BLOODY LIES-John Ferak

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Murdoch was filled with fear, panic, and outrage. Who killed Wayne and Sharman Stock? What was their motive? The Stocks were the essence of Nebraska's All American farm family, felt made, God fearing and of high moral character. Barely a week into this double murder investigation, two arrests brought a sense of relief to the victim's family into local residence. The case appeared to fall neatly into place when a tiny speck of murder victim Wayne Stock's blood appeared in the

alleged getaway car. Then an obscure clewe left at the crime scene took the investigation down a totally different path, stretching into Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Texas, and Wiscon Jhnson. By the time this investigation was over, the charges against the original suspects were dismissed and two new individuals emerged from the shadows. Author John Ferrick covered the Stock murders from the very beginning, including all of the trial proceedings.

When the criminal prosecution finally ended in two thousand and seven, he remained puzzled by one nagging question, why was the blood of victim Wayne Stock in a car that was ultimately proven to have no connection to the murders. Over the next few years, the astonishing, bloodied lies were revealed, culminating in a law enforcement scandal that turned the case on its head and destroyed the career of Nebraska's celebrated

CSI director David Koefd. The book that we're featuring this evening is Bloody Lies, a CSI Scandal in the Heartland, with my special guest, investigative journalist and author, John Ferrick. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for agreen to his interview.

professional career went from from there on. Ounce I always took a strong interest in investigative reporting public spending, but then I also realized that public safety. Covering the court system was really fascinating to me, and I was really interested in digging into cases and really learning more and more and more about the criminal justice system, learning about law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, just how the whole

system operated. And I had covered a case or kind of picked up the end of this case when I was at my first job in South Bend, Indiana, where I was a regional reporter, and there was a case involving a man named Edgar Garrett, and ed Garrett went

on trial for a murder of his daughter. And what was really fascinating about the case is, though, the first case that the county prosecutor had lost in that county in twenty five years, and it was because of the videotape confession of the suspect that really blew up in the prosecutor's space. The confession didn't match with the real evidence in the case, and it turned out that this

Edgar Garrett was coerced into making false confessions. So that case kind of always stuck with me because I at that point in time, I had heard a lot of people say, there's no way anybody would ever confess to a murder that didn't do it. So years later, two thousand and six. By that point in time, I had been working as a regional reporter and doing a lot of investigative journalism at the Omaha World Herald, which is Nebraska's largest newspaper, and part of my area of coverage

was southeastern Nebraska and a lot of small towns. These talents had five hundred to one thousand people. The county seat had about seven thousand people. The county itself was about twenty five thousand. This is an area about twenty miles twenty five miles south of Omaha, which is a big metropolitan city of about five hundred thousand. The metro areas about a million people. But when you get to Platsmiths in Cass County, you're really kind of in farm

country in Nebraska. And that's this whole area where I was part of my coverage area where I really kind of cherry picked for the biggest and best stories that I thought would have regional impact and be of interest across the whole state of Nebraska, and some of those cases involved criminal justice and crimes, and that's kind of

what happened here. Whereas by two thousand and six I knew a lot of the law enforcement officials pretty well well first name basis, you know, they knew me, and likewise the same way with the prosecutor in the court court official fan And it was just a shock on Monday, the day after Easter, when word got out later in the day that there happened to be a double murder outside of Murdach, Nebraska, a town of about two hundred and seventy people. It just just everybody was jarred and

Florida and couldn't believe it. And you know, and I knew just again, based on several years as a reporter and an investigative journalists, my instincts went up, and I knew that this was an important story that needed to be covered.

morning to go to work help his dad out. And he gets to the farmhouse and and there's no activity, which is unusual because mom and dad usually got up pretty early. And so Andy's looking around for his mom, Sharman Stock, aged fifty five, and his father Wayne, who's fifty eight, and can't find them anywhere throughout the house,

which is unusual. So he goes around, goes outside, figuring maybe his dad's out tinkering with, you know, with one of the farm machinery or tractors, checks the outbuildings and can't find his father out there either. Eventually, Andy goes upstairs, figuring maybe his dad's upstairs. He had an office upstairs where he did a lot of his paperwork for the farm business. And and no sooner does Andy start to get up the stairs, but he finds his father face down in a pool of blood, I mean, just a

horrific pool of blood. And there's a handful of red shotgun shells sprawled across the body and actually another live shell actually that was that was left on the on the on the carpet. So Andy just is terrified, obviously, and it just runs back out, back down the stairs and eventually runs out to his truck and uh and pick grabs his cell phone and calls UH, calls nine

one one. And that's what caused law enforcement Cass County Sheriff's office and eventually the Nebraska State Patrol and eventually the Douglass County Crime LAMB to all respond within minutes to you know, over several hours, uh to you know, spend uh to descend upon the property in the farmhouse. Uh. This just bloody awful carnage that had just taken place in an area of uh Murdoch, in an area of Nebraska that just was totally totally unexpected. Dan.

Sheriff's Office gets to the scene. They searched the property. Eventually, well the obvious they went up the stairs and they found Wayne Stock in a pool of blood and and it was just a horrific sight. His head had been he had taken at least two he had taken two shots to the back of his head and uh just basically maybe the back of his head was blown up off. Blood was everywhere throughout the walls. He's like, I said he was sprawled up kind of tied up or tangled

up in his bed sheets. He was a Russell. He was asleep shortly before this. Uh, this horrific intrusion had occurred. The Cass County Sheriff's office eventually worked their way into the bedroom and that's where they found Wayne's wife, Charman, and she was found along the bedside, tangled up in uh in a in a telephone. It turned out that she was trying to make a desperate call to nine

one one to notify the sheriff's office. So I don't know if I law enforcement that that there were invaders that that had entered their bedroom and arched into the room in the middle of the night. But the killers were able to uh shoot her through the middle of her face and she just fell down and died instantly, one single shot. Now, it was pretty clear based on the crime scene what kind of weapon was involved in this.

