Murder in the Moonlight - Ep. 1: In Cold Blood

Summary

Dateline Originals: Murder in the Moonlight - Episode 1: In Cold Blood

Release Date: April 30, 2025

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Introduction and Setting

In the haunting opening of Dateline Originals' "Murder in the Moonlight - Episode 1: In Cold Blood," host Keith Morrison paints a vivid picture of the desolate Nebraska plains under the pale light of a nearly full moon. Morrison sets the scene at [00:03], describing how the moon "spread across the great dark Nebraska plains" and how a lone pickup truck approaches an old farmhouse, setting the stage for a story steeped in fear and mystery.

The Stock Family Background

The episode delves into the life of the Stock family, entrenched in the small town of Murdoch, Nebraska. Murdoch, with its roots as a railroad stop in the late 1800s, embodies the quintessential American small town. The Stocks, comprising Charmin (Charman) Stock and her husband Wayne, were the fifth generation to cultivate the fertile land, running the successful Stock Hay and Grain Company. Their farm spanned a thousand acres, symbolizing their deep connection to the land and their role as pillars of the community.

Charman, described as "generous and steady" ([05:28] Andy Stock), balanced her responsibilities as a homemaker with a 17-year stint as a teacher's aide, embodying the family's commitment to hard work and community service. Their two sons, Steve (38) and Andy (27), were raised with strong values, instilled by parents who emphasized responsibility and moral integrity. Steve recalls, “[07:02]...live life to the fullest. Just live life,” reflecting the family's ethos.

The Fateful Easter Sunday

April 16, 2006, marked a seemingly ordinary Easter Sunday on the Stock family farm. The day was filled with typical festivities, including an Easter egg hunt that brought together grandkids, nieces, and nephews. Charman meticulously prepared individual Easter baskets for each child, showcasing her dedication to family traditions ([04:37] Keith Morrison).

However, there was tension beneath the surface. Andy Stock, the younger son, had chosen to spend Easter with his future in-laws, leaving behind his puppy with his parents. As Andy explains, “[07:29]...he missed the party. But he left his young puppy with his parents for the day. He said he'd pick up the dog,” hinting at underlying family dynamics that would later surface.

Discovery of the Murder

The tranquility was shattered when Andy returned home late that night to collect his puppy. At around [08:18], Andy recounts his approach to the farmhouse, noting the strange behavior of his father's pickup truck parked inside the shop. His unease grew as he noticed discrepancies like the open back door and the absence of morning routines, such as making coffee ([09:31] Keith Morrison).

As Andy ventured upstairs, he was met with a horrifying scene: blood on the walls and the lifeless bodies of his parents. “I saw dad laying there on the floor. It was a horrible thing,” Steve Stock reveals ([12:32]). Charman was found holding a telephone, as if she had been desperate to call for help before being killed ([14:28] Keith Morrison).

Investigation Begins

Cass County Sheriff initiated the investigation, quickly understanding the gravity of the situation. Steve Stock notes, “[15:11]...this is an unsolved homicide. Whether it's somebody local or somebody from another town, we don't know at this time.” Andy, being the last person to see his parents alive, became an immediate person of interest ([16:55] Steve Stock).

Investigators, led by David Cofode, the head of the crime scene investigation squad from Douglas County, faced a brutal and complex scene. Cofode describes it as, “[18:01]...one of the worst I've ever seen,” emphasizing the severity of the crime ([18:06]).

Breakthroughs and Clues

The investigation uncovered critical evidence pointing towards multiple assailants. Blood pattern analysis revealed a "void area at the top of the steps," suggesting the presence of a second shooter who was actively blocking the blood spatter ([20:23] David Cofode). Additional clues included an unusual shoe print near the front door, a marijuana pipe, and a flashlight with blood traces ([21:03] and [21:18]).

A breakthrough came when a newspaper carrier reported seeing a suspicious car parked near the Stock farm shortly before the murders and then speeding away later that night. The car, a tan or light brown four-door sedan, became a key piece of evidence linking the suspects to the crime scene ([21:43] Keith Morrison).

