Dateline NBC Season 2026 Episode 1

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Transcript

00:00:00Ghosts can't talk, and I'm supposed to be dead.

00:00:04Travis County, 911.

00:00:06My husband got out of bed and my dogs were barking.

00:00:08There were shots fired.

00:00:10My dad!

00:00:11Oh, no, no!

00:00:13He had fallen under the kitchen table.

00:00:17I could tell that he wasn't alive.

00:00:19A family that was very close-knit, very happy, just exploded.

00:00:25We wanted to look at any potential motive that she would have.

00:00:28One is Ted's life insurance.

00:00:31How much are we talking about?

00:00:32A million dollars.

00:00:34I'm like, of course, it has to be the wife.

00:00:36It can't be that we're jewelers and it's a robbery.

00:00:39They liked shoes and cars and electronics.

00:00:44There was a pretty clear gap in data on both of their phones.

00:00:47This person is accessing the security system.

00:00:50Multiple times.

00:00:51A murdered jeweler, a tangled plot.

00:00:54I felt like a fool for not having seen it.

00:00:58Hello.

00:00:59Take off the blinders.

00:01:01I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

00:01:04Here's Andrea Canning with Ghosts Can't Talk.

00:01:21What happens that night?

00:01:23You know, it was just a normal evening.

00:01:24Just absolutely normal.

00:01:26You know, you eat dinner, you watch a little TV, you go to bed.

00:01:28Just, you're going to wake up and go to work the next day.

00:01:30Ordinary moments that together add up to a life.

00:01:34Corey Shaughnessy and her husband Ted had had thousands of nights like that.

00:01:39Did you usually say I love you before bed or anything?

00:01:41Wouldn't that be nice?

00:01:42You should do it every night because you just never know.

00:01:44The little things they took for granted on that quiet street in Austin, where they built their lives, raised their son.

00:01:54A tight-knit family that had everything until the early morning hours of March 2nd, 2018.

00:02:00So, you're sound asleep.

00:02:04Sound asleep.

00:02:04We're both sound asleep.

00:02:07And then we hear one of the dogs bark.

00:02:12It was around 4.30 a.m.

00:02:14Corey and Ted were the only ones home.

00:02:17Their 19-year-old son, Nicholas, lived with his girlfriend two hours away.

00:02:21Ted went to go see what was happening.

00:02:23He got up, got his gun like he did every single time.

00:02:27And usually it was because there was a deer in the backyard or there was a possum on the porch.

00:02:32As normal, he went to investigate and I turned over to go back to sleep.

00:02:36And I think I had just put my head back on the pillow when I heard the first shot.

00:02:43A gunshot.

00:02:44A gunshot.

00:02:46Right after that, there was a barrage of gunfire.

00:02:50It was very close.

00:02:52The gunfire, actually, it was in the kitchen, which was right off of our bedroom.

00:02:56And so I jumped out of bed and I grabbed my .357, which is always kept above my bed.

00:03:02As she rounded the edge of the bed, she saw something.

00:03:07I see a bright light come through.

00:03:10I had a Japanese curtain on the door.

00:03:12I see a bright light come through the curtain and I see the dog get shot.

00:03:16We had our second dog was laying at the foot of the bed.

00:03:20Their beloved Rottweiler Bart was killed instantly.

00:03:25I realized at that point that I'm next.

00:03:27And so I couldn't see a person.

00:03:32I just, because of the light that was shining on me, I could extrapolate where the person was.

00:03:39What was the light?

00:03:40What was being shined in your face?

00:03:42It was very, it was a very bright white light.

00:03:47Small, but very bright.

00:03:49Corey began firing.

00:03:50I do not remember the sound of my gun.

00:03:53I don't remember anything.

00:03:54I don't remember the feeling of the recoil.

00:03:56I remember seeing the muzzle from the opposite gun and I was expecting that I was going to be shot any moment.

00:04:04So this gun is coming in now in your direction.

00:04:06He's shooting at me and I'm shooting at him.

00:04:09And then Corey's gun ran out of ammo.

00:04:11I grabbed my cell phone.

00:04:13I figured if I could just get the line open to 911 that they might be able to, I don't know, maybe find my body or maybe, you know, send someone.

00:04:23So you're still, you're thinking I'm going to die.

00:04:26I knew I was going to die.

00:04:29There was no, I knew I was going to die.

00:04:33She ran into her husband's closet and called 911.

00:04:35I was expecting the door to open and to be shot.

00:04:40So I was just hoping that I could get the, the, the line open.

00:04:44Travis County 911.

00:04:45Luke, there was shooting.

00:04:47My husband got out of bed and my dogs were working.

00:04:50There were shots fired.

00:04:52Shots were fired for him?

00:04:54No, I don't know.

00:04:56Help me.

00:04:57You're helpless at this point because your gun has ran out of ammunition.

00:05:01So if they do come, you don't even have any recourse.

00:05:05That's it.

00:05:06Nowhere else to go.

00:05:08I don't know if I heard somebody moaning.

00:05:09I don't know if I heard somebody moaning.

00:05:12Yes.

00:05:13Okay.

00:05:14Help me.

00:05:15Help me.

00:05:16Does it sound like your husband?

00:05:18I don't know.

00:05:19Okay.

00:05:20Do you think you possibly shot your husband?

00:05:22I don't know.

00:05:25I'm dead.

00:05:27I didn't know if he was moaning and dying or it was a person that I had maybe killed or maybe not killed

00:05:35that wanted to kill me that was moaning and dying.

00:05:39Corey.

00:05:39Oh, my God.

00:05:40Corey, take a deep breath.

00:05:41You're doing a great job, okay?

00:05:42The police are on their way.

00:05:44My husband.

00:05:45Is it just you and your husband in the house?

00:05:50I don't know.

00:05:52I've got to go out there.

00:05:53I've got to go.

00:05:53No, no, no, no, no.

00:05:54Stay where you are, Corey.

00:05:55I want you to stay where you are.

00:05:56Were you aware enough of what was happening to think that if that's Ted...

00:06:03He's dying.

00:06:04And I'm not there.

00:06:06Yes.

00:06:06And he could be gone.

00:06:07Yes.

00:06:08You want to go save him or help him or...

00:06:10Or just be there when he dies.

00:06:11Yeah, or be with him and you can't.

00:06:13Fifteen minutes passed.

00:06:16And then finally...

00:06:18All right, ma'am.

00:06:18I do have you in a sound scene and they are going to be approaching your house, okay?

00:06:21Let me know when you're opening the door.

00:06:24Let me know everything that you're doing, okay?

00:06:29I'm...

00:06:30I'm...

00:06:31I'm...

00:06:32I'm walking out of my...

00:06:34Oh, Ted.

00:06:36Corey walked out of the bedroom and saw him.

00:06:38Oh, no.

00:06:39I can't...

00:06:40Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

00:06:42Ted, her husband of 30 years, dead on the kitchen floor.

00:06:47Go to the door, ma'am.

00:06:48Go to the door, Corey.

00:06:50Go to the door, Corey.

00:06:51What do you see?

00:06:53No, no, no.

00:06:55Corey, what do you see?

00:06:59There's nobody here.

00:07:01No police.

00:07:03Just silence.

00:07:04And whoever had just murdered her husband, out there, somewhere.

00:07:12Corey Shaughnessy had just survived a shootout in her bedroom, only to discover her husband, Ted, had been killed.

00:07:30Oh, God.

00:07:32He...

00:07:32She bolted to the front door, expecting to see officers.

00:07:39But...

00:07:40I opened the front door and there was no one there.

00:07:43I...

00:07:43I did.

00:07:44There was nobody here.

00:07:45My husband...

00:07:45Where are the police?

00:07:50They weren't there.

00:07:51They actually went to the wrong house.

00:07:53Travis County Sheriff's deputies mistakenly went to the house next door, one that looked like the Shaughnessy's.

00:08:01When they made it to the right house, Corey met them at the front door.

00:08:05What's her demeanor like?

00:08:06She is extremely emotional.

00:08:09Travis County Sheriff's homicide detectives, James Moore and Paul Salo.

00:08:14Hysterical is a good way to describe it, and rightly so, based on, you know, what the situation was that we were hearing about.

00:08:24I mean, the trauma that you just experienced.

00:08:27Your whole body, um, like every muscle starts clenching.

00:08:33It's really horrible.

00:08:36Deputies took Corey to a squad car.

00:08:39He's...

00:08:40Oh, he's fine.

00:08:41He's fine his entire life.

00:08:43No, no, no.

00:08:45In the moment, you just think about how your life is over.

00:08:49Everything is...

00:08:51It's like waking up on another planet.

00:08:56Scared, alone, and broken, she asked a deputy to call her best friend, Karen Tannert.

00:09:02Hello?

00:09:04You Karen?

00:09:06Yes.

00:09:06It's corny.

00:09:08What's the matter?

00:09:09Tannert is dead.

00:09:11No.

00:09:12Yes?

00:09:13No, where are you?

00:09:15Where are you?

00:09:15I was just in a panic.

00:09:17You know, what, how could Ted be dead?

00:09:19What's this?

00:09:20It was totally, it was a complete, I couldn't process that.

00:09:23How do you process that?

00:09:24That, you know, one of your two best friends is, is gone.

00:09:29Karen met Ted when she wandered into the Shaughnessy's jewelry store one day.

