3 - The Ring

Summary

Murder in the Moonlight: Episode 3 - The Ring

Released on February 24, 2025

Introduction

In the tranquil expanse of Murdoch, Nebraska, the idyllic life of Sharmon and Wayne Stock is brutally shattered on Easter night. Under the eerie glow of a pale moon, the couple is mercilessly shot to death in their bedroom, sending shockwaves through their close-knit community. Host Keith Morrison delves into this chilling case in "The Ring," the third episode of Dateline’s newest podcast, Murder in the Moonlight.

Initial Investigation and Arrests

The investigation into the murders progresses rapidly, bringing initial relief to the traumatized town. Cass County Sheriff Bill Bruggeman remarks on the community's mixed feelings:

“I think there's some relief at the same time, some hurt.” (00:43)

Shockingly, the culprits are revealed to be within the Stock family circle. Matt Livers, the 28-year-old nephew of Wayne and Sharmon, confesses to the murders:

“I was already fired up and guess I have a grudge to settle.” (01:09)

Despite Matt’s damning confession, uncertainty lingers as his 21-year-old cousin, Nick Sampson, is implicated but denies involvement. Sheriff Bruggeman comments on the lingering doubts:

“People ask, is this a closure on the case? It's not. I think it's another. It's another chapter turning a page. There's still a lot of work to be done.” (01:44)

Discovery of the Gold Ring

Amidst the case's complexities, a pivotal clue surfaces—a gold ring discovered on the kitchen floor of the Stock farmhouse. Crime Scene Investigator Chief David Cofode describes the initial confusion:

“I thought, well, somebody took it off to wash their hands and it fell down. Somehow they forgot about it.” (06:33)

The ring, a size 10, 10-karat gold piece engraved with “Love always, Corey and Ryan,” does not belong to the family, raising suspicions:

“Nothing was ever out of place. The meticulous housekeeper Charman made sure of it.” (06:37)

Tracing the Ring’s Origins

The investigation takes a significant turn as Detective Cofode focuses on the ring’s origin. A keen-eyed detective notes small inscriptions—“A, A, J” inside the band—which lead them to A & A Jewelers in Buffalo, New York. Mary Martino, one of the last employees remaining as the company winds down, undertakes the daunting task of sifting through thousands of old order forms. After relentless effort, Martino successfully traces the ring to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin:

“I got up from my chair and I said bingo. I found it. I found it.” (12:40)

Link to the Stolen Pickup Truck

In Beaver Dam, the ring’s trail intersects with a stolen pickup truck. The vehicle, previously owned by Ryan from Corey, was reported missing after being taken from Ryan’s farm. Wisconsin detective Jim Rohr explains the initial handling of the stolen vehicle:

“We treat it just as a simple missing vehicle. When it's recovered, if it's somebody taking it for a joyride, you know, we'll get it back.” (15:39)

Unexpectedly, the truck reappears abandoned in Louisiana, triggering a nationwide search. The discovery connects the ring directly to the Stock murders, unraveling a deeper conspiracy.

Introduction of Suspects Greg Fester and Jessica Reed

The investigation uncovers two teenage suspects from Wisconsin involved in the truck theft: 19-year-old Greg Fester and 17-year-old Jessica Reed. Fester, with a troubled past including drug use and anger issues, and Reed, a former honor roll student whose life spiraled after her parents' divorce, are far from seasoned criminals. Jerry Susi, Nick Sampson’s attorney, reflects on their perceived incompetence:

“They were not exactly members of Mensa. They left quite a trail.” (17:21)

Confessions and Inconsistencies

Jessica Reed's interrogation reveals critical inconsistencies. Initially dismissive, she eventually admits to stealing money and inadvertently placing the ring in the farmhouse:

“I stole a whole bunch of money from somebody. I don't know who. I don't know where. I just remember stealing a whole bunch of money.” (23:39)

However, her account conflicts with Matt Livers' confession, which omits any mention of the ring or the stolen truck, complicating the narrative. Reed struggles to connect Matt and Nick to the ring's presence at the crime scene, asserting:

“If they did it, I swear to God, there's dumb people.” (25:53)

Further Investigation and Emerging Evidence

As the investigators piece together the fragmented stories, the plot thickens. Greg Fester shifts blame onto Jessica, alleging:

“She kind of got me into going with her, just, you know, because that seemed like a good idea.” (28:35)

Matt Livers’ confession introduces another layer, mentioning a mysterious figure named Thomas who supposedly orchestrated the murders. This revelation casts further doubt on the straightforwardness of the initial confessions.

