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Shopping is hard, right? But I found a better way. Stitch fix online. Personal styling makes it easy. I just give my stylist my size, style and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want. No subscription required. And he sends just for me. Pieces plus outfit recommendations and styling tips. I keep what works and send back the rest. It's so easy. Make style easy. Get started today@stitchfix.com Spotify that's stitchfix.com Spotify. On the last night of his life, Chad Enshill walks out of here, past those cameras and into the dark, cold winter. You're seeing someone who's leaving the bowling alley on his way to his own death. There's report of a house fire. House fire just on the outskirts of Bismarck. And a person died inside. So this is it, huh? This is where they lived. I could immediately see a naked human body laying on the floor. They have a liquor bottle on the bed and they have a shotgun lying on the bed. What's going on here? Nikki was hysterical on the ph. Couldn't hardly get words out. She was convinced that he committed suicide. She said suicide? Not in a million years. Where the shotgun was placed from where the body was. That was odd. How vital is the work that these dogs do? He alerted to me that there was possibly the presence of an ignitable liquid. We have a case of arson going on. Chad didn't die by suicide. He was in fact, murdered. He now determined it's time to turn up the heat. Nine one one. Can I get your name, please? Okay, tell me exactly what happened. A 911 call came in at roughly 5:30pm January from Nikki Ensel, who had called to report that there was a fire at her house. My husband sent a text message that he didn't come in today, and I've been three days, and so I'm coming here to check. It's smoky. I can't get in the door. Nikki is very frantic on the 911 call. She can't get into the home. She doesn't know where her husband is, but believes that he's inside the house. Nikki, what's your husband's name? Yeah. Nikki Ansel made that 911 call from her home on January 2, 2020. I met up with Mike Meese, an investigator here in North Dakota who says it was dangerously cold that night. Well, the winters are pretty brutal. This can be sometimes the coldest place. Earth. The coldest place on earth? Yeah, Absolutely. Okay. You gonna follow us? Despite the long winters and bitter cold, most People we meet say Bismarck can be a great place to live. Bismarck is a great community. It's the biggest small city. Everybody knows each other, everybody's friendly. The capitol building is probably the very first thing that people notice when they come to Bismarck, which is like a skyscraper that goes up 21 stories off the prairie. Each year there's a Christma tree lighting in the capitol building. The governor and the first lady attend December. January gets pretty cold. A lot of activities are probably more happening indoors. Bowling alleys are quite busy. We usually go on vacation in about January, February somewhere. It can be 30 below with 50 below wind chills. There are people that try and can't make it. We say it keeps the riffraff out, but it really doesn't. There becomes a lot of issues with seasonal depression in North Dakota. We have very short days, very cold days, and that creates an issue for people to excessively drink in the wintertime. We usually see an uptick in suicides. Our story starts here on New Year's Eve, two days before Niki makes that frantic 911 call. This is Interstate Power on the northeast side of Bismarck, a five minute drive from Nikki and Chad's house. Interstate Power. What is this place? This is where Chad works. It's a power diesel repair place. They repair power? Diesel engines? Yeah, Trucks, things of that nature. Heavy equipment. On December 31, Nikki calls Chad's place of business and actually calls Chad in sick to work. The following day is New Year's Day, of course, so the place of business is closed. Then on January 2, he doesn't show up to work again. The workers are concerned about Chad and they've called. There's no answer on his phone. So they drive out to the house. So a pretty tight knit group, I guess. Yeah. And that's generally in North Dakota. A lot of your co workers are like family and they're gonna check on you if you're sick. Agent Mees and I drive out to Chad and Nikki's house on the northeastern outskirts of Bismarck. So this is it, huh? This is where they lived. His co workers come out here, correct? Yep. They ended up coming out here, trying to make contact with Chad. What do they find? Well, they found that they couldn't get in here. They couldn't reach Nikki. They found his truck in the driveway where it was normally parked. There was water frozen in the truck, indicating it had been parked there for a while. So what do the friends do? Well, the friends end up calling the police to come out here and do a welfare check. Central Dakota Communications, how can I help you? Hi, this is Adam Van Dorn. I'm calling to see if you guys could do a welfare check on one of our employees. Sure. His wife called him in sick for work on Tuesday and we haven't heard from him since. And her name? Chad Ensel. The police do come out here and they check the best they can with the authority they have. Nobody came to the door when he tried knocking on the door. So really there was nothing more for him to do because there were no signs that anyone was endangered at that house. Nikki gets off of work around 5pm that night. She comes home to discover that her house is filled with smoke. She showed up at the house, went in through the garage door. She's absolutely frantic and emotional. Thanks. My wife. No, no, you did the right thing by calling here. My name is Aaron Silbernagel. I was the sergeant of investigations during the Ensel case. When did you first come out here? This would have been January 2nd, the night it was reported. I was kind of surprised. There was not any damage that I could see on the outside. It was contained. It wasn't. It wasn't very obvious. It was contained inside. Yes, it was. The fire department went in, they did a sweep of the downstairs and they did find an active fire downstairs. And that was on top of the metal casing of the furnace. So they put that out. It was one of the darkest scenes I've ever seen. There was just thick, thick layers of heavy soot on the wall. It almost felt like it robbed light from your flashlight, like you just couldn't get it bright enough to really see all the detail. They go through the upper portion of the house. They find that the majority of the damage is in a back bedroom. When you open the bedroom door, the room was really blackened from the soot and the smoke in there. Agent Hill says if the bedroom door was not closed, the fire could have been much worse. The fire was only able to use up the available oxygen it had left in that room. Once it was starved for oxygen, the fire burned itself out. Underneath the soot was a plethora of evidence. There's a propane tank heater located close to the bed. Sunflower Heater is what they called it. Wouldn't be used for the inside of a home, maybe for a garage. It's extremely dangerous because they get very hot. The heaviest fire damage in there itself was to the mattress. There's liquor bottles in the bedroom, whiskey bottles. I could immediately see a naked human body, badly charred and burned, laying on the Floor. The body is badly burned, but there's no doubt the dead male is Nikki's husband, Chad Ensel. He's lying near the bed. On the bed there's a sh. It looked like there could have been wounds actually to his body. There was just a lot of confusion as far as what had happened by where the body was located and how the shotgun was laying there. It just, it wasn't