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- [00:00]
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Matt Murphy
On TikTok creators are sharing AI automation tips that save time and deliver better results. Tap to discover Try TikTok now.
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Yardley Smith
Hey Small Town Fam, It's Yardley. I want to remind you that if you want access to bonus episodes and regular episodes a day early and ad free and our community forum and other behind the scenes goodies, you gotta go to smalltowndicks.com superfam and then in the top right hand corner hit that little tab that says join and then listen to the end of today's episode for a sneak peek at today's new bonus episode. Hey Small Town Fam, it's Yeardley. How are you guys? I hope you're all wonderfully well and I hope you're ready for a cracking episode because retired Orange County Homicide DA Matt Murphy is on the microphone today and he brings us a murder case with a motive as old as time. It's often said that murder is committed for one of three reasons, love, money or pr. Of course there are also people who are just plain evil out there, but this is not one of those crimes. There are no perplexing nuances about the suspect's motives. In this case, it's just unremarkable, self serving greed. Matt, of course, tells this story with the energy and insight he's known for both on television and in his memoir, the Book of Murder. And while I would never tell you to sit back and enjoy a story about mur, I won't fault you for cheering on the good guys as they methodically follow the evidence and the crime comes spectacularly into focus. Here is the mark. Hi there, I'm Yeardley.
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Detectives Dan and Dave
I'm Dan. I'm Dave.
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Yardley Smith
And I'm Paul and this is Small Town Dicks.
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Detectives Dan and Dave
Dave and I are identical twins and retired detectives from Small Town usa and
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Paul Holes
I'm a veteran cold case investigator who helped catch the Golden State Killer using a revolutionary DNA.
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Detectives Dan and Dave
Between the three of us, we've investigated thousands of crimes from petty theft to sexual assault, child abuse to murder. Each case we cover is told by the detective who investigated it, offering a rare personal account of how they saw the crime.
- [03:14]
Paul Holes
Names, places, and certain details have been changed to protect the privacy of victims and their families.
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Detectives Dan and Dave
And although we're aware that some of our listeners may be familiar with these cases, we ask you to please join us in continuing to protect the true identities of those involved out of respect for what they've been through. Thank you.
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Yardley Smith
Today on Small Town Dicks. You guys are lucky because I'm here with the A team. I have Detective Dan.
- [03:47]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Hello there.
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Yardley Smith
Hello. Hello, you. Detective Dave.
- [03:52]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Hello, team.
- [03:53]
Yardley Smith
Hello, teammate. And we have the one and only Paul Holz.
- [03:57]
Paul Holes
Hello, all.
- [03:59]
Yardley Smith
Hello, Ph. And small town fam. This is such a good day. We love having this guy on the podcast. You do too, and he's all over your television. He's on your bookshelf. Today we have returning guest fun and fabulous. Retired senior deputy DA for Orange County Homicide Unit. That's a lot of words, Matt Murph.
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Matt Murphy
Fun, fabulous and spry.
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Yardley Smith
Spry. He's ever so spry, having landed in his current location at 4 o' clock this morning, which was not that many hours ago, my friends. And yet he is cracking on, as the English say. Matt, we're so happy to see you again.
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Matt Murphy
Happy to be back.
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Yardley Smith
It's always great. You're an author, you're on 2020 as a commentator, pundit, and how fun to be even in retirement than perhaps you were when you were working for the Orange county da. It reminds me of the one and only Paul Holes, who's the other busiest retired guy I know. And we are so excited and honored to have you sit down with us again today, Matt. So please tell us how this case came to you.
- [05:20]
Matt Murphy
So this is a really interesting one. So I rotated into the homicide unit of Orange county in 2002, and the way it works for your listeners is it's a vertical unit, which means you get assigned certain cities. So I had Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Laguna and Irvine. So any murders that happen in those cities were automatically assigned to me. So when a murder happens that night, you roll out, you work it up with the warrants, and you go out with your investigator and you work with the lead detectives. You file the case, you present the case in court, you try it, you do on the case, which is a way better way to do it. But another part of that gig that nobody really talks about is you also get the old cases for that department. So you get to review cold cases. And eventually they made me one of the two designated cold case deputies for the whole county. But before I did that, I got to meet with my detectives who had been in the unit for a couple of years. And I'd had a bunch of murder convictions under my belt at that point. And I don't know if my kids was low or what, but we went down there and we decided to start looking through dusty old boxes. And the boxes, it's like that scene from Indiana Jones, you know, where they. They go into the warehouse at the end and they. They file the ark away. It's kind of like that. You get into the evidence room, and some of these boxes have not been opened in sometimes decades. So this involved a case with a guy named Bill McLaughlin. And Bill McLaughlin was a really successful businessman who was in the pharmaceutical industry. And he was involved in the development of a new medical technology. New at the time, it was the centrifuge that separates plasma from blood. And as we've all seen, if you've been to the doctor for a PRP shot, whether cosmetic, or for a knee or a shoulder, and I've had both of those, that's the technology that he put together with his partner. It was revolutionary. It had huge impact on people being able to give blood. And it would remove the plasma, put the actual heme right back in. So it made it a lot more simple, a lot healthier, and they saved lives. And they also, in this process, became fabulously wealthy. So Bill McLaughlin, he'd been married for 30 years. He had three beautiful kids, and they lived in this bayside home in a place called Balboa Coves, right next to the Newport beach peninsula in Newport Beach, California. Newport beach is one of the wealthiest and nicest places in the whole world. I mean, it's the type of place where you have multimillion dollar beautiful mansions with its own private boat dock with a yacht next to it. I mean, it is really something. And I was responsible for all their murder cases. So when we started looking at this case, it got really, really interesting really fast. And essentially what happened was Bill McLaughlin, right before Christmas in 1994, somebody came into his house and shot him six times with a 9 millimeter handgun. And it was an automatic handgun, so all the shell casings were expended at the scene. And this person got away. And tragically at the time, Bill, his son had been struck by a drunk driver. His son, Kevin. So Kevin was like your quintessential Southern California kid. He was very handsome. He was a water polo player, he was a surfer. And he had this horrific accident where he was skateboarding. He got struck by a drunk driver.