The Cigarette Box Twist

The investigation is poised for another twist with the discovery of a cigarette box at the crime scene. Detective Rohr comments on the bizarre nature of the evidence:

“This was so bizarre. That gives you a mindset of the type of person we were dealing with.” (31:21)

This new clue suggests that there are more hidden connections and motives yet to be uncovered, hinting at a deeper conspiracy behind the murders.

Conclusion

Episode three, "The Ring," intricately weaves together the threads of a multifaceted investigation. From the initial shock of family-involved murders to the enigmatic gold ring linking distant locales, the narrative exposes the complexities and uncertainties inherent in criminal investigations. As new evidence emerges, the case remains far from closed, promising further revelations in subsequent episodes.

Notable Quotes:

• Sheriff Bill Bruggeman on closure:

  “People ask, is this a closure on the case? It's not. I think it's another. It's another chapter turning a page. There's still a lot of work to be done.” (01:44)

• Matt Livers’ confession:

  “I was already fired up and guess I have a grudge to settle.” (01:09)

• Jessica Reed on her actions:

  “I stole a whole bunch of money from somebody. I don't know who. I don't know where. I just remember stealing a whole bunch of money.” (23:39)

• Detective Rohr on the stolen vehicle:

  “We treat it just as a simple missing vehicle. When it's recovered, if it's somebody taking it for a joyride, you know, we'll get it back.” (15:39)

Further Developments

The episode concludes with the promise of more uncovered secrets as the investigators continue to unravel the tangled web surrounding the Stock murders, the elusive gold ring, and the intertwined lives of those involved.

Transcript

[Keith Morrison]

It was pretty impressive, all things considered. The investigation, that is, into the murders of Wayne and Charman Stock. The people of Murdoch, Nebraska had been deeply shaken and quite understandably so. If the Stocks weren't safe in the sanctity of their own bedroom, then who in Murdoch was safe? And so when the Cass County Sheriff's office announced just two weeks after the murders that one of the most shocking crimes in this part of Nebraska in decades had been solved, well, you can hardly blame them for calling in the press and taking a victory lap.

[Bill Bruggeman]

I think there's some, some relief at the same time, some hurt.

[Keith Morrison]

And of course, just about everyone was shocked that the culprits would turn out to be who they were. But there it was. Wayne and Charman, Sock's own nephew, 28 year old Matt Livers, that actually told the whole ugly story, confessed to shotgunning his own aunt and uncle.

[Matt Livers]

I was already fired up and guess I have a grudge to settle.

[Keith Morrison]

And if his 21 year old cousin, Nick Sampson had managed to resist the confessional, urgent, well, that wouldn't be unexpected, would it? But Matt had fingered him and that was that. And now that itch in the back uncertainty, the fear that vicious killers were on the loose had been put to rest. Meanwhile, said Cass County Sheriff Bill Bruggeman, they could get on with the legal stuff. Button up the case.

[Bill Bruggeman]

People ask, is this a closure on the case? It's not. I think it's another. It's another chapter turning a page. There's still a lot of work to be done.

[Keith Morrison]

But the message was clear. Everybody could relax. And nobody was thinking of Voltaire just then. Ridiculous thought, why in heaven's name would they? It was so far off and long ago when that famous French philosopher scribbled in his notebook, while doubt is not an agreeable condition, certainty is an absurd one. Whereas somebody in Murdoch might have said, don't count your chickens. I'm Keith Morrison and this is DATELINE's newest podcast, Murder in the Moonlight. Episode three, the Ring. The arrests of Matt Libers and Nick Sampson brought a measure of relief to the stalk. Children, even though Matt was a member of the family, there had been issues. And Nick, Matt's cousin, they didn't know him as well. But now at least they could try to move on, as they knew their parents would have wanted them to. Daughter Tammy.