It was it was for sure a shotgun, and it was pretty obvious it was also a twelve gage shotgun as well. Dan just based on the fact that there were several shelves that were left at the crime scene that law enforcement was able to collect and retreat from the crime scene. And they also knew that this was not a murder suicide because the shotgun that was used

in the crime was nowhere to be found. So law enforcement had some key evidence that was left at the crime scene, so they didn't need to spend an incredible amount of time trying to figure out, you know, this was a pistol or you know, or a certain type of handgun. They clearly knew what kind of weapon this was that they were looking for, and based on the crime scene, just based on how bloody and uh and awful things were, it was clear that that the Stokes

were taken by surprise. They were still wearing their pajamas, so it was it was pretty obvious that they were killed sometime late at night or in the middle of the night after they had gone to sleep.

They had done this before, and they were smart enough to realize that in the upstairs hallway where Wayne Stock's body was found, and it's a narrow hallway, white walls, but there was an outline or a silhouette of a human being, and it was clear to the crime scene analysts, the bloodstained experts, that this was a shadow or silhouette of a second person. This person had to be standing off to the side at the time that their co conspirator or accomplice had fired one of the shots into

the back of Wayne's head. So it becomes clear that there has to be two perpetrators involved in these crimes. It wasn't immediately clear, though dan at that point in time, that there were two guns. That doesn't become clear until many many months later, actually, So law enforcement is working off of the premise that there's two perpetrators, two people

that are there at the scene. They're still working off of the theory though, that it's that it's one gun and there's a twelve gage shotgun that that some that somebody had used in these crimes. Now, your question about was there any sign of robbery? I believe this he asked. Right the back of the property really stood out to the crime scene analysts. There was there was one window in the back of the property, near the near Wayne

and Sharman stacks wooden patio. There was a window, and this was a window that led to their laundry room. And this window was propped open. And not only that, but the screen, the the exterior screen for this window had been pried off and was just left, uh, laying in a in a bed of rocks right underneath the

uh the window. In closer examination of this, uh, this window screen showed that clearly somebody had had taken it off or you know, kind of punctured a little hole into it, which ultimately would have helped them pry it off. And uh So one of the crime scene analysts was taking several photographs of the property that was part of

his assignment. And and frankly a specialty, and he was asking around, you know, as far as he clearly was focused and and uh and really interested in this in this window because as he would say later, this was about the only thing and that really stood out on the exterior of the property. That really was unusual, and uh and and and seemed to inferred that this is the point of entry for whoever the intruders slash killers were.

But for whatever reason, some of the local sheriff's investigators really kind of waved them off basically as far as you know, just indicated to him that this window. Don't really spend your time, you know, focused in on this window. It really didn't fit their theory that they were working off of as far as how the murders and how the intrusion happened. They flipped the they worked off of the premise at the front door, which the interior door

was left wide open. They were convinced that the killer had just walked right into the killers, I should say, but had walked right in through the front door and went up the stairs, found Wayne and Sharman in their bed and just blew them away at point blank range with a twelve gate shotgun, and then you know, ran out or scampered scampered down the stairs and ran back

out the house. And part of the reason why I think that they've worked off of that theory from the get go was the fact that all the other rooms in the farmhouse if you looked around, you know, most starting with the kitchen, Wayne ands and the living room, dining room, everywhere else. Wayne and Sharman Stock had a very immaculate and tidy farmhouse. And this was a nice farmhouse.

They had been in the family for several generations. It was nineteen a lets early nineteen hundreds home, and it had actually undergone some renovations over the years too, so it really looked nice and it was a nice house. And even when law enforcement got to the farmhouse to investigate the murders, the rest of the house was immaculate, and that signified to the law to the cops that whoever did this crime must have clearly been intent on revenge.

And there didn't seem like that there was anything of value that was stolen. None of the rooms were ransacked. There was no obvious sign that any money had been taken or any jewel In fact, yeah, Wayne Charman's Charman Stacks jewelry was left out and planed view just a couple of feet away from her body, and and Wayne's wallet was right across the hallway from his body, and in his computer just in his office area, and again

none of them, no money was taken. So so law enforcement worked off of the theory that this was not about robbery dan uh and uh, and they worked off the theory that this clearly had to be some type of premeditated orchestrated, well planned out double murder that happened in the middle of the night. That's the way it seemed to them at first.

to them? And how if you can tell us, how would they have thought that that was the entry point?

Sunday over there. There was about let's say, no more than ten to twelve relatives that were over there, including Wayne's only sister, Barb Libers and her husband Dave, and their oldest son, Matt lives so Wayne's nephew was at this family gathering. And the family gathering broke up around dinner time, I think four thirty or five o'clock or so.

And from there Wayne and Charman went back to their house and they had some of their grandkids over around dinner time and did some Easter egg hunts around the property and you know, just had a great time with their grandkids, you know, before ultimately you know, retiring to bed around ten ten thirty or so. Let's see, uh, what was the other part of your your your question.

time of the at the crime. So so Andy clearly had to go inside the house, uh, you know, on his own. And uh and I'm pretty sure that when he runs out of the house that he probably would have run out that front door. So it's uh, I'm not really sure exactly as far as how that how that scenario goes as far as with Andy, and Frankly, I don't think that they spent very much time trying to clarify that point too, Dan, as far as just whether or not Andy went out the back door or

or or did he go out the front door. But but the fact is that the front the interior front door was open.