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Yardley Smith
Did he live?
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Matt Murphy
He lived, but he had really substantial brain injuries that required round the clock care for a while. And then as he recovered, he had a permanent speech impediment. And he also had difficulty walking and moving. So he was home when this happened. He wasn't supposed to be, but he was home that night. And so the shooting happens. And by the time Kevin made it downstairs, the killer was gone. And he made one of the most heartbreaking 911 calls I've ever heard. Because, you know, his speech impediment, his speech was slow. He almost sounded drunk. And you know, 911 dispatchers, they deal with some really difficult people and some of them get a little jaded. And fortunately, this woman was wonderful dispatcher. She was so patient and it sounded like he said, my dog has been shot. Kevin was trying to say, my dad has been shot. And finally he articulated it well enough. And Newport was on the way there and they got there, so Bill McLaughlin was dead by the time paramedics arrived. And they were there very quickly, but he'd been shot six times. And they had the shell casings, they had the bullets, and they didn't have much of anything else. There was no DNA, there was no video, and the killer had gotten away. In addition to the expanded shell casings, there were two clues at the scene. There was a freshly cut key to the front door. It was from an Ace Hardware store. This is a gated community. There was a pedestrian gate that people could leave the community and walk out onto the bike path and over the bridge to get onto the peninsula. There was a community issued pedestrian access key that had been dropped on the mat. So one key is dropped on the doormat and the other is in the actual deadbolt for the door. So the killer had keys to the house. Now, it turns out Bill at the time was involved in some really contentious litigation with his former business partner. It was over royalties for this device and they'd had a professional falling out. And at the end of this very lengthy, very kind of nasty litigation between the two of them, the court had just given what's called an indicated ruling, where the court said, essentially, I'm going to rule in favor of Bill McLaughlin on this unless you guys can talk me out of it in the next hearing or whatever. So essentially that's the moment that everybody is looking for. You get an indicated that you're going to win and the court hadn't officially ruled yet, but it was impending. There were tens of millions of dollars at stake in this litigation. And this is in 1994. And it looked like Bill was going to win.
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Yardley Smith
What's Bill's former business partner's name?
- [11:50]
Matt Murphy
His name is Hal Fishel. And I should say right now that Hal Fishel had nothing to do with this murder. But he was initially considered a suspect of great interest. He instantly provided an absolutely rock solid alibi, and that was immediately verified by the police. And the as soon as they eliminated him as a suspect, they had nothing else. Now, Bill had been divorced a couple of years earlier, and he began dating this woman named Nanette Johnston. And she was much younger than he was. Bill was 54. She was in her mid-20s, but they had this relationship, and she had a couple of kids of her own that she moved into the house. Bill's kids, Kevin was still living there because of his disability, but Bill's daughters, Jenny and Kim, they're young adults, sort of moved out of the house. So about an hour after the shooting, as you can imagine, you know, every police car in Newport beach is outside this very nice home. A woman pulled up who identified herself as Bill's fiance, and that was Nanette Johnston. So she comes up and she's sitting outside. And people deal with grief differently. And I know the guys can attest to this. You never really know how a loved one is going to react when they find out that somebody close to them has been murdered. But even for experienced police officers, and this was a great bunch of no nonsense, hard hitting detectives, Nanette seemed to be very cold. And she didn't cry, she didn't react. She simply asked if she could get clothes to spend the night in a beach house that Bill had purchased on 54th street in Newport beach, which is some of the most expensive real estate in the entire world. So he owned a beach house down the road, and she wanted to get stuff for the beach house. Well, to bring her into the house, they would have walked her right by that key in the door and right by the key on the mat, because they hadn't moved those yet. They brought her in to get stuff, but before they let her do that, they processed the scene for an hour. So she sat out in her car for an hour. And this is back in the car phone. Days before, we all had cell phones.
- [14:00]
Yardley Smith
A big brick, right?
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Matt Murphy
This was one that was attached to the inside of the car.
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Yardley Smith
Okay.
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Detectives Dan and Dave
Only rich people had that.