[Tammy Stock]

I can hear mom and dad say, Tammy, you can let this eat you alive or you can go on and be the best that you can be and do what needs to be done. And that is family. So we can dwell on it, but we choose not to because that's not what mom and dad would want.

[Keith Morrison]

And as Andy, the youngest sibling, put.

[Bill Bruggeman]

It, it's not going to bring him back, so why agonize over it? It is what it is.

[Keith Morrison]

And with Livers and Samson behind bars, the slow grind toward their inevitable trial could begin naturally. The same system that had caught the alleged killers also provided them with competent legal counsel, as the law requires. For Matt Livres attorney Julie Baer, first.

[Julie Baer]

Thing he says is, look, I told them I did this, but I didn't do this, and you've got to believe me.

[Keith Morrison]

They all said they didn't do it, right?

[Julie Baer]

You know, I've been lied to a lot as a defense lawyer. So the cynical side of me goes, uh huh.

[Keith Morrison]

Right after all, that confession was very graphic, very put the gun to her.

[Matt Livers]

Face and blew it away. Then as I headed out, I just to him and blew him away.

[Keith Morrison]

And yet, when Julie Bear asked around a bit, she started to hear things. Things like this. Both Matt Livers and Nick Sampson and their live in girlfriend swore up and down that on the night of the murders they were at their respective homes, sound asleep, miles away from the Stock family farmhouse. And for what it was worth, although Matt said, remember that they planned it all out on their cell phones in the two days or so before the murders, Nick Sampson swore up and down that he didn't see Matt or talked to him on the phone in person or any other way during that time, not once. But how could that be? Nick Sampson got a defense attorney too. His name is Jerry Susi.

[Jerry Susi]

The first thing I simply was concerned about was what was the evidence against Nick Sampson, regardless of whether he did it or not. I just had to know what the evidence was.

[Keith Morrison]

Of course, as the law requires, the investigators were getting ready to tell him and show him what they had on his client. They were just in the aforementioned mop up mode at that point and, well, that's when the MacGuffin showed up. A MacGuffin, of course, much loved by writers everywhere is some object or device, often apparently insignificant, that can flip a plot upside down. They came across this thing in Charman Stock's kitchen and not during the first few CSI type go rounds right after the murders. In fact, not the next day either, after who knows how many dozens of investigators and first responders had tromped through the place. It was after all that that when a sharp eyed young cop noticed just lying there on the kitchen floor, a gold ring. Well, that could have been Anybody's, of course. One of the cops, probably, or, well, who knew? But there it was. And now crime scene investigator Chief David Cofode would have to find an explanation for it.

[David Cofode]

I thought, well, somebody took it off to wash their hands and it fell down. Somehow they forgot about it.

[Keith Morrison]

But at the time, could have belonged to the victim, right? Could have belonged to anybody.

[David Cofode]

It could have.

[Keith Morrison]

Exactly. Except remember one thing people knew about the stock farmhouse. Nothing was ever out of place. The meticulous housekeeper Charman made sure of it. Anyway, they bagged that gold ring and they tagged it as evidence. It was a size 10, a man's ring, 10 karat gold. And it was engraved with a very personal message.

[David Cofode]

The inscription said Corey and spelled C O R I and Ryan. Love always, Cory and Ryan.

[Keith Morrison]

Who was Corey? Who was Ryan? Detectives asked the stalk children, of course. And, well, none of them knew anybody by those names. They didn't recognize the ring either. It was a sort of glitch within a mystery that will keep bugging a man or a woman, by which I mean one of the women on Kofod's detective squad who noticed on the inside of the ring, three tiny letters. A, A, J.

[David Cofode]

This is actually really good detective work. She had gotten a jeweler's manufacturing book from Borscheim's here in Omaha. There was only two manufacturers that had AAJ stamps. One of them had been out of business since, I think, the 90s. And the other one, she got a hold of them.

[Keith Morrison]

That manufacturer turned out to be a place called A and A Jewelers. It stamped all the products it made in Buffalo, New York, with the letters AAJ for aa, A and A Jewelers. And so it was in Buffalo where Coford's investigator found a woman working at AAJ by the name of Mary Martino.

[Mary Martino]

I remember one of the girls in shipping had indicated that there was a call from somebody in the Nebraska police department.