00:09:33Ted and Corey built gallery jewelers together over two decades.

00:09:37I was looking for a specific type of pearl, and nobody had it, so I went into his store.

00:09:42He just started up a conversation, and he got me what I wanted.

00:09:47Ted, she left with this ring and a new friend.

00:09:50It's rare that you have an instant connection like that with someone in a store.

00:09:55Ted's that way.

00:09:56Ted was genuinely interested in the motivations behind what people were doing.

00:10:01Ted was the face of the store.

00:10:03Corey was the appraiser.

00:10:04Her personality is very much more straightforward.

00:10:09She was welcoming, but very matter-of-fact.

00:10:12I think Ted was more comfortable with people on the whole.

00:10:15Tad Cole was Ted's best friend.

00:10:18They bonded over their love of cars.

00:10:20Ted was an avid racer.

00:10:22He especially loved go-karts.

00:10:24The more they hung out, the more Tad says he wished some of Ted would rub off on him.

00:10:28I kind of hoped I would get the Ted dust, because he was just very effusive and just easy to be around and very engaging.

00:10:42Tad and his partner Vicky say the Shaughnessy house was full of life and love.

00:10:47They both were masters in the kitchen.

00:10:49Once I got invited to their house for dinner, I was in awe of their culinary skills.

00:10:55I felt like I'd kind of hit the lottery in a sense that good friends that enjoyed cars and cooking.

00:11:03Most of all, the love in that house centered on Ted and Corey's only child, Nick.

00:11:09They seemed inseparable.

00:11:11They were like the three musketeers thing that people say.

00:11:15They did everything together.

00:11:17They just poured a whole lot of energy into being parents.

00:11:21Now, Corey had to tell Nick his father was dead.

00:11:25I need to call my son.

00:11:27Okay.

00:11:28How did he take the news?

00:11:29I don't remember.

00:11:31I guess I would have thought it was a complete surprise and shock.

00:11:37I couldn't really form words.

00:11:40Nick.

00:11:42Nick.

00:11:43Nick.

00:11:44Nick.

00:11:45He is not back.

00:11:46Ma.

00:11:47Dad's dead.

00:11:51Wait, what?

00:11:52Nick.

00:11:53Dad is dead.

00:11:54Nick.

00:11:56What?

00:11:57Nicholas.

00:11:58Just.

00:11:59I need.

00:12:00I need.

00:12:01I need you.

00:12:02Can you just.

00:12:04What happened?

00:12:05I'm shooting.

00:12:06Shooting.

00:12:07I don't know.

00:12:08I don't know.

00:12:09I don't know.

00:12:10Wait, what?

00:12:11Corey tried her best to explain what happened.

00:12:15Did you return to fire?

00:12:17Yes.

00:12:18I'm in the back of the car out front and the police are here and they want me to call someone.

00:12:22Let me know you're in College Station and I don't know what to do about it.

00:12:25I'm on my way.

00:12:2719-year-old Nick and his girlfriend of a year and a half, Jackie Edison, drove the two hours

00:12:31from where they lived in College Station to Austin.

00:12:35Along the way, Nick called his parents' friends just sitting down for their morning coffee.

00:12:39He called me and told me that his dad had been shot.

00:12:44I wasn't sure I'd heard exactly what I'd had heard.

00:12:48I couldn't figure that Ted was dead.

00:12:52I could not.

00:12:54That force of life that I knew to be Ted Shaughnessy was no longer that.

00:12:59They raced to Ted and Corey's house, the home where they had spent so many nights with the

00:13:05Shaughnessy family, was now a crime scene.

00:13:08When they arrived, Nick and Jackie were already there.

00:13:11Jackie looked over and saw us standing there and she ran full speed to me and threw her arms

00:13:19around me and wailed and cried and cried and cried and sobbed.

00:13:24My heart was broken for her and Nick.

00:13:27Karen was there too.

00:13:29How was Nick handling the news?

00:13:31He was really urgent and, you know, what was happening, what's going on, you know,

00:13:37has anyone told you anything?

00:13:41Investigators were starting to work their way through the house, looking for clues and asking questions.

00:13:48So tell me about between mom and dad, what's the relationship like?

00:13:57Just hours after her husband Ted was shot dead in their home,

00:14:13Corey Shaughnessy sat in a police interview room with her friend Karen, trying to process the horror.

00:14:18Will you be able to tell if I shot somebody?

00:14:23You know, I mean, that's something that we may be able to learn.

00:14:28Investigators were busy scouring the Shaughnessy house for evidence,

00:14:31focusing on the kitchen where Ted had been shot four times.

00:14:35They started inspecting the scene and noticed that there were two different caliber of shell casings

00:14:40in two different locations in the kitchen.

00:14:43The casings in the kitchen were from .40 and .380 caliber handguns.

00:14:48Are you thinking two shooters are involved in this?

00:14:51We are.

00:14:53As investigators made their way through the rest of the house,

00:14:55they found a potential point of entry, an open window in Nick's old bedroom.

00:15:01Ultimately, we discovered a print on the glass of the window.

00:15:06And there was something else.

00:15:08So just inside the window, there's a dresser there.

00:15:14And in the bottom drawer there was a box for a .40 caliber Springfield.

00:15:19But it's empty.

00:15:20There's no gun in there.

00:15:22Are you thinking that that box perhaps once contained the murder weapon?

00:15:27I mean, ultimately a possibility.

00:15:29I don't know how strongly we thought that at the time.

00:15:32The Shaughnessy's had a home alarm, but it wasn't set.

00:15:35Corey explained they only turned it on when they were out.

00:15:39But logging into the security system did provide some clues.

00:15:43The system detected that bedroom window being opened at 4.27 a.m.

00:15:47Then, 17 minutes later, the system recorded glass breaking right around when Corey says the shooting started.

00:15:54That meant the intruders had been inside the house for a while before Ted confronted them.

00:15:59Maybe looking for something to steal.

00:16:01I thought it was a robbery gone bad.

00:16:03You could have an extensive jewelry collection.

00:16:05Sure.

00:16:05Being a jeweler.

00:16:06Sure.

00:16:07We were flooded with neighbors trying to give us information on suspicious vehicles they had seen and information about the family.

00:16:15One neighbor named Kim lived next door.

00:16:18Like most of the neighborhood, she knew the family owned a jewelry store.

00:16:21And it's not cheap jewelry, just so you know.

00:16:24Like I'm talking, like when they transfer jewelry, like I'm talking hundreds to millions of dollars of jewelry.

00:16:35Are we keeping this stuff in their house?

00:16:38I don't know the answer to that.

00:16:40But Kim said she did.

00:16:42No, it wasn't the first time the Shaughnessy's had been the target of a crime.

00:16:45I think it was about, yeah, last year.

00:16:48Someone broke into their car.

00:16:49A year?

00:16:50Mm-hmm.

00:16:50Okay.

00:16:51Yeah.

00:16:52So while a burglary seemed like the most obvious scenario, detectives weren't taking anything for granted.

00:16:58At the scene, they asked Ted and Corey's son about his parents' relationship.

00:17:02And down at the station, they treated Corey like they would anyone whose spouse had just been killed.

00:17:28As a victim and a potential suspect.

00:17:33I was told that I had to give them my night clothes.

00:17:36I had on sleep shorts and a t-shirt.

00:17:39So they're looking at your clothes for possible evidence.

00:17:42Sure.

00:17:42And I had, of course, already been gunshot residue.

00:17:48They did that at the scene.

00:17:49Something about Corey's burglary gone bad theory didn't make sense to detectives.

00:17:54There were at least three cars parked in the driveway.

00:17:57It should have been clear to any intruder that someone was home.

00:18:01You see what I'm getting at is somebody, so somebody doing this at night, it's a very risky thing, especially in Texas.

00:18:09Because, you know, a lot of people in Texas own guns.

00:18:12I mean, it does happen.

00:18:14But, I mean, that's a big risk for somebody to try to pull off.

00:18:18I can't imagine anybody knowing us doing that.

00:18:21Later that day, Corey was free to go.

00:18:24But investigators weren't done talking to her or her son.

00:18:28Nick was about to reveal something that sent them in an unexpected direction.

00:18:33Her husband was cheating on her, and I looked into that for her.

00:18:36Ted Shaughnessy was killed in an apparent home invasion, a violent crime his wife, Corey, had mercifully survived.

00:18:57When did it hit you that Ted's not coming home, our life that we were planning for the rest of our lives is gone?

00:19:05Instantly.

00:19:06In the back of that police car.

00:19:08Probably before that.

00:19:09Probably in the closet.

00:19:11But I just didn't know it.

00:19:13Investigators spoke with their son Nick at the scene and later down at the station.

00:19:16He told them about an incident that happened years earlier in the 90s when his dad ran a pawn shop.

00:19:22He spoke of somebody actually robbing them back then.

00:19:28Nick said the armed robber came into the store and opened fire.

00:19:32His father fired back, injuring the robber, who was later sent to prison.

00:19:37And thought, well, maybe now they're out of prison.

00:19:40I don't know.

00:19:40You know, maybe they've come back because, you know, they got sent to prison for trying to rob the pawn shop that they owned.

00:19:47As revenge.

00:19:48Yes.

00:19:50A lead to follow.