adding up. There was a lot of evidence that was left behind. When there's enough crumbs on the ground, you're gonna find your way home. The Berkeley County Sheriff's department says 40 year old Chad Entel was found dead in his home. The house was reported to be on fire around 5 o' clock yesterday afternoon. He always had a smile on his face. Just really bubbly, kind of an energetic guy. When we walked in the room, he'd just see a smile and had a certain snicker with him. Yeah. Chad is a lifelong North Dakotan. His sister Lori says from early childhood he was into everything. Chad had a lot of hobbies. He was always active. He was never really one to sit around and just, you know, do nothing. In the summertime he did stock car racing at the local speedway. It was a dirt track, it's oval every Friday night racing. And he absolutely loved it. His car was bright green. The Grinch. Yeah, they call them the Grinch. Yep. During those long cold winters, Chad took his competitive spirit inside. And on Wednesday nights it was darts. One of the things that I'll always remember about Chad and we were just talking about it, he always had that, you know, Cheshire cat garring, big smile. Oh, always, always. Everyone who knew Chad says his true talents would shine on Monday and Thursday league nights here at Midway Lanes. He bowled on this league many years and he was well liked by everybody out here. Chad was a guy that never liked confrontation. He just wanted to be friends. He was a really good bowler. I know for sure. He bowled at least 2, 300 games, which are perfect bowling games. Nothing but strike and I never wanted to bull against him. Chad's ex Susie says his busy social calendar took a toll on their relationship. After 17 years of marriage, the childless couple got a divorce. Towards the end of the relationship, we started drifting apart. He was never home and when he was home, we weren't getting along the best. So we kind of decided just to go our separate ways. I think the divorce kind of hit him hard. He seemed like a guy that kind of needed to be in a relationship. He was looking for love, kind of, you know, just didn't know how to be alone. Yep. He started telling me about this girl that he met, Nikki. He talked very highly of her. He met her online through a dating website. She was down in South Dakota. He'd take trips down there and then came back. And he was happy, really liked her. And things progressed fairly rapidly. In no time at all, Nikki, a single mother of two, left her nursing home job in South Dakota and she moved her family to Bismarck to live with Chad. She had an older son and then a younger son. Those kids called him dad and he really, really enjoyed those kids. He had mentioned that he was going to ask. Of course, I was taken aback a little bit because they weren't seeing each other very long. Chad and Nikki's was not a very big wedding. There was only a select few who attended. It was a surprise because they didn't let us know that the wedding actually had happened. After the 2016 wedding, Nikki continued her baking business. But in 2019, she got a job at community options. That's a company that finds employment for people with troubled histories. Also, she had her own business where she baked out of her home. That was something that she was doing. Chad liked to be out and about town. Chad Enzel spent some of the last hours of his life here at Midway lanes doing something he loved to do, bowling with his friends. The Burleigh county Sheriff's office says 42 year old Chad Ensel was found in the home with a gunshot wound. And at this time, the sheriff's office cannot say if the death or fire are suspicious as they're still investigating. Looking at the body, there was obvious damage to the face and the head area, but the level of heat and char and fire damage to the body was extensive. So it wasn't quite clear what we were looking at. We were able to identify a shotgun that was laying on the bed. It was a 12 gauge. It was an over under break action shotgun. These were bird shot shells. They contain a large amount of small bbs which are generally used to shoot foul game and small birds. You could see what appeared to be pellets embedded in the wall up near the head of the bed. So we could tell that a shot had been fired and it had hit that wall. They have a liquor bottle on the bed and they have a shotgun lying on the bed. Just that in and of itself, investigators are thinking, okay, maybe this is just a case of suicide. Suicide is certainly one possibility. But investigators did have some questions about the scene, where the shotgun was placed from where the body was. That Was odd. It was kind of far away. I've seen suicides before, and usually that gun's right next to the body. And so this. It just. It wasn't adding up. Investigators are suspicious about the location of the shotgun, so they take the investigation. Of the charred bedroom A step further. They ended up spraying the area with blue star. And what they discovered was that there was possibly the presence of blood. There was some blood drops. It looked like that came from one side of the bed, Kind of around the foot of the bed, and then ultimately over to where chad was found on the floor. We also found what appeared to be A handprint on the wall with blood. Investigators never did identify who left that handprint, but the blood trail Paints a clearer picture. It appears there was a wounded or deceased individual. On one side of the bed. And either that individual walked or was dragged to the other side of the bed. We started trying to kind of piece together, well, how did this happen? Because we identified. Have shotgun pellets in the wall, yet we have a body located on the other side of the bed. The scene in the bedroom Just isn't adding up. Police have questions, and they hope mickey has the answers. The scene seems to tell the story. Broken furnace. So chad resorts to an outdoor propane heater Next to the bed. There's the shotgun with one. Spent shell, Bottles of booze laying around. You could make the case that it all adds up To a suicide and accidental fire. But things aren't always what they seem. As investigators looked deeper, they actually found that two fires in the house. There was fire up in the master bedroom where chad was located. But then there was also fire in the furnace, which was in the basement. No way for those two fires to spread from the basement to the bedroom. Or from the bedroom to the basement. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Without it being some sort of criminal act like an arson. When fire investigators at the ensel house. Find some things that look suspicious, they call for backup. In this case, Webster. I handle the fire department's accelerant detection canine. For this side of north dakota. Webster has the ability to smell. For any type of different ignitable liquid. So up to 60 different types of accelerants. That's amazing. Yeah, Very, very cool. All right. You want to show us what he can do? Absolutely. You ready to show us, webster? Absolute. This is 50% evaporated gasoline. This is webster's training aid. So what we do with this is we can put it in different places or different hides. And wherever we're working this little tiny amount. That little, tiny. It's. You could take a toothpick and dip it in the end. It's quite. It's quite amazing. Dog smelling parts per billion. Let's go. Seek, seek, seek. Yeah, he's in. Yeah. Good boy. So what happened at Nikki's and Chad's house? So Webster and I basically did what we just showed you here, and we went into the bedroom. The dog walked in. And as soon as the dog walked in, he gave me what we call a change of behavior. He alerted to me that there was possibly the presence of an ignitable