[Keith Morrison]

Mary Martino was running what was left of Buffalo's A and A jewelry office just then. Why? What was left? Because the place was going out of business. They'd already laid off the workforce. 200 jobs gone just like that. By the time that Nebraska investigator started calling, Mary was one of only three people left. Their job was to clean up the Buffalo office and close it down. And right in the middle of that crushing and depressing work, Mary gets a request to track down a single not very fancy, not very unusual ring that the company had likely shipped away somewhere years ago. And you said what? You got to be kidding.

[Mary Martino]

I said, that's like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, she mentioned homicide.

[Keith Morrison]

And that is when Mary Martino heard that the ring had been found at the scene of the double homicide of Wayne and Charman stock in far off Nebraska. And it might be important. And then the Nebraska cop said that she, Mary, was literally the last person on earth who could at least possibly solve that last vexing little mystery.

[Mary Martino]

She said she had made several attempts and no one was willing to assist her.

[Keith Morrison]

No surprise there. Wild goose chase like that. Because even if there was still a record of that ring, finding it in the chaos of that office, right in the middle of closing it down forever. Well, good luck. And anyway, she already had a mountain of depressing work ahead of her. But Mary Martino, dependable Mary, said she'd see what she could do. It was possible, after all. The company might have taken the order, might have made that very ring and inscribed it love always, Corey and Ryan, and shipped it somewhere. That's what the company did for a long time. So Mary went out to the warehouse where tens of thousands of old order forms were stuffed into hundreds of boxes, just waiting for Mary to throw them all away. Instead, she opened up the first one, and page by yellowed page, started reading.

[Mary Martino]

So I started with just box number one, stores one through 25. Then box number two, stores 25 through 30.

[Keith Morrison]

And you went through each one?

[Mary Martino]

Yes, until I got to, like, 100. I believe it was 108 or 118. I said, this is going to be impossible.

[Keith Morrison]

How long did that process take?

[Mary Martino]

It took me probably three days and two nights.

[Keith Morrison]

Does that seem a little over the top? I mean, you could look for an hour or so and say, well, I can't find it. Sorry. And that would be that.

[Mary Martino]

I heard homicide. I heard it was important.

[Keith Morrison]

And then? Well, then she had a thought. There might be one more way to go about it. So she abandoned the warehouse and asked one of the few colleagues she had left to help her narrow down the search on the company computer, make a kind of grid. First she entered the stores A and A, shipped to more than 3,000 of them coast to coast, which didn't narrow it down at all, of course. But then she took a guess that the ring was ordered within the past few years, and she entered those dates and, well, that narrowed things down quite a bit. And then she input the inscription, love always, Corey and Ryan, and out came a printout. And lo and behold, after three days and two nights of searching, there it was.

[Mary Martino]

I got up from my chair and I said bingo. I found it. I found it.

[Keith Morrison]

Any specifics about what you found out on that order form where it was sent? Do you remember that?

[Mary Martino]

It was Wisconsin. I do know that.

[Keith Morrison]

Wait, Wisconsin, not Nebraska. What in the world would a ring sold in Wisconsin have to do with a double murder? A day's driveway in Nebraska. When Mary Martino finally found the record that made her say bingo, she picked up the phone and she called back that investigator who'd asked her to somehow track down the origins of the gold ring found on the floor of the stock farmhouse. Now, all these years later, we can only imagine the look on the Nebraska investigators face when Mary mentioned where the ring had been sent.

[Mary Martino]

It was Wisconsin.

[Keith Morrison]

Actually, she was far more specific than that. A and A had sent the ring to a Wisconsin town about 500 miles from the farm where the murders occurred. Sent it to the town of Beaver Dam. Beaver Dam bills itself as a sort of outdoor paradise. Fishing, boating, snowmobiling, that sort of thing. It's northwest of Milwaukee. And in Beaver Dam, as in thousands of other towns like it across rural America, there was a Walmart. That store is where Mary's company sent the gold ring. And so investigators from Murdoch contacted the Walmart in Beaver Dam and unearthed a sad and oft repeated story. Once upon a time, learned those detectives, there was a girl named Corey who thought the world of a boy named Ryan. And she bought him that symbol of permanence, the gold ring. She had it engraved with the words love always. But it was not love always. And that after Corey and Ryan broke up, the gold ring gathered dust in the cab of Ryan's red pickup truck. And that is where the strangest thing happened and why, it appears in our story, that red pickup truck was stolen. Somebody just took it from Ryan's farm outside of Beaver Dam. Naturally, Ryan filed a police report. It was dated just a few days before Wayne and Charman Stock were shot to death in far off Nebraska. But of course, it was a Wisconsin detective who took the theft report, name of Jim Rohr.

