhonda and only found out she was dead when he
20:47
Speaker 1: saw it on the news. And as for the blood
20:49
Speaker 1: the police found in his SUV, he said it was
20:52
Speaker 1: just animal blood from a hunting trip. But Brooks was
20:55
Speaker 1: not buying this because he had heard Amanda, Rhonda's daughter,
20:59
Speaker 1: say Uncle Nick hurts mom. And while, of course, you know,
21:02
Speaker 1: you can't take a two-year-old's testimony as absolutely reliable... But
21:07
Speaker 1: when she had said it, she said it very definitively
21:10
Speaker 1: and even gestured at her neck like she was stabbing herself.
21:13
Speaker 2: And Rhonda was found stabbed to death.
21:16
Speaker 1: So he asked Nick, you know, if his alibi essentially
21:19
Speaker 1: was that he was too drunk to have committed this murder. Well,
21:22
Speaker 1: then how could he be sure, you know, given he
21:24
Speaker 1: was too drunk that he hadn't killed Rhonda in an
21:27
Speaker 1: alcohol fueled blackout? You know, if he can't remember, you know,
21:30
Speaker 1: it's just as likely that he could have done it.
21:33
Speaker 1: But Nick just shook his head and said no. And
21:36
Speaker 1: no seemed to be Nick's answer to just about every
21:38
Speaker 1: question Brooks asked him. And eventually, the detective got frustrated,
21:42
Speaker 1: you know, because basically everything he asked Nick, he denied.
21:46
Speaker 1: And so eventually, he told Nick that Rhonda's daughter had
21:49
Speaker 1: seen the whole thing. And he told him to imagine
21:51
Speaker 1: that little girl on the witness stand, having some defense
21:54
Speaker 1: lawyer poke and prod her about the most traumatic event
21:58
Speaker 1: she had ever experienced, the murder of her own mother.
22:01
Speaker 1: And when he said that, a crack seemed to appear
22:04
Speaker 1: in Nick's sort of outward demeanor of denial. Like, clearly
22:07
Speaker 1: he saw how awful this thing really was. And then finally,
22:11
Speaker 1: a little after midnight, so six hours into this interrogation,
22:15
Speaker 1: Nick just agreed to take a lie detector test. And
22:18
Speaker 1: when the results came back, it showed very clearly that
22:21
Speaker 1: Nick had failed.
22:22
Speaker 2: He had lied. But instead of confessing at this point,
22:25
Speaker 2: Nick dug in and.
22:26
Speaker 1: Swore up and down that he really was innocent. So
22:30
Speaker 1: Brooks pulled out the last threat he could think of.
22:33
Speaker 1: which was that if Nick didn't confess now, he could
22:36
Speaker 1: be looking at the death penalty.
22:38
Speaker 2: And at that point, it was very clear. Nick cracked. Like,
22:41
Speaker 2: that absolutely affected him.
22:44
Speaker 1: And so after a long silence following this threat of
22:47
Speaker 1: the death penalty, Nick said that, you know, maybe he
22:51
Speaker 1: did have something to do with what happened, but he
22:53
Speaker 1: just couldn't remember it. From there on, Brooks kept on
22:57
Speaker 1: pushing and pushing until around 5 a.m., when Nick finally
23:01
Speaker 1: completely broke down and confessed to the murder. He said
23:05
Speaker 1: he had gone to Rhonda's house in between the two
23:07
Speaker 1: bars that he had visited, and he tried to kiss her.
23:10
Speaker 1: She pulled away and she grabbed a knife, and when
23:12
Speaker 1: Nick tried to take the knife from her, he said
23:15
Speaker 1: he accidentally stabbed her. As the sun came up, officers
23:20
Speaker 1: drove Nick to the Licking County Jail and officially booked
23:23
Speaker 1: him for Rhonda's murder. Later that morning, Chief Forshee stood
23:36
Speaker 1: in front of a group of reporters outside the police
23:38
Speaker 1: station and praised his officers for catching Rhonda Boggs' killer
23:42
Speaker 1: and getting a confession in less than 24 hours. But
23:45
Speaker 1: later that week, Detective Brooks was in his office wrapping
23:48
Speaker 1: up paperwork when a secretary stuck her head in the
23:51
Speaker 1: door and said there was somebody on the phone for him.