liquid. Now, they had put a propane heater there, right? They had, yeah, there was a propane heater. So there was something beyond just the propane. That's correct, yep. Webster could tell Webster found it. Yep. So investigators took that as a sample, sent it to the laboratory, and the laboratory confirmed it as a medium distillate material, which is what could have been lighter fluid or gasoline or, you know, I'm not exactly sure what it was on the bed. On the bed and on the floor. The second fire in the basement also struck investigators as being suspicious. That fire that was on top of the metal housing of the furnace, There was a lot of debris. Somebody had left paper up there or had some sort of fuel that they were using for the fire. There was a. A piece of marlboro red cigarette carton lying on the floor near the furnace. It appeared to us that that scrap a box was used as accelerant for the fire itself to try and ignite the gas line. However, Chad and Nikki were not known to be smokers. So you have a piece of a cigarette pack inside the home. And the next question is, who does it belong to? That debris was collected and. And that also was processed at the state lab and came back as an ignitable liquid in that as well. Accelerants aren't usually found in an accidental fire. We have two separate fires in this house, which, at this point, we're not believing are any accidental fires whatsoever. We have a case of arson going on. How crucial was that finding by Webster? I mean, it's big because it's one of those things where it's that hard piece of evidence that says you have this distillate that's in a bedroom and it shouldn't be here. Wow, Webster, you're something else. Now that arson is suspected, the crime scene is reevaluated. One of the things that they noticed when they picked up the shotgun, there was pristine Bed sheets underneath where the gun was laying. And then there was also the outline on the floor of Mr. Ensel from where he had been laying. What that tells us is that there had been something sitting there during the fire that basically protected that area from that heat and fire damage. Chad hadn't moved from the time the fire started, so it was determined he was deceased prior to the fire starting. When I'd moved the propane heater and I looked underneath it, I noticed there was multiple rings. You could see multiple circles on the floor in the carpet, as if it had been moved. If somebody were to be deceased, somebody else would have had to move that propane heater. This needed to be investigated further. So the coroner was called in, of course, because Chad was deceased and requested an autopsy based on all of these suspicious things. I just remember saying we got a lot more information from Nikki, and I think we really needed talk with her. As luck would have it, they didn't need to go far to find her. That Monday morning, Nikki Ensel showed up at the sheriff's department asking to speak with me. The autopsy was actually occurring that morning. She had requested to go back out to the house, and he indicated he would go with her. Aaron was very intuitive and identified that. This may be a conversation that we have in here that we may want to record. It's January 6, 2020. Time is approximately 0857 hours. Going to the scene with Nikki Henson presence. We came back out here, and that's where she walked me through the crime scene. Is it okay if I go in with you? Yeah. Okay. One of the first things talking with Nikki, when we talked about the furnace, and Nikki was able to produce me a video in short order of how that furnace wasn't working. And Nikki stated that her and Chad had gotten into a fight. She decided that she was gonna go to a hotel room because of the fight and because the furnace wasn't working. Nikki said that throughout the course of her relationship with Chad, that Chad drink fairly heavily. She stated that he would drink a case of Crown Royal and a case of proper 12amonth, and then beer on top of it all. That's two cases of whiskey in a month. With 12 bottles in a case that's almost a bottle of whiskey a day, and with beer on top of that. With this equation of drinking, he should be inebriated, he shouldn't be standing, he shouldn't be making it to work, and he certainly can't be bowling. Well, she had brought up pictures of how Chad would get drunk and would Abuse her. What was so remarkable about that part of the investigation is they didn't find one person that said anything bad about Chad. In no way, shape or form was Chad a drunk or abusive. No, God no. That was just something preposterous that I would have never believed in a millionaire. Complete lie. She's lying through her teeth. Chad would never hit a woman. Then in the middle of the walkthrough, Silver Nagel receives a phone call. And it changes everything. Our top story, continuing coverage of a deadly house fire in Bismarck. I had heard on the news that there was a fire in town. And then the next morning one of my friends called me and said, hey, did you hear about that fire last night? The house was reported to be on fire around 5 o' clock Thursday afternoon. And she said, well, they released there was a victim in there. The Burleigh County Sheriff's Department says Chad Ensel was found dead in his home. My first thought was how did he not get out of the house? Fire officials say crews were on for over six hours. I had texted and called Nikki. She was hysterical on the phone, couldn't hardly get words out. She was convinced that he committed suicide. Didn't believe it. Chad was never depressed. He was never suicidal. He was fine. He was all gung ho on making plans for the future. She said, suicide? I, yeah, Chad was never that type. Chad on a committed suicide? Nope. He was too happy, Too lucky. Not in a million years. On January 6, four days after Nikki calls 911 to report the fire, she returns to the house she shared with her husband, Chad. She actually came and asked me if I would take her to the scene to help her find some things or get some personal items. And that's where she walked me through the crime scene. When you're out here, you get a phone call. Yes. I was actually called by one of our other investigators. And that was when I was told that medical examiner was going to rule this homicide. The doctor started on the autopsy and wasn't very long after he was looking at that body where he said, this is no suicide. He said that Chad Ensel had been shot twice with the shotgun. Chad's body is so badly burned that investigators on the scene couldn't even identify the number of wounds he had suffered. It would have been very difficult to determine that he had been shot twice. There was one wound that had gone through the arm into the side of the neck. There was another one to the head directly. It's pretty difficult to commit a suicide with multiple gunshots, especially with a 12 gauge shotgun. They know at this point that Chad didn't die by suicide. He was in fact murdered. They have a feeling that Nikki knows more than she's letting on. Thanks to evidence gathered from the house earlier, Silbernagel already knows Nikki is not telling him the whole story. Nikki and Chad have a security system at the property and officers are able to pull data. It was actually right up in the corner of that house, right where that wire's hanging right there. Actually, that's actually the wire from the camera. Julie Lawyer compiled key moments captured on that security system at the Ancil residence. We start on the morning of December 30th. This is Nikki going to work at 7:37am she told Law enforcement that she had gone to the house to talk to Chad, make sure the furnace was working, and then told him she couldn't stay there. Do we know that Chad was there? We do know Chad was there. His truck was