[Jerry Susi]

We treat it just as a simple missing vehicle. When it's recovered, if it's somebody taking it for a joyride, you know, we'll get it back. So really nothing more than a standard missing vehicle.

[Keith Morrison]

Experience suggested police would likely find the truck somewhere nearby, but. But instead, there was another surprise.

[Jerry Susi]

Day after I get the case handed to me for the stolen vehicle for follow up is when we get the phone call from Louisiana saying we have a recovered truck and what do you want us to do with it?

[Keith Morrison]

Wait Louisiana. That was a thousand miles from Beaver Dam. How do they know to call you? Because of the registration to your town.

[Jerry Susi]

Well, it's Beaver, Wisconsin registration. So it comes up as stolen on a national computer. So they call the originating agency who entered the truck as stolen and let us know that they have the vehicle and ask what our wishes are with it. It was found abandoned, so it's not like it was pulled over on a traffic stop where now we have a suspect for who stole the vehicle. They're going to have a toad.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah.

[Jerry Susi]

So it's basically a matter of trying to get the truck returned to its rightful owner.

[Keith Morrison]

But then somebody from Nebraska called him about that gold ring, and suddenly Jim Rohr was in a whole nother mystery altogether.

[Jerry Susi]

That's when we get a phone call saying a ring was located at a double homicide scene. When that ring gets tracked back as to being last in the possession of the owner of this truck that was stolen, it's not going to be a simple stolen vehicle anymore.

[Keith Morrison]

That must have been a shocker to get that information, to have it across your desk.

[Jerry Susi]

A huge shocker that pretty much sends a chill down your spine.

[Keith Morrison]

There's an old saying that prisons are full of criminals who thought they were smarter than they really are. And that old adage would seem to apply here. It didn't take Detective Rohr very long to figure out who the truck thieves were. And, well, they were not exactly members of mensa. They left quite a trail. Rohrer followed it and discovered that before they swiped the pickup truck with the ring in it inscribed From Corey to Ryan, they stole an SUV and sideswiped a couple of cars with it, which drew the attention of a crowd. And so they abandoned the suv. And since they were in a hurry, they left some personal stuff behind.

[Jerry Susi]

Some of the belongings consisted of IDs, marijuana pipes, drug paraphernalia of sorts. They left their calling card right there.

[Keith Morrison]

And so finding the thieves was the easy part. In fact, they had already made their way back from Louisiana to Wisconsin, where somebody saw them hanging around a cemetery right near the farm where they stole the truck. There were two of them, a guy and a girl. And what a pair they were. The guy was Greg Fester, age 19, with a history of drug use and suicide attempts and anger issues. Fester was on probation for weapons and disorderly conduct convictions.

[Jerry Susi]

Greg was a little odd. He seemed a bit slow. Not real educated. Now with the slowness, I don't know if that's from heavy drug usage or just basic education, but he just didn't seem to grasp things quite as well as a typical person.

[Keith Morrison]

Fester's alleged Accomplice was a 17 year old named Jessica Reed, a former honor roll student cheerleader. Well, then her parents got divorced and she didn't do so well anymore. She got herself mixed up with drugs, and then, by extension, with the lovely Mr. Fester. Not exactly master criminals, were they?

[Jerry Susi]

No, not by any sense of the word. Two teenagers from Wisconsin whacked out on.

[Keith Morrison]

Drugs and not knowing what the hell.

[Jerry Susi]

They were doing, out of control.