00:19:52Detectives asked Nick if there was anything else he could think of and outspilled a curious story.

00:19:58He shared something about Kim, the neighbor investigators had spoken to hours earlier.

00:20:03Her husband was cheating on her, and I looked into that for her.

00:20:07Kim was going through a divorce, and we found out that she actually hired him to follow her ex-husband.

00:20:15I guess he was cheating on her, and she wanted proof.

00:20:18This is so bizarre.

00:20:19Nicholas the teenager, what, is he a private investigator?

00:20:22I mean, it just sounds odd.

00:20:23That's what she hired him for.

00:20:25So what did you find out?

00:20:26He was staying at a female's residence for a long period of time and saying he was elsewhere.

00:20:34When I had access to his car, I put a little tracker in it for her that she could see via the app.

00:20:45So she knew where he was, when he was, and so much he said, like, oh, I'm at the golf course.

00:20:52Well, no, you're at her house.

00:20:55That sort of thing.

00:20:55Now, I do not know if he ever found that out, that I was responsible for that.

00:21:02If the husband had found out, Nick wondered if he'd gone to his parents' house to retaliate against him.

00:21:09That was one possibility.

00:21:11Investigators also had to consider this.

00:21:14Maybe Kim had been the intended target.

00:21:16Was this a potentially a hit, you know, somebody trying to do something to her that went to the wrong house?

00:21:25The neighborhood's very dark.

00:21:27The homes look somewhat similar at night because the street is not lit.

00:21:31So perhaps the husband was trying to have his wife killed and whoever he hired went to the wrong house?

00:21:38Right, potentially.

00:21:39And there were all those cars in the Shaughnessy's driveway.

00:21:42One was a white Mercedes.

00:21:44Kim also drove a white Mercedes.

00:21:47And when deputies responding to the shooting had initially gone to the wrong house, they'd gone to Kim's.

00:21:53So maybe if the police could go to the wrong house, maybe a killer could go to the wrong house.

00:21:58I didn't think it was necessarily that big of a stretch.

00:22:01Detectives needed to go back and talk to Kim.

00:22:03Hey, call.

00:22:04Say hello.

00:22:04Yeah, we've talked on the phone.

00:22:06Hi.

00:22:06They asked about her relationship with Nick.

00:22:09Kim said she knew him well.

00:22:10He'd helped her out with babysitting, dog sitting, house sitting when she was away.

00:22:15How about any, like, investigative kind of things?

00:22:21Um, okay, yes.

00:22:24That's not really investigative.

00:22:26But I did have him follow my...

00:22:29I forgot about that.

00:22:30Okay.

00:22:31My seem-to-be ex-husband.

00:22:34Because, well, it's interesting.

00:22:37Probably more information than you want to hear.

00:22:39Not so.

00:22:41Detectives wanted to hear more, even as her housekeeper cleaned in the background.

00:22:45So, yeah, I said, and I told him that was, when he leaves, I want you to call him, and I said, I know where he's going.

00:22:52Mm-hmm.

00:22:53And he did.

00:22:54Okay.

00:22:55So that's how I got my information.

00:22:57Okay.

00:22:58Was Nick compensated for that?

00:23:00Yeah.

00:23:00Okay.

00:23:01All I needed was just an address.

00:23:03Right.

00:23:04And I'm like, that's all I want.

00:23:06I don't want you to do anything else.

00:23:07I don't want you to go to that person's door.

00:23:10I don't want a problem.

00:23:11I just want an address.

00:23:12So there was more than one occasion when you had a call on the case?

00:23:18So maybe two or three times.

00:23:20So what did Kim say?

00:23:21Did she think it could be the wrong house?

00:23:24That she was maybe a target?

00:23:25She didn't fear for her life from him.

00:23:27According to her, he wouldn't gain anything by her being dead.

00:23:31And so she did not, she herself did not think that he would have done anything like that.

00:23:37Yeah, he's a liar for sure.

00:23:39There's no doubt about it.

00:23:41I don't think he's capable of that.

00:23:43Okay.

00:23:44And did your husband, did he know this?

00:23:47Like, did he end up and find out that Nick had done this or anything?

00:23:51No.

00:23:52No, I never said a word.

00:23:54That lead fizzled out, which brought them back to the woman at the center of it all, Corey.

00:24:00They discovered none of the bullets from her gun had hit Ted.

00:24:04Still, was she somehow involved in the home invasion she survived?

00:24:08We wanted to look at any potential motive that she would have.

00:24:12One is, you know, being the beneficiary of Ted's life insurance.

00:24:17How much are we talking about?

00:24:18A million dollars.

00:24:19Not to mention the business, the house.

00:24:23There's a lot of money at stake.

00:24:25There is.

00:24:26I mean, obviously the jewelry store and the property was worth a lot of money.

00:24:30So it was back to the crime scene.

00:24:32And that question, where was the Shaughnessy's missing gun?

00:24:49Days after her husband's murder, Corey Shaughnessy returned home.

00:24:57What were those nights like when you're back in the house so soon after and this is the house where your husband was just murdered?

00:25:03Crazy.

00:25:04Just absolutely crazy.

00:25:06How do you even go to sleep?

00:25:07You don't.

00:25:07You stay up all night and you don't go to sleep until it gets, until the sun comes up.

00:25:14And then you set up zones in your house and you set up, you set up lines of fire so that you know that if someone comes for you, you'll know where you're supposed to be shooting.

00:25:26And it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not good.

00:25:33Nick was there too.

00:25:35He and his girlfriend Jackie packed up their apartment in College Station and moved in with Corey.

00:25:40Seemed like the natural course of events.

00:25:42Seemed like they were maybe circling the wagons to keep the family together and find strength in doing that.

00:25:51For Corey, having her son close provided much needed comfort.

00:25:57After all, Nick had been their miracle child.

00:26:00Had you and Ted really wanted to be parents?

00:26:02Yes.

00:26:03Yes.

00:26:04I was having difficulty staying pregnant and I didn't want to do that anymore.

00:26:12And I came to the decision that it wasn't important for me to give birth to a child.

00:26:18I wanted to be a mother.

00:26:19And so that led to me being interested in adopting a baby.

00:26:24Those who have been through adoption will tell you the process isn't easy.

00:26:29But the desire to be a parent, to love a child is so strong you'll do anything.

00:26:33Go anywhere.

00:26:35For Corey and Ted, that meant jumping on a plane to Ukraine.

00:26:38They said, well, we need to have you here tomorrow.

00:26:40I can't even imagine your feelings in that moment.

00:26:43It's crazy because you're going to go and meet your child.

00:26:45When Corey and Ted got to Ukraine, they went to the adoption facility and were handed a little boy.

00:26:51He was blonde and he had hazel green eyes like mine.

00:26:55And he was just the cutest little thing.

00:26:58And he was, what, 16 months old?

00:27:02I think so.

00:27:03Already walking?

00:27:04Yes.

00:27:05But still that really cute age.

00:27:08Yeah.

00:27:08Chubby little cheeks and chubby little hands and chubby little feet.

00:27:11Did you just melt the moment you saw him?

00:27:13It was just instant love.

00:27:14Just instant.

00:27:16How was Ted as a dad?

00:27:17Oh, God, excellent.

00:27:19They were attached at the hip.

00:27:21So, you know, if Ted was doing something, Nicholas was right there with him doing it.

00:27:26He and Nicholas both actually did a lot of kart racing and they did quite well.

00:27:33He enjoyed that very much.

00:27:34And Nicholas took to it just like?

00:27:36Absolutely.

00:27:36Just like his dad?

00:27:36Just like a fish to water.

00:27:38They loved racing together.

00:27:41Now, Nick and Corey had to learn to go on without Ted.

00:27:45Investigators were working hard to find Ted's killer.

00:27:48They had a few leads, like the person who went to prison after trying to rob the pawn shop at gunpoint years earlier.

00:27:55Did you look into that person?

00:27:56We did.

00:27:57And, I mean, it was so long ago.

00:27:59We had no information that this person was anywhere around at the time of this incident.

00:28:06Detectives had been investigating Corey's theory that the attackers intended to rob the Shaughnessy's.

00:28:13But there were some big questions.

00:28:15Did you have to wonder why, you know, if they did come there to rob the house, why leave Corey?

00:28:22You know, why not take what they could or get her to open the safe?

00:28:25Right.

00:28:26We, that was something very interesting to us.

00:28:30They knew from the alarm system logs that a window opened 17 minutes before the shooting occurred.

00:28:35But there was no indication of them going through anything prior to the shooting.

00:28:40We knew that they had made their way through more than half the house before the shooting occurred.

00:28:45Was there anything valuable stolen from the Shaughnessy home?

00:28:49There was nothing stolen from the Shaughnessy home.

00:28:52Detectives were still trying to track down the .40 caliber handgun from that empty box in the Shaughnessy house.

00:28:59They believed two shooters were involved and wondered if one of them had used the Shaughnessy's gun in the crime.

00:29:04They started questioning me about a firearm that we owned.

00:29:08Do you know where it is?

00:29:08I said, yes, I do.

00:29:09I thought that it was at the jewelry store in the bathroom on a shelf because we would keep guns in certain places for protection and whatnot.

00:29:19And so she allowed us to go with her to the jewelry store so we could look to see, is there a .40 caliber gun there?

00:29:28And we got there. It was not there.