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farmhouse like always to bring them their morning early, their morning, their Monday morning newspaper. And when they were going to that farmhouse, camera had noticed a car that was parked at a cemetery about a mile down the road from

the Stocks farmhouse. And later on that evening, when they were finishing up their route, the same car nearly ran them off the road, and it was speeding and it was heading towards the city of Lincoln, you know, bright lights, and so law enforcement becomes convinced that this was an incredible tip and in their mind this had to be the killers get away vehicle that you know, the killers were heading back to the city of Lincoln, and they focused in on the fact that they had also remembered

that Wayne and Charmanstact's nephew, Matt Livers, also lived in the city of Lincoln.

the family. For his grandmother, she didn't mind him living there, but Wayne and Charmon ultimately decided to intervene and he kind of kicked him out of the house. So I didn't want him living there. So so that caused some

tensions in a risk between the in the family. And and again he had spent Easter Sunday at the family with the family at the Easter Sunday gathering, certain family members immediately just jumped to the conclusion that this was a premeditated, whole blooded killing and that Matt, since he was the black sheep of the family, had to be responsible.

And you had a situation where somewhere between at least a half a dozen different extended family members were interviewed by local law enforcement on the day of the murders, so later in the day at one of their houses, and all of them, one after one, just said that they were convinced that that Matt Livers had to be responsible for these murders. There was no These were all rumor and innuendo. There was no hard evidence at this

point in time. There was no eyewitnesses that you know, that that had come forward to say Matt Levers was responsible. But law enforcement becomes convinced that that Matt Livers has to be this this awful bad guy, this monster that had somehow, you know, pulled this double murder off in the middle of the night.

or so. And uh and just growing up in school, he had some tough times where kids would make fun of him. But uh, you know, he always tried to move past this and uh, and he really wanted to do the best that he could for himself. But uh, he also tried to compare himself to his his family members, and you know, in certain family members, really you had a lot more going for them than he had. But at the time that this had happened, he was he

was struggling. He had been uh uh he had lost a job, but he'd recently been fired from a from a security job position that he had. The situation was that he I believe he kicked the door real hard. He was angry about something at work and ultimately kicked a hole in the door at this uh, at this pharmaceutical plant. So he had been fired from his job

about a month prior to these murders. And law enforcement becomes convinced that the fact that he was fired unemployed and he kicked a hole in his door, that that showed,

you know, violent tendencies and and just unbelievable anger. And it kind of snowballs into the theory that, yeah, this is the same guy that ultimately is gonna go back to his uncle and aunt's farmhouse late on Easter Sunday night, just hours after he had spent some time with them earlier that day, at this Easter, at this Easter family gathering.

nephew of Wayne, is the likely suspect. Did the police already have this idea in their head and prompt you know, knowing as time goes on, will the audience will understand why I'm asking this question? Was there prompting by the police, Did they already have the idea that could be a family member. I mean, I mean, he's not really contained in the book, but did is there was there prompting which which came first, the idea or the idea from the relatives.

So when you're working off of that theory, law enforcement Cass County Sheriff's oft did think immediately that it probably was somebody closely connected to Wayne and Charman Stock. And again within a matter of hours, you know, they're sitting down with several family members distraught. But all the family members that they spoke with were very persuasive, persuasive in convincing them that you need to spend your time focused in on Matt Livers and that just becomes the way

that that it ultimately goes. They they they think they're convinced that the family is presenting them with a great solid suspect and uh, and they really disregard other other possible scenarios as far as what could have happened and what may have happened. And basically, Matt becomes you suspect number one. But there isn't any other people that are even being looked at. And you asked about, uh, you know,

does Matt lawyer up or anything like that. No, it's actually a matter of That same night, the same night after the two Cass County Sheriffs investigators met with the grieving and distraught family members. Uh, later that night, they go back to to to the grandma's house and they went over there asking if Matt lives still over there, and Matt has already left to go home back to Lincoln. His mom gets on the phone, calls him up on his on his cell phone, and he proceeds to drive

back to his grandma's house. Uh. Back to Murdoch late that night and he rides and he gets into a squad car with with two of the investigators rides around with him for they ultimately take him over to to a fire station to do uh, to do an interview.

But U but no, he's he's more than willing and compliant as far as you know, being being candid with them, answering any and all questions they have, giving them ultimately over the next several days, providing them with DNA samples, uh and hair samples are just anything that that they need, you know, that's more than willing to comply and and

help them out in the investigation. And it's really because he's in his mind, he's convinced that he's helping them get closer to finding out who the real killer or killers are. He he's aware that they're looking at him as a suspect, but he's you know, he he believes he didn't do the crime. So why why why does

he need to get a lawyer? You know? Why does he need to not participate in any interviews that the Sheriff's office in the state patrol, you know, are asking of him at that point in time, Dane.

all over North America. They thought of Wisconsin, but h But he had a phone interview that that that very next morning with the with this trucking company, and so he had to get out, get up really early and and do this uh, this phone interview with them. And that's what he maintained that he was in bed, went to bed and was asleep that entire night, and he

had too his two roommates. One was his UH fiancee at the time, eventual wife, Sarah Schneider and and Sarah Matt left in the same bed, and she remembered going to bed around the same time that that Matt went to bed. I think it was around eleventh or eleven thirty and uh and she woke up first that next morning and and insisted that Matt was in bed wearing his pajamas just like he was wearing his pajamas and laying in bed next to her when they went to

bed the previous night. There was also another roommate that they had and her name was Susan Gill. And Susan also was, like Matt's fiance, also worked as a nurse. And Susan came home sometime late that night or in the middle of the night, I can't remember exactly, but Susan insisted as well that Matt Leverts was home and you know, in his vehicles were there the entire time, you know, when she got home, you know, from her

late night workship. So you had two other roommates, you know, eyewitnesses alby witness Susan's proper terminalogy, but two other alby witnesses that were interviewed by law enforcement, and they maintained that Matt Livers, you know, was home at the time the crime. But they were ultimately discarded or disregarded and not taken seriously.