[Keith Morrison]

But Detective Roar had no idea just how out of control these two had been. No one did, really. Not yet, anyway. In the spring of 2006, investigators in two states sought to solve a riddle that sprouted along with the corn. Two towns. Murdoch, Nebraska. Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. More than 500 miles apart now, united undeniably by a single band of gold. That ring sold in a Beaver Dam Walmart and then found days after the murders of Wayne and Charman Stock, lying on the floor in the kitchen of the Stock farmhouse near Murdock, Nebraska. What a lot of mischief that size 10 ring was getting up to. Good mischief, bad mischief. Well, here is that part of the story. The main suspect was, of course, Matt Livers. He confessed, remember? And rather colorfully, about what he said he did to Wayne and Charman's Stock. But nowhere in his confession or in his answers to lots and lots of questions did he say a single word about a ring. Ditto about a stolen truck or out of control Wisconsin teenagers. Not a hint, not a word about them. Like none of that even existed. Meanwhile, way off in Wisconsin, something kind of amazing happened when Detective Jim Rohr invited Jessica Reed to come in for a chat. And she said, sure. If all she had to do was cop to stealing a truck or helping to steal it, she couldn't be in too much trouble. Hello. Here's Rohr again.

[Jerry Susi]

She had to know somewhere in the back of her mind that maybe they know more or want to talk to me about more than just a stolen truck.

[Keith Morrison]

Did she? In fact, as she settled in, young Ms. Reed seemed to view her visit to the police interview room as little more than a nuisance to be endured. In fact, this is her saying that very thing.

[Jessica Reed]

My grandma's coming into town and I kind of. I want to do this, but I want to do it a little bit faster. And I don't know if it's going to take forever.

[Keith Morrison]

Jessica, you'll recall, was all of 17. Did she wonder why the Wisconsin cop was joined by investigators from Nebraska? She certainly Seemed to.

[Jessica Reed]

I really want to know what Nebraska has to do with this. I don't even think we entered Nebraska.

[Keith Morrison]

Didn'T go to Nebraska, didn't know anything about a gold ring. She said she and Fester just stole a truck, she said, and fueled by pot and massive doses of over the counter cough syrup, went off in search of the ocean before running out of gas and money and leaving that pickup truck in Louisiana. Then the detective showed her a picture of a marijuana pipe, which, along with the gold ring, turned up at the stock farmhouse. And Jessica Reed looked and paused one of those oh, oh, caught me kind of pauses, because then she said, okay, I did steal.

[Jessica Reed]

I stole a whole bunch of money from somebody. I don't know who. I don't know where. I just remember stealing a whole bunch of money. And, yes, we did lose that pipe when we stole this money.

[Keith Morrison]

And then. Then Jessica just blurted it out at that farmhouse. Now, apparently to her surprise, in Nebraska, Greg Fester sneaked in through a window and let her in the back door in the kitchen. She said she found $500 in an envelope. And then she said they left, Swear to God. Oh, and the ring? Well, now, Jessica Reed admitted, yes, she found it in that stolen pickup, and she put it on. But then inside the night dark farmhouse, as they were making their getaway, she felt it slide off her thumb in the kitchen. Didn't stop to look for it. And where was all this going anyway?

[Greg Fester]

The reason I ask you is the two people upstairs in their bed were.

[Jessica Reed]

Shot to death, and you're saying that me and Greg did it.

[Greg Fester]

What I'm telling you is you're telling us you're in this house, okay? Did you not tell.

[Jessica Reed]

Oh, my God. I've never killed anybody, okay? I really didn't. This is so serious. Please.

[Greg Fester]

This is very serious. That's why we're here.

[Jessica Reed]

I took money. That's all I did. I swear to God, all I did was take money. I don't want to go to jail for murder because I didn't do it.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, somebody did it. And remember, two men, Matt Livers and Nick Sampson, had been arrested and were already in jail. Matt said they committed the murders, confessed in excruciating detail, and then Nick Sampson as his accomplice, though Nick denied it, which led to a puzzle investigators had to ask Jessica about.

[Jerry Susi]

Tell us who you were with.

[Jessica Reed]

I was with Reagan. That's all I was with. I was with Craig.

[Keith Morrison]

But wait a minute. She must have known Matt and Nick. So the investigators showed her pictures of them, and she said, no idea who they are. Never saw them before.

[Jessica Reed]

If they did it, I swear to God, there's dumb people.

