Murder in the Moonlight - Ep. 5: When It All Falls Apart

Summary

Dateline Originals: "Murder in the Moonlight - Ep. 5: When It All Falls Apart"

Release Date: April 30, 2025
Host: Keith Morrison
Produced by: Dateline and NBC News

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Introduction to the Murders

In the serene rural setting of Murdoch, Nebraska, the tranquil atmosphere was shattered by the brutal murders of Wayne and Charman Stock. The investigation quickly pointed fingers at two cousins, Matt Lyvers and Nick Sampson, who were subsequently arrested and held for months. However, the case took a dramatic turn with the emergence of two Wisconsin teenagers, Greg Fester and Jessica Reed, who confessed to involvement in the murders, casting doubt on the initial arrests.

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Initial Arrest and Conflicting Confessions

Keith Morrison sets the stage by recounting the initial suspicion towards Matt Lyvers and Nick Sampson. Their arrest was based on a confession from Matt Lyvers, which, despite his attempts to retract, tied him directly to the crime. Adding to the complexity was a bloodstain found in a car linked to Nick Sampson, believed to be the victim's, Wayne Stock's, which further implicated both suspects.

Jerry Susi, Nick Sampson's lawyer, expressed the emotional turmoil, stating at [01:46], “It's a good feeling to know your client's innocent. It's a bad feeling to know that your client's still in jail.” This highlights the precarious position of the accused as new evidence emerged.

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Jessica Reed's Pivotal Testimony

At [02:53], Jessica Reed, a 17-year-old, faced a life-altering decision when offered a plea deal to testify against Matt and Nick. Her lawyer, Tom Olson, emphasized her lack of connection to the cousins, asserting, “She had nothing connected to them. Sure, they weren't friends, family. She had no reason to protect them. And she had every reason to benefit herself.” Ultimately, Reed chose to testify, declaring, “That Lives and Sampson were never at that farmhouse when the killings occurred... it was her and Fester.” Her stance significantly weakened the prosecution's case against Nick, leading to the dropping of charges against him at [06:04].

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Legal Maneuvers and Changing Strategies

Despite the dropping of charges against Nick Sampson, Matt Lyvers remained incarcerated. Jerry Susi, at [04:23], described a shift in legal strategy from seeking dismissal to aggressively presenting evidence that pointed to Reed and Fester acting alone. This transition underscored the legal team's determination to secure Matt's release by dismantling the prosecution's case.

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Revelations of a False Confession

A turning point in the investigation was the revelation that Matt Lyvers had recanted his confession. Julie Baer, Matt's attorney, identified this as a "textbook false confession" at [16:17]. Initially, Matt had confessed under prolonged interrogation, but a subsequent interview revealed his innocence, stating, “I've been just making things up to satisfy you guys.” This confession recantation posed significant challenges, as the prosecution had heavily relied on Matt's initial statements.

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Investigation Flaws and FBI Involvement

The integrity of the investigation came under scrutiny when it was uncovered that CSI Chief David Cofode had likely planted evidence—a bloodstain linking Nick Sampson to the crime scene. The FBI's investigation concluded that Cofode falsified evidence to secure convictions, leading to his indictment on multiple federal charges, including falsifying records and violating civil rights. Cofode maintained his innocence but admitted to procedural errors: “I did make a mistake. I didn't follow procedures...” at [27:30].

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Community Impact and Ongoing Uncertainty

The community of Murdoch grappled with the revelations of misconduct and the subsequent release of Nick Sampson. Matt Lyvers, reflecting on his ordeal, shared his struggles with reintegration and the persistent fear for his safety, stating at [07:11], “Constantly looking over my shoulder... I didn't like being alone...” The case left the community divided, with lingering doubts about the true perpetrators and the justice system's handling of the case.

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Conclusion and Future Implications

As the episode concludes, the legal ramifications of wrongful convictions and evidence tampering are laid bare. With Matt Lyvers still incarcerated despite exculpatory evidence and Nick Sampson released under shaky grounds, the episode underscores the profound flaws that can occur within criminal investigations and the devastating impact on the lives involved.

Keith Morrison teases the final episode, hinting at unresolved questions and deeper insights into Matt Lyvers' continued imprisonment and the elusive pursuit of the true killer.

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Notable Quotes

• Jerry Susi ([01:46]): “It's a good feeling to know your client's innocent. It's a bad feeling to know that your client's still in jail.”

• Tom Olson ([03:32]): “She had nothing connected to them... And she had every reason to benefit herself.”

• Julie Baer ([16:17]): “If you, you know, you look and, and start examining the case in context... It's really a textbook false confession.”