- [14:07]
Matt Murphy
Yeah, only rich people back in the day. I Did not have one. But what was interesting later, when we looked at the phone records, that she sat out there for an hour knowing that Bill was dead. Nanette didn't call anybody, which was really kind of interesting. And again, people respond to grief differently. But she sat there in the car for an hour and let nobody know that Bill was murdered. Which is, you know, I think the guys would agree. We have a word for that. It's called a clue. So Jenny and Kim come home and they really love their dad. These are two of the nicest people I've ever met. They're just wonderful human beings and they love their dad. And as they start trying to untangle the financial situation and money had been set aside for Kevin's care, they discovered that there's no money in Bill's accounts. Now, he got paid royalties, but a lot of those were on hold because of this lawsuit. So when Kim and Jenny get into Bill's bank accounts, they expected to find, you know, a couple of million dollars liquid. And instead they find almost no money. And what they do discover is they find that there are a bunch of checks that were written by Nanette against a joint checking account. So there was his main account that the royalties for this business would come into. And there was also a joint checking account that Nanette had convinced Bill to open up. So what she was doing is she was transferring money from Bill's main account, where all the money was, into a joint checking account held by Bill McLaughlin. So basically, like if you write a check for a whole bunch of money, the bank may take notice. But if you're just transferring money in between your accounts, that's not the type of thing in the banking world that necessarily sets off red flags. And she had access to the joint checking account. So as the two daughters are looking through this, this is weeks after the murder, they see that Nanette had been taking tens of thousands of dollars from the main account, all culminating in a $250,000 check that was dated December 14, the day before the murder. So this is all kind of stacking up evidence wise.
- [16:40]
Detectives Dan and Dave
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- [18:02]
Matt Murphy
The police put in a net under surveillance. They're watching the beach house. And as they're watching the beach house, some dude pulls up in a black Nissan Pathfinder.
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Yardley Smith
And.
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Matt Murphy
And he's a big guy. He looks like Santa with this, like, sack of presents, Christmas presents, slung over his shoulder. And he walks into the beach house with all these presents. So they write down the license plate number, and it comes back to a guy named Eric Naposki. Eric Naposki played outside linebacker for the New England Patriots. And then he was a journeyman going through the NFL. He played for a time for the Dallas Cowboys. And he kind of bounced around. He injured his groin, and they say the NFL stands for not for long. And he was one of those guys, and he just couldn't quite make it in the NFL. But he was a physical specimen. He was about six'3, 250 pounds, not an ounce of fat on his body. So they see that he has an outstanding warrant because he FTA'd or failed to appear on some minor traffic violation. So they pull him over and they talk to him. Okay, so back then in 1994, the shell casings could be traced back to one of 17 different kinds of handguns. The 9 millimeter Luger round is one of the most ubiquitous ammunition or bullets that's manufactured in the world. And there were 17 possible guns that could have expanded the shell casings back in 1994. Technology. In this interview with Naposki, he says, and this is a little complicated here, so stick with me listeners. They ask him if he has any connection to firearms. And he originally says no. And then about half an hour later in the interview, they say, so just to be clear, no connection to guns. You've never owned a gun? He goes, no, no, no, I had a.380 that I bought when I was playing for Dallas in Texas. But I gave that to my dad, who got mugged in New York. So I sent that out to him. So he's got that gun. So then like, 45 minutes later, they're like, okay, so just the.380. And at that point, he's like, well, there was this nine millimeter that I had. Okay, now nobody knows that the nine millimeter is used in the murder. And so my very good detectives were like, well, dude, why didn't you tell us that an hour ago? And what's the story with your gun? And he goes, well, what happened was I do security. He's basically working as a personal trainer and basically a bouncer at the time. And he said in that interview, first he said that he and Nanette were friends. And by the end of the interview, turns out that they were boyfriend, girlfriend, which is also interesting that he didn't want to reveal that at the beginning. So going back to the guns, he goes, yeah, I did a security job where I hired my friend. Joe David Jimenez was the guy's name. Joe David Jimenez worked a security job for me, and I gave him the 9 millimeter to use, and he got it stolen out of his car. So I don't have the 9 millimeter anymore. And the.380 is with my dad in New York.
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Detectives Dan and Dave
Unreported. Stolen also, right?
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Matt Murphy
Nothing's reported stolen, right? Yeah, nothing's reported stolen. So my detectives do what detectives do, and they make a beeline for Joe David Jimenez, who's a real guy. And this is where it gets really interesting. So Jimenez says, yes, it's true, I did work a security job for Eric Naposki. Yes, it's true. He gave me a gun. And yes, it's true, I told him that the gun got stolen out of my car. Eric didn't pay me for the job. He stiffed me. So what I actually did is I sold the gun he gave me, and the gun he gave me wasn't a nice Beretta.9 millimeter, like he explained, which for the listener is that's a high quality firearm. He gave me a piece of crap Jennings.380, which is the gun that Naposki said he gave to his dad. He gave me this.380. Oh, and I can get it back if you guys want it. So he recovers the.380. And another thing that'll be interesting to the guys here, the ammunition. Remember, they recovered the bullets at the scene. The ammunition was federal Hydroshock ammunition. And for those who don't know, that is a vicious round. It violates the Geneva Convention. It's as if somebody with a really diabolical mind decided to make the most vicious bullet imaginable. What it is is it is a. It's a round that has a metal post in the middle, and it's designed to mushroom. So what happens is the copper jacket on the side of the bullet is designed to expand into a star shape.
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Yardley Smith
And.