00:29:30Corey brought detectives to the house to look for it there.

00:29:33She was confident it would turn up somewhere and then police could move on.

00:29:37That would seem really important, except that we had a lot of guns and there were gun cases in a lot of closets and a lot of drawers in the house.

00:29:46But they found that one.

00:29:48At the house, investigators asked Nick if he had any idea where it was.

00:29:52He told them his dad had let him borrow it, but he'd returned it to his father.

00:29:57Yeah.

00:29:58I took it to College Station and then father wanted it back.

00:30:01We have no idea where he may have put it or anything.

00:30:05Father didn't tell me any intentions with it.

00:30:07Corey says the whole line of questioning started to feel a little off.

00:30:11And then this happened.

00:30:13One of the other detectives came in and I remember her telling me,

00:30:18the person that did this might be closer to you than you know.

00:30:24Hmm.

00:30:24And so then I'm thinking, okay, they're looking at me and they're looking at Nicholas.

00:30:30Does that scare you?

00:30:33You're being looked at for murder?

00:30:36Simultaneously terrified and enraged.

00:30:39Corey wanted to protect her son and get justice for her husband.

00:30:43I'm like, why aren't you looking for the people that did this?

00:30:46Of course, it has to be the wife or the son because we're the family.

00:30:50It can't be the giant pink elephant that we're jewelers and it's a robbery.

00:30:53Corey hoped investigators would be able to cross her and Nick off their list soon.

00:30:59And she tried to go about resuming life without her husband.

00:31:03She worried about the future of the business they built together.

00:31:06Unsure if she could carry on without the man who had charmed and befriended customers.

00:31:11Expenses were mounting and I thought I was going to close the jewelry store.

00:31:14She filed to collect Ted's million dollar life insurance policy.

00:31:18But the check didn't come.

00:31:20So she called the company to ask about it.

00:31:22And when I asked her, you know, where's my money?

00:31:27She said, well, I'm sorry, we can't release that because the police have told us that they suspect foul play.

00:31:33And at that point, that means me because I'm the beneficiary.

00:31:37Well, because yes, of course there's foul play.

00:31:40Right.

00:31:40But that means specifically me.

00:31:43And so now I knew if I had any doubt before that I was a suspect, now I know that I'm a suspect.

00:31:53Corey no longer felt like the investigators were on her side.

00:31:56And they weren't sharing everything they knew, like whose fingerprint they found on that open bedroom window.

00:32:02So a check of the database revealed a match to a particular person.

00:32:07Who was it?

00:32:13Corey Shaughnessy was struggling to come to terms with the loss of her husband while her family was being scrutinized by law enforcement.

00:32:28And in the middle of all that, just days after the shooting, her world shifted again.

00:32:34Nicholas and Jacqueline came to you with some big news.

00:32:37They came to me and they said, we have something to tell you.

00:32:40And they told me that they had gotten married.

00:32:44Married nearly eight months earlier, in the summer of 2017.

00:32:48Corey knew Nick and Jackie were serious, but they were so young, just 18 when they got married.

00:32:54She remembered the first time Nick brought Jackie over.

00:32:57Do you all instantly take to each other?

00:33:02Ted thought she was awesome.

00:33:03He really liked her.

00:33:07Over time, Jackie even started to call Ted, dad.

00:33:11You were a little slower to warm up to Jacqueline?

00:33:14I think so.

00:33:15There was nothing about Jackie that I disliked.

00:33:19It's just that, you know, it's my little boy.

00:33:23What do you think it was that clicked for those two, for Jacqueline and Nicholas?

00:33:27I think they liked a lot of the same things.

00:33:29They liked shoes and cars and electronics and things.

00:33:34I think they liked to talk about going places, going on vacations and how the future was going to be.

00:33:41Even though Nick and Jackie were already married, Corey decided to help her son make a formal proposal.

00:33:47I had told Nicholas to pick an engagement ring setting out of the case.

00:33:52And Ted and I had kept my mother's original engagement diamond aside for him to give to whoever at some point.

00:34:00So we had that set into a ring for her and he gave her that.

00:34:05You decide to throw them an engagement party?

00:34:07Jackie wanted to have an engagement party and everything had been so awful.

00:34:13Planning a party was a welcome distraction amidst their heartache.

00:34:17They were family, determined to find their way through the pain together.

00:34:22Once I realized that she is my daughter-in-law, well, I'm going to love her like a daughter.

00:34:29And Corey did just that in a very Shaughnessy way.

00:34:33She gave Jackie a diamond pendant.

00:34:34I gave her a half-carat diamond solitaire.

00:34:38It was also a way of welcoming her into our family and telling her that she was welcome.

00:34:44There was another silver lining.

00:34:47Initially, Corey didn't see a way to keep the jewelry store open without Ted.

00:34:51She didn't think Nick had a keen interest in the family business.

00:34:55Instead of enrolling in college like Jackie, he was trying to make a living day trading stocks.

00:35:00But now, Corey had an idea.

00:35:02I had gone to Nicholas and said, can you suspend your day trading or maybe do that on the side?

00:35:08And then we could keep the store open.

00:35:11Jackie had taken the rest of the year off from school.

00:35:13I thought, well, if she helps us this first year, maybe she could work.

00:35:18And they were on board with doing that.

00:35:20They were excited to do it.

00:35:21That must have made you happy.

00:35:22I thought we could do it.

00:35:24I thought with his help, I could do it.

00:35:27So Nick and Jackie stepped up and the store stayed open.

00:35:30But what Corey wanted even more was to know who killed Ted.

00:35:35She spoke to detectives, but they just seemed to have more questions for her.

00:35:39And I started realizing that a lot of those questions were gotcha moments, like aha moments.

00:35:45Like they were trying to set me up as something.

00:35:49She didn't trust the investigators to solve her husband's murder.

00:35:52She still thought they seemed fixated on her and Nick, rather than finding the real killers.

00:35:58I assumed at that point that they were looking at him for the very reasons they were looking at me.

00:36:02It was easy.

00:36:03They would always send unmarked cars by the house, which looked exactly like unmarked police cars by the house.

00:36:12So I figured they're going to do overt looking at us.

00:36:15They're also probably doing all other kinds of things.

00:36:17And that was fine with me, because I had nothing to hide.

00:36:22Corey replayed the night of the murder over and over, looking for clues.

00:36:26You and Nicholas and Jacqueline actually did reenactments in the house?

00:36:30We did.

00:36:31I was, no one would talk to me about how things really happened.

00:36:36So I took it upon myself to figure it out.

00:36:39I couldn't figure out what the light source was that was shining at me, because it wasn't a laser sight from a gun.

00:36:46It was a bright white light.

00:36:48I had gotten a flashlight and a pen light to try and see if I could recreate the kind of light that it was.

00:36:54What did it appear to be?

00:36:55And it wasn't until Jackie said, oh, was it like this?

00:36:58And she pulled up her phone and used her phone, and it was exactly like that.

00:37:03So a cell phone light.

00:37:04It was a cell phone light.

00:37:05She finally understood what she saw that night.

00:37:08Not that it made anything better.

00:37:11Meanwhile, the real investigators were holding their cards close to the vest.

00:37:15They weren't just looking at the family.

00:37:17They were sorting through whatever evidence they had.

00:37:20Remember that fingerprint they lifted from the open window?

00:37:23The killer's likely point of entry?

00:37:25A check of the database, it revealed a match to a particular person.

00:37:30Who was it?

00:37:30So we learned that he was actually an employee of the Renewal by Anderson company, and what his job was, he assembled windows.

00:37:42Oh, so here you are thinking you might have this potential lead, and it's the window guy.

00:37:47So maybe the print was just left over from the factory.

00:37:51To be sure, detectives did some digging.

00:37:53We looked at all sorts of information about him.

00:37:56We got with the employer.

00:37:57It turned out the employee didn't live in Texas.

00:38:00He was all the way up in Minnesota.

00:38:02And we had no indication he'd ever even left Minnesota.

00:38:06A dead end.

00:38:08But there was something else about that window, something Nick mentioned to detectives.

00:38:13He had talked about that he historically had used that window as a door.

00:38:18That was his own personal door in and out of that house.

00:38:23And Nick said he wasn't the only one.

00:38:25He offered up a name.

00:38:27So now you have someone, another person, who knows about that point of entry into the house.

00:38:34Yes.

00:38:34Those closest to Corey Shaughnessy knew she was in agony after Ted's murder.

00:38:55And they saw how she refused to let herself crumble under the weight of it all.

00:38:59She's got to be one of the strongest people I've ever met.

00:39:02That's not to say that she wasn't feeling inside.

00:39:06But how she carries herself and gets through things, I can't imagine.

00:39:14Corey without Ted was not, I mean, she is an individual.

00:39:19But, you know, they were such a unit.

00:39:21They were each other's friends.

00:39:23All those years together and what a great relationship you had and this life that you'd built and how it was just gone in a matter of seconds.

00:39:34Absolutely.

00:39:35Everything that you have can be gone in a matter of seconds.

00:39:38It's really important that everybody knows that.

00:39:39As Corey grieved, detectives were running down a curious leap they'd gotten from Nick.

00:39:47He said he often used his bedroom window to go in and out of the house.

00:39:51The very same window investigators now believe the killers used on the night of the murder.