• Matt Lyvers ([07:11]): “Constantly looking over my shoulder... I didn't like being alone...”

• David Cofode ([27:30]): “I did make a mistake. I didn't follow procedures...”

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Production Credits

"Murder in the Moonlight" is a production of Dateline and NBC News. The episode was expertly crafted by Producer Shane Bishop, 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, and Senior Executive Producer Liz Cole. Audio mixing was handled by Bob Mallory and Katie Lau, with Bryson Barnes overseeing audio production.

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Transcript

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[Keith Morrison]

The Autumn Moon in Nebraska, that troubled year watched over a crop of confusion. What happened to that murder investigation? Who was guilty of killing Wayne and Charman Stock? If you'd asked around Murdoch, the answer would be those cousins, Matt Lyvers and Nick Sampson, locked up for months now. But after the arrests of Wisconsin teenagers Greg Fester and Jessica Reed, Matt's lawyer and Nix both adopted an altogether different point of view. Seemed to them, those boys must be innocent. Here's Nix lawyer Jerry Susi. That must be a good feeling.

[Jerry Susi]

No, it wasn't. It's a good feeling to know your client's innocent. It's a bad feeling to know that your client's still in jail. You can't get him out. The cops are coming up with every other kind of theory they can think of to drag him. And then when we get the Reed and Fester interviews, we see how they're bending over backwards to basically show him a picture of my client and say, isn't that the guy that you met?

[Keith Morrison]

So many problems. There was Matt's confession, which no matter how he tried to talk his way out of it, could still be used against him. And that smear of blood. Remember that? It was apparently victim Wayne Stark's blood, discovered by lead detective Cofode in a car owned by Nick Sampson's brother and spotted near the murder scene right around the time it happened. So the prosecutor wasn't about to drop any charges. And meanwhile, sitting in jail, Nick had Thoughts of taking his own life.

[Jerry Susi]

Nick was in really, really bad shape. And so at that point, I'm holding him together. It's going to work out. It's going to work out.

[Keith Morrison]

But would it? Jessica reed, all of 17 years old, was standing, perhaps shivering, in a hallway outside her meeting with the prosecutor. She had just been offered a way to salvage her messed up young life, testify against Nick Sampson and Matt Livers, that she could plead to a lesser charge, get a chance to go free. Eventually, her testimony would help the state convict those two cousins of murder. This would be the most consequential decision Jessica Reed would ever have to make. She turned to her lawyer, Tom Olson.

[Tom Olson]

She didn't know these guys. She had nothing connected to them. Sure, they weren't friends, family. She had no reason to protect them. And she had every reason to benefit herself.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Murder in the Moonlight, a podcast from Dateline. When it all falls apart. The days dragged along, one by one, and mounted up and became months and all the long while those two boys sat in their respective cells and wondered if they would ever see a free day again. Because nothing was working. Nothing at all. So Nick's attorney, Jerry Susi, decided it was time for a change of strategy.

[Jerry Susi]

I'd been a nice guy up to that point, trying to encourage the county attorney to dismiss the charges as the right thing to do at that point, then I had to shift to be much more aggressive, saying, you know, coming at him, and here's all the stuff. And I'd prepare to kind of an extensive motion outlining all of the information pointing to Reed and Festers acting alone.

[Keith Morrison]

But the county attorney had been busy, too, reviewing evidence, meeting potential witnesses like Jessica Reed, who in that meeting had asked to take a break to contemplate the prosecutor's offer. And one look at Jessica told her lawyer, Tom Olsen something wasn't right.

[Tom Olson]

I said, what's wrong? She said, I know what they want. They want me to tell them that those two boys were here and they weren't, and I can't do it, and I'm gonna put myself away for life. And I told her, I said, you just gotta tell the truth. That's all you can do at this point. And we went back in. And that's what she told him. That those boys were not there, that Lives and Sampson were never at that farmhouse when the killings occurred, that they had never met them before, that they had nothing whatsoever to do with it, that it was her and Fester.

[Keith Morrison]

Jessica's insistence that neither Matt nor Nick was there, made the case against Nick at least untenable. So the county attorney had a chat.

[Jerry Susi]

With Jerry Susi and finally just said, I. Whether they did it or didn't, I certainly can't prove it against Nick Sampson.

[Keith Morrison]

And then nearly six months after the murders, the county attorney, Nathan Cox, called a press conference and announced that the murder case against Nick Sampson was being dropped. Sort of. Since there is no statute of limitations on murder, the state reserves the right.

[Jerry Susi]

To refile the charges in the future.

[Keith Morrison]

Was there a chance Nick Sampson would be charged with murder again? Well, yes, there was, but Nick certainly didn't act like it as he walked out of jail arm in arm with his attorney, Jerry Susi.