Despite the extensive evidence, the motive remained elusive. No valuables were stolen, and even the safe in the bedroom was untouched, deepening the mystery surrounding the murders.

Toward an Arrest

As the investigation progressed, tensions within the Stock family surfaced. Steve Stock reveals, “[24:43] Andy, however, did not get to leave. He was the last to see his parents alive, which made him, the way these things go, at the very least, a person of interest.”

However, a week later, the evidence pointed towards a family member, culminating in an arrest and confession. This development highlights the intricate dynamics and secrets within the Stock family that ultimately led to the tragic outcome.

Conclusion and Teaser for Future Episodes

"Murder in the Moonlight - Episode 1: In Cold Blood" concludes by setting the stage for future episodes, promising to unravel the complex relationships and hidden motives that led to the Stock family's demise. As Steve Stock reflects, “[24:43]...it's like looking for a needle in a haystack,” hinting at the deep-seated conflicts that would soon come to light.

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Notable Quotes:

• Keith Morrison [00:03]: “This is a story about fear.”
• Andy Stock [02:20]: “I'm going to do my level best to hang your ass on the highest tree.”
• Steve Stock [05:48]: “They were loving parents. I remember, you know, both of them just always saying, live life to the fullest. Just live life.”
• David Cofode [18:34]: “It was very much an execution. And there was a lot of blood, impact spatter, high velocity spatter fragments.”
• Steve Stock [24:43]: “Remember hearing in this house was bang, bang, bang, bang. Everything clicked. You knew exactly what the case was at that point.”

Production Credits

Murder in the Moonlight is a production of Dateline and NBC News, with Shane Bishop as producer. The team includes audio editors Brian Drew, Kelly Laudeen, Bruce Berger, Marshall Housefeld, and Candace Goldman; field producer Brittany Morris; program coordinator Leslie Grossman; co-executive producer Adam Gorfin; executive producer Paul Ryan; senior executive producer Liz Cole; and head of audio production Bryson Barnes. Sound mixing was handled by Bob Mallory and Katie Lau from NBC News.

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Transcript

[Keith Morrison]

It was late, past midnight. The moon was nearly full and its pale ghost light spread across the great dark Nebraska plains, not quite enough to see much of anything. The moon had no competition, not out here, so far from the polluting light of a city or town of any size. A few farm buildings caught in the muted glow through black moon shadows. And all around was silence, almost. It was a pickup truck by the sound of it, tires crunching over gravel, headlights poking at the night along the country road as if the driver was looking for something. And there it was, rising out of the dark. A farmhouse. The pickup slowed down, turned in. The driver looked at his companion. This was the place. They gathered up their tools, got out gently, gently, shut the truck's doors and walked across the yard. It was a big two story place, old, established. Even in the moonlight it showed off a little like people cared about this house, about appearances. Was anyone home? Maybe, maybe not. No sign of life. No movement inside. No dog barked. One of them made a decision. They would not enter through the front door as family would. But in quick order they found a window, unlocked. So here it was, the way inside. No turning back now. This is a story about fear.

[Andy Stock]

I was sitting up in bed and I said, andy, should I be shaking? And he said, that's normal.

[Keith Morrison]

The shock, the fight, flight or freeze kind of fear that grabs you by the throat. So there was a real genuine itching your back that somebody was going to come after you, come after me, come after my family. And it's a story about certainty.

[Steve Stock]

And I'm going to do my level best to hang your ass on the.