in the bed. So whatever reason, they just really didn't didn't didn't take it seriously, the you know, the possibility that these two other roommates of Maths, you know, we're you know, we're believable, or they just decided not to just put that much faith and stock into that they were convinced that that Matt was able to sneak out of his house in Lincoln and ultimately drives the thirty thirty five miles or so to the farmhouse and commit the murders and make it back make it back home

before the next morning.

confess to these crimes. But over several hours the investigators were pretty frustrated. Matt, as you said, denied over and over and he had anything to do with these murders.

So they asked him if he'd be willing to take a polygraph test allow detector test to prove his innocence, and Matt said sure, absolutely and uh, and the two investigators already had you know, one of their cohorts, a Nebraska State Patrol investigator Charlie O'Callaghan on standby, and Charlie was, uh, you know, was just right around the other office and he was waiting to uh to give Mad his polygraph test. And uh so, ultimately Matt takes this polygraph test with

Charlio O'Callahan. Charlie leaves the room after the test is done, and this time the two lead investigators returned to the room. And before they were kind of playing the mister nights guy approach. This time they just came back into the room and uh just uh, you know, the looks on their eyes just scared the daylights out of Matt Livers and uh and and they just start yelling at him and telling them that we've seen it, we're seeing another side of you. You know, it's time for you to confess.

You know, we know that you're up to your ears in this thing. And and he still denies that he's involved. But over and over the next several minutes and hours, Matt just kind of Wilf's and Wilt's under pressure and he feels trapped in the situation. And one of the investigators, Earl Skink, ultimately just tells him you know, his Earl's theory about how the murders happened, and it basically breaks it down into a right or wrong set of questions.

I think it's probably about eight to ten different questions and Earl asks Matt, you know, right or wrong you did this? Right or wrong? You did this? And Matt answers right to every single question, and that at first becomes that's Matt's confession. And at that point in time, it's incredible. This is probably for a lot of our

listeners to believe. But Matt was thinking at that point in time, if he confessed to these crimes, he was going to get to go home that night, that these two investigators you know, were going to drive him home after he had confessed to the murders. And again that's just with with Matt's you know, mental capacity. He he that he was thinking that this is the way it was going to go, but that wasn't the way it

was going to go. And and and he also knew at that point in time though, see, he knew a lot of the crime scene evidence as far as just kind of what had happened, because other family members had talked to his mom and dad about what some of the evidence was that was found at the crime scene, including the fact that a shotgun shell or shotgun shells

were found and the shotgun was used. So there's a couple aspects of his quote confession that that investigators think are bulls eyes, But in reality, Matt was telling them stuff that he had already heard and you know, again to try to placate them. But again, ultimately, over several hours, he wealth under pressure and he confesses and at first he takes credit for committing the murders by himself, that

he did it and he did it alone. Now the two investigators realized again thinking back to the upstairs hallway, they knew that there was a second person involved in this crime. So they ultimately, you know, pressed Matt for more details as far as who could have been his accomplice and and he names one of his cousins, a fellow by the name of Nick Sampson.

fellow by the name of Will Sampson. But but he Matt maintained that Nick had had borrowed or obtained Will's car and UH, and that that was the car that Matt and Nick had borrowed and used to UH to commit the murders and uses the getaway car. So that's

the original statement that that Matt makes. It evolved to being that Nick was serving as a lookout at the farm while Matt went upstairs to commit the murders, to eventually that Nick had actually fired or allegedly had fired the final shot into the back of Wayne Stock's skull

in the hallway. But as soon as Matt had implicated his cousin, Nick Sampson during that interrogation, Cass County Sheriff's office made a phone call to the Nebraska State Patrol and UH and they ultimately raided a small town bar in Murdoch, Nebraska, where Nick Sampson had worked and a part time job as a kitchen cook. And uh, and they went out and pulled Nick out of the bar that that Tuesday night, in front of a large crowd

that was there. Created quite a scene, as you can imagine a small town, two hundred and seventy people, six six or seven police officers storm in the bar. They pulled Nick out of the bar and and and tell him that he's being arrested for a double murder. And I'm not going to repeat the words that Nicks said, but our listeners, can you know, understand Nick's uh frustration with you know, with with with with what he had

just been told. But uh so Nick gets put into a squad car and he's driven back to the Cass County Sheriff's office where he's told that he has been charged, is being arrested for for this brutal double murder. And unlike Matt, Nick refuses to participate in interview. I mean, he tells law enforcement that he's innocent, that he didn't commit these crimes, but he wants a lawyer and uh, you know, really doesn't want to talk to these these these individuals.

charged with these two murders. That's when Nick's fiance at the time, Laurie and the other roommates, a girl named Nashley, they were interviewed late that night and they maintained that Nick had to be home the same night that these murders had happened. Nick and his fiance had two big dogs, friendly dogs, the big dogs that always left in their bedroom at the foot of the bed, and Laurie maintained that that absolutely no way that Nick had had got

out in the middle of the night that night. The dogs usually would bark at any opportunity that people were coming and going. And in the other roommate, Ashley, had also maintained that no, there's no way that Nick uh left at night. Uh. He was still in bed and got up ready for work that next morning. That this happened. But Uh, but at that point in time, though, Dan, you know, their alibi witnesses really were im material for

law enforcement. Nick was in jail, Matt had named him as his accomplice, and UH, you know, it was continue on work with the UH, with the with the prosecution of Matt, Livers and Sampson.