[Nick Sampson]

We did it.

[Jerry Susi]

You did was cloud nine. And it was an incredible feeling.

[Keith Morrison]

After more than five months in jail, Nick Sampson was free. Let's go home.

[Matt Livers]

That's incredible. I'm finally out.

[Keith Morrison]

But Nick Sampson, even free, was not carefree, not by any means. Some things could never be the same again. As he told me himself, I was.

[Matt Livers]

Constantly looking over my shoulder, seeing who was behind me, you know, so there.

[Keith Morrison]

Was a real genuine itch in your back, fear that somebody was going to.

[Matt Livers]

Come after you, Come after me? Come after my family, you know, revenge. I didn't like being alone, you know, if there was any place I could go where I was, you know, I was around, like my close friends or something. I was over there at, you know, friends houses. I was anywhere. Because I didn't want to be alone.

[Keith Morrison]

Why didn't you want to be alone?

[Matt Livers]

Just wasn't sure, you know, what could happen now.

[Keith Morrison]

Because around this county in rural Nebraska, where a great many people, perhaps a majority, who were still quite certain that Nick was as guilty as can be. After all, his own cousin Matt had admitted full out that they had both killed those lovely people.

[Matt Livers]

I was upset at a loss of why my own cousin could do this to me.

[Keith Morrison]

Why would he do it to you? It wasn't true.

[Matt Livers]

To make himself look better, using me as a scapegoat. My name came up when I asked who you might know who smoked marijuana or whatever. And he's like, well, I know Nick used to. And so, you know, he'd tell him information like that and pretty much was implicating me and part of this. And so then, you know, it just kind of came into a snowball effect with him.

[Keith Morrison]

Make angry.

[Matt Livers]

Some points. Some points it's depression. Some points it's just wish there was a time machine. Can go back in time and say, forget this ever happened.

[Keith Morrison]

That's when you go out into the country and do a little target shooting and get away by yourself.

[Matt Livers]

Yeah, get out and, you know, enjoy hunting and stuff like that. So that's kind of getting out and just sitting in the woods is kind of just, just a getaway. You know, there's nothing out there to bother you. You know, you just sit out there and just relax and don't have to worry about anything.

[Keith Morrison]

But nothing could soothe the grief agitated minds of the stalk children starved of real information. They hung on to what little they had been told. What they'd been assured by the guardians of the law that the two men who killed their parents were securely behind bars and would be until they were tried for murder. And yet now the law had sent one of those suspects home. Why they could not fathom. Son Andy Stock It's a difficult situation. None of us are attorneys, none of us are in law enforcement. And you're just sitting there trying to take it all in, trying to figure out, okay, how does this work? Why does this happen? And yet their cousin Matt Livers had confessed. At least he was still in custody. And then there were those two teenagers from Wisconsin, Gregory Fester and Jessica Reed, who'd apparently also confessed to some role in the whole awful business. But just what that role was, few people in Murdoch seemed to know. So confusing it certainly was.

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[Keith Morrison]

Jerry Susi was no longer a fresh young lawyer when he met Nick Sampson. By then, Susi was a man of considerable experience in the area of public defense In Nebraska. He'd been standing up for the poor and the indigent, criminal and otherwise, for decades. Had heard just about every sob story, every sneaky lie, every false claim of innocence in the book. And sometimes he had discovered people do strange things when accosted by the law. So when Susie watched the tapes of Matt Lyver's confession, saw and heard him naming Nick as co killer, well, let's just say his practiced lawyer eye noticed a few things.

[Jerry Susi]

There was every indication in there that there was a problem when people confess accurately. I mean, the resistance you have from somebody who is innocent, the resistance you have from somebody who is guilty from an interrogator standpoint looks the same. But at the point at which they finally get over that moral hump and say, you know, you're right, I really did do this. At that point, you can't shut them up. They then have to morally justify, okay, I killed my wife because she was cheating on me and let me tell you what I did. And then they give you facts and information that you didn't know. I mean, that's how you verify it with Matt Livers. What you had was at the point at which he makes the baby step portion of his interrogation. They then asked that open ended question, so tell me what happened, man, I don't remember.

[Keith Morrison]

Don't remember. And then there was something else that was clear to both defense attorneys, though they feared the investigators may not have picked up on it. Matt Rivers, as he himself admitted, was not the sharpest guy. Matt had his strengths too, of course, but in any conversation with authority figures, and especially under the sort of pressure that was clearly being exerted in that interview room, Matt Leivers was prone to being led. He maybe was gullible. Matt's attorney, Julie Baer, There was a.