parked right outside. His truck was always parked there when he was at home. And that was his primary vehicle. So at 7:53am this is when Chad's leaving for work. Nikki says the furnace is still not working and her house is freezing cold. So after a full day's work, she returns to the Staybridge Suites where she's been staying. So this is Chad coming back from work at about 5.06pm on December 30. He had bowling league that night, so he stopped at the house for a little bit. And then here is Chad leaving for his bowling at 5.46pm on December 30 and he went bowling in Mandan at Midway Lanes. So far, none of what we've seen on the security camera is out of the ordinary or surprising. But Silver Nagel says What happens at 7pm that night was totally unexpected. A white Chevy Silverado pulling up to the driveway, which was not a vehicle we knew at the time, and a male and Nikki Ansel getting out of the vehicle, going into the garage. Nikki knew that Chad would be gone this particular evening, out bowling with friends. The vehicle remains running during the time they are in and out of the residence. Numerous times retrieving items, coming back and forth from the vehicle and loading the vehicle full of personal items. Silber Nagel's number one question, who is that man with Nikki going in and out of the house? I had obviously seen the video and I knew about that. There was another male in fact at that home, which was something Nikki had never brought up to me before. I basically had to pull everything from Nikki. So you just came out. My friend came out. So you, who was your friend? Oh, he's just a friend of your family though. Yeah. How long have you known him? Two. Almost two years now. Okay. Thanks to that phone call about the autopsy, Silbernagel knows Chad didn't kill himself but was in fact killed. So as he walks with Nikki through the crime scene, he needs to tread lightly. All of a sudden I know I'm talking to probably one of our likely suspects. So now I'm, I'm being extra careful. I'm getting more information as I can. He went back home. He got home in Canada now. Oh, yeah, he's a contractor. Oh, okay. So he goes all over now he's back. Who did she say Earl Howard was? She said initially was a friend of the family and that he and Chad were friends and that they were all friends together. A friend of the family, yes. Yeah. Didn't turn out that way. No, not throughout our investigation. More surveillance video and more secrets revealed. They seem to be hugging or kissing at Walmart, which is contrary to what Nikki has said. The new year starts January 2, 2020, and there's a report of a house fire, house fire just on the outskirts of Bismarck and a person died inside. We thought it's terrible, the new year. And then we hear, well, it may have been a suicide. So that makes it even more terrible, tragic, you know. Leading our coverage tonight, the ongoing investigation following a house fire in the capital city. And within a day or so we hear, well, police are really investigating it and that it may not be a suicide, but they won't say much more. Behind me is the home where 42 year old Chad Insel was found dead after a house fire. So our reporters are following this, saying, what's going on here? What's going on here? There are security cameras everywhere, even in the bowling alley. On the last night of his life, Chad walks out of here, past those cameras and into the dark, cold winter, having no idea what awaits him in the safety and comfort of his own home. It's an eerie feeling. You know you're seeing someone who's leaving the bowling alley, happy as he can be, on his way to his own death that he doesn't know. Thanks to video recovered from the home security system, police know while Chad is out bowling, Nikki is moving items out of the house and she has help from a man she identified as family friend, Earl Howard. One of the things that we had to do from the beginning of this was to establish what the relationship was between Nikki ensel and Earl Howard. So her story is that she owned a catering business and that Earl Howard had been a customer of hers. Earl Howard was from Ontario, came down here to work. Earl was born here. He's got family in Texas, and then he met a woman in Canada, ended up getting married to her. So he's married and has a child. She was nine at the time. Investigators asked Nikki whether she had a romantic relationship with Earl, and she denies this. However, there's evidence that that suggests otherwise. Most of what we know about their relationship comes from the records that we obtained from the devices that we were able to extract data from. We've got Nikki's phones. Following the tale of the tape, investigators obtained surveillance video from several locations, including Nikki's workplace, Community Options. Their footage is from the same day Chad is last seen at the bowling alley. This is actually December 30th at 11:48. That's Earl Howard's truck coming to Community Options where Nikki was working. He picked her up for lunch that day. And then here's her leaving Community Options with her big pink purse that identified her. In most of the surveillance video that we had throughout the investigation, we were able to track their financials and see where they were spending money, what time they were there. And one of them was a trip to Walmart. So here we are at the Walmart. How does this store factor in? Walmart's got an awesome security system. And they captured a lot of video, which includes Nikki and Earl. And what were they doing? Well, they were kissing on camera. Look at the footage. Earl is helping Nikki with the hoodie on her jacket. They're leaning in. They're kissing for the entire world to see. Not exactly trying to stay under the radar and not exactly family friends. The weekend before Chad is murdered, Nikki tells her husband she's going to be putting in some long hours here at work doing training. He won't be seeing much of her for a few days. But in truth, Nikki's not here. She's not even in North Dakota. Investigators say she's flown off to Minneapolis, staying at a hotel with Earl Howard. We found that Nikki had flown to Minnesota. Minneapolis On December 27, Earl had driven from Canada. They spent the night in Minneapolis. She was telling Chad that she was really busy with trainings and was going to be out late and working really hard with new things that are coming along in her job. She's over spending time with Earl. Chad was saying, you know, very nice, sweet things like hope you have a great time at training. You're always successful. At what you do, babe. You know, he sends her this encouraging message that seems to be the complete antithesis of someone who is abusive or violent. Investigators say after Nikki got back from that trip to Minneapolis, she stayed here in room 305 of the Bismarck Staybridge Suites. Nikki tells investigators that she couldn't stay in the house with Chad anymore because the furnace was broken. She wanted to go stay in the hotel. But in actuality, Nikki and Earl arrived at the hotel together. So this is Statebridge Hotel Suites, which is how far away? You know, the house isn't very far away. I mean, it's probably within five to ten miles. Very convenient. Very. Investigators execute search warrants. They access room registration records. They get key swipes showing when a room door was opened. And of course, they get their hands on more surveillance video. They were staying here in 305. Yes. Did she book this room? She did not. Who did? Mr. Earl Howard did. The wild thing is that so much of it was caught on camera. Exactly. Not very smart. No, not at all. We have an autopsy that there's a homicide. We have this male figure we've identified as Earl. And we need to talk with Nikki again. We need to get