information and his vehicle and how does that work? How does a pro seed for them?

no other fragments or tissue or anything like that. Nothing that that indicated that jumped out to the crime lab that this car was involved in the murders. However, the local law enforcement officials just were in disbelief. They couldn't believe that this was the case. Their first thought was that this car, you know, had to be cleaned, and and it actually had been cleaned.

there was no way that Anbey borrowed this car. He had the one and only key to the car, and his fiance eventual wife, Alynn, also told law enforcement there was no way that anybody could have borrowed this car,

either from her from her husband. But but again, the car was taken into custody, and even when the car came back with no obvious evidence inside of it the lead investigators tell the crime lab in Omaha to keep the car impounded, you know, and that it still was their theory that this was to get away car that Matt Lyverts and Nick Sampson had used to commit the murders.

you too that I was really curious. Again, you can't go into everything in the book, but is it common practice for what David Kovid does what he did do alone in terms of checking out this vehicle again, is that standard procedure to go ahead and do something like this alone and then tell us what, tell us the whole background story about how he became involved in what and what he found.

That there was no sign that any that any blood or trace evidence or DNA was found on something, whether that was a knife, a gun, a sword, and uh and certainly in this case in a in a car. So the fact that this car was already checked and he supervised the search that wasn't five minutes long, and but six to eight hours long, from about midnight to

about eight am. He supervised this search of the car and had a couple of his best people working for him carrying through that car, taking photograph after photographs of pretty much every spot in the car. And there were a few stains, there were a few substances found in the car, but they just turned out to be, you know, immterial. They weren't they weren't blood, and they certainly weren't any DNA or any spatter that came from the crime scene.

But Dave Covid at that point in time, we're talking in two thousand and six, Dave was already had built up a pretty grandiose reputation across Nebraska and certainly throughout that region including Iowa. Nebraska and Iowa pretty close to each other, I should say, Omaha. And so Dave would also work a lot of his unit would work a

lot of cases in Iowa as well. But Dave, Dave Covid in his crime lab, we're building up this this uh important reputation is being able to solve pretty much every case that a local law enforcement agency called them on to help out. And uh and some of these were amazing and very very high profile crime stand that were all over the news, covered by a newspaper journalist,

in the TV and radio stations as well. And uh, in all these cases ended up with the bad guy going to prison or ended up on death row in some cases. But uh, but uh and and and in a lot of these cases as well, Dave Covid plays a key role in finding some piece of evidence or crucial pieces of evidence that ultimately helped seal the deal, you know, kind of get law enforcement or the prostitutors

off is over the hump. And uh. And he's a very good uh testifier, a very eloquent speaker, public speaker, very chatty and with a very smart individual and he liked the limelight, and he also liked to boast and brag about the successes of his crime lab that he had managed and was really building up. And that's why you have a situation where a small town agency like the Cass County Sheriff's Office immediately called in the Douglas County Sheriff's Office crime lab because they wanted Dave Covid

and they wanted Dave Covid to work their case. And it becomes a head scratcher for the lead investigators when the first time that Dave Covid supervises the search of the suspected getaway car that there's no evidence in the crime in this car. Dave Covid ultimately goes back after Matt Livers and Nick Sampson had in jail for a few days, he goes back on his owen and ultimately reports back to that one of the lead investigators that same evening that I found some blood underneath the dashboard

of the car. And the lead investigator and ultimately comes out to the Sheriff's office that night Dave shows him where he finds the blood, and that investigator kind of reacted with this, you know this is an unbelievable this is a needle in the haystack kind of find, but it kind of matched Dave COVID's reputation and the fact that the lead investigators were absolutely convinced that this was the getaway car to begin with. So that's kind of

the way that things proceed from that point on. Dave now had found some blood in the car, after all, blood that came from the murder victim, Wayne Stock, to corroborate Matt Liber's confession that this was the getaway car that he and Nick Sampson had used to commit these murders.

as we talked about earlier, they do everything backwards. So they arrest Nick Sampson and Matt Livers and then search and raise their houses and take all their clothes, take all their shoes, and can't find no blood anywhere is found on any of the clothing or garments or anywhere, you know, from the two properties where Matt Livers and

Nick Sampson lived. So they're still trying to figure out kind of what other key pieces of evidence that were left that they could possibly link Matt Livers and nck Samson too from the crime scene. And they're going through these photographs, I mean, those hundreds of photographs that Don Bays from the Douglas County Crime Lab had taken, and one of the photographs an obscure photograph of the kitchen.

Ultimately catch is the guy of one of the detectives from Cast County, and he notices in the photograph that there's a shiny object and he sees it on the and this is the photo of the kitchen, and he notices a shiny object and he points this out. A couple other investigators I believe, agreed with him. Yeah, it looks like there is something there. And again, this is the fourth day of the case, so the crime lab had already kind of closed up shop and left the farmhouse.