00:39:56Nick said he usually locked the window, but not always.

00:39:59I mean, I may have forgotten.

00:40:02I do not know, like, especially if I came crawling, stumbling through the window drunk one night.

00:40:06And what we asked him was, well, is there somebody else that knows about this window that you use as a door?

00:40:15And he mentioned his friend, Spencer.

00:40:17Spencer was Spencer Patterson, Nick's best friend.

00:40:21He didn't have a lot of friends, but he had, you know, he had his one good friend, Spencer.

00:40:26Spencer had even officiated Nick and Jackie's secret wedding.

00:40:29Naturally, police wanted to know more about him.

00:40:32He's not as fortunate as I to have parents that will help him, like mine are.

00:40:38So he worked at his home depot job, hating every second of his money.

00:40:42When he's not there, he's studying for his job at his school at Texas State.

00:40:48So a kid who didn't seem to have much money and knew how to get into the Shaughnessy house.

00:40:53Nick also told them Spencer knew where his parents' safe was.

00:40:57Do you track down Spencer?

00:40:59We do.

00:41:00Hey, is this Spencer?

00:41:03Yes, sir.

00:41:03Hey, this is Detective Morham with Travis County Sheriff's Department.

00:41:06How are you doing?

00:41:07I'm getting better.

00:41:09Detectives first talked to Spencer over the phone.

00:41:12They asked him about the last time he was over at the Shaughnessy house.

00:41:15It was more than like a month ago.

00:41:18Can you tell me, like, how that night went?

00:41:21I mean, that night was fun.

00:41:23We had talks.

00:41:24I told them about my work.

00:41:25Everyone was just in a great mood.

00:41:27I mean, we just had dinner.

00:41:29We had some drinks.

00:41:30We were having fun.

00:41:32We were just getting along just like a normal family, really.

00:41:35You guys never left the house that night?

00:41:38Not that night, no.

00:41:39But on previous nights, we usually would go out to the barn.

00:41:43The barn was in the Shaughnessy's backyard.

00:41:46Nick and Spencer would have a few beers there late at night.

00:41:48So, when y'all would go to the barn, can you tell me about that?

00:41:52How would y'all leave the house and get back in and all that?

00:41:56Usually we'd go out through one of Nicholas' bedroom windows.

00:42:00Okay.

00:42:02Do you remember the last time y'all did that?

00:42:06No, not really, no.

00:42:08It was recent, but not like in the last month, no.

00:42:13Detectives kept the call with Spencer brief, but they still had questions.

00:42:16They hadn't located either of the murder weapons.

00:42:20They were still looking for the Shaughnessy's .40 caliber handgun,

00:42:24and Nick told them about another weapon, a .380 he no longer had.

00:42:28Nick said he had given it to a friend.

00:42:30That friend was Spencer.

00:42:34We knew he was going in and out of that window,

00:42:36and that Nick had also given him a .380 gun.

00:42:40.380 was used in the murder?

00:42:43Yes.

00:42:43So detectives went back to talk to Spencer again, more than once.

00:42:49Spencer was being, for the most part, he was being forthcoming,

00:42:52but we could tell that he was holding back some information.

00:42:56They searched his home, took his cell phone,

00:42:59and of course they asked him about that gun.

00:43:01The .380 ended up, we ended up locating that in Spencer's car.

00:43:05It seemed that Spencer knew more than what he was telling us.

00:43:15It appeared Spencer had the means, a possible motive,

00:43:19and maybe even one of the murder weapons.

00:43:22Had investigators found one of the shooters?

00:43:24Travis County Sheriff's investigators were looking closely at a possible suspect

00:43:44in Ted Shaughnessy's murder, Nick's best friend, Spencer.

00:43:48We definitely looked at him as potentially he was the person firing the .380.

00:43:55So we did collect that weapon from him, and we did submit it for testing.

00:44:01Detectives were also trying to figure out where Spencer was at the time of the murder.

00:44:05For that, they turned to his cell phone.

00:44:07That's where the cell phone records come in as well,

00:44:11as part of us trying to pin down his location.

00:44:14The cell records appeared to place him at home during the murder.

00:44:18But couldn't he have just left his phone at home?

00:44:21He could have, ultimately, yes.

00:44:23The big question was the gun that Spencer handed over to investigators,

00:44:27the same caliber as one of the murder weapons.

00:44:30When the ballistics test came back...

00:44:33That weapon was not used in that murder.

00:44:35So just a coincidence that it was the same caliber?

00:44:37It just was a coincidence, yeah.

00:44:38And that it was given to him by Nicholas.

00:44:40Right.

00:44:41There was nothing to link Spencer to the crime.

00:44:44He ultimately was cleared as a suspect.

00:44:46But the lead about Spencer wasn't a complete dead end.

00:44:50Detectives couldn't help but note who took them down that path.

00:44:54Nick.

00:44:55In fact, since day one, they thought Nick had seemed a little too eager to help.

00:45:01It was like he was volunteering information for us.

00:45:04You know, it almost seemed to me like he didn't think we were asking the right questions.

00:45:10And so he would interject something.

00:45:13It started in the early hours of the investigation at the crime scene.

00:45:17Nick told police about his parents' home security system.

00:45:20He said he could access it from an app on his phone.

00:45:23He also wanted them to see his security system back at the apartment he shared with Jackie

00:45:35in College Station.

00:45:36It's something that might be able to help you all.

00:45:38I mean, if you want to rule her and I, my home security system, I arm it every night.

00:45:42I have cameras that show my entry and exit that I can do via my phone, if that helps.

00:45:47It seemed like an odd thing to be thinking about, right after his father was murdered.

00:45:52You know, I armed like 12, 30 or so after we were watching TV and went to bed.

00:45:59To Detective Moore, Nick's whole demeanor seemed just odd.

00:46:03I observed him starting to run around the neighborhood, trying to meet with different

00:46:08neighbors.

00:46:09It appeared like he was probing for information.

00:46:11Corey's friend Karen noticed it too, but thought it was just Nick being Nick.

00:46:16He was just very insistent and obviously upset.

00:46:20And he's also a very high-energy person who's almost never sits still.

00:46:26So he was very kind of moving around and bouncing.

00:46:28And he was just wanting to know what had happened.

00:46:31So we had called him over for a gunshot residue kit because his behavior was slightly off.

00:46:38We didn't want to exclude him from a possible suspect.

00:46:41So as we asked him to turn around, he kind of was happy and did a jump as he turned.

00:46:48So it was just really off behavior and smiling and joking.

00:46:52Do you think maybe he was nervous given the severity of the situation?

00:46:56Didn't appear to be nervous behavior.

00:46:58So what was it?

00:47:00Nick was pretty forthcoming about his relationship with his parents.

00:47:03Nick had dabbled in trading stocks in high school and then told his parents he wanted to skip college and make a career of it.

00:47:29But they weren't thrilled.

00:47:31Ted and I had no illusions.

00:47:33We didn't think that it was really going to work.

00:47:35But we thought that we would give him that opportunity so that he could kind of get it out of his system.

00:47:41So Nick moved to College Station with Jackie, where she was studying engineering at Texas A&M.

00:47:46Were you hoping that Jacqueline would push him more toward the college route?

00:47:51I thought what would happen is he would get bored and I thought he would end up saying, hey, I'd like to start the next semester and go and go to school.

00:47:58Were you hoping that she would help with that a little bit?

00:48:02Yes.

00:48:03In the meantime, his parents transferred that big chunk of cash into a bank account so Nick could start his trading business.

00:48:10That's a lot of money.

00:48:10It is a lot of money.

00:48:12But I told him, I warned him.

00:48:13I said, this is basically the equivalent of your college fund.

00:48:17If something goes wrong and you lose it, well, then you're going to have to get a job.

00:48:25And you're on your own.

00:48:26And you're on your own.

00:48:27Corey and Ted also continued paying some of Nick's monthly expenses.

00:48:31Was the expectation that he would pay the money back?

00:48:33He was supposed to be paying me a little bit of money, plus he was supposed to be reimbursing me for his car payment, his gasoline payment, and his insurance payment.

00:48:45His father's friend, Tad, was supportive.

00:48:47He gave Nick $5,000 to invest.

00:48:50He seemed to have an intuitive understanding of how markets worked.

00:48:56But pretty soon, Corey said Nick wasn't holding up his end of their deal, wasn't paying his parents back for the car and expenses.

00:49:04And yet, Nick and Jackie seemed to be living the high life.

00:49:08Every time we'd see them, you know, they had on their new clothes.

00:49:12You know, they had on their new shoes.

00:49:14They had all of their new things in their new apartment.

00:49:18And I knew how that was going.

00:49:19So you're spending the money on things that you want and not things that you need, not your responsibilities.

00:49:26Finally, I said, okay, I'm not doing it.

00:49:29I'm not doing it anymore.

00:49:30You're not upholding your end of the bargain.

00:49:32And I'm going to cut you off.

00:49:34How did he take that?

00:49:35Oh, um, he wasn't really happy with me.

00:49:38But, um, we'd had arguments before.

00:49:42A few months before Ted's murder, Nick made good on his word.

00:49:46He paid me back.

00:49:47Did that feel good that you had to hound him, but he did it?

00:49:51Yeah, I said thank you.

00:49:52That's what Nick told investigators, too.

00:49:55Whatever problems they had were in the rearview mirror.