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Matt Murphy
But the center punch, this post in the middle of the bullet will keep penetrating human flesh. So it expands, and it is designed to cause as much damage as possible. It's not cheap ammunition, and it's a very particular type. And when they Recover the gun, the.380 from Joe David Jimenez, it is also loaded with federal hydroshock ammunition.
- [23:05]
Yardley Smith
So Matt Jimenez's story about the gun which Eric loaned him checks out. And that proves that Eric was lying about giving the.380 to his dad. And since Jimenez has no connection to the victim, Bill, he basically drops off the suspect list and Eric stays at the top.
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Matt Murphy
Yep.
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Yardley Smith
And what happened to the gun you think Eric actually used to kill Bill?
- [23:33]
Matt Murphy
Maybe Eric threw the gun over the bridge. So we searched that frigging channel. We had the Navy search the channel. We searched that channel probably a dozen times. So I would think the same thing. He threw it over the bridge, and maybe it's still there. So also, as we looked into Nanette and Eric, their relationship, they met at a place called the Sporting Club Irvine, which was a fancy gym close to Newport Beach. And they met there sometime in, like, 1993, probably. They'd been having an affair for about a year, and she was getting increasingly brazen with him. Like, she started bringing him to her son's baseball games in Newport beach, you know, and kind of getting increasingly cocky about her relationship. And when you overlay her theft from Bill's bank account with her public appearances with Naposky, and she took him on trips, and they went to New York to visit his family. And, like, it was almost like as the relationship progressed, the thefts got more and more. The dollar amounts got higher, they got more frequent. When you overlap it, it's like, oh, and then she went to New York with Naposky, and we had pictures of that, and no, then she took Naposki to her sister's wedding. And, oh, there's a $17,000 check before that. You really see the progression of these two things happening. So it's almost like one of those algebra problems from when we were in school, right, with the two trains. One train leaves Albuquerque at 4 o', clock, the other leaves Chicago. Which one gets to Oklahoma first? You know, and by the way, I could never figure out the answer to that question because that's why I went to law school, because I suck at math. But it's like the same thing. Like, what is Bill McLaughlin gonna figure out first? That this woman is stealing from him or that she's cheating on him. And either way, he's a good looking guy with more money than God in Newport Beach. So she's gonna be out the door as soon as he figures either one of those things out. Unless, of course, he dies. Right? Unless, of course, something happens where he dies. So this is all known at the time, back in 1994 and in 1995. So my predecessors in the office look at it and they say, okay, well, Nanette stole from Bill McLaughlin so we can prosecute her for fraud and forgery. And Naposki clearly lied about this gun, but is that enough to charge him for this murder? And the decision back in the day was no. So Nanette wound up doing about six months for the fraud and the forgery. And Nanette and Eric remained together as a couple for about a year. She got about a million dollars from the life Insurance for Bill McLaughlin. She had a provision in his will, I think, for another $150,000. She inherited this convertible Lexus that he bought for her. And she had the right to live beach house rent free for one year, all pursuant to his death. So she's got all this money. And then while she's in custody, she also filed a lawsuit against his family. It's called a palimony suit. Because they've been together for a few years at this point, demanding half of his entire estate, which included the money that had been set aside for Kevin's care. Remember Kevin with his brain damage? So that was the state of the case when we opened up those dusty boxes, because it had been 15 years. And just to give you an idea of Jenny and Kim McLaughlin and what kind of people they were, Newport is an absolutely outstanding police agency. It really is. And in fact, one of the detectives I work with is named Joe Cartwright. He's the current chief of the Newport Beach Police Department. So all this time goes by and what they would do every year on the anniversary of their dad's murder is they would send cookies to the Newport Beach Police Department. That was their way of reminding them, don't forget about my dad. And so I bring in my Investigator was a guy named Larry Montgomery. Who? Josh Mankiewicz on Dateline.
- [27:29]
Yardley Smith
We love Josh.
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Matt Murphy
I love Josh, too. Josh dubbed him the Evidence Whisperer. Because, Larry, it's like some people were put on, like, there's a surfer named Kelly Slater who is. He was made by God to be a surfer, you know, or like Tiger woods was made to be a golfer. Larry Montgomery was made to be a cold case detective.
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Yardley Smith
Do you know him, Paul?
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Paul Holes
I do, actually. Larry and I crossed paths because of Golden State Killer. But at the time we crossed paths who was known as East Area Rapist. And when I was trying to pursue a lead I was given back in 1997 that the East Area Rapists may have gone down south and started killing. Ultimately, I landed on the desk phone of Larry Montgomery, who is handling the two Irvine cases, Manuela Hutton and Janelle Cruz. And Larry was the one who actually pointed me to the Orange County Sheriff's Crime Lab, who had DNA evidence from the Orange county cases. And in 2001, that's how I was able to link the Contra Costa DNA from the rapes of the east era rapist to the unsolved homicides of the original Night Stalker down south. So Larry Montgomery was critical in that process.
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Yardley Smith
Oh, wow.