the rest of the details. Silber Nagle reaches out to Nikki, asking her to come down to the station so he can finalize his reports. So it was kind of decided since I had had a rapport with Nikki, that I should probably do the interview. Well, Nikki, like I said, this is what I'm gonna finish my report off with. Thank you. I started bringing up Earl and when she had been to the house and what time she had talked to Chad. Her story started changing or anything? No. We now determine it's time to turn up the heat. You've been lying to me the whole time, Nikki. You have. You admitted. Did you lie to me of this? No, that's not true. Nikki. Investigators say Nikki is lying. But will Earl tell them the truth? We're about to hear his side of the story for the very first time. Was there any plan of yours to do Chad any kind of harm? This can be the coldest place on earth. If you're going to commit a crime in this weather, you have to be prepared to deal with the elements. There's possible murder, possible arson, possible love triangle. Chad Insel was found dead after a house fire on January 2nd. I need to know why Chad hammered like Nikki. We've got this evidence. You are lying to us. You can sniff out crazy eventually. She does. Look. See what? She's all there all the time. This plot just thickens as time goes on. Investigators are really curious about this man Nikki is spending so much time with. Who did she say Earl Howard was? Was a friend of the family. Was it you or was it girl? This is the famous kiss cam. It is. Kissing is one thing. Killing is quite another. Now Nikki Sue Ensel speaking publicly for the very first time about the murder of her husband Chad. The snow comes down, it'll cover the roads, cover everything. This is Bismarck in winter. White and cold, very cold. It's actually 14 degrees below zero. It's beautiful, but dangerous. The snow is deep. It blankets everything. There's nothing that doesn't get covered by snow. But some things just can't be covered up. In a small room in the sheriff's offices in the Burley county courthouse, investigators question Nikki Ensel about the death of her husband, Chad. Nikki, Chad was killed. Chad was murdered. Sergeant Silbernagel did develop really good rapport with Nikki Ansel. In fact, she was very open with him. Why would anybody choose? I don't know, Nikki, but that's what I want to find out. So why. Why was. Why would that happen to Chad? In the interview, Nikki, Becky repeats a lot that she doesn't know what happened. We went through the basic main story again, and I heard a lot of the same repeats. The excessive amount of drinking, the abuse. How much was he drinking? Casey crowd case of pepper 12amonth. Oh, my gosh. All this alcohol usage that Chad was. Was abusive and a heavy drinker. All the investigation never showed any of that. At times, Nikki is very quiet in this interview. She's speaking almost in a whisper. You can hardly decipher what she's saying. I need to know why Chad was murdered. Why didn't you up here? I just wanted to run. Investigators are really curious about this man Nikki is spending so much time with. They keep showing up on security cameras together at a jewelry store, Walmart, a hotel, and at Chad and Nikki's house. And Nikki tells them his name is Earl Howard. So where are we going here? Here. This is the home of the Chad Insel murder. This is where she told me about Earl Howard, how she had come to the scene with him to retrieve some of her items because he knew of the abuse. Nikki, did you have anything to do with Chad's death? No. That's a terrible thing to do. Okay. Do. Do. Do you know if Earl would have anything to do? No, he wouldn't. With chad's dad? No. 6 hours and 45 minutes was the length of that interview, and it involved Sergeant Silbernagel and then one of the BCI investigators, Joe Ahrens as well. Thank you. This is. This is Joe Ahrens. Hi. He's with Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Hello. And I have to notice him at that point. I think the interview had been going on for about an hour, an hour and a half, and it really wasn't getting anywhere. I know you've been talking to him and told him some things. Some of that I can tell you right now is not true. He comes and plays a dad coffin just right in her face, saying, nikki, we've got this evidence. You are lying to us. So what was it Earl doing in North Dakota? He's coming here to. He's got a couple project manager jobs that he's coming to scout and all that, so. Okay. All right. And Chad knows Earl. Okay. Are they friends? They've met. They've hung out. Her story is that Earl happened to be in town for some sort of job he was doing and that the furnace at their house wasn't working. Working. She then decided she was going to go and stay in a hotel at the Staybridge here in Bismarck with Earl until the furnace was fixed. What did Chad think of you going and staying in a hotel room with Earl? Chad didn't think anything of that, really. I understand being friends with him, but friends to the point where your husband is staying at home and you're staying in a hotel room with this other man? That doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, I think he's, you know, super nice person. He thinks that, you know, I'm super beautiful and, you know, it's. I do. I. You know, I like hanging out with him. You know, I miss him when he's not around. I love him. I mean, I love when he gets together. I love when he comes to town. So is it a romantic relationship? I guess that's what I'm asking. No. Okay. No, not really. Is it? I. I do. I. I love Chad. The police believe that Chad Ensel was killed on December 31, probably in the early morning hours. Investigators want to know what were Nikki and Earl up to in that critical time period when they believe that Chad was shot. So December 31st at 1:02am we see Nikki and Earl leaving the hotel about to commit the murder. Correct? That's what we believe. And then shortly after that, they know that someone entered the house. They don't know who because the camera was set to privacy mode, but they know that the house was accessed by someone Someone had shut off the camera at the Ensel home, but the security system door sensors were still working, including the one on the door leading from the garage into the house. That door was opened at 1:11am and it didn't close again until 2:58am so they were in the house for almost two hours. She said that she had just went out there to get some medications, get my meds. But you said that you keep your meds in your purse. Okay? So I said, okay, but you were there for an hour and 40 minutes. So what were you doing for an hour and 40 minutes? Because you weren't looking for a medication for an hour and 40 minutes. And she said then she did the dishes. That's when she came up with some man was in the basement and had come up. Up. She says that on the night Chad was murdered, there was someone else in the house. Could the cops have their entire love triangle theory backwards? Someone in the house? So many. What? Someone in the house. I don't know what happened. I don't honestly know what happened. I don't know. The interrogation has been going on for hours, and it's all about her and Earl Howard in the home. She was just lying. Lie after lie. I had no doubts in my mind she had played an active role in Chad's death. I just remember Nikki, she was thinking through her story, like, where could she go next with it. All of a sudden, the first line of lies she was giving wasn't working. So now she's going to come up with another scenario. She says that she was at the house to retrieve some items. And while she was at the house, there was a mystery man in the house with Chad. There's a third person that suddenly appears in the house. So many what? Someone's