00:49:58But we figured it out, you know, talked, sat down, read everything out and figured it out.

00:50:04Detectives weren't convinced everything was fine.

00:50:07In fact, while Corey felt like she and Nick were under suspicion, she'd only been half right.

00:50:12But detectives cleared her early on and had been focusing their attention on Nick.

00:50:19That included pouring over his financial records.

00:50:21With Nicholas's financial records, we see, you know, indications that his account's overdrawn.

00:50:29The trading account that supposedly has all these thousands of dollars because he's a successful day trader.

00:50:34Uh, the balances of those accounts are zero.

00:50:37So they're broke.

00:50:38They are.

00:50:40Was Nick desperate enough to betray his own parents?

00:50:44Has he ever directly asked you to kill his parents?

00:50:48Time doesn't stop after death.

00:51:06Birthdays, holidays, life's special moments continue on.

00:51:10Colored by grief and loss.

00:51:11Two months after Ted Shaughnessy's murder, his wife, Corey, celebrated her first Mother's Day without him.

00:51:19Her new daughter-in-law, Jackie, gave her a card expressing how grateful she was that Corey had survived the horrible shooting.

00:51:26I was touched.

00:51:27Corey was thankful for what was left of her family.

00:51:30A family she knew had been under the microscope.

00:51:33Investigators weren't telling her much.

00:51:35Certainly not how odd they found Nick's behavior.

00:51:38And that they found his money trouble highly suspicious.

00:51:42So all this together really started honing our investigation or leaning our investigation heavy towards Nicholas.

00:51:49That he may have had some involvement.

00:51:52Investigators searched Nick and Jackie's apartment where they found the security system Nick had mentioned.

00:51:57He's got cameras all around the house.

00:51:59It's surprising how many he had.

00:52:02Strange, but a quick look at the security video did seem to back up Nick's alibi.

00:52:06They were home the morning of the murder?

00:52:09They were home at the time.

00:52:10They were home.

00:52:11In the apartment, investigators found a safe full of jewelry, watches, and weapons.

00:52:17There were also bullets.

00:52:19Lots of them.

00:52:21We found lots of ammo, which is not unusual here in Texas.

00:52:24What was unusual?

00:52:27Investigators found a box of ammunition that was the same brand and caliber of bullets as some of the casings found at the crime scene.

00:52:33So at the scene it's SIG 380 and the 380 ammunition that he had there was SIG 380.

00:52:40What's more, six rounds were missing from that box.

00:52:45Okay, so this is not looking good for Nicholas at this moment?

00:52:50We definitely thought there might be a connection with that amount of rounds missing.

00:52:55To try and root out that possible connection, investigators dug into Nick's cell phone.

00:53:01Both he and Jackie had volunteered their phones to help the investigation.

00:53:05So one of the first things I noticed almost immediately, there was a pretty clear gap in data on both of their phones.

00:53:11Matt Danner and Stacey Casimir handled the digital forensics in this case.

00:53:16I was like, this is not normal, especially for a couple of young 19-year-olds.

00:53:20They should have tons of data on their phones.

00:53:23It's what we're typically used to.

00:53:24It's almost like they factory reset their phones kind of together at the same time.

00:53:28It seemed very intentional, like purposeful.

00:53:31But the forensic folks knew something that perhaps Nick and Jackie did not.

00:53:36It's very common that people don't know or understand that their messages are syncing to a completely separate device when they delete them.

00:53:44And the deletions don't synchronize.

00:53:46Whenever someone deletes messages from their iPhone, it doesn't mean that it's deleted from, like, their other Apple devices.

00:53:52So they turned to Nick's computer, a Mac Mini, and voila.

00:53:58Messages from his iPhone had synced to his Mac Mini, specifically messages between him and Jackie.

00:54:03Now detectives could see exactly what Nick and Jackie had been chatting about before Ted's murder.

00:54:09Money.

00:54:11In the days prior to this incident, they're communicating about a dollar amount.

00:54:16You know, she asks Nicholas, do they want 50K or not?

00:54:21$50,000 for what?

00:54:24And they're talking about, you know, well, we can't afford to pay half before.

00:54:28You're thinking before means before the murder?

00:54:31Before the murder.

00:54:31It just seemed like they were talking about hiring somebody to do this.

00:54:36And if there was a murder-for-hire plot, it now looked like Jackie was in on it.

00:54:42Just days before the murder, there was another suspicious text.

00:54:46Nick tells Jackie he needs to have some money if it happens, so he can have some cash in hand.

00:54:52And he's asking her, I need you to withdraw $1,000 from your account.

00:54:57Bank records revealed she had taken out that money.

00:55:01And it wasn't just the text messages that pointed to a murder-for-hire plot.

00:55:06They'd ruled out Nick's friend Spencer as one of the shooters.

00:55:09But they couldn't shake their hunch.

00:55:11He knew more than he was letting on.

00:55:13After several meetings, Spencer started opening up about things Nick said to him about his parents.

00:55:18He said, I mean, after my parents go, I will have $8 million.

00:55:25And Nicholas talked about not only gaining the money from the life insurance, but he also talked about the money from the sale of the jewelry store and the sale of the property.

00:55:37But that wasn't all.

00:55:39Spencer told investigators he knew Nick had been looking for a hitman.

00:55:44Has he ever directly asked you to kill his parents?

00:55:47Yes.

00:55:49Nick had actually offered him money to kill his parents.

00:55:54And more digital sleuthing revealed another key discovery.

00:55:58Nick had told detectives he could access his parents' home security system.

00:56:02Turned out, he had opened up the app the morning of the murder at 5.39 a.m.

00:56:08Which is a full five minutes before he gets a phone call that there's anything going on.

00:56:15So he's already aware of the situation.

00:56:19And when Corey called...

00:56:20This is your aha moment.

00:56:22It's a big moment.

00:56:24Nick.

00:56:24Yes, mama.

00:56:26Ma.

00:56:27Dad's dead.

00:56:28Wait, what?

00:56:30Nick.

00:56:30He's already awake.

00:56:31And he's already monitoring what's going on at the home when he receives this call.

00:56:37We knew that they seemed to be closing in on Nick and Jackie.

00:56:40Rick Flores is a prominent defense attorney in Austin.

00:56:44Early on, Corey hired him to protect her son from investigators she thought were on the wrong path.

00:56:50Corey didn't think that her son had anything to do with it.

00:56:53And so I think she wanted to make sure that he had adequate representation

00:56:56and that they would ultimately rule him out and continue to find the people that did this.

00:57:02Could you sense as the weeks were ticking by that things were getting hotter for Nicholas and Jacqueline?

00:57:08Could you feel it?

00:57:09With each search warrant that was served, each affidavit had a little bit more information and a little bit more facts

00:57:13that law enforcement had been putting together.

00:57:16Flores had enough experience to sense where this was going.

00:57:20He made an agreement with law enforcement that they'd inform him if an arrest was imminent.

00:57:26On May 29, 2018, about three months after Ted's murder, they did just that.

00:57:33Nick and Jacqueline come into your office.

00:57:35Right.

00:57:35And then the police come and arrest them.

00:57:37That's right.

00:57:39Corey was devastated, but at the same time certain it was some kind of mistake.

00:57:44And I certainly was not going to believe what the sheriff's department was saying

00:57:49unless I had absolute proof.

00:57:53And it's also your child.

00:57:55And so you love and trust your child with everything.

00:58:00Even if detectives were right about Nick and Jackie's involvement,

00:58:03they knew they weren't the shooters.

00:58:05There were still two gunmen on the loose and new clues caught on camera.

00:58:11I saw these two males who didn't appear to be the type to hang out with each other,

00:58:16show up to Nick's door and enter his home.

00:58:19At this point, we have no idea what's going on.

00:58:21Investigators believe they had two people responsible for Ted Shaughnessy's murder behind bars.

00:58:40In any other scenario, his wife, Corey, might have been relieved, even grateful.

00:58:44Instead, she was in disbelief because her son Nick and his wife Jackie had been arrested for criminal solicitation of capital murder.

00:58:53I read the arrest affidavits and there were quotes in them and the quotes could easily have been taken out of context.

00:59:06I am still thinking back to the way that I was treated and how I felt as though they were trying to trick me into saying or doing something.

00:59:17And I thought that the same thing could be done to them.

00:59:21And when Jackie was released on bail just two weeks after the arrest, Corey hoped the case was falling apart.

00:59:27And I thought that that might have been a good thing because I thought maybe Nicholas would be coming out soon after as well.

00:59:34Nick's attorneys advised Corey not to speak with her son about the case.

00:59:38And detectives were keeping her in the dark about the investigation.

00:59:42They still had a lot to do.

00:59:44They knew Jackie and Nick were not the actual shooters.

00:59:48So you have two shooters out there that you need to find.

00:59:50We still, yes.

00:59:52Investigators took a closer look at those security videos they gathered from Nick and Jackie's apartment.

00:59:57And they found something.

00:59:59We saw two people that arrived at the apartment on February 28th in the afternoon.

01:00:05And that's just a few days before the murder?

01:00:08Yes.

01:00:09No way to tell who the two people in the video were.

01:00:12But they did spot a potentially big clue.

01:00:15After the two males entered the apartment, eventually one of them exits the apartment wearing a green t-shirt from Renewal by Anderson with the phone number on it.