- [28:46]
Matt Murphy
Yeah. So Larry Montgomery, he's a legend. So he starts going to work with Joe. And we worked the case up for almost two years as we're putting them all together. And this, I think, will be interesting to everybody. You know, first thing we did, of course, is we want DNA, right? Like all this technology, all this modern forensics, all that. So we submit the casings for DNA. And the crime lab laughed at me. And I didn't know this. And of course, we all know this. Now, all DNA burns off an expenditure casing because it's just too hot, right? And then it's like, well, maybe fingerprints. And of course, there are no fingerprints on them. So we got nothing there. So I'm hoping, you know, like, drumroll for this brass key that was stuck in the door. But another thing is bronze or brass, it interacts biologically like silver does the same thing. It kills bacteria, it kills biological material. So DNA will not typically remain on certain metals, including the metal that the keys were made out of. So we struck out again. No DNA on the keys, but we resubmitted the casings to the crime lab. Now that 17 guns that it could have been back in 1994 comes back to one gun, and that's a Beretta 92F, which was the exact same gun that Eric Lied about. So now I'm looking at this thinking I'm in the hunt because he's got a gun he lied about. And I've got an expert who will say that model was the gun that was used in the murder. And the only problem is, is that the Beretta 92F is also known as the M9. It was adopted by the US military as the sidearm for their officers for a couple of decades. And that is one of the most widely manufactured guns in the world. So we've got kind of rarish ammo, but I have a gun that is very, very popular. But we learned some more things. We learned that Eric Naposki, two weeks before our murder, got a job at a place called the Thunderbird nightclub on the Newport beach peninsula, which was about 130 yards away from our murder scene on the night of the murder. 130 yards is literally right across the channel right on the peninsula. And he was working that night and he took that job two weeks before the killing. So again, not enough to file maybe right then and there, but the pieces start coming together. And then Larry comes in my office one day and he sits down and he's like, we've got her. Referring to Nanette. We've got her. And there was a report written during the surveillance of Nanette Johnston back in 1994. Okay. And what it was was it was my friend Dave Byington, who wound up being the lead on the Tom and Jackie Hawks murder case, which we've talked about. And he was the cap of the Crimes Against Persons sergeant in Newport. He's just a wonderful detective and a wonderful guy, but he was an undercover narcotics officer. He was Young back in 1994, and he was assigned to watch the beach house with Nanette in it. So there's like a half page report that was in the middle of all these documents that Larry walked into my office with. And I'd read it before, but it just didn't mean anything. And it was basically like it was the night before the funeral. And Nanette had brought her children to Newport the night before the funeral, even though the father of her kids lived nearby in Southern California. She brought the kids and they spent the night in the beach house. And it was Christmas time. And it was, I observed suspect Annette decorating the Christmas tree. And I could see her two children inside. And that was it. It was just basically like a log entry pretty much of the surveillance. And Larry, Larry was a three dimensional thinker. And he goes, let's think about this. She's a horrible person who had ripped off a bunch of ex boyfriends. And like, she was with one guy when he came home from a trip to Vegas. She'd moved out and taken all the furniture and everything of value with her. Like, she had this very pronounced history of really pissing people off. Nanette had plenty of enemies. So if she was innocent, with her background, why would Nanette, as Larry pitched to me, why would she not think the killer might not have been there to get her? And that bill just got in the way. And Larry, being Larry, goes through all of her checks and found that she didn't change the locks on the beach house for 33 more days. And by all accounts, she was a devoted mother. So with a killer on the loose, with a key to one house, there she is. She brought her kids to the last place in all of Orange county where she's going to let those children be. If there's a killer on the loose that might want to kill her, who might just have a key to the beach house, and she didn't even draw the curtains. And then we start thinking, well, neither did Eric, Mr. Security Bouncer Guy. His head wasn't on a swivel either, and he walked into the same beach house. And that's one of those things that when I ultimately argued the case to the jury and you explain that it's not forensic science, it's not DNA statistics, it's not anything like that. It's good old fashioned common sense where a jury's gonna go, yeah, wait a minute. If she was innocent, why is she gonna be at a beach house where the killer might have access? And why would she be exposing her kids to that? And as I'm explaining that to the jury, ultimately I see one of them start to nod and then another, and before I know it, I'm stirring at 12 bobbing heads. And it's like, oh, I got this chick now.