in the house and the detectives are what? A third person? He called Chad honey. She was basically trying to imply that this was a romantic relationship that Chad had with this unknown male. Why did you never tell me this before? Want to. I understand dignity, but there's nothing dignity about what happened to Chad. What did he look like? I would say mid-40s, spiked hair, spiky hair, no glasses, very nice teeth. Super nice. At one point, she even asks the investigators to stand up, stand up, because she's trying to describe him and gauge his height. And so she wants to see how tall the investigators are, comparatively speaking, to this man. Okay. And so they gave her a piece of paper and had her draw a picture of this person. It was kind of a ridiculous picture, but she so badly wanted Me to believe that there was another person, even though it was obviously not true. A casual observer watching this thing would be going, come on, are you kidding me? It was a figment of her imagination. Okay, I'm ready to come. Nikki keeps talking, finally revealing some of what. What investigators believe really happened in that house. Tell me what it is you want to say. Her version is that they went into the home at 1 o' clock in the morning, and Chad and Earl get into an argument. And then what? They argued. And then what? And. And basically she left, went outside. I went out and turned the car and I went in. True. And Earl stayed inside and then came out a couple minutes later and said that Chad was no longer alive and that Earl and Chad had gotten into a fight over a gun. And that Chad had been shot. Happened. And what did Earl say that way? Earl said he's not alive. And then what? Anybody might not be alive. I don't know for sure. He's a l. Earl Howard did the killing, she said, back and forth. And he said he had a lot of things. How much of that is the truth? We can't corroborate who actually pulled the trigger or where anybody was physically standing within the house when the shots were fired. But we do know that that's when Chad was shot and killed. And we do know one of them is the one that did it. And. And then later on, Earl came and tried to burn the house down. Who came back to set the fire. From I don't know to Earl did it. In the eyes of investigators, Nikki Ensel's story of innocence just melts away. After all of that, investigators are taken aback by a request from Nikki. Chad's funeral was the next day, and she asked us if she was going to be able to go to the funeral. And we told her no, she wouldn't be attending that funeral. We said, no, you're going to just. They had asked her to write out a detailed statement about what happened. And at the end of the interview, she was angry that she was being arrested. Hello. So she grabs her written statement and attempts to tear it up. So I, in order to preserve evidence, intervened with Nikki and ripped the statement out of her hand. That was her. And we were starting to see the real Nikki. Two days later, authorities say Nikki Ansel asks investigators to come see her in jail. Was it you or was it Earl who came up with this whole scenario? Because I know what I'm doing. She states that Earl did. So she turned on her conspirator. Whether it was true or not, I don't know. And we filed charges on both her and Earl Howard and issued arrest warrants for him. The shotgun killing, the fires, the COVID up. Nikki blames it all on Earl. But what does Earl say about who pulled the trigger? And more importantly, where is Earl? The boyfriend is on the run somewhere and an arrest warrants out for him. Burley county has one suspect now in custody. They have identified another person of interest. They're currently working on tracking them down for questioning. And they are asking for your help. Authorities are searching for a man they say killed Chad Ansel of Bismarck with a shotgun. Behind me is the home where 42 year old Chad Ensel was found dead after a house fire on January 2nd. Authorities are looking for 41 year old Earl Howard. Howard is from Bellwood, Ontario in Canada. There's possible love triangle, there's possible murder, possible arson to cover up the murder. Nikki Ensel jailed on conspiracy charges. Her friend Earl, a wanted man. We charged Earl Howard with those counts along with a count of murder and a count of arson and issued arrest warrants for him. And then the boyfriend is on the run somewhere and an arrest warrants out for him. People were going, what's going on here? We started the process to get everything in place so that Canada could arrest him and we could extradite him back to the United States. In tonight's top story, a man wanted for murder is caught. Earl Roy Howard is a Canadian citizen accused of helping a Bismarck woman kill her husband. Earl drives to the border of the US and Canada, Port Huron, Michigan and actually turns himself in to U.S. border Patrol. 41 year old Howard was arrested by the U.S. customs and Border Patrol in connection with the fire and Ensel's death. I then flew into Detroit and made my way to Port Huron along with Special Agent Mike Mees from the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. In a Michigan police station, Sergeant Aaron Silbernagel and Special Agent Mike Mees come face to face with someone they've only seen on surveillance cameras. Earl Howard. If you want to have a seat, I'm Mike Meese with the Attorney General's office out of the state of North Dakota. Okay, this is strictly your opportunity to help yourself. Tell us what happened. I need a lawyer. He had the opportunity right then and there to give us his side of the story and he denied so and requested an attorney. Earl Roy Howard was handed five charges in a Burleigh county courtroom this morning, including murder and arson. Earl Howard gets his attorneys and as you can see in this video obtained by 2020. He eventually gives authorities his version of events leading to the murder of Chad. It started off with cookies. She was a baker. I ordered some cookies from her because why not? Is it fair to say that eventually your guys relationship became romantic? Yes. Earl says that Nikki tells him Chad is abusing her. So he says he's trying to help her move to Texas to get away. What were your intentions regarding her after she left Chad? I was going to break it all. So you weren't gonna leave her wife, your wife, and move her to Texas? No, ma'. Am. Why was that? Had anything happened to change your relationship with her? You can sniff out crazy eventually. She doesn't seem like she's all there all the time. So who shot Chad Ensel? Earl says he was there, but it wasn't him. He says he and Nikki returned to the house. Chad was still up. He was in the living room watching tv. It was cordial at that time. It didn't turn bad for a bit. It turned ugly. By the time I said, she's leaving you. He had told Chad that Nikki was leaving Chad. And he said Chad became confrontational and kicked him out of the house. We had words. He asked me to leave his or face police. I left. I sat in her car. Earl Howard, who's supposedly rescuing Nikki Ansel, leaves her alone with her alleged abuser while he sits in the car and waits. She came back out after that. We left. On the way back to the hotel. She said, she shot you, Chad. I said, okay, I'll deal with it. Up until that point, was there any plan of yours to do Chad any kind of harm? No. Just for any evidence or anything like that? Not at that time. Earl's story was Nikki had no idea he was going to tamper with the scene or set the fire. And he had no idea Nikki was going to kill Chad. She didn't ask for help. She just said, I shot him. And I told her I'd take care. Later that day, Earl says he returns to the house to burn the evidence, including Chad Ensel's body. I went up, grab the