[Keith Morrison]

Highest tree, certainty, right or wrong, I know what happened and no one will believe me. And it's about a secret hidden far, far away and all but forgotten. A secret that waited for the one who could find the golden key. I'm Keith Morrison and this is dateline's newest podcast, Murder in the Moonlight, Episode one In Cold Blood. Less than an hour south of Omaha, the prairie takes on a sweet, rolling pitch as it tucks into a Nebraska corner. Here the rich black topsoil has grown not only untold bushels of corn and soybeans and stands of alfalfa, but also generations of solid and faithful Americans, a tiny remnant of whom fewer than 300 or so planted themselves in a small town called Murdoch, sort of place where heads turn when a stranger drives by. Murdoch began, as did many towns like it in the late 1800s, as a stop on the railroad when the tracks of the old Chicago, Rock island and Pacific were extended to this very spot. If you've ever gotten off the interstate and driven America's blue highways, those roads less traveled, you've surely passed through many towns, just like Murdoch, Nebraska. The railroad is still there, of course, with an elevator and water tower. Murdoch skyline. Here, junior and senior high school share the same building, and there are more houses of worship than taverns, though the bar stools are about as worn as the church pews a few miles away. This way and then that, down the gravel road outside Murdock, in a big farmyard. On one particular Sunday, there was an Easter egg hunt, just like there was every year. That year was 2, 2006, the 16th day of April.

[Andy Stock]

The grandkids ran around their yard. It was Grandma and Papa's yard, or.

[Keith Morrison]

Mom and dad to Tammy, who was 30 years old by then and brought her own son, of course, like always, to join the many grandkids and nieces and nephews.

[Andy Stock]

They found their Easter eggs. They found their Easter baskets. Mom always made every individual Easter basket special to that child.

[Keith Morrison]

Mom was Charmin Stock. Her husband Wayne was Dad. They were the fifth generation of Stocks to work this land, the lifeblood from which their blessings sprang. The land. Their land was as holy to them as any religious relic or sacred chalice could ever be. Charman was 55, Wayne 58. And they were generous and steady and always there for their children, the kind of people for whom the phrase salt of the earth seemed perfect.

[Andy Stock]

Don't think they ever missed a game of any of ours. Dad would always stop farming just to be at a game. Similar with mom.

[Keith Morrison]

The stalks also had two sons. Steve, the tall and quiet one, was 38 back then, and Andy, the youngest, sturdy baby faced, was 27. This is Andy.

[Steve Stock]

They were loving parents. I remember, you know, both of them just always saying, live life to the fullest. Just live life. And they did, every day.

[Keith Morrison]

Wayne Stock dad had a degree in building construction. He was a former member of the National Guard. He and Charman ran the Stock Hay and Grain Company and a very successful business it was. The Stocks owned a thousand acres of land along with rental property. Family was everything to Charman Stock. Everything. She stayed home when the kids were little, but when the youngest went to kindergarten, she took a job as a teacher's aide at their country school. Did it for 17 years until it was time to take care of her own elderly mother. These are busy people.

[Andy Stock]

Very. They touched the lives of so many people.

[Keith Morrison]

They were good examples to all of how to live moral, godly lives with high standards.

[Steve Stock]

One thing I always Heard from mom was take responsibility for your actions, be responsible.

[Andy Stock]

She would praise you and just keep pushing you to do better. She always wanted us to be better people.

[Keith Morrison]

And that included keeping the house meticulously clean for company, as she did on that Easter Sunday, their last day on this earth, when they went to church and then put on a big family dinner. And the highlight of it all, the Easter egg hunt for the grandkids. This is their son, Steve. At least we got that one day.

[Andy Stock]

My kids remember, they talk about it all the time.

[Keith Morrison]

I suppose as the last days go, that wouldn't be a bad one. No, it wasn't asept. Well, except their youngest wasn't there. Not that Andy didn't love the farm and its rituals much as any of them. In fact, they all figured he'd be the one to take over the place one day. But that Easter Sunday he'd agreed to spend the day with his future in laws and so he missed the party. But he left his young puppy with his parents for the day. He said he'd pick up the dog.

[Steve Stock]

That night, called mom and Dad. I want to say about nine, nine o'clock that night, I'm all the way home and so I'm gonna come get the dog and get him out of your hair for, for a little while.