- [34:20]
Detectives Dan and Dave
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- [35:32]
Matt Murphy
So we decide that we're going to charge Nanette and Eric. I'll share this with you guys. So Kim and Jenny have been waiting for 15 years for there to be justice for their dad and Kevin. After the murder of his father, he moved to Hawaii, where his mom moved after the divorce, and he's living with his mom. And Kevin tragically drowned trying to swim outside of their property in Hawaii. So this is just multi levels of tragedy for these women. And Larry and I called Kim to tell her that we'd filed charges, and this is good news for them. And they've been waiting all this time. And imagine that, too, as soon as they discovered the thefts. These women knew that Nanette killed their dad for money. They knew that. And by the way, that palimony suit that Nannette filed, they had to settle that to make her go away. So Nanette got money as a result of this and had gone on with her life 15 years. She got married to a guy in Orange county who's also very wealthy. She had a kid with him, and then she got married again, and she had a new husband who was completely in the dark who knew nothing about that she was ever a suspect or was convicted of fraud. And so meanwhile, these women, the daughters, have been waiting all this time. So we called Kim, and it was like, hey, Kemp, just wanted to let you know that we've filed charges on the case. And there's this pause, and she said, for what? And I said, well, for the murder of your dad. And then there's another pause, and she said, against who? And it's like, well, Ninette and Eric. And she cried and cried and cried and cried. It was one of my most poignant moments as a prosecutor in my entire career. So we sent out two teams. Eric had moved back to Connecticut, so we sent a team out to Eric to arrest him in the hopes that he would be willing to stiff a phone call in to Nanette. And still we don't have DNA. We never recovered the weapon. They both denied it. There's no smoking gun, so to speak. It's a collage of evidence against them. So we sent this team out to Connecticut, and they arrest Naposki and they take him into this Little room. And he was very, very angry about the arrest. And he was essentially yelling at Joe Cartwright and Larry Montgomery and they're like, look, we're going to give you a chance here. Do the right thing. Call Nanette and, you know, get her to admit what you guys did. He's like, you know, I didn't do this. You know, I didn't do this. Just adamant and aggressive. And he got so worked up, he had some sort of a medical event and they had to transport him to the emergency room. So then I give the green light at this point. So I go, okay, we got nothing out of them. Orange county team, go arrest Nanette. Now, there's a three hour time difference. They arrested Eric on his way to the gym very early in the morning. So now there's a knock on the door at Nanette's home. And it's a beautiful home in a place called Ladera Ranch. She's gone from husband to husband since this murder. Everybody that she's married has tons of dough. So she's been living literally this very privileged life of a stay at home Orange county mom with wealthy husbands from Bill McLaughlin forward. And she's done very well for herself. And we hit the door at about 7 o' clock in the morning before she does the time to put on any makeup or anything, right? And so now fast forward. Our junior undercover narcotics detective from 15 years before is now the great Dave Byington, who's in charge of the homicide unit at the Newport Beach Police Department. And he knocks on the door and he's also another guy who's really funny. And he says, hi, Nanette, remember me? And she says, no. And he said, well, I remember you and we're here to arrest you. And she says, for what? And he said, for murder. And she said, for which murder? And Dave says, well, I don't know how many you've committed, but I'm here to arrest you for the murder of Bill McLaughlin. And she tried to close the door on his foot. So she got hooked. And so her mugshot, the one that has gone out widely in the media, is nanette at her 7am worst. And I can't imagine my officers thought about that before they arrested this incredibly vain woman.
- [39:46]
Yardley Smith
I have a question for you, Matt. If Nanette has had several wealthy husbands in this relatively exclusive, not very big community, don't they talk and go, oh, you don't want to marry that one. One boyfriend died. She just runs through men like, you know, they're tissue paper. It seems odd to me.
- [40:08]
Matt Murphy
It has to be the question that everybody is thinking, right? And the answer is, so this murder happened in 1994. So that's pre social media. And also, Johnson was her married name. After living with that case for as many years, I can't even remember what her maiden name was. And she would change her name with every husband. So she went from Johnston to Nanette Packard to Nanette o'. Neill. And she was sentenced to jail for her fraud conviction as Nanette Johnston. And she didn't use that name anymore. But what's interesting, and it's a great question, because when we arraigned her, she, of course, was very active in her church, right? And one of my detectives get a word for it. Hippocrystians, right? So she's super active in her church. And our first hearing, There was about 50 people from her church who figured that we got it all wrong. Like, they know the real Nanette. And in truth, between Newport Police Department, Larry Montgomery, who, Paul, you know, best of the best when it comes to cold case stuff. And, I mean, we worked it for about two years. I knew everything about that woman, and I knew everything about Naposki. I'd listened to every interview a million times, and so did Larry. My cops were the A team on this. So all these people show up and they're pitching for bail. Now, this is a special circ homicide, so statutorily, Nanette is not entitled to bail. So they're like, please, your honor, let her out. And one after another after another. And at the end, the judge, who was a really good judge, turned to me and he said, Mr. Murphy, would you like to respond? And. And it's like, you know, what, you, Honor, all of these people mean? Well, as soon as they go home today and they start googling the history of this case and this woman's involvement, my bet is not a single one of them are going to show up at the next hearing. That was me inviting them, hey, folks, go do a little research on your girl here. And none of them showed up. Her husband and her daughter were the only people that came to the next hearing. So we tried Eric first. Eric had a team from New York that came out, and it's a guy named John Pappalardo, another guy named Angelo McDonald. Absolutely phenomenal lawyers. I mean, you can't ask for a better defense team. And we went at it. As the judge put it, this was what would be commonly known as a circumstantial evidence case. But the judge commented at the end, and he said, this is an Overwhelmingly compelling circumstantial evidence case against Eric Naposky. And the jury convicted him.
- [42:42]
Yardley Smith
How long were they out?
- [42:43]
Matt Murphy
Four hours, I think.
- [42:45]
Yardley Smith
Okay, that seems pretty fast.
- [42:47]
Matt Murphy
No, it was very fast. It was very fast. Yep. And he blamed Nanette the whole time saying, yeah, Bill McLaughlin was murdered, but it was Nanette that did it. It was Nanette that did it.
- [42:56]
Yardley Smith
Did Eric actually say, I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I didn't pull the trigger. I didn't know the plan. Did Eric try to absolve himself entirely?