[Julie Baer]

Portion of the questioning where they won't let him finish his sentence. They're belittling him, they're screaming at him, they're threatening him with the death penalty.

[Nick Sampson]

I don't think you understand what the death penalty means. I'm gonna walk out that door and I'm doing my level best to hang your ass from the highest tree.

[Keith Morrison]

And he believed them.

[Julie Baer]

When they said those things, very much so.

[Keith Morrison]

And one moment stood out, said the defense attorneys, when the detective should have realized just how little Matt Livers understood of what was happening to him. It was when one of the cops told Matt he needed to be a man to tell them the truth. You consider yourself a man, then stand up, stand up. In other words, take responsibility. But this was on videotape, remember? And Julie Bear watched.

[Julie Baer]

He takes them very literally and, and starts to rise up out of his chairs, you know, and he's gonna stand up, he's gonna stand up, stand up.

[Nick Sampson]

And be a man, okay?

[Keith Morrison]

As Julie Bear watched the tape, what stood up for her was the hair on the back of her neck. Seemed to her those detectives just weren't paying attention to the sort of man they were talking to. Or maybe she thought maybe they knew he was not the sharpest guy, but just wanted that confession.

[Nick Sampson]

You got a gun, right or wrong? Right.

[Keith Morrison]

It all led to one conclusion. There was now no doubt in the mind of either defense attorney.

[Julie Baer]

If you, you know, you look and, and start examining the case in context, how it happened, what took place. It's really a textbook false confession.

[Keith Morrison]

A false confession. He'd made it all up. But as Julie Bear contemplated what, if anything, she could do about that, she got a surprise. Not long after Nick Sampson's release, with Matt Liber still in jail, Julie received a DVD she'd never seen before, even though she had asked months earlier, as was her right, for all the available discovery, all the prosecution's material in Matt's case. This DVD contained a new interview with Matt, a second interview that the defense had never been told existed.

[Nick Sampson]

Again, I'm gonna read your rights.

[Keith Morrison]

This interview had been taped the day after the first 11 hour interrogation, the one in which he had confessed. By then, after a night in the local jail, Matt had a chance to regain his equilibrium.

[Nick Sampson]

That he got something huge way on. You need to tell me about it, though.

[Keith Morrison]

Indeed, he did have something weighing on him. And here it came.

[Nick Sampson]

I've been just making things up to satisfy you guys.

[Keith Morrison]

Making it up to satisfy them.

[Nick Sampson]

An absolute truth is I was never on the scene. I don't know if Nick is the actual person involved in this. I've been just basically fitting an answer to what you guys I've been asking.

[Keith Morrison]

Needless to say, this recantation did not go over well. These were the same investigators who had just taken his confession the day before. And now he wanted to take it all back. Well, not a chance. And here they hammered away at Matt.

[Nick Sampson]

There's absolutely no doubt you are involved with this. And don't start over with me. From the very beginning you telling me the truth. And now you're gonna pull up I'm jerking you guys around. Deal. I mean, I wish I would let that. From the beginning. Yeah. No, from the beginning you did say that you had nothing to do with it. You took a folly guard yesterday. I. I gave it to you and you were 100 involved with it. I had no doubt about it. I just told you that. Right. But the truth is I was never on a scene of this. I don't know that Nick is involved in this because we never. I mean, you can check my phone records. We never talked on Thursday or Friday about this. And the only reason I picked him, I heard through the grapevine that his brother's heart was used. What are you telling us down for? What do you think he's gonna accomplish this now? Nothing. I mean, I'm just trying to complaining. I mean, you know, I don't believe you put yourself there. You were there and you have told us things, but you told us things that nobody else even knows about. You told us things that unless you were there, you have no idea about. I mean, I've been making answers of left and right. I can't believe they're even coming out of my own mouth.

[Keith Morrison]

And when that interview ended, after Matt recounted any involvement in the murders, well into the ether it went. Never to be seen or heard again. Until a package from the DA finally showed up at Julie Bear's office. How long was that withheld? Months and months after.

[Jerry Susi]

After.

[Keith Morrison]

Because he said those things the day after his confession. Right. And for all those months, while Matt's own attorney was in the dark. No idea her client had recanted every word of that confession. He was stuck in jail. So basically from the official story, his recantation simply disappeared.

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Right.

[Keith Morrison]

We asked the Cascoti Nebraska Sheriff's Office for an explanation for that. They declined to provide one and didn't want to talk about any other parts of the case either. There seemed to be only one thing that could happen now. But in this case, well, when did anything ever go the way it should? Impact confirmed.

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[David Cofode]

Demonic threat level increasing.