[Keith Morrison]

It was past dark when Andy pulled up to the old farmhouse to pick up his dog.

[Steve Stock]

So came in about, I want to say, 9:30, 10:00 if I recall that night. And they met me on the deck on the back of the house and we talked about Easter and what they did and played with the dog a little bit. And dad and I were gonna start planting corn the next day and so we talked about the farm a little bit and they each gave me a hug and I went home.

[Keith Morrison]

As you remember that moment, it makes you feel pretty emotional, doesn't it?

[Steve Stock]

Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

The next morning, Andy drove the half mile from his place back to his parents farm, ready to go to work. Spring planting awaited.

[Steve Stock]

I drove in and I went in the shop on the farm and dad's pickup was there, which I thought was a little bit strange. Normally he went to the post office about 9:00 every day. So I thought, well, you know, maybe he's not, not gone yet. Or maybe he took mom's car to put gas in it for her for the day.

[Keith Morrison]

Confusing. He walked across the farmyard to the house and went inside, had some paperwork.

[Steve Stock]

For dad, went in the house, laid it on the kitchen table, turned around and left. Looking back, I thought it was strange. There was no coffee made, but at the time I didn't. Didn't connect. Went to the shop and getting things ready for the morning and got to thinking that, you know, it was kind of strange. There wasn't a lot of movement around. The back door was open, but the screen door was shut. Didn't connect with that. Um, Went inside again and, you know, didn't really see anything unusual, I guess. I think I had tried to call Dad's cell phone. He didn't answer. And that's when I thought, well, where could they have gone? Picked up the phone in the house. Thought, well, I'd. I'd try him again. And there was no dial tone. And that's when my heart kind of sunk. I guess that, for some reason, was a little bit of a trigger in my mind.

[Keith Morrison]

Something was wrong.

[Steve Stock]

Something was wrong. Thought, well, I better go upstairs. As I started up the stairs, there was some blood on the walls and whatnot. And, you know, I knew it was.

[Keith Morrison]

Bad, but really, he had no idea. How could he? It was perhaps the central moment in the life of Andy Stock when he rounded the staircase that morning in that farmhouse he knew so well, the one he'd grown up in and saw blood on the walls. It's gotta be surreal to a moment like that. I mean, could you do your. Does your mind even register? What.

[Steve Stock]

No, you know, I don't. I think, Good Lord protects us.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah.

[Steve Stock]

Our body's kind of going to shock, I think.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah.

[Steve Stock]

And. But, you know, even at the time I saw the blood in the stairway, I thought, well, gosh, maybe something happened. And they left in the ambulance. You know, they wouldn't have wanted. They just, oh, we'll call in the morning. You know, it wasn't that bad. So, you know, that. That was kind of my process of thought, I guess, at that point. Fell. I rounded the corner and saw dad laying there on the floor. And it was a horrible thing.

[Keith Morrison]

There is only what came before and what came after. What did you do when you found them?

[Steve Stock]

I never made it past the landing. My cell phone was out in my pickup and just turned around and went out of the house. Went to call for help. That's all there was. Never went back in.

[Keith Morrison]

Didn't see your mother's body?

[Steve Stock]

No. No. Didn't know where she was at. Didn't know if she was home.

[Keith Morrison]

I didn't know the ambulance was there in 12 minutes, the first lawman in 20. Andy stood outside next to his pickup truck in shock, calling family without even knowing what happened. Or what to say.

[Andy Stock]

Andy's sister Tammy and his wife and I work together. She answered the phone call and she didn't even recognize Andy's voice. Didn't even know. She came in the back and said, cam, something's wrong. Andy just called and said, come quick. Dad's laying in a pool of blood.

[Keith Morrison]

But like the rational farm folk, they were 30 miles away and close to the nearest hospital. They did not assume the worst, even when they tried to call Andy back and he didn't answer.