[Keith Morrison]

And then the visiting investigators from Nebraska informed her that Nebraska's electric chair stood ready for her if she refused to cooperate. And Jessica reconsidered. She pointed to one of the photos.

[Jessica Reed]

This guy. I don't know why, but he does look kind of familiar.

[Keith Morrison]

That was Nick Sampson, who looked kind of familiar. And from there, as the hours wore on, Jessica's story shape shifted, as did the players, time and again, until it evolved eventually into a tale that began Easter night at Bulldog's Bar in Murdoch where Nick Sampson worked, Remember? And then they followed Nick out to the farmhouse where they stole the money. And Nick got crazy because all I.

[Jessica Reed]

Remember hearing in this house was bang, bang, bang, bang. And so I was like, that's not good. And so I freaked out and left because obviously that guy's up there killing somebody. I don't want to stick around and have to do this. Excuse my language. I'm sorry, but I don't know what happened up there.

[Keith Morrison]

And then, with that off her chest, Jessica looked again at the photo of Nick, the man she had claimed was the mastermind of the murders.

[Jessica Reed]

I know this sounds really dumb, but I wish he wouldn't have been a murderer.

[Greg Fester]

Why?

[Jessica Reed]

It was really hot. I thought he'd done one.

[Keith Morrison]

And with that, Jessica Reed's well planned day with her grandmother. In fact, all of her plans evaporated in a jail cell. Well, detectives focused next on Jessica's partner in crime, Greg Fester. Again, Jim Rohr. You're in that room. Tell me about the atmosphere in there.

[Jerry Susi]

Tense. I mean, when you're looking at something as serious as a double homicide and you know this is a prime suspect, you really want to see a good confession come out of this. So the case is done.

[Keith Morrison]

What was his attitude when he came in and sat down?

[Jerry Susi]

Greg's attitude was just. He was very quiet. Greg was never one that was very outspoken. He seemed to be in a little bit of a shell, scared, and I think rightfully so. But he was fairly, well, reserved.

[Keith Morrison]

Reserved. And to the surprise of no one, Greg Fester wanted to blame it all on Jessica.

[Matt Livers]

She kind of got me into going with her, just, you know, because that seemed like a good idea.

[Jerry Susi]

It's a womanly ways thing.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, it was all Jessica's idea, said Fester. Stealing the truck, the ridiculous trip across the country. And as for the murders in the farmhouse, well, after investigators showed him photos of Murdoch and Bulldog's bar Fester told a story of meeting a guy there who, he said, squeezed into their stolen pickup truck and led them straight to the stock's farmhouse. And then he said, then the guy went upstairs and just started shooting.

[Matt Livers]

He walked. He, like, kind of ran into the room, and he. I heard the scream. Shout again. We all run out of the house.

[Keith Morrison]

But then, well, surprise, surprise. Fester insisted the man who committed the murders was not Nick Sampson. And it wasn't even Matt Livers, either, who'd already confessed that he. He was the killer. No, Greg. Fester told detectives that it was some friend he'd communicated with by a text message. A guy he called Thomas.

[Matt Livers]

He wanted to go off some people.

[Jerry Susi]

Thomas wanted to go off some people.

[Keith Morrison]

Okay.

[Greg Fester]

Off Cameron.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, that was all just a little confusing, perhaps, but for the investigators from Nebraska, it seemed to be starting to come together. What was their sense of things after that first day of questioning?

[Jerry Susi]

I think sense of accomplishment.

[Keith Morrison]

Let's go out and have a beer. Time.

[Jerry Susi]

Well, it's. It's a reason to pretty much do.

[Keith Morrison]

A high five now. With Greg Fester and Jessica Reed in jail, detectives set about finding physical evidence to cross reference with their stories. And incredibly, once again, one little thing. Not a ring. That key piece of evidence found on the stock's kitchen floor. But this time, a cigarette box was about to turn the case upside down all over again. Next on Murder in the Moonlight. I killed someone. He was older. I loved it. I wish I could do it all the time. When you read the material that you found, what did you think?

[Jerry Susi]

This was so bizarre. That gives you a mindset of the type of person we were dealing with.

[Jessica Reed]

Foreign.

[Keith Morrison]

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. Porn. 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.