But law enforcement goes back out to this farmhouse and lo and behold, there is the shiny object was still there on the floor. And the shiny object happened to be a gold ring, an engraved ring that had the names it says love Always Hory Cori I and Ryan R Y A N. And the investigators were by this, and they asked family members who Corey and Ryan could be, and none of the grieving family members could identify anybody

that they could think of named Corey and Ryan. DNA is tested on the ring Matt Livers and Nick Sampson since they were in jail. Their their DNA was was matched up to this ring and actually another piece of evidence too from the property. But law enforcements in for another major shocker when the DNA on this ring turned

out to exclude Matt Livers and Nick Sampson. Now at that point in time, CAS's kind of Sheriff's office isn't thinking, oh my god, we arrested the wrong to people for these murders, because they, you know, are still convinced that

their confession was air tight, you know, on bulletproof. But they're thinking that this just proves that Nick Sampson and Matt Livers must have had other people that helped them out in these murders, and it just happens to be a matter of time before they're eventually going to figure out who these other people would be.

the crime scene as well. He probably helped Matt plan this thing out, but uh so law enforcement who works with the Texas Rangers, and uh, you know, and uh the interview in Ryan Paulding obtained his DNA samples as well, but uh, but they don't match up and uh and you know, Ryan was clearly in the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas at the time and the murders. So they back off Ryan Paulding, but they're not convinced that he's completely innocent or you know, or has nothing to

do with this. They think that eventually, you know, that maybe Ryan still might know something, but for the time being, they back.

the murders. But again that doesn't hold any weight of water either. So everything that they're looking at locally just is not coming together for them.

than Cass County, Nebraska. But he gets a call about a month after this murder had happened from Nebraska authorities, and at that point in time, they had determined that a ring, that that ring that had been dropped at the farmhouse with the name Corey and Ryan had ultimately traced back to the state of Wisconsin, and and it had come from a Walmart store in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

And at that point in time, it was kind of like a collision course of two completely separate criminal investigations. That neither law enforcement entity kind of knew about the other up until now when Jim Morra gets the call

about this ring that had been found in Nebraska. Jim Rourr had already been investigating a slew of local auto thefts and and there were several vehicles three or four that had been taken over a matter of a few days in the Dodge County, Wisconsin jurisdiction, and Jim Roer already had a pair of teenagers, Greg Fester and Jessica

Reed in custody for these vehicle thefts. And it was clear to Jim Rorer that this ring had come from one of those one of those vehicles that was stolen, because the ring was owned had been given to a fellow by the name of Ryan Krenz who was about twenty or twenty one years old at that point in time. And Ryan Krens happened to be the owner of a big red Dodge Ram pickup truck that had been stolen the day before Easter by this pair of Wisconsin teenagers.

And this truck was ultimately a and and in the state of Louisiana about four or five days later, and it was stolen so so Jim Mower ultimately kind of really digs into this, these two local suspects, Greg Vester and Jessica Reed, and he does some amazing, excellent detective work. He he thinks that there's a chance that they're involved in these murders in Nebraska, but he's kind of very he needs to be very careful not to tip them

off that he's looking at them as murder suspects. So he ultimately uses a couple of different ruses or you know, tricks them. Basically, it's all legal, but but he goes up to them and tells them that, you know, that he was looking at he took a phone call from an agency in Iowa that was looking at the possibility that they may have you know, ramsacked and burglarized the house in Iowa, and that that agency needed, you know,

to compare their DNA. So Jim Rower is able to get DNA samples from Greg Fester and Jessica Reed, and he doesn't send those Iowa because he never got a call from Iowa yet. But he sends those back to the state of Nebraska and lo and behold two key pieces of evidence. One was the ring, the second was a dope pipe that was left in the driveway of the farmhouse. But both those key pieces of physical evidence happened to include the DNA samples that were a bulls

eye for Greg Fester and Jessica Reed. Now this is about two full months into the murder investigation, so now it becomes clear that two other people are involved, and that's where all the physical evidence is starting to line up. They weren't from Nebraska. They were from five hundred miles away in the state of Wisconsin. These teenagers named Greg Vester Jusca read aged nineteen and seventeen at the time.

But this is a citizen, not a police officer. This Mary Martino, and she works at the A and I Jewelers, And so we just go back just a little bit because she's got an incredible story of just due diligence and helping out the police with this. Tell us her story because it really warrants inclusion.

in the case. Frankly, and and this Mary Martino takes the phone call, and she was the operations manager of this jewelry manufacturer that was on the brink of bankruptcy and closing down, shutting off its lights, and disconnecting its telephone.

A matter of days later that Mary takes the call from this desperate sounding CSI invest official and she hears the words, you know, this is a Nebraska double homicide, and she decides to drop everything else that she's doing at the time with her job and really just bears down and really digs into trying to figure out if there is a receipt that can figure out who bought this engraved ring and uh and she goes through box after box after box and just becomes exhausted and uh

and frustrated because she's getting nowhere. And at that point in time, Dan, she could have given up and just said, the heck with this. You know, it's not worth It's not worth the time and effort. I got a million other things to do, especially closing down this business. You know, Nebraska and New York aren't exactly next door neighbors. And uh and she didn't she'd never been to Nebraska, and she didn't know any of these people, so she didn't

even frankly have to call them back. And there was nothing they could do but U. But she continues onward and and becomes ingenious and ultimately works with other people in her company that I believe we're out of Toronto if I'm not mistaken, and they help her put together computer grid. And long story short is that within a few days they ultimately figure out that this was this

engraved ring. This love always Corey and Ryan Ring was one hundred and twenty nine dollars ring that had come from a Walmart had been sold at a Walmart store in beaver Dam, Wisconsin, town of about twenty thousand people. And this ring was bought by a girl that was about eighteen or nineteen at the time named Corey Zastro, and she bought this ring for her boyfriend at the time, a young farmer named Ryan Krenz, who was twenty or

twenty one at the time. And you know that she bought it from around Christmas time and and you know, their relationship visit was shortly thereafter that, and you know, Ryan didn't want to wear that ring around anymore, you know, since they weren't going together. So what does he do, But he just puts the ring into his glove box and his his truck to kind of forget about it,

you know. And uh, And unfortunately, a year and a half later, his truck is stolen on Easter on the night before Easter, and and the trucks driven through several different states and ultimately ends up in Louisiana. But it's because of the heroics and unbelievable investigative work by a

civilian named Mary Martino. That that's what is kind of the you know, the key moment in this case, the breakthrough moment Dan to this case is when when Mary Martino identifies that this ring came from not Nebraska but Wisconsin and it came from a Walmart store. That that's kind of what really kind of kind of breaks the ice in this case. And uh, and really from that moment forward, it's all about Wisconsin and it's not about Nebraska in this Nebraska double murder case.