23:54
Speaker 1: Brooks picked it up, and the man on the other
23:56
Speaker 1: end of the line introduced himself as Bob Sisko, and
24:00
Speaker 1: he said he was the bandmate of Rhonda's husband, Dave Boggs,
24:03
Speaker 1: And he did not think Nick was guilty of this murder.
24:06
Speaker 1: Bob said on the evening that Rhonda was killed, another
24:09
Speaker 1: one of their former bandmates, a guy named Chris Williams,
24:12
Speaker 1: had stopped by his house. And Chris had seemed very
24:15
Speaker 1: nervous and sort of keyed up. He was pacing around
24:18
Speaker 1: and smoking cigarette after cigarette. And it just seemed like
24:21
Speaker 1: he was very mentally preoccupied with something. Now, Bob said
24:25
Speaker 1: Chris had actually in the past already robbed Rhonda and
24:29
Speaker 1: Dave's house. He had stolen a bunch of band equipment
24:33
Speaker 1: and sold it for drug money. And so when Bob
24:36
Speaker 1: Sisko saw on the news that, you know, Rhonda was
24:38
Speaker 1: dead and her house appeared to have been robbed, he
24:41
Speaker 1: couldn't shake this feeling that Chris might have been involved.
24:45
Speaker 1: It just seemed too similar to be a coincidence. Brooks
24:48
Speaker 1: wrote all this down and thanked Bob for the information,
24:51
Speaker 1: but he wasn't sure how seriously to take this tip,
24:54
Speaker 1: since they already had a confession from their primary suspect.
24:58
Speaker 2: But he spoke to Forshee.
24:59
Speaker 1: And the chief decided to go ahead and re-interview Rhonda's
25:02
Speaker 1: two-year-old daughter, just to cover their bases. A few days later,
25:07
Speaker 1: so about two weeks after Rhonda's murder, Chief Forshee waited
25:10
Speaker 1: by the phone in his office, anxiously watching the clock.
25:14
Speaker 1: He knew that the social worker who had spoken to
25:16
Speaker 1: Amanda the first time was in the process of interviewing
25:19
Speaker 1: her a second time, and any minute now, this social
25:22
Speaker 1: worker should be calling him with an update. Now, Forshee
25:25
Speaker 1: was hopeful that the little girl would just repeat the
25:27
Speaker 1: same story that she had told on the day of
25:30
Speaker 1: her mother's murder. But when his phone finally rang and
25:34
Speaker 1: Forshee picked it up, he learned that that is not
25:37
Speaker 1: what happened. The social worker said that this time when
25:40
Speaker 1: she asked Amanda who she saw on the night of
25:42
Speaker 1: the murder, she did not say anything about Uncle Nick. Instead,
25:47
Speaker 1: she said Bob did it. When Forshee heard this, he
25:51
Speaker 1: immediately got a pretty anxious feeling. He'd been afraid from
25:54
Speaker 1: the beginning that, you know, a toddler was not a
25:57
Speaker 1: reliable eyewitness and she could just be throwing out whatever
26:00
Speaker 1: names popped into her head. But he also thought it
26:03
Speaker 1: was a very strange coincidence that of all the people
26:06
Speaker 1: she could have named other than Uncle Nick, she said Bob.
26:10
Speaker 1: The same guy who had just called the station trying to,
26:13
Speaker 1: you know, cast blame onto some other guy the police
26:15
Speaker 1: had never even heard of.
26:17
Speaker 2: Something just felt off.
26:19
Speaker 1: But as for she thought about it, he decided, you know,
26:22
Speaker 1: it didn't really change anything. Nick had already confessed, like
26:25
Speaker 1: he said he did this. So they didn't really need
26:28
Speaker 1: Amanda as a witness to make the charges against Nick stick.