[Andy Stock]

By 11:1 and 30, both Cass and I were both like, something is really wrong. Something is wrong. And the minister called and said, you need to come home. And I said, I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong. And they said, you remember dad have been killed. I think I did start screaming. And we headed towards the farm to be with Andy. Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents house taped off. The farm taped off by that yellow tape.

[Keith Morrison]

The crime scene people had taken over the house. It was they who saw the worst of it. They found Wayne on the upstairs landing, dead of a shotgun blast, pretty much point blank. Charman was in the bedroom. A shotgun got her, too. She was still holding a telephone in her dead hand as if she had been trying to call for help. It was stunning. The Stocks were the most unlikely victims anyone could imagine. The Cass county sheriff knew right away, of course, it was going to be big news. So he advised caution. Do not jump to conclusions, he said.

[Steve Stock]

Right now, this is an unsolved homicide. Whether it's somebody local or somebody from another town, we don't know at this time.

[Keith Morrison]

As Andy Stock waited for his siblings to arrive, he struggled to process it all as his father's words echoed in his mind.

[Steve Stock]

I'll never Forget July of 05. Dad and I were working together. We were standing there, and he looked at me and he said, son, he said, when it's my day to go, he said, hold your head high. Keep living life. I'll never forget that.

[Keith Morrison]

But it was all happening so fast. Wayne and Charman Stock have been gunned down in the safety of their own home, in the sanctity of their own bedroom. Why would anyone want them dead? And who.

[Andy Stock]

The investigators asked us a whole bunch of questions. What? I can't. I. I don't. I don't remember. And I think at that time, I think Andy's right. You. You go into shock.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah.

[Andy Stock]

You. I don't remember conversations. I don't remember how. I've Tried to figure it out, how I got from talking to the investigators. And the next thing I remember, I was at Andy and Cassie's house. And then from there we went to grandma's. Grandma lived a quarter mile away. How we got there, I don't know how long we were at grandma's, I. I don't know. You pretty much just shut down. It's all a blur.

[Keith Morrison]

Andy, however, did not get to leave. He was the last to see his parents alive, the one who found their bodies in the morning, which made him, the way these things go, at the very least, a person of interest.

[Steve Stock]

Before I even saw Steve and Tammy, they had put me in a car and took me to another town and questioned me in a room.

[Keith Morrison]

Trying to establish whether or not you were involved?

[Steve Stock]

Yeah. Did gunshot residue tests. It's like, is this really happening?

[Keith Morrison]

Andy Stark didn't realize it at the time, but investigators were soon pointing hard right at him. After all, he was there. He had opportunity and he may have had motive, something to gain from his parents deaths. After all, Andy was the already designated heir to the stockade company, where some people might consider a family fortune. As investigators questioned Andy, CSI units were busily working the crime scene. One of those leading the investigation was a man named David Cofode.

[David Cofode]

It was a very brutal crime scene. It was one of the, one of the worst I've ever seen.

[Keith Morrison]

Coford was the head of the crime scene investigation squad in Douglas county, way off in Omaha, a good hour away. But the Cass County Sheriff's office wasn't used to this sort of thing. And so Kofod was called in to help. He certainly carried himself like a man used to being in the lead. He was bald, bespectacled, a serious man. And even he was shaken by what he saw in that house. Here he is telling me about it.

[David Cofode]

It was very much an execution. And there was a lot of blood, impact spatter, high velocity spatter fragments. And it was a biological kind of a nightmare.

[Keith Morrison]

It didn't take but a few minutes to figure out how the killer or killers had entered the house. In the laundry room, a screen had been lifted and a window appeared to have been forced open. From there, it appeared the killer's route might have gone past the now empty Easter baskets that Charman had made through the well kept kitchen and then up the stairs toward the bedroom where the stocks were fast asleep. All investigators had to do was follow 412 gauge shotgun shells that had left a trail to the bodies by the look of it. The stalks woke up Wayne Tried to get up, but the killer fired a round straight into his knee, so close to him. It left a huge powder burn on the bed and fired again, hit Wayne above his eyes. Charman tried to call 911, but then the shooter killed her, too. And then, a surprise. It became apparent for a very curious reason, that it wasn't just one killer, but at least two with a practice dive. A man who'd seen plenty of violent death. CSI Commander David Kofode, on the stair landing of the Stock's farmhouse, made an observation that would change the course of the investigation.