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Keith Morrison]

Rated M for mature.

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[Keith Morrison]

Well, issues with Matt Liber's confession had now surfaced. Some of the investigators would not and said they could not let go of the belief that either Sampson or Livers or both of them were involved somehow. They didn't buy the notion that two drug addled teenagers just happened to stumble on a hard place to find by pure chance, way out in the country. In the dark though, this is how Sampson's attorney Jerry Susi saw things.

[Jerry Susi]

Number one, you had two lead investigators who'd never done first degree murder cases before this one as lead investigators. Number two, having made the arrests holding the press conference, they were committed to trying to build a case against Livers and Samson. And then when Reed and Fester showed up, I think it was just beyond their ability to comprehend that they had made a mistake and so that somehow, some way, they needed to fold Reed and Fester's cross country crime jaunt into somehow having some contact with the Nebraska people, whoever they were.

[Keith Morrison]

Whoever indeed. At one point, remember Greg Fester said the main shooter, the guy who led them to the farm, was a local Nebraska boy named Thomas, with whom Fester had been communicating by phone before the murders.

[Nick Sampson]

You shot again, we all run out of the house.

[Keith Morrison]

And detectives have knocked themselves out trying to find such a person, this Thomas guy or any guy who might be that particular one. But he seemed to be a ghost. Couldn't find anybody at all who might be their Thomas. And meanwhile, Jessica Reed kept trying to persuade investigators that nobody else was there besides her and Fester, of course. Lying. No, if I was lying, I would not still be going on about this. And she was going on about it. Had been saying that for months. I know what happened, and no one will believe me. Well, she was right about that. The detectives did not believe her. They still suspected Lives and Sampson of some involvement. Why? It all went back to that speck of evidence that CSI Chief David Coford found in a car connected to Nick Sampson and spotted near the murder scene. It was a stain that turned up on a sterile piece of filter paper that Cofode himself swiped under the dashboard of that car. That was during a second search of the car, by the way. The first by an officer under CofO that turned up nothing. But that stain, the DNA test proved beyond a shadow of a doubt was Wayne Stock's blood. So how would it get there? Only one way. From Nick Sampson or Matt Livers. After they murdered the Stocks, it was actually the FBI that started asking questions about that. But they didn't ask Matt Livers or Nick Sampson. Instead, the FBI's investigation was aimed at the detectives who handled the case. In fact, that's CSI Chief David Cofode himself. And after months of digging, the FBI came to a truly stunning conclusion. That Cofode must have planted that swipe of blood himself. Phony evidence to nail down a shaky case. To say that came as a shock would be the understatement of the year. David Coford was a respected officer, division commander of the CSI unit in Douglas County, Nebraska. And then he was an indicted officer. There were four federal charges, including falsifying records and violating lives and Sampson's civil rights.

[David Cofode]

When I was accused, I was angry. And then I felt the overwhelming power of the federal government coming. I mean, that's. And that's something.

[Keith Morrison]

I had a Mack truck hitting there.

[David Cofode]

It was unbelievable.

[Keith Morrison]

Coford pleaded not guilty to all charges, defiantly told reporters he'd rather go to prison than resign. He even passed a polygraph and was cleared in an internal sheriff's department investigation. You wake up one morning and they say you're a criminal.

[David Cofode]

Well, it kind of was like that, but it was a little different than that. It was more of a long process. And I didn't do it. I just didn't. And it doesn't make any sense.

[Keith Morrison]

Coford blamed the stain on accidental contamination. Somehow, he said blood from the victim, Wayne Stock, must have ended up on that sterile filter paper, probably out at the murder scene. And then somebody goofed. And that same filter paper was what he later used on the car. That was his defense. But Cofo did admit he broke the rules.

[David Cofode]

I did make a mistake. I didn't follow procedures, and that bothers me. And there's no way around that. That was wrong because I'm a boss, because I'm supposed to set the example.

[Keith Morrison]

I bet there's a phrase you've heard over and over again. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a d, it's probably, you know. Yeah, barnyard duck.

[Jerry Susi]

Oh, absolutely.

[David Cofode]

But you know what? This doesn't look like a duck. It doesn't quack like a duck. It just doesn't.

[Keith Morrison]

How many more ways could this prosecution go sideways? Well, it turned out plenty. Coming up in the final episode of Murder in the Moonlight. How could Matt Liver still be in jail now that evidence had apparently been planted and his confession proven untrustworthy? And a killer tells her tale.

[Matt Livers]

Two people are dead because of me, you know, and I have a very.

[Keith Morrison]

Hard time with that still. What was it like to watch those people die?

[Matt Livers]

Hell.

[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.

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