01:00:26That's the same company as the fingerprint from the window.

01:00:32So at this point, we have no idea what's going on.

01:00:35They contacted the window company and luck seemed to be on their side.

01:00:39Because even though it had been years since the man in the video worked there, someone remembered him.

01:00:45Who is he?

01:00:46Cameron Bosman.

01:00:47What's his connection to Nicholas Shaughnessy?

01:00:49We have no idea at this point.

01:00:52And he didn't have any connection to the window company employee they'd already investigated.

01:00:57That was just a coincidence.

01:00:58They tracked Cameron down and he willingly spoke to investigators.

01:01:02He says the other guy in this picture with me, his name is Johnny Leon.

01:01:07He said Johnny had approached him a few months back about a job moving some stuff.

01:01:11They went over to Nick's place.

01:01:13That's when he said the conversation took a turn.

01:01:16Nicklaus tells him that some people in Austin are costing him $30,000 a month and they need to be taken care of.

01:01:23So Cameron's starting to get, you know, the hair standing up on the back of his neck is what he's saying.

01:01:28And he doesn't completely understand what they're asking of him.

01:01:32So he keeps asking them to clarify and they keep telling him, the less you know, the better.

01:01:36He told the detectives he knew it was something bad and decided to leave.

01:01:42Are you getting that sense that he's telling the truth?

01:01:44Yes.

01:01:44He explained how he knew Johnny, like where Johnny lived.

01:01:48Investigators went over to the apartment Johnny was staying at and arrested him.

01:01:52What is Johnny saying?

01:01:53Is he confessing that, yes, I'm part of this or is he saying he had nothing to do with it?

01:01:58No.

01:01:59Initially, he denied everything.

01:02:00He didn't know anything about it.

01:02:01When they confronted Johnny with a picture of him going into Nick's apartment, he started to open up.

01:02:07Nick was trying to hire him for a murder and that he just didn't have it in him.

01:02:15Detectives weren't buying it.

01:02:17They kept at him.

01:02:18He did finally admit that he did travel with Nick to Austin because Nicholas was going to do the murder.

01:02:28This was just days before Ted was killed.

01:02:30What happened?

01:02:32So he says they parked on a side road across from the Shaughnessy house.

01:02:36And he said Nicholas went up to the house.

01:02:39He came back after a while, said, well, I can't get in.

01:02:42And he said they both drove back to College Station.

01:02:45Johnny insisted that was the extent of his involvement.

01:02:48But his cell phone data from the night of the murder said otherwise.

01:02:52His phone usage is in the area of the Shaughnessy home at the time of the incident.

01:02:58So you now have one of your shooters, you believe.

01:03:02Correct.

01:03:02Right.

01:03:03But there's still one more missing.

01:03:06Right.

01:03:07Johnny wasn't helpful when it came to identifying the second shooter.

01:03:11Turns out he didn't need to be.

01:03:13His phone records did the talking for him again.

01:03:16Right before the murder, Johnny had been talking to a friend named Arianne Smith.

01:03:21Smith denied being at the Shaughnessy house and said his ex-girlfriend would back up his alibi.

01:03:26He said, she'll vouch for me and she'll tell you that we were together.

01:03:31But she told investigators that on the night in question, he'd left her in a motel room alone.

01:03:36And he leaves in her car.

01:03:38She doesn't know where he's headed.

01:03:41So she actually tries to call him several times and she never is able to reach him.

01:03:46She also told detectives about a gun he'd been carrying around after Ted's murder.

01:03:50A .40 caliber, just like one of the guns that was used in the crime.

01:03:55Detectives later recovered the gun from one of Smith's family members.

01:03:59Does he get charged with murder?

01:04:01He does.

01:04:03Yes, he does.

01:04:04For investigators, the case was falling into place.

01:04:08Four suspects under arrest for one brutal crime.

01:04:12But was that the whole story?

01:04:13Jackie had her own version of events.

01:04:17He knew that they had a $1 million life insurance policy each.

01:04:23But he told me it wasn't about the money.

01:04:25Nick Shaughnessy sat in jail, awaiting trial.

01:04:43As his mother, Corey, struggled to comprehend the accusations against him and his wife, Jackie.

01:04:49She thought there had to be some kind of explanation.

01:04:51Was it that they were out at a club and talked to the wrong people and those people found out we were jewelers and meant to do us harm?

01:05:00Did they owe money?

01:05:01Did they borrow money from someone?

01:05:03I kept thinking maybe they are involved, but only in a circumstantial or tangential sort of way, which would still be bad, but not as bad as they wanted to kill us.

01:05:17Since Corey wasn't talking to her son directly, her friend Karen acted as an intermediary of sorts.

01:05:25He would send me a letter.

01:05:26I'd hand it over to Corey so she could see what was going on with him.

01:05:30And he also asked for things like books and magazines.

01:05:34Corey sent him the things he asked for.

01:05:36More importantly, she paid for his defense attorneys.

01:05:39Nick had been in jail for two years when they invited her to meet with them.

01:05:43Nicholas's attorneys wanted to suggest to him that he take a plea.

01:05:48They asked me to go to Austin and to talk to them.

01:05:52How difficult was it for you to have that conversation with her about trying to help to get him to take this plea because she'd been loyal to him for so long?

01:06:02I think deep down in the back of her mind, she knew that Nick and Jackie had done this.

01:06:07I think as a mother, maybe she was not wanting to believe it, but she's a very smart woman.

01:06:14So Rick Flores went through the case with her.

01:06:16Much of it she'd heard by this point.

01:06:18But she had one big unanswered question about the .40 caliber gun recovered during the investigation.

01:06:25Was the .40 caliber that they took into evidence my husband's .40 caliber?

01:06:30Did he say yes?

01:06:31Yes.

01:06:32It was the missing gun they'd been looking for.

01:06:35Nick had given it to Arianne Smith.

01:06:38Ted had been killed with his own weapon.

01:06:42I finally had my questions answered and I knew that Nicholas had done it.

01:06:47There were no more excuses.

01:06:48No more denials.

01:06:50The son she and Ted raised and loved had wanted them dead.

01:06:53How do you wrap your brain around that?

01:06:56You don't.

01:06:58You just don't.

01:06:59In a letter to her son, she encouraged him to take the plea deal offered by prosecutors.

01:07:0535 years in prison with the possibility of parole.

01:07:08I think having Corey helped us have Nick make this decision.

01:07:14I told him that he owed it to the memory of his father to tell the absolute truth.

01:07:20Nick listened.

01:07:21In April of 2021, he pleaded guilty to murder.

01:07:26That's bittersweet.

01:07:27It gives the human that he will have become a possibility at having some life,

01:07:36taking whatever he has left and doing something with it.

01:07:41The hitmen, Arianne Smith and Johnny Leon, also pleaded guilty to murder

01:07:46and were sentenced to 35 years with the possibility of parole.

01:07:49Arianne Smith told investigators what happened after they shot Ted.

01:07:54Then I hear some shots come from the bedroom as well.

01:07:57And I heard a woman crying.

01:08:00And I said, please don't do it.

01:08:01Please, let's just go.

01:08:02Please, leave her alone.

01:08:03Let's go.

01:08:04Let's go.

01:08:04Please, just let's go.

01:08:06So after I say that, he takes off running and I follow him.

01:08:10Her gun training may have saved her life.

01:08:13Her gun skills absolutely saved her life.

01:08:16Three of the four accused conspirators were now behind bars.

01:08:21But what about Jackie?

01:08:24Shortly after her arrest, she sat in a police interview room and told them her version of events.

01:08:30I really loved him like a father.

01:08:34Jackie said she thought of Nick's parents as family.

01:08:37That's why she said she couldn't understand it when Nick brought up the idea of killing them.

01:08:41Shortly after we got married, he asked me if I would stay with him, if he ever murdered someone.

01:08:50According to Jackie, Nick said his father was depressed, miserable with his life.

01:08:55I didn't see that.

01:08:58But Nick said he did.

01:08:59She said Nick later told her it would be too painful for his mom to live without his dad.

01:09:19So he decided both of his parents needed to go.

01:09:22So other than his dad, him thinking that his dad was miserable, what other reason would he have to do this?

01:09:49He knew that they had a $1 million life insurance policy each, but he told me it wasn't about the money.

01:09:59Jackie denied knowing specifics about the murder or the gunman.

01:10:03But according to those deleted text messages, she did talk to Nick about paying $50,000 for the hit.

01:10:08And I was like, well, I mean, we can't even afford to put a half.

01:10:13And I said, well, okay, maybe they'll do it for Tim.

01:10:16I wanted to shut him up.

01:10:18I was playing his game.

01:10:20She told investigators Nick drove to Austin more than once, planning to kill his parents.

01:10:25And she went with him.

01:10:27I never took it seriously.

01:10:29No, I went with him.

01:10:32You know, he wanted me to go with him.

01:10:34And I was like, yeah, sure, whatever.

01:10:36I don't know.

01:10:36I know he's not going to do it.

01:10:38And if he is going to do something crazy, then I'll be there to make sure he doesn't do it.

01:10:44Did you buy that, knowing all you knew at this time?

01:10:47I think to us, it seemed more that she was fully aware that he was serious about it.

01:10:53I don't think she had the intention to help him execute the plan or hire the people.