26:33
Speaker 1: Five days later, a grand jury officially indicted Nick on
26:36
Speaker 1: murder charges. And to the huge surprise of investigators, Nick
26:40
Speaker 1: pled not guilty. So he was now claiming he had
26:44
Speaker 1: given a false confession and that he was not Rhonda
26:47
Speaker 1: Boggs' killer. About seven months later, in December of 2002,
26:56
Speaker 1: a man named Matt Sauer stepped into a bar called
27:00
Speaker 1: Merry Melodies in Columbus, Ohio. He went up to the
27:03
Speaker 1: counter and pulled a manila folder out of his messenger
27:06
Speaker 1: bag and he asked the bartender if he recognized the
27:09
Speaker 1: man in the photograph inside. The bartender looked down at
27:12
Speaker 1: the photo for a second and then looked back up
27:14
Speaker 1: at Sauer and nodded and said, yes, that's Nick Robinson.
27:18
Speaker 1: He was here eight months ago, you know, on the
27:20
Speaker 1: night of the murder and And I've been waiting for
27:23
Speaker 1: you guys to come here and talk to me about
27:24
Speaker 1: it because I know he was here on the night
27:27
Speaker 1: of the murder. Sauer was kind of caught off guard
27:30
Speaker 1: by how sure the bartender was. And so he asked them, like,
27:33
Speaker 1: how can you be so sure it was him? And
27:35
Speaker 1: how do you know he was here on the.
27:37
Speaker 2: Night of the murder? How can you remember that?
27:39
Speaker 1: But the bartender had a quick answer. He said the
27:42
Speaker 1: reason he remembered Nick is he had been wearing this
27:45
Speaker 1: very unique, unforgettable T-shirt that night with this obscene joke
27:49
Speaker 1: on it about women's bodies. So he just remembered it.
27:52
Speaker 1: Bartender said Nick had stayed there on the night of
27:54
Speaker 1: the murder until 1015 or maybe 1030. The bartender was
27:58
Speaker 1: absolutely certain. And so again, the bartender said to Sauer, like,
28:02
Speaker 1: I'm just pretty surprised it took this long for you
28:05
Speaker 1: all to come here and confirm his whereabouts.
28:07
Speaker 2: Like, I've known this.
28:09
Speaker 1: Sauer closed his folder and thanked the bartender and then
28:12
Speaker 1: just set his business card down on the counter. And
28:15
Speaker 1: when the bartender picked it up, he looked surprised. because
28:18
Speaker 1: Matt Sauer was not actually a police officer. He was
28:22
Speaker 1: a private investigator, and he'd been hired by Nick Robinson
28:26
Speaker 1: to clear his name. Sauer knew this was going to
28:29
Speaker 1: be a tough job, because Nick had already confessed to
28:32
Speaker 1: Rhonda Boggs' murder. But Sauer was hoping that this interview
28:35
Speaker 1: with the bartender would help him poke a massive hole
28:38
Speaker 1: in the case against him. And so now that Sauer
28:40
Speaker 1: had gotten this testimony from the bartender that did appear
28:44
Speaker 1: to poke this hole in the case, Sauer left the bar,
28:47
Speaker 1: got in his car, and drove to the second bar
28:50
Speaker 1: Nick had claimed to be at on the night of
28:51
Speaker 1: Rhonda's murder. It was called the Fairview Inn in Lancaster.
28:55
Speaker 1: And when he got there, he showed that staff the
28:58
Speaker 1: same photo. And just like the first bartender, they all
29:01
Speaker 1: remembered Nick as well. They said he was there on
29:03
Speaker 1: the night of April 28th, the night of the murder,
29:06
Speaker 1: and they remembered because of his distinctive t-shirt. And so
29:10
Speaker 1: now Sauer knew he was onto something. Because the prosecution's
29:14
Speaker 1: case was said that Nick had left Mary Melody's bar,
29:17
Speaker 1: that first bar Sauer had gone to, driven to Rhonda's
29:20
Speaker 1: house and killed her, and then went to this bar,
29:23
Speaker 1: the Fairview Inn. But the staff at both bars said
29:28
Speaker 1: Nick was wearing this same distinctive t-shirt. And Sauer knew
29:32
Speaker 1: that if Nick had stabbed Rhonda to death in between
29:35
Speaker 1: these two bars, wouldn't that shirt have been covered in
29:39
Speaker 1: blood and wouldn't, you know, the Fairview Inn staff have
29:42
Speaker 1: not just remembered that it was this distinctive shirt, but
29:45
Speaker 1: the distinctive shirt that had blood all over it? Like,
29:48
Speaker 1: that would also be a detail they would recall.