that the DNA came back for sure. So Greg Fester and Jessica Reid, the two lead investigators Nebraska, get in a vehicle and ultimately drive up to Wisconsin here and UH. And when they sit down and meet Jessica Reid and Greg Fster separately to interview them and interrogate them, they're not thinking that these are necessarily the people that were

the shooters. They're thinking that these were, you know, helpful participants of Matt Livers and Nick Sampson and and and they can't get it out of their minds that that Jessica Read and Greg Fster don't know these other people. So when they bring up these uh, they bring with them a handful of stock photographs of Matt and Nick and even Nick's other Will and another fellow who gets

pulled into this as well, unfortunately, named Tom Todd. Greg and Jessica look at these photos and and and mainly the ones of Matt and Nick and and they can't identify these people, they don't know who they are. And

the lead investigates Nebraska are flabbergasted. They just think that they're they're bessing them and just lying to them, and uh, you know, and they tell them, you're going to get the death penalty and you know, and uh, and you know, we're not gonna be able to go easy on you, and uh, and just just pressing them, you know, and trying to intimidate them into into implicating Matt Lyvers and Nick Sampson as their co conspirators. So it becomes very complex and as a very muddy part of the case

at this point in time. Dan. But uh, but they're ultimately going to refuse to believe Jessica and Greg when they're initially telling them that, no, it's just us. We were the only two that were involved in these murders.

So the public defenders again do an admirable job of kind of informing and educating the prosecutors so that.

the prosecutor's office and law enforcement. And at that point in time when the Wisconsin break occurs and reg Fester and Jessica Ree get charged with these double murders, but their clients are not released from custody, they realized and that that this initial statement or confession from Matt Lyras clearly was dubious, you know, and very very suspect, and they were convinced that their clients were not guilty of these crimes and didn't know didn't know Greg and Jessica.

So they really turned on the offensive and really did their own investigation and really dug into into various aspects of the case and and really determined that there was no way that Matt and Nick had had an involvement. And then they basically went through and pulled Holt and went through mass confession, the videotape which the cops thought was their I mean really got them over the hump.

The video tape confession really turned out to be the biggest detriment for law enforcement case because uh, this confession, Uh when when they turned it, uh turned when when

they really went through it really was a disaster. And and and and Matt never mentioned in this confession, Greg Vester and Jessica Reid, the two people whose DNA was in fact left at the crime scene, the two individuals you know that that pretty much overwhelming physical evidence lined up against, including their own admissions and confessions, that they were the ones that were responsible and they didn't know any anybody else that was at these at these murders.

And it really was the credit to the two public defenders, Julie Behar and Jerry Susci that they really sought out from outside national experts to help them out. I'm the phenomenon which is known as false confessions. And they were able to bring in uh distinguished uh psychologist h out

of out of Ohio named doctor Scott Wrestler. And Scott was able to uh interview Matt Livers and really dissect the the confession and uh and and doctor Bresler put together a formal report for the court that concluded that Maths confession was not was not reliable, it was a false confession and uh, that this was obtained under duress and uh and that was one of those individuals that was highly susceptible to police coercion and intimidation and uh

and ultimately the confession, uh, like I mentioned earlier, just really it really didn't didn't didn't amount to anything. It really was not a legitimate confession like you like you normally would see and expect.

And and and normally when a suspect is innocent, that's one thing that usually stands out to good detectives and good investigators that if the person is in it, and they'll be very adamant and very forceful and and and very persuasive and maintaining no, I didn't do it. I

had nothing to do with these crimes. And that's the way Matt Libras was for a long time until he ultimately, you know, gets fooled, you know, on the polygraph test where he's told that he flunked it, you know, the worst polygraph that investigator had ever seen, and and ultimately goes along with their theory that he committed these murders and was initially willing to take credit for doing the murders by himself, and those guys at least were smart

enough to know that that wasn't possible. But it just really was a helpless situation for him, and and and it really does go to show that these things, unfortunately do happen from time to time, and law enforcement does need to be vigilant uh and uh and and verify statements rather than just take the word of an individual that he or she committed a crime and uh and leave it at that.

But ultimately, when the case is resolved, the questions come back to him because naturally he was the individual that purported to find this blood in this car that now is clearly determined to have nothing to do with the murders. It was clear that the truck that Greg Fester and Jessica Reid stole in Wisconsin was the getaway vehicle. So all eyes kind of come back to Dave Covid, and

it starts with the prosecutor. It's at that point in time when Dave comes forward and this time has an alternative theory and he maintains that it had to be the result of cross contamination or some type of accidental transfer, that somehow, some way, since it was a very mesty and bloody crime scene, that through no fault of his own or any of his highly skilled and top match investigators from the crime lab, but somehow somebody got some blood from the crime scene onto the crime lab's equipment,

and when Dave Covid goes out to check that car the second time, that somehow he already has blood contaminated blood on his filter paper when he went and checked that dashboard. So that becomes his theory to explain how the blood of the murder victim suddenly had showed up inside the car of of of of a you know, of a person that had nothing to do with these murders.