01:11:01But she wasn't going to stop him.

01:11:03She had no intention on stopping it because I think she had the same financial interest that Nicholas had.

01:11:11Jackie had stayed quiet before the murder and after it happened.

01:11:14Living with Corey and every single day how she would cry about Ted and how she hated his murderers and how she would blame me all.

01:11:27And really, I knew that it was her son and that killed me.

01:11:34She deceived Corey after the murder.

01:11:38She moved in.

01:11:40She deceived us.

01:11:40Jackie had been arrested along with Nick, then freed on bail.

01:11:46Her case just seemed to linger.

01:11:49She got to attend all of her family events and be with them, go to college, go out with other guys and live her life.

01:11:58Jackie divorced Nick while he sat behind bars.

01:12:01Friends of mine would share her pictures that she would post on social media.

01:12:08She would be wearing her jewelry, her diamond pendant.

01:12:12This is like rubbing it in your face, you must have felt like.

01:12:15I felt like that.

01:12:17Then, in March of 2022, nearly a year after Nick's guilty plea, it looked like Jackie's case was finally headed to trial.

01:12:25The charge against her was changed to conspiracy to commit capital murder.

01:12:29I'm trying to think of honestly what was going on in your brain.

01:12:40You know, how does this happen?

01:12:41And.

01:12:41Nick Shaughnessy says he's had time to think about what he's done, how he ended up here.

01:13:00Why did you agree to sit down and do this interview with us?

01:13:03Nothing can ever undo what I did, but it's an attempt to make known factors that are not already known and to correct some of the narratives that are out there.

01:13:17Nick says there's one part of his story everyone agrees is true.

01:13:21He had a charmed childhood filled with love and support.

01:13:24It was a perfect life, you know, everything you could ever dream of.

01:13:30I had parents that cared for me, would do anything for me.

01:13:34But he says by the time he hit his teens, he was searching for an identity.

01:13:38After blowing through the money his parents gave him for his day trading business, Nick says he and Jackie discussed how he was his parents' sole heir.

01:13:47This could all be ours, you know, and.

01:13:49Like you're the only child you would get all the money, the life insurance, the business.

01:13:54The house.

01:13:55The house.

01:13:55And so the more that it became, that it was passively talked about, the more of a reality it sadly became.

01:14:05What is that conversation of how are we going to kill them?

01:14:10It was.

01:14:13A sad conversation.

01:14:15Like part of me is like, damn, this is my, this is my family.

01:14:20The other part of me is creating a new life.

01:14:25Why do you need a new life?

01:14:26What's, what's wrong with your old life?

01:14:27Your parents loved you.

01:14:28They gave you everything.

01:14:30I was seeking validation and trying to create a new sense of identity.

01:14:35Validation from who?

01:14:36Through Jackie at the time.

01:14:37From Jackie?

01:14:38So you're trying to impress Jackie?

01:14:41I guess you could say that.

01:14:42Yes, ma'am.

01:14:43And what was this identity to be?

01:14:44That you were married and you were rich and you could have anything you wanted?

01:14:49Unfortunately so.

01:14:50Power?

01:14:52I can't speak to what enticed her about it, but, you know, the, the power, the potentially having the store.

01:14:58I mean, I'm trying to think of honestly what was going on in your brain.

01:15:02Like, is there a chip missing?

01:15:03Is it, you know, are, were you somehow born evil?

01:15:08You know, how does this happen?

01:15:09Because teenagers mad at their parents or who want a new life, they don't kill their parents.

01:15:15Most definitely.

01:15:16I, I wish I had an answer.

01:15:18I don't know if, is there some, is there a chip missing like you said?

01:15:22Like, it happened and I own my actions, I understand, but I can't explain, I can't justify them.

01:15:30Why not do it yourself?

01:15:33I'm a coward.

01:15:34I couldn't do that, I, honestly.

01:15:36You don't think it's cowardly also by hiring people to go kill your parents?

01:15:40Most definitely.

01:15:42It's extremely cowardly.

01:15:43You had months to change your mind.

01:15:46This was a well thought out, cold, calculated plan.

01:15:50And all the doubts and all the hesitations were outweighed by Jackie's confidence and everything.

01:16:01And we would just go back and forth between talking each other into this idea, not out of it.

01:16:07Nick told investigators, and us, he doesn't think Jackie was completely honest about the role she played.

01:16:14She was very involved with the planning.

01:16:16After the murder, your mom never thought at all that you would be involved in this?

01:16:20She got you an attorney.

01:16:21She felt bad for you.

01:16:23How are you acting like everything's fine and being there as a shoulder to cry on for your mom when you were responsible the whole time and you knew it?

01:16:31It was truly eating me up inside.

01:16:34Like, to see the pain that we had caused, it was not a good feeling.

01:16:39The hardest part about this is she wanted a baby so bad.

01:16:42She gave you a life that most people could never dream of, along with your dad.

01:16:48They did everything for you, and this is how you repay them.

01:16:54It's my most deepest regrets.

01:16:57Nothing should ever get to that point.

01:17:01If I could trade places with my father, I would, just to give that back to my mom.

01:17:06Do you think about your father a lot?

01:17:09Do you miss him?

01:17:10All the time.

01:17:11I miss him getting on my ass.

01:17:14I miss him, like, joking with me.

01:17:21It's something that I'll never have again.

01:17:23This is the ultimate act of betrayal.

01:17:28Yeah.

01:17:29It most definitely is, and it's not something that I'm proud of.

01:17:34One defendant remained.

01:17:36Jackie's case was moving slowly.

01:17:38And then in June 2023, she agreed to plead to a lesser charge, attempted conspiracy to commit murder.

01:17:46The court gave her something called deferred adjudication.

01:17:50It's pretty unusual, very unusual.

01:17:52For these types of cases.

01:17:54Nick's attorney, Rick Flores.

01:17:56So a deferred adjudication in Texas is a way for somebody to plead to an offense, be placed on probation, but ultimately not be convicted of it.

01:18:06There's no finding of guilt if somebody completes deferred adjudication.

01:18:10The terms of Jackie's sentence?

01:18:13120 days in the county jail and probation for the next 10 years.

01:18:17During which, every year on the anniversary of Ted's murder, she'll go to jail for two days.

01:18:25Pretty remarkable that he got 35 years and she gets 120 days in the county jail and two days every year on the anniversary of Ted's death.

01:18:34Huge, huge gap between those two sentences.

01:18:37I think the only difference between what Nick did and what Jackie did is the relationship, is that these were Nick's parents.

01:18:44Do you think Jacqueline got off easy?

01:18:47Yes.

01:18:49I would have liked to see a different sentence than that.

01:18:52She was involved in the planning?

01:18:55She could have stopped it all.

01:18:57In a statement, the Travis County DA's office told us Jackie provided helpful information and that the investigation revealed information that reduced her culpability.

01:19:08The statement also says their office is committed to holding people who commit violent crimes accountable.

01:19:14Corey's not so sure about that.

01:19:16Do you feel like Jacqueline Edison essentially got away with murder?

01:19:20Absolutely.

01:19:20My husband is dead, my life is over, I'm supposed to be dead, and she gets probation.

01:19:28Is there anything you want to say to the district attorney?

01:19:30The term re-victimization comes to mind, and it is every bit that.

01:19:36Corey didn't attend Jackie's plea hearing, but she did record this victim impact statement for the court.

01:19:42We opened our home and our hearts to you, and you and Nicholas took everything from us.

01:19:48How long will it take for you to find another family to destroy?

01:19:53How long will it be before Bonnie finds her next Clyde?

01:19:57You are a monster.

01:20:00You are evil.

01:20:02And everyone needs to know it.

01:20:05Jackie has already served her 120-day jail sentence.

01:20:09Neither she nor her lawyer wanted to answer our questions.

01:20:14Corey hasn't spoken to Nick since his arrest.

01:20:17What would you say to her if she's going to watch this?

01:20:24I wish that I could express how truly sorry I am, and that the pain that I caused her was so selfish.

01:20:34And I'm trying each and every day to be the best version of myself to hopefully show the world one day that that is not who I am.

01:20:45I have written to him, but I keep the letters.

01:20:50I never intend to send them.

01:20:52What do you say in the letters?

01:20:54Lots of things.

01:20:54One of which is how much I know he would like me to talk to him.

01:21:00But even though I will always love my child, I don't love the person that he is now.

01:21:12In fact, I really hate the person that he is now.

01:21:14And I can't tell you what I would give in this world to be able to talk again to his dad.

01:21:24But I can't.

01:21:25And so he's not going to get to talk to me because ghosts can't talk.

01:21:29And I'm supposed to be dead.

01:21:30The legal cases are now closed.

01:21:35It's already warm.

01:21:37And those who love Ted are forced to carry on without him.

01:21:41My friend is gone.

01:21:45I don't get to grow old in that friendship.

01:21:49There's not a negative bone in that man's body.

01:21:53He was a rare gift.

01:21:55And he deserved to live to be an old man and to live life.

01:22:03What do you miss the most about, Ted?

01:22:06Everything.

01:22:12Just my best friend.

01:22:14Yeah.

01:22:15The little things?

01:22:19Just everything.

01:22:20All the little moments that added up to a beautiful life together.

01:22:32That's all for now.

01:22:33I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:35Thanks for joining us.

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