29:50
Speaker 2: But they didn't. They just said he had that shirt on.
29:53
Speaker 2: Nothing else.
29:54
Speaker 1: A few days later, Sauer drove back to Mary Melody's bar.
29:57
Speaker 1: But this time, he didn't go inside. Instead, he just
30:00
Speaker 1: pulled his car into their parking lot and started his stopwatch.
30:04
Speaker 1: And then once it was going, he pulled out of
30:06
Speaker 1: the parking lot, turned down the street, and drove all
30:09
Speaker 1: the way to Fairview Inn. And when he reached their
30:12
Speaker 1: parking lot, he checked his stopwatch, and the drive had taken,
30:15
Speaker 1: you know, about 45 minutes. The prosecution's case against Nick
30:20
Speaker 1: had him leaving Mary Melody's bar, murdering Rhonda, and driving
30:25
Speaker 1: all the way to the Fairview, all within 30 to
30:27
Speaker 1: 45 minutes. But Sauer's experiment here with a stopwatch proved
30:32
Speaker 1: there was simply no way for Nick to have driven
30:35
Speaker 1: all the way to Rhonda's house, committed the murder, and
30:38
Speaker 1: then made it back to the Fairview Inn in that
30:40
Speaker 1: same window of time.
30:42
Speaker 2: It just wasn't possible.
30:43
Speaker 1: Which meant Nick's alibi was airtight and he could not
30:48
Speaker 1: have been the killer.
30:49
Speaker 2: Now, Sauer just had to figure out who actually was.
30:54
Speaker 1: Matt Sauer showed the evidence he had found to Nick's
30:57
Speaker 1: defense attorney who then brought that evidence to the judge
31:00
Speaker 1: in the case. And they also asked the judge for
31:03
Speaker 1: an order to test a key piece of evidence that
31:05
Speaker 1: the Pataskala police had never even sent to the crime lab,
31:09
Speaker 1: the murder weapon. And so the judge agreed to test
31:12
Speaker 1: the knife. And a month later, in January of 2003,
31:16
Speaker 1: the evidence came back from the lab and they discovered
31:19
Speaker 1: there was DNA on the knife from someone other than Rhonda.
31:23
Speaker 1: Investigators were not sure who the DNA belonged to because
31:26
Speaker 1: back in 2003, It isn't like you had this huge
31:29
Speaker 1: bank to test it against. You basically had to test
31:32
Speaker 1: DNA one-to-one. But they were able to do that with
31:35
Speaker 1: Nick's DNA and were able to confirm that it was
31:38
Speaker 1: not his DNA on the murder weapon. And so this
31:42
Speaker 1: cast serious doubt on Nick as a suspect, but it
31:46
Speaker 1: wasn't enough to clear his name. Not until Sauer could
31:48
Speaker 1: figure out who that other set of DNA belonged to.
31:52
Speaker 1: And so Sauer dug through the police files on the
31:54
Speaker 1: case and And he realized there were a lot of
31:57
Speaker 1: potential suspects the police had never even bothered to look
32:00
Speaker 1: at closely or at all. There was Rhonda's soon-to-be ex-husband, Dave,
32:05
Speaker 1: who'd been flagged by Rhonda's sister on day one. You know,
32:08
Speaker 1: Dave obviously could not have committed the murder himself because
32:11
Speaker 1: he was in jail. But, you know, like the sister suggested,
32:14
Speaker 1: it's possible he could have recruited somebody.
32:16
Speaker 2: Else to do it.
32:17
Speaker 1: And so all of Dave's friends, his acquaintances, the people
32:21
Speaker 1: he met in jail potentially, were suspects too. There was
32:24
Speaker 1: also Chris Williams, the former bandmate who had previously robbed
32:28
Speaker 1: Dave and Rhonda's house once before and sold Dave's guitars
32:31
Speaker 1: for drug money. And of course, there was Bob Sisko,
32:35
Speaker 1: the man who had actually called in the tip about Chris.