- [43:07]
Matt Murphy
Another great question. You would have been a really good detective, you know that? I'm sure that's not the first time you've heard that Eric wanted to do a post conviction interview with us on that exact point. Okay, so that's a really astute question. So we gather up our everybody and Larry and I go to Theo Lacey jail in Orange County. So this is in between the conviction and the sentencing. And you know, after saying over and over again in his interviews, I had nothing to do with it. And it turned into, okay, okay, okay. Would you believe Nanette did it? And she introduced me to a hitman and we had lunch where they told me what the plan was and they wanted to use my gun. So I let him use my gun, but I had nothing to do with it. Eric essentially was trying to deny he was the shooter, but it's life without possibility of parole anyway because it was murder for financial gain. And in telling us this new story, he just made himself a co conspirator who supplied the murder weapon. Which by the way, is absurd in its own right because how many hitmen need to borrow your effing gun to go and commit a murder?
- [44:19]
Yardley Smith
I mean, come on.
- [44:21]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Yeah, and I like when the folks who are doing the hiring are like, hey, I have a gun that's been in the family for a long time. I'd like to give give this to you to use on a crime that's going to benefit me financially.
- [44:32]
Matt Murphy
Right, right. Just happens to be that it's a gunless hitman.
- [44:36]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Right.
- [44:45]
Matt Murphy
A vacation rental shouldn't come with surprises. It should come with verbo care and 247 life support. If the hot tub's broken, that's a verbo care thing. If my teenager starts calling me Leslie, that's a family thing, Leslie. Verbo Care and 247 Life Support. If you know you VRBO terms apply. See vrbo.com trust for details.
- [45:00]
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- [45:35]
Matt Murphy
On TikTok creators are sharing AI automation tips that save time and deliver better results. Tap to discover try TikTok now.
- [45:47]
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- [46:24]
Matt Murphy
So the jury convicted him and Naposki. Really, it's funny because so many of the people that the guys have arrested or that I've prosecuted over the years, they almost see you as just like a role player. You're sort of a cog in the wheel and they don't really personalize it much. Eric Naposki hated me. To this day, he frickin hates me. You know, as they were leading him away at sentencing, he turned around to me and he said, you fucking blew it, Murphy. You fucking blew it. And I got to say bye bye, bye bye. Yeah. So he's sentenced to life without possibility to parole. And then we tried Nanette next and her defense lawyer's guy named Mick Hill, who's a public defender and again as good a trial lawyer as they come. I mean, this guy was nails. And Eric tried to blame Nanette and say he was innocent. And then Nanette did the same thing and tried to claim that Eric was a jealous boyfriend. But we come full circle to that Christmas tree thing as well as a bunch of other things. But Nanette Johnston murdered her boyfriend. And if you look at it, it's the plot to an old movie with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner called Body Heat. For any of your viewers that haven't seen it, it's really, really good. Rich, wealthy guy has young beautiful girlfriend who on the side manipulates a young man who thinks that he's in love with her, along with a whole bunch of stories about how she's being abused or he's cruel or whatever it is into murdering the rich guy. And then the killer, the young man, gets stuck holding the bag and the woman makes off with all the money at the end. The only difference between this story and those is that we got her and him. And they're both convicted, they're both sentenced to life without possibility of parole. And hopefully my fair state of California doesn't ever release that woman.
- [48:19]
Yardley Smith
Can I ask you a question about this palimony suit that nanette brought against McLoughlin or against his estate? So McLaughlin, Bill McLaughlin didn't actually adopt Nanette's children. They weren't together for, you know, the seven year common law thing in California.
- [48:36]
Matt Murphy
Right.
- [48:37]
Yardley Smith
They weren't together that long. Is it just because they had this joint bank account that there was this assumption made that they were closer and therefore she deserved more than what she was getting? What's the basis of that ruling?
- [48:51]
Matt Murphy
She claimed, and this is great, right, because she literally killed the only person that could contradict it. She claimed that he'd promised her that.
- [48:58]
Yardley Smith
Oh, for God's sake.
- [49:00]
Matt Murphy
Right. That becomes a tribal issue of fact in the state of California. So that would survive a motion for summary judgment because there was evidence, theoretically, in the form of her testimony, that this was a promise that was made by him.
- [49:13]
Yardley Smith
I could say anything, though.
- [49:15]
Matt Murphy
Yep.
- [49:16]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Well, the really disgusting thing about this is she's already been tried and convicted of stealing from him, and she's still gonna get palimony. Matt, when you described Nanette getting a public defender for her trial.
- [49:30]
Matt Murphy
Yeah.
- [49:31]
Detectives Dan and Dave
After all of this, she gets a public defender.
- [49:34]
Matt Murphy
Yep. Unbelievable. When you're motivated by money and life, it's amazing how fast those people will burn through it, too. She bought it motorcycles and this house, and she burned through that money very, very fast.
- [49:48]
Yardley Smith
That's insane.
- [49:50]
Matt Murphy
Behind the scenes, Bill McLaughlin contributed to the world. He was a good man. His contribution to medical science was immense. He saved thousands and thousands of lives with this technology. And most importantly, he had a family who loved him. And he had his daughters who really, really loved their dad. And. And this woman entered their life and murdered him and put this whole plot together. And. Yeah. And fortunately, every once in a while, the good guys win. And this was one where I had absolutely excellent detectives who put this thing together. From Joe Cartwright, the whole crew at Newport pd and then the evidence whisperer, Larry Montgomery, and all Those guys came together and made me look really good by putting the case together for me.