propane heater, put it next to the bedspread and lit it, spread the flatter fluid around, had went up, set it on fire. I walked out. Now, Earl denies he set the second fire in the basement. It is odd because we can place him in the basement. Remember that piece of a Marlboro cigarette pack found near the furnace? It was photographed later because I brought it up after seeing video from the scene of Earl Howard smoking. Chad doesn't smoke cigarettes. Nikki doesn't smoke cigarettes. Nobody smokes cigarettes. The only person who smokes is Earl. What types of cigarettes do you like to smoke? Marlboro. What we believe happened is that he was looking for something to start on fire and used his cigarette case. Today, opening statements are expected in the trial of a Bismarck woman accused in the death of her husband three years ago. The image of Nikki changes dramatically with the evidence revealed piece by piece with the interviews and then with those videos. It's like you're a fly on the wall to this crime that's happening over several days. It's just amazing that this plot just thickens as time goes on. Nikki has a tattoo. One life, one love. In a way that could become her prophecy. The man she says she loved is dead. She's about to face trial. If convicted, she's looking at a life sentence. Chad Ensel was found dead of a gunshot wound in January of 2020 after a fire at the home. 43 year old Earl Howard of Ontario and Nikki Sue Ensel were charged in the death of the woman's husband. Nikki sue is a kid accused of conspiracy to commit murder. Earl Howard is also charged with conspiracy in the case and what prosecutors say was a love triangle with plans to cash in on a life insurance policy. What in the world was Earl Howard thinking? Did Nikki approach him with the idea, hey listen, I want to kill my husband, collect the insurance, we'll burn down the house, can you help me? Our plan was to try them together because a lot of the evidence intertwined. But there won't be a trial for Earl Howard. He won't have to face any jury because he takes a plea deal without admitting that he pulled the trigger. Earl Howard pled guilty not to murder, but conspiracy to commit murder. Also conspiracy to tamper with evidence, conspiracy to commit arson and arson. New this morning, a Canadian man, 43 year old Earl Howard has been sentenced to serve at least 21 years in prison as part of an agreement to plead guilty. That leaves Nikki to face the music. And in September 2022, Nikki Ensel goes on trial here at the Burley county courthouse for conspiracy to commit murder. The case set for trial today is the state of North Dakota versus Nikki Sue Melissa Insel. Ms. Lawyer, are you ready for your opening statement? You may proceed. Opening statements come from the state. Chad Ensel was shot twice with a shotgun and left dead in the home. Then Nikki's state appointed defense attorney Thomas Glass, a well respected trial lawyer surprises some court watchers. Defense opening statement. I'll defer to a Later date. Your honor, if you'd like to do an opening statement. No. All right. Thank you. He's gonna defer. No opening statement. In all of my years of criminal trial coverage, I have not seen an attorney elect not to make an opening statement. Well, okay, maybe he's got a strategy there that he's not gonna show his head. Nikki's attorney declined to comment for our story. Ms. Lawyer, you may call your first witness when you're ready. With that, the prosecution is off and running, calling more than 40 witnesses. Then I proceeded to see a body laying on the floor. The potential indicators of maybe an ignitable liquid having been put on the bed and potentially on the floor. Shotgun wounds to the head. The prosecutor Julie lawyer shows the jury more than 300 exhibits, including some of Nikki's interrogation. I would say Nikki Ensel never testified at her trial, but she did, and that was the police interrogation. Are we about done lying? We see her descent into this excuse, this happened, or maybe this or maybe that. It's basically a confession. What's the biggest mistake you can make in a murder plot? Insurance. Right. Someone buys a policy, and the next thing you know, their loved one is a goner. Dam giveaway. Now, Nikki and Earl wouldn't make that mistake, would they? On December 26, Nikki took out a rental insurance policy that was effective December 27th. Just days before Chad was killed. Nikki Ensel also sent Earl Howard proof that she had purchased renters insurance. There's absolutely no reason for Earl Howard to know about renters insurance at a place he's not living, except for showing that the insurance is in place. The house can be burned down. Now, please raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to help you God, I do. Thank you. One of Chad Ensel's bowling buddies, Kent Hindley, testifies. I can still see the smile on his face. Sorry I missed him. He was just such a great person. Turns out Kent Highley was also an insurance agent. Did you ever sell Chad insurance? I did. Do you know if Mickey was involved in that or if you had meetings jointly with the two of them? We did. Chad did have a couple of life insurance policies that he had taken out in 2018 after he was married to Nikki. One was $500,000 payout. The other was $100,000 payout. Who was supposed to be the primary beneficiary? His wife Nikki. Now trial watchers are on the edge of their collective seats, anticipating a star witness. Earl Howard. Everybody who's following this is thinking. Aha. Earl's gonna be that witness at the trial against Dinky. Then we get to the point where the state is called its final witness. For the record, the state would rest with that witness. Jonathan? No, Earl Howard. He was on the witness list. Why didn't they call him? Typically, when you make a plea deal, you expect that person to testify. In this case against the co conspirator. That didn't happen. Why not? Because that murder count was still hanging out there and nobody had been charged with that. If he got on the stand and testified and was asked about that, he could have pled the fifth. Mr. Glass, how will Ms. Insull proceed? Now the defense. Now we're gonna see what the grand plan is. Your Honor, this defense will not be calling any witnesses. The defense rests. What? No opening statement? No defense, nothing? What kind of strategy is that? Now it's the right of every person. You know, you don't have to put on a defense in court. It's up to the state to saddle with the burden of proof to prove that you did this. Defense attorney Thomas Glass's closing argument focuses almost entirely on the conspicuous absence of Earl Howard. They didn't think it was important to bring him into court as an alleged co conspirator. Why? Why? And where is Earl Howard? Where's the other person in this crime? Why? Raises doubt, reasonable doubt. People were expecting the verdict to take a day or so. I've been informed that the jury has reached a verdict. The verdict is next. And in a 2020 exclusive interview, Nikki Ensel makes her first surprising public comments about the death of her husband. Nikki, did you shoot your husband? Check. I've been informed that the jury has reached a verdict. We had just gotten home and our victim advocate coordinator called and said there's a verdict. Is this a unanimous verdict by the jury? Yes, it is. I told my mom we jumped back in the car, But unfortunately they weren't able to wait for my mom and I to get back to the courthouse. As to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, we find the defendant Nikki Sue Melissa Inso guilty. Goes to the jury. What happens two hours later? As to the charge of conspiracy to commit arson, we find the defendant guilty. Nick Ansel is guilty on all three charges. Conspiracy to commit