32:38
Speaker 1: And at one point, Rhonda's own daughter had said Bob
32:42
Speaker 1: had been in the house during the murder. And so
32:45
Speaker 1: maybe that was Bob Sisko. Any of those people could
32:48
Speaker 1: have been Rhonda's killer. But since there was so little
32:51
Speaker 1: investigation done, Sauer was essentially starting over from square one,
32:55
Speaker 1: almost nine months after the crime. The killer could even
32:59
Speaker 1: be somebody who the police never even knew about, because
33:02
Speaker 1: they had never really even bothered to focus.
33:04
Speaker 2: On anybody but Nick.
33:06
Speaker 1: And so with little concrete to go off of, Sauer
33:09
Speaker 1: decided that, you know, before he began investigating 87 different people,
33:14
Speaker 1: he would start with the sort of one concrete thing
33:17
Speaker 1: he had. which is they knew what items had been
33:20
Speaker 1: taken from Rhonda's house during the murder, and so what
33:23
Speaker 1: he decided he would do is try to track down
33:26
Speaker 1: those items, and hopefully they would lead him to the
33:29
Speaker 1: actual killer. A few days later, Sauer stepped into a
33:37
Speaker 1: pawn shop in Columbus and walked slowly down the aisle,
33:41
Speaker 1: scanning the shelves for some of the items that he
33:43
Speaker 1: knew had been taken.
33:44
Speaker 2: From Rhonda and Dave's house.
33:46
Speaker 1: But like all the other pawn shops he'd been to
33:48
Speaker 1: that day, he hadn't found anything. And when he got
33:51
Speaker 1: to the end of this aisle, he knew this pawn
33:53
Speaker 1: shop as well did not have any of these missing items. Now,
33:57
Speaker 1: it was entirely possible that the items that had been
33:59
Speaker 1: stolen had not been pawned off yet, or maybe they
34:02
Speaker 1: had been pawned off in some other part of the
34:04
Speaker 1: country or something. But it just seemed kind of likely
34:07
Speaker 1: that if they had been pawned, they might be sort
34:09
Speaker 1: of roughly in the area.
34:11
Speaker 2: But so far, he had not found anything promising.
34:14
Speaker 1: And so after leaving this pawn shop and going to
34:17
Speaker 1: another and then another and still not finding any of
34:20
Speaker 1: the stolen items, Sauer finally decided to call it a
34:24
Speaker 1: day and head back home. However, on his ride back home,
34:28
Speaker 1: Sauer found himself stopped at a stoplight. And as he
34:31
Speaker 1: was idling there, he just happened to look out the
34:33
Speaker 1: window and on the other side.
34:35
Speaker 2: Of the road, he saw a Bureau of Motor Vehicles,
34:38
Speaker 2: a DMV.
34:39
Speaker 1: And when he saw the DMV, it was like something
34:42
Speaker 1: kind of rattled loose in his mind. He remembered that
34:45
Speaker 1: one of the persons of interest on his list had
34:48
Speaker 1: been arrested for car theft about a week after Rhonda's murder.
34:52
Speaker 1: But according to the police files, that suspect owned a
34:56
Speaker 1: car of their own, a blue Cadillac. So why would
35:00
Speaker 1: they need to steal another car if they already owned one?
35:04
Speaker 1: And so on a whim, Sauer pulled into the parking lot.
35:07
Speaker 2: Of this DMV.
35:08
Speaker 1: He went inside and he went up to one of
35:10
Speaker 1: the clerks and he asked them to look into this
35:13
Speaker 1: particular blue Cadillac. He gave the clerk the license plate
35:16
Speaker 1: number and he quickly found out that on April 30th, 2002,
35:21
Speaker 1: so one day after Rhonda's body had been found, that
35:24
Speaker 1: blue Cadillac had been sold to a woman in Columbus
35:27
Speaker 1: whose name was Letitia Gordon. And so Sauer left the
35:31
Speaker 1: DMV and and drove straight to Letitia's house, and he
35:34
Speaker 1: knocked on the door. And the woman who opened it
35:37
Speaker 1: looked a bit scared when he introduced himself as an investigator,
35:40
Speaker 1: but she also did not seem surprised. Letitia told Sauer
35:44
Speaker 1: that she knew why he was there. It was because
35:46
Speaker 1: of the blue Cadillac that she had bought. She said
35:49
Speaker 1: that she had bought that car off a stranger right
35:51
Speaker 1: off the street who had offered to sell it to
35:53
Speaker 1: her for just $ 300, something she couldn't pass up. However,
35:57
Speaker 1: when she got home with this new car, she looked
36:01
Speaker 1: inside of it. And she found there was all the
36:03
Speaker 1: stuff piled up in the back of the car, which
36:05
Speaker 1: included clothes, jewelry, and a purse.