- [50:36]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Matt, you mentioned Bill McLaughlin's daughters and having to sit there for 10 to 15 years knowing exactly who was involved in the murder of their father, but not ever having the resolution of the case. I imagine it was the same for the folks working the case. Back to put someone on surveillance right after a murder kind of gives you an idea of where the detectives, where their heads were the night of the murder to go. We should probably keep an eye on this lady. To have to sit on that kind of knowledge for the detectives and the prosecutors and then the victim's family. That's the stuff that when you had said it and you mentioned, hey, we're going to make an arrest on these two people, I got tingles because those are the moments that you take with you after retirement. Those moments when you're like, I just made a huge difference in their life and it feels good, is what I'm saying.
- [51:31]
Matt Murphy
Yeah. And on two different ways, right, Dave? It's like on one hand you're catching the bad guy and they're not gonna get away with it. And there really is a sense of justice whether there's a family involved or not. But there's an image that you guys can Google or the viewers can google. It's a photo by the Orange County Register of Kim McLaughlin with her husband Smokey. He had long hair, he's a surfer. And it's the moment that the jury came back in guilty. It's an image that when I'm down and things are against me and things aren't going well and. And you know, I will look that photo up because it is so poignant where you just see this look of utter relief and gratitude and Smokey is leaning back like, thank God, with this journey. And that's what a lot of people really, you know, they don't understand unless they've gone through it themselves. That multi generational ripple effect of what happens when somebody's murdered.
- [52:26]
Yardley Smith
One of my favorite things about doing this podcast, particularly with these cold cases, seeing all the puzzle pieces fit together. I always liken it to, you have a thousand piece puzzle and it either has no picture or they're all turned over so you can't see the picture. So that doesn't help you put any of the pieces together. And yet somehow you all figure out how to make it square. It's remarkable.
- [52:48]
Matt Murphy
Yeah, well, good detectives, they're the unsung heroes on these. And as a prosecutor, you're the guy that gets to stand up with the cameras and the lights and do PODC and, like, talk about the case. But I had some of the best police officers working for me on this.
- [53:04]
Yardley Smith
Thank you so much, Matt, for sitting down with us again. It's always a joy to see you, Matt.
- [53:09]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Great work. Always enjoy having you on. I appreciate that.
- [53:12]
Paul Holes
Now, Matt, you know, I think one thing that stood out as you were telling this case, was how close you got to the victim's family. You know, that really tells me that there's an empathy there. And I've always said when it comes to homicide investigators, the best ones have true empathy because now they're attached and they won't let go of the case. And to hear a prosecutor who's typically one step removed in most jurisdictions. And obviously Orange county has a different model, but that I think is compelling and it speaks volumes to who you are as a person.
- [53:46]
Matt Murphy
Oh, thanks. They send me cookies on my birthday every year. The cookies went from going to Newport, so now they're in my kitchen adding my waistline.
- [53:57]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Great to see you again. Again. Always great story, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
- [54:04]
Matt Murphy
Yeah, always fun. Guys, I'm a huge fan of the pod and, yeah, I can't wait to come back.
- [54:12]
Yardley Smith
Now for a sneak peek at today's new bonus episode.
- [54:17]
Detectives Dan and Dave
We haven't seen any video of the burglar leaving, and I think that's pretty telling. And I think that the FBI and Pima county sheriff's office is keeping that on the down low if there in fact is footage.
- [54:31]
Yardley Smith
Right. I did read a headline today. The sheriff is quoted as saying it could take days, weeks, even years to find who has perpetrated this crime. We'll never stop looking. That wasn't actually great news.
- [54:47]
Detectives Dan and Dave
Yeah, there's lots of issues with this case timeline wise. You know, my takeaway from this case is I don't trust any of the information that's come out.
- [55:00]
Yardley Smith
To listen to today's bonus episode and access hundreds more, go to smalltowndicks.com superfans and hit that little join button. Small Town Dicks was created by detectives Dan and Dave. The podcast is produced by Jessica Halstead and me, Yardley Smith. Our senior editor is Soren Bajan, and our editor is Christina Bracamantes. Our associate producers are the real Nick Smitty and Erin Gaynor. Logan Heftel is our production manager. Our books are cooked and Cats wrangled by Ben Cornwell. And our social media maven is Monica Scott. It would make our day if you became a member of our Small Town Fam by following us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Atmaltowndicks we love hearing from you. Oh, our groovy theme song was composed by John Forrest. Also, if you'd like to support the making of this podcast, go to smalltowndicks.com superfam and hit that little join button there. For a small subscription fee, you'll find exclusive content you can't get anywhere else. The transcripts of this podcast are thanks to Speech Docs and they can be found on our website smalltowndicks.com thank you speech Docs for this wonderful service. Small Town dicks is an audio 99 production. Small town fam. Thanks for listening. Nobody is better than you.
- [56:54]
Advertisement Announcer
Save on Family Essentials at Safeway and Albertsons this week at Safeway and Albertsons, Fresh cut cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple or melon medley bowls 24 ounces are $5 each and wild caught lobster tails are $4.99 each. Limit eight member price plus selected sizes and varieties of Doritos, Lays, Cheetos, Sun Chips and Kettle cook chips are $1.99 each. Limit for member price per Hurry in these deals won't last. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.