murder. Conspiracy to commit arson. Conspiracy to tamper with evidence. Oh, I think everybody was able to breathe a sigh of relief. It was a. It was a good day. It was a bittersweet, sweet day, of course, but it was good. We still had many questions for Nikki Ansel So while I was in Bismarck, I drove over to the county jail for a visit. All right. We tried to go and see if. We'll talk to Nikki sue, see what she has to say, see if she'll give us an interview after we talk off camera. Nikki agrees to an interview. Now, Nikki Sue Ensel speaking publicly for the very first time about the murder of her husband, Chad. Hello, Nikki. Where are we right now? Nikki, how did you end up here? Long journey. Some days I want to know myself. The charges I have are conspiracy charges, which means there has to be a plan. And I'm still waiting for the prosecution to show me where the plan is. Nikki, did you shoot your husband Chad? No. No. Did you plan for Earl to shoot Chad? No. Did you set either of the fires inside that house? No. And if you didn't, then who did? I don't know. I'm not a fire person. Fire has never been my thing. Did you know those fires were going to be set? No. Not only did I lose my husband, I and my boys lost our stuff, but they lost Chad, too. I mean, yeah, and that's what I said. I lost. Not only did I lose my husband, I lost all of our memories. Investigators believe that Nikki persuaded Earl to kill for her, that she had told a story about Chad being a physically abusive husband. How do you feel about Chad's death? Saddens me. I'm not gonna say it doesn't. Yes, it does. It bothers me. Were you having an affair with Errol? No. Like I said, if that would have been my type, which. Not my type. Not my type. Investigators say photos and messages on Nikki and Earl's phones tell quite a different story. We found some very racy text messages between the two of them. Very intimate, very sexual and personal messages. This is the famous kiss cam. It is. There you are at Walmart on camera, kissing him. I didn't see no kiss given at all. Yeah, we saw it. And you're smooching away there. I don't remember seeing this. Which given. So who should people believe? You or their lying eyes? Have I kissed many friends on the cheek? Have I kissed my kids on the cheek? Have I kissed exes on the cheek? Yeah. Kissing is one thing. Killing is quite another. Authorities say Nikki and Earl's conspiracy to murder Chad and burned down the house included a bizarre plan to help fuel the fire. A day or two before the homicide, Earl had purchased an oxygen acetylene torch kit. Law enforcement. When they were at the house on January 2, they did notice that there was this torch kit in the garage and found that the tanks were both open so as to fill that space with iron, oxygen and acetylene, which would have been extremely combustible. We realized that this might have been another tool being planned to use to actually blow that house up. The big question is, who killed Chad? Your husband, Right? Who all knew where we lived? John, Was it Earl? Can you say it was earl who killed him? Pull that trigger. I can't do that for 100%. I. I wasn't there. When did you hear the gunshots? That's not what police say Nikki told them. They say she finally admitted she was there at the house and heard the gunshots. This man looks like a. But now she tells me she was my miles away, back at the hotel. I never left that whole area. There's no doubt about it. Not lying about it. Had my good old handy dandy apple watch on. Innocently taking a walk in the middle of the night in the dead of winter in bismarck, north Dakota. I guess it's hard to know which story to believe. My story changes nine times. It sounds like it. Like I said, my story changes so many different times that none of them are really consistent. Nikki, that's the problem. You were convicted, found guilty. Now you're going to be sentenced. What do you expect to happen at that sentencing? I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I absolutely plan to be there for the sentencing. I want her to see that Chad has family and support here, that she needs to go away. I can't imagine two more bumbling criminals trying to commit a crime. And they do it very poorly. They're terrible criminals. Everything they tried to do in this scheme of theirs failed miserably. Nikki ensel, a week away from her 42nd birthday, nearly alone in courtroom 100 of the Burley county courthouse, Waiting for her attorney, the prosecutor and the judge who will sentence her for conspiring to murder her husband and other crimes. Thank you. Please be seated. Think about it. Nikki ensel was hoping to have her freedom. Freedom from Chad. Freedom with her new boyfriend or lover. Freedom to go to Texas. Freedom to have the money to do all these things. And right now, what does she have? She is facing life behind bars. Alone. Good afternoon. The court will open the record. In the state of North Dakota vs Nikki Sue Melissa insel. First, Chad's mother and sister have their say. The hurt and the pain at the loss of my son Chad is unbearable. It is a wound that will never heal. Your actions have caused a good man his life and have forever fractured my family. And no parent should ever have to bury their child. Justice has been done. And I know I speak for a lot of people that wants you to rot in eternity where you will no longer be able to hurt anybody again. Don't like to call any one of us a victim because I refuse to give her that kind of power over us. But she altered our lives, all of us, for the rest of our lives. You know, she gave Arabia a life sentence. There's nothing that can make any of us right. No matter how much jail time she gets. When it's her turn to speak, Nikki talks about the impact of jail and a long prison sentence on her and her two sons. Nobody knows the loss I live every single day, not just with Chad, but with the loss of my voice. I don't have my voice. I don't have anybody else. He could sentence Nikki to prison forever. Instead, Judge Douglas Barr, soon to be elevated to the state supreme court, seasons justice with mercy. There's the possibility that Lucinso may be able to be released down the road and be able to be a productive member of society. He sentences Nikki to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The possibility, yes. But by the time Nikki is eligible, she'll be a woman in her 70s. Is there a moral to the story? You know, I don't know. Greed. In one word, I'd say greed. She wanted the money. Greed. And she thought she was truly smarter than everybody else in the room. She thought she could get away with it. She thought nobody would know. Chad lost his life because these two people wanted to run off together and make money off the deal so that they could start a new life. They were just thinking it would be an easy thing to kill somebody, collect the money and leave and nobody would be the wiser. That's sad. How will you remember him as being a good, good friend? I mean, he really was. He was just that, that guy everybody liked. He'll be missed for a long time. And Nikki Ansel tells us that she plans to appeal her verdict. Her co conspirator Earl Howard is expected to be released from prison in the year 2040. He turned down her requests for an interview. That is our program for tonight. Thank you for watching. I'm David Muir. And from all of us here at 2020 in ABC News, good night. Fire and ash has arrived. I am the fire. Get your 3D tickets now for the greatest chapter of the biggest saga in history. Whatever happens, protect this family. Critics rave. It's by far the best Avatar movie. If your father and I do not return, you go as far and as fast as you can. Movies don't get any bigger than this. Avatar Fire and ash. Rated PG 13. Now playing.