36:08
Speaker 2: With somebody's photo ID inside.
36:10
Speaker 1: And the name on that ID was Rhonda Boggs. And so,
36:18
Speaker 1: with his suspicions now confirmed, Sauer was finally able to
36:22
Speaker 1: reconstruct what really happened to Rhonda Boggs on the night
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Speaker 1: of April 28, 2002. On that night, while Rhonda Boggs
36:36
Speaker 1: was finishing up dinner with her two-year-old daughter, her killer
36:39
Speaker 1: was parking their blue Cadillac just down the block. They
36:42
Speaker 1: eventually got out and stormed over to Rhonda's house in
36:45
Speaker 1: a total fury, with their heart pounding and their heads swimming,
36:48
Speaker 1: and they stomped up her driveway, and they rang the doorbell.
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Speaker 1: And when Rhonda opened up the door, she looked confused
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Speaker 1: and a bit scared to see this person. She asked
36:57
Speaker 1: them what they were doing there, but the killer just
37:00
Speaker 1: brushed past her and stormed into her house, into the kitchen,
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Speaker 1: and began digging through her purse right on the counter.
37:07
Speaker 1: Rhonda tried to stop them, but when she put her
37:09
Speaker 1: hands on them, the killer, without any hesitation, grabbed a
37:13
Speaker 1: nearby steak knife and stabbed Rhonda in the chest. Rhonda,
37:17
Speaker 1: she fell to the ground and tried to stand back
37:20
Speaker 1: up and tried to defend herself, but the killer was
37:23
Speaker 1: on top of her, stabbing her over and over and
37:26
Speaker 1: over again until Rhonda was no longer moving. The killer
37:29
Speaker 1: at that point stood up and backed away from Rhonda's body,
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Speaker 1: which was now lying there in a pool of blood
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Speaker 1: on the kitchen tile. And then they just proceeded to
37:37
Speaker 1: ransack the house and stole whatever money and valuables they
37:40
Speaker 1: could find. And then as they were about to leave,
37:43
Speaker 1: they saw a toddler just standing in the hallway watching them.
37:47
Speaker 1: The killer paid the child no mind and just hurried
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Speaker 1: right past them out of the house, got back into
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Speaker 1: their blue Cadillac, and spent the rest of the night
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Speaker 1: on a massive drug binge. And then the next morning,
37:57
Speaker 1: they sold that blue Cadillac to a woman in Columbus
38:00
Speaker 1: on the street, accidentally leaving Rhonda's stolen purse, her ID,
38:05
Speaker 1: and jewelry in.
38:06
Speaker 2: The back of that car.
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Speaker 1: And nearly a year later, those items would lead investigators
38:11
Speaker 1: to the killer. The killer was Chris Williams, Dave Boggs'
38:15
Speaker 1: former bandmate who had robbed him and Rhonda once before.
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Speaker 1: On the night of the murder, he was high on
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Speaker 1: crack and needed money for his next hit, and Rhonda
38:25
Speaker 1: unfortunately got in the way. Chris was charged with Rhonda's murder,
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Speaker 1: and on March 28, 2005, he was found guilty on
38:32
Speaker 1: all counts. He was sentenced to 20 years to life
38:35
Speaker 1: for Rhonda's murder, and a total of 28 years for
38:39
Speaker 1: aggravated robbery, burglary, and escaping from a halfway house. After
38:44
Speaker 1: Chris Williams was charged, all the charges against Nick Robinson
38:47
Speaker 1: were dropped. And for Nick Robinson, this completely changed his life,
38:51
Speaker 1: not just because now he was free... But once he
38:54
Speaker 1: came back home, he stopped drinking and he returned to work.
38:58
Speaker 1: And he sued the city of Pataskala for $ 3 million
39:01
Speaker 1: in damages.
39:11
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
39:13
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
39:14
Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
39:17
Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
39:20
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
39:23
Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.