[David Cofode]

When we did the blood pattern analysis, we saw a void area at the top of the steps.

[Keith Morrison]

A void area, in other words, when the shotgun blast was fired, that is the one that killed Wayne Stock. The blood spattered everywhere except where it appeared that another. Another person had to have been standing. So the second killer was sprayed with blood spatter. And like light hitting an object, it created a shadow on the wall behind it. It left a void where there was no blood.

[David Cofode]

Somebody had to be blocking the blood spatter from impacting the wall and stuff.

[Keith Morrison]

Outside the farmhouse, Coford and his team found a wealth of evidence, too. The trick was to sort what was innocent and what wasn't.

[David Cofode]

It was a big operation. There was a lot of outbuildings, and it was complicated by the fact that they'd had an Easter egg hunt the day before. So we had a lot of shoe.

[Keith Morrison]

Prints and stuff, but one print stood out. It was different than the others.

[David Cofode]

I saw a shoe print in the mud that was unusual, by a flower bed near the front door.

[Keith Morrison]

And beyond the flower bed, just like the shotgun shells left leading to the stairs, there was another trail of evidence left by the apparently sloppy killers.

[David Cofode]

In a gravel driveway, there was a marijuana pipe, and about 10ft from it, there was a flashlight. And those two things were obviously out of place.

[Keith Morrison]

You can sort of imagine the television show csi. Some guy, there's a light. Oh, there's a. You know, it's just too easy. But there it was.

[David Cofode]

It was there. And I think the one thing I knew pretty much right at the beginning was that I could see, visibly see blood on the outside of the flashlight. So we. We knew that had to be involved.

[Keith Morrison]

And then a real breakthrough. A newspaper carrier called in to report that he and his girlfriend had seen something odd. They'd been driving down the country road, middle of the night when the murders occurred, about a mile from the stockhouse, and they saw a car just parked on the side of the road. Strange cars just don't get parked on country roads outside Murdock, Nebraska, at 3:00 in the morning. It was tan or light brown. It was a four door sedan, said the young newspaper carrier. And what really stuck out, he said, was that this same car later passed them in the same area that same night and this time it was driving 60 or 70 miles an hour in a rush to get away. Maybe. So there were certainly clues. The car seen by the newspaper carrier, the flashlight with what appeared to be blood on it, the marijuana pipe and the void on the wall that told them they were looking for at least two killers. But a motive? Who knew? Not a thing was missing, no wallet or purse or gun collection was taken. There was even a safe hidden in the bedroom floor and it was untouched. But all that evidence and asking questions of those closest to the stock family would soon pay off because just a week, week later there would be an arrest, a confession, and it was indeed from a member of the family. So the great wheel of justice began to turn, well, far away. The secret remained, for the moment, quite undisturbed. Coming up in future episodes of Murder in the Moonlight. Him and dad kind of had a lot of falling outs. They kind of butt ahead us a little bit. Well, I was upset at a loss of why my own cousin could do this to me. And you said, what? You gotta be kidding.

[Steve Stock]

I said, that's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

[Andy Stock]

However, she mentioned homicide, because all I.

[Steve Stock]

Remember hearing in this house was bang, bang, bang, bang. Everything clicked. You knew exactly what the case was at that point.

[Keith Morrison]

Murder in the moonlight is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Shane Bishop is the producer. Brian Drew, Kelly Laudeen, Bruce Berger, Marshall Housefeld and Candace Goldman are audio editors. Brittany Morris is field producer. Leslie Grossman is program coordinator. Adam Gorfin is co executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News, audio sound mixing by Bob Mallory and Katie Lau. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production.