And that's kind of the that's kind of the way it stayed for a while, and it it uh kind of The next big change in the case is when a civil one of the civil lawsuits gets filed in federal court alleging police misconduct in the case, you know, for the wrongful arrests of Matt Levers and Nick Sampson.

One of the allegations that gets made in the civil lawsuit Dan involves the claim or the belief that that blood had had gotten into Will Sampson's car by some unknown law enforcement official who planted the blood in the car. And it's at that point in time that the Federal Bureau of Investigation office out of Omaha kind of raises their eyebrows and takes a serious, hard look at this case. And and and they start with working with the Douglas

County Crime Lab. And the second person they interview happens to be Dave Colvid. And they tell Dave Covid, after he tries to give them this story again, that they tell him that his story just doesn't pass the smell test.

And it's at that point, are around that point in time that Dave Covid just becomes defiant and cuts off the interview with the FBI and tells him he's going to get a lawyer, And that frankly becomes the last time that Dave Covid has any involvement or interaction with the FBI related to this case.

that's what this was. So tell us about this, what this really started out as and what it ended up as, according to the killers themselves and from the investigators after they did get on track with finding the real perpetrators, if there was anything to tell us about it.

is absolutely true. It's so unfortunate, but it's true their farmhouse was targeted and they became the unfortunate victims as well of a brutal and senseless double murder that was committed in random fashion. However, the thinking at that point in time was that this was a burglary that went awry, that went horribly bad. But there really is no evidence that shows that Greg Fester and Jessica Reid tried to steal anything or or that they did take anything at

that house that night. And and and Greg Fester and just to Reid were were very big drug users at that point in time. They dropped the marijuana pipe in the driveway. They were heavy in the drugs. But they were also really kind of engaged in becoming more bold and more daring in the different crimes that they were

committing over the last several weeks. And and the one theory is that this, uh, that they were kind of building up to these crimes, and there there may have even been as strange as this sounds kind of an arousal factor, where where where Jessica and Greg were getting excited and and and and becoming aroused, you know, by by committing an awful double murder such as this. Uh. And that's based on uh conversations I've had after the book came out. Came out actually with Jim Rorer as

the detective. He pointed out that based on his interviews that he did with Jessica Reid, just how she kind of put his hand on his hand, you know, when she was recalling certain aspects of the crime afterwards, and just talking about oh, you just had to be there, you know. So so the strange as that sounds, that

is a possibility. But another theory, and this is kind of the one that I worked off of, you know, in my book, was kind of just going straight off with Greg Vester's own own own words at the time of you know that he was going to be sensed trying to make sense of all this, and he basically just very short but just said that we were there for the thrill. I guess.

any one of us. But uh, but but that's I think that that's a very good possibility, is why these murders that happened.

And and again working off of pro Fester and Reed that that really seems to kind of be their m It seems like that that this really was, you know, something that they were looking forward to doing at some point in time. They just didn't even realize, as crazy as this sounds, stand that they were in the state of Nebraska at the time that these murders had happened.

They still thought that they were in the state of Iowa because they had remembered breaking into a farmhouse there a matter of hours early.

justice in general. Again, it's it's amazing how many stories I do cover and it seems like fate intervenes, you know, I hate to get all. I don't know what the word is, but it just seems there's no other explanation. But somebody like Mary Martino or you know, a very very observant CSI agent, and otherwise these things would be unsolved completely.

She's ultimately the one that's going to go to the FBI because she had made complaints up the chain of command against Dave Covid over a number of years, under the premise that she thought there was something suspicious or shady about him on other cases, not not involving necessarily blood planting, but just other things involving fingerprints and fake combination letters that she thought that he was writing and

putting in his own file. And you know, without her going forward to the FBI, you know, that's another part of the case. It's it's you know, whether or not whether or not he would have been prosecuted, or whether or not, you know, the FBI would have moved forward without having someone like her go to them is really unknown.

But you're right that there's a there's a handful of people that just did's phenomenal, excellent work in this case, from the prosecutor Clarence Mack that prosecuted Culvid, to Detective Jim Mourura in Wisconsin, to Mary Martino. But there's also a handful of law enforcement officials in the Cass County Sheriff's office, in the Nebraska State Patrol. You know that that should just be ashamed of themselves, you know, for the performance, I mean just abysmal, abysmal work that they

did on this case. Sadly, that's true.

heinous murder as well. And you got to look at a victim of somebody with an IQ of seventy and special ed and this you got to really feel for this guy too, because it's on I guess you can't really quantify the trauma and the damage they did to this guy by twisting his brain around and getting the sign a confession and this whole thing, and no amount of money will ever compensate him or his his cousin either and being involved in this. So there's a lot of shame to go around, like you say.

involved in these crimes as well. They just would not let it go, and part of it was probably you know, out of a you know, they just I mean, they look horrible as far as just being so foolish and wrong, you know, after the fact, but they they they wouldn't let it go and refused, I think to this day to still make amends with those those two cousins Dan.

And nobody can write fiction this crazy. It's just amazing. So I want to thank you very much, John for coming on. For those that want further information and we'ld like to contact you or Facebook you or get more information about this or other some of the other work that you do, how may they contact you and tell us a little bit about that.

You can contact me through the website there as well, and UH and I'm also on Twitter. My handle is John Ferrek. So so those are those are different ways on